News Items

  • Affidavit by Daniel Ellsberg for Plowshare Activists Being Allowed a Defense of Necessity

    In 1971 I gave the U.S. Senate, the New York Times and the Washington Post copies of what have come to be known as The Pentagon Papers. I was arrested on twelve felony counts. My trial was dismissed because of government misconduct which figured in the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon…These considerations bear on two other elements of the necessity defense, the “lack of legal alternatives” and the “imminence” of the harms to be averted. Again, I speak from my own experience, but not only mine, in saying that it is the perceived insufficiency of other means, by themselves not…

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  • A Long List of Democratic Candidates Requires a Large Catalog of Their Funders

    By Sam Haut: As the first debates for the Democratic primary begin, and the list of candidates has grown to 24, it can be difficult to contextualize where each candidate has received funding from over the course of their time in office. What follows is a list of the Democratic candidates and the top sources for how much money they’ve made and where those top sources come from.

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  • NATO and US Foreign Policy: Dangers Ahead

    RootsAction.org held a news conference Thursday on “NATO and U.S. Foreign Policy: Dangers Ahead” hosted by the Institute for Public Accuracy. Speakers include former State Department officials Matthew Hoh, Ann Wright, as well as Martin Fleck. The event was moderated by Norman Solomon.

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  • Media Advisory: “NATO and U.S. Foreign Policy: Dangers Ahead”

    At 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 2, 2019 at the National Press Club: On the same day that President Trump is scheduled to meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House, this news conference will focus on the U.S.-NATO relationship. Speakers include former State Department officials Matthew Hoh and Ann Wright.

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  • Statement by Floyd Abrams in response to Attorney General nominee William Barr’s remarks on the First Amendment

    “It’s one thing to say that there could be circumstances in which a journalist’s need to protect her sources could lead to a potential finding of contempt of court if she refused to obey a court order requiring such disclosure. But the notion that a journalist could properly be jailed for publishing material that the government thinks could ‘hurt the country’ is something else entirely and would be deeply threatening to First Amendment norms in general and journalistic freedom in particular.”

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  • Statement on NAFTA’s “Kafkaesque” Turn

    The supposedly concluded renegotiation of NAFTA has reached a Kafkaesque stage. As the United States Trade Representative has stated: “The United States and Mexico have reached a preliminary agreement in principle, subject to finalization and implementation.” Not only the negotiations have not been finalized, and without Canada, but the texts remain hidden from the public.

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  • What’s the Cost of Medicare for All?

    Even a Koch-backed think tank finds Medicare for all would cut health care spending. In a report released by the Mercatus Center, a single-payer health care system would offset costs with even greater savings. The Intercept and other media reporting on this are citing the work of Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler. They are distinguished professors of health policy at the City University of New York at Hunter College and lecturers in medicine at Harvard Medical School. They have written an analysis of the work of the Koch-backed think tank, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, which is…

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  • Trump Team Hired Israeli Spy Firm Used by Harvey Weinstein to Attack Obama Officials on Iran Deal

    “Aides to Donald Trump, the U.S. president, hired an Israeli private intelligence agency to orchestrate a ‘dirty ops’ campaign against key individuals from the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, the Observer can reveal. People in the Trump camp contacted private investigators in May last year to ‘get dirt’ on Ben Rhodes, who had been one of Barack Obama’s top national security advisers, and Colin Kahl, deputy assistant to Obama, as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal.”

