News Items

  • Media Advisory: Whistleblowers to Speak About Surveillance and Cyber Issues

    “President Barack Obama is set to sign an executive order on Friday aimed at encouraging companies to share more information about cybersecurity threats with the government and each other, a response to attacks like that on Sony Entertainment. … Obama will sign the order at a day-long conference on cybersecurity at Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley.”

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  • Delegation of U.S. and UK Whistleblowers in London: News Conference on “Special Surveillance Relationship” — News Advisory

    Whistleblowers from four American and British “national security” agencies will hold a news conference in London on November 21 in a direct challenge to surveillance policies of the U.S. and UK governments. The whistleblowers — from the NSA, FBI, State Department and GCHQ — will speak about the effects of their governments’ policies on freedom of the press and democracy. They are traveling as a delegation co-sponsored by the U.S.-based organizations RootsAction.org and ExposeFacts, a project of the Institute for Public Accuracy. The news conference is being hosted by the Foreign Press Association.

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  • In Response to the Government’s Lynching of James Risen

    It has been a sharp learning curve for Jim Risen, but by having numerous grand juries and two administrations relentlessly hounding him, he has learned how deeply the government’s malevolence descends. But there was always one steadfast assertion he wound not compromise, Jim Risen assured his sources, from the very start of their first encounter, that he would never divulge their identities nor what information they provided him with.

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  • Militarization of U.S. Police: Ferguson, Mo.

    Community policing reforms came about as a corrective to the 1950-60s professional police model which created a large gulf between police and citizens. Few noticed that underlying all the CP rhetoric was a little noticed yet foretelling trend of para-militarism as found in SWAT teams. What we’re witnessing today, though, with the influence of the Dept. of Homeland Security since 9/11 — along with growing emphasis on military hardware and tactics — is the expansion of police militarization throughout entire police departments — and indeed, the entire police institution.

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  • Unconstitutional acts of war in Iraq

    President Obama ignored the wise direction of President George Washington when he casually told the nation — and Congress — that U.S. military forces will engage in acts of war in Iraq for an extended period of weeks and maybe months. Bombing, he said in a brief statement last week, is needed here and there, but he promised there will be no U.S. boots on the ground. … The announcement seemed almost an afterthought as the president headed for vacation in Martha’s Vineyard. He neglected to seek approval of Congress before authorizing bombardment of the military forces of ISIS, the…

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  • News Conference: Edward Snowden’s Passport, Political Asylum and Related Issues

    Ray McGovern, Coleen Rowley and Norman Solomon spoke at this news conference, sponsored by RootsAction.org and hosted by the Institute for Public Accuracy.

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  • NSA Veterans and Whistleblowers Respond to Obama Speech

    Minutes after President Obama’s major address on NSA surveillance on Friday, Jan. 17, the Institute for Public Accuracy held a news conference with noted NSA veterans and whistleblowers.

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  • The War on Poverty at Fifty

    Fifty years after Lyndon B. Johnson made it the centerpiece of his first State of the Union address on January 8, 1964, the War on Poverty remains one of the most embattled—and least understood—of Great Society initiatives.

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  • Edward Snowden: Profile in Courage

    Edward Snowden may go down in history as one of this nation’s most important whistleblowers. He is certainly one of the bravest.

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  • Obama’s Economic Race Legacy

    From the start, President Barack Obama has shown little interest or loyalty in the issues that affect the poor, working class and people of color in the United States. For almost his entire first term he didn’t utter the words poor or poverty. Early on he reminded African Americans: ‘I’m not the president of black America. I’m the president of the United States of America…’

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  • Mother of Slain American Soldier Determined to Meet Bush in Crawford

    President Bush is currently on vacation in Crawford, Texas. Cindy Sheehan, co-founder of the group Gold Star Families for Peace, is the mother of Casey Sheehan, a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. She is currently in Dallas and will be going to Crawford on Saturday morning (expected to arrive there at 11 a.m. Saturday local…

  • 60 Years After the Decision to Use the Atom Bomb

    GAR ALPEROVITZ Alperovitz is the author of The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb. He said today: “New research into Japanese decision-making now suggests that the atomic bomb played only a secondary role in Japan’s surrender. … Studies by historians Tsuyoshi Hasegawa and Pulitzer Prize winner Herbert Bix tie in with long-established evidence suggesting that…

  • Atom Bomb 60th Anniversary: * Japanese Survivors Speak * Censored Footage Unearthed

    August 6 and 9 will be the 60th anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. SATORU KONISHI AI MAEOKA Konishi is a Hiroshima survivor. He stated: “Nuclear arms are the very height of violence and cruelty. We condemn the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; however, we have never demanded ‘retaliation.’ But from…

  • 9/11 Families on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Anniversaries

    August 6 and 9 will be the 60th anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The following members of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows have been visiting Japan. ANDREA LEBLANC LeBlanc lost her husband, Robert LeBlanc, Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University of New Hampshire, on United Airlines Flt. 175. Today…

  • * John Bolton * King Fahd

    JOHN GERSHMAN Gershman is director of the Global Affairs Program at the International Relations Center. The Center features in-depth material on Bolton available online: . Gershman said today: “President Bush’s recess appointment of John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations places a Bush administration loyalist opposed to the United Nations and international law…

  • * U.S. Soldier, Following Conscience, in Prison * “Operation Withdrawal Scam”

    MONICA BENDERMAN Monica Benderman is the wife of Kevin Benderman. She said today: “The Army has found Sgt. Kevin Benderman not guilty of Desertion, but guilty of Missing Movement, and has sentenced him to 15 months confinement, reduction in rank, loss of pay and dishonorable discharge. Sgt. Kevin Benderman will serve his time, but he…

  • * AFL-CIO Resolution Critical of War * Iraqi Labor Leaders in Chicago

    In a major change of course, the AFL-CIO yesterday passed a resolution calling for U.S. troops to be brought home “rapidly.” The following U.S. and Iraqi labor leaders are in Chicago for the AFL-CIO convention and are available for interviews: GENE BRUSKIN Bruskin is co-convenor of U.S. Labor Against the War, which has worked on…

  • CAFTA Vote Nears in House: Access to Life-Saving Medicines Under Threat

    The House is expected to vote this week on the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement. A very close vote is expected. MARK WEISBROT Weisbrot is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He said today: “NAFTA did not create jobs as promised, and in fact we continue to lose manufacturing jobs,…

  • Unions and Divisions

    The AFL-CIO is holding its convention, through Thursday, marking the 50th anniversary of the merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Yesterday, the Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union broke with the AFL-CIO. Anna Burger, president of a new organizing coalition called Change to Win, said: “Folks, the…

  • Life Under Bombs

    NABA SALEEM HAMID LES ROBERTS Hamid is a University of Baghdad professor and founder of New Horizons for Women, an Iraq-based nonprofit organization. As quoted in a recent New York Times article on violence in Iraq, she stated: “It has become part of our daily lives. Just like there is eating, sleeping, there is bombing.”…

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