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  • From the desk of Noam Chomsky

    From the desk of Noam Chomsky

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  • 15 Years Later: The Whistleblower Who Almost Blocked the Iraq War

    Media Advisory: Press Conference to Mark 15th Anniversary Of Leak by GCHQ Translator Katharine Gun Revealing US “Dirty Tricks” at UN for Iraq War When:  Thursday, 1 March 2018 at 11:00 a.m. Where:  Head office, National Union of Journalists Headland House, 72 Acton Street, London, WC1X 9NB Who:  Katharine Gun, Thomas Drake, Matthew Hoh, Jesselyn Radack This press conference will take place the day before the 15th anniversary of the Observer’s publication of the explosive March 2, 2003 story “US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war” — based on a leak by GCHQ translator Katharine Gun — revealing the US National Security Agency’s UN surveillance memo that aimed to grease the way for the…

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  • U.S. Government Fining Activists for Taking Medicine to Iraq

    A Federal District Court heard additional oral arguments today in the case of activists with the campaign Voices in the Wilderness who openly violated the U.S. economic embargo against Iraq. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control alleges that a 1998 Voices delegation violated economic sanctions law when it delivered medical supplies to…

  • Supreme Court: Major Decisions

    NAN ARON Aron is president of the Alliance for Justice, which is a national association of public interest and civil rights groups. She said today that decisions by the Supreme Court will affect a wide variety of issues including “workers’ rights, consumer protections, environmental protection, civil rights and women’s rights.” More Information ELLEN CHESLER Chesler…

  • G8 Agenda on Africa: “Public Relations”?

    Today, President Bush made a public statement about the annual G8 summit which will be held in Scotland from July 6-8. He said with regards to malaria in Africa: “We believe that every life matters and every person counts.” The Live 8 concert is on July 2. The G8 Alternatives Summit in Scotland is on…

  • * Debunking Bush’s Speech * How Iraq Can Get Worse

    CINDY SHEEHAN Currently in the D.C. area, Sheehan is co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace. Her son Casey was killed in Iraq. She said today: “Bush says his war in Iraq is ‘worth it.’ What’s worth it? People in the U.S. are not safer, Iraq lies in devastation, our troops are dying, Iraqis are…

  • Can Bush Be Believed on Iraq?

    Reuters, in a story on an ABC News/Washington Post poll, reports: “For the first time, a majority of Americans said the administration ‘intentionally misled’ the public in going to war.” The following are available for interviews: NANCY LESSIN Lessin is co-founder of Military Families Speak Out. For a list of their members from around the…

  • Disturbing Testimony on Iraq War

    HAIFA ZANGANA Zangana is an Iraqi-born novelist and former political prisoner. She went back to Iraq for the first time in 2004, after 25 years of exile. She had been imprisoned in Abu Ghraib by the Ba’athist regime and tortured. She said today at the World Tribunal on Iraq underway in Istanbul, Turkey: “The U.S.…

  • Iran’s Runoff Presidential Election Friday

    Iranians are voting Friday (June 24) in a runoff election that will determine the next president of their country. The contest pits former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani against the current Tehran mayor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the context of Iranian politics, Rafsanjani is a “moderate” while Ahmadinejad is a hardline fundamentalist. The following analysts are…

  • Voices on Iraq: World Tribunal Convening

    The World Tribunal on Iraq gets underway Friday (June 24) in Istanbul, Turkey. Participants include award-winning author Arundhati Roy, who will chair a “Jury of Conscience.” The following commentators are available for interviews: AYCA CUBUKCU Cubukcu is a member of the coordinating committee of the Istanbul World Tribunal on Iraq. She said today: “Official institutions…

  • Iran at a Big Crossroads

    The runoff election in Iran’s presidential race, coming up this Friday, has profound implications for the future. SIMIN ROYANIAN Royanian is co-founder of Women for Peace and Justice in Iran. She said today: “President Bush had proclaimed the elections in Iran undemocratic and a hoax from the beginning. … Mr. Bush, by claiming that the…

  • World Tribunal on War Crimes in Iraq

    TOLGA TEMUGE Temuge is the international media coordinator for the World Tribunal on Iraq modeled on the Bertrand Russell Vietnam War Tribunal of the late 1960s. Participants in the tribunal, which will take place in Istanbul from June 24-27, include Arundhati Roy, Richard Falk, Dennis Halliday, Hans von Sponeck, Walden Bello, Dahr Jamail, and Barbara…

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