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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  • Iran’s Presidential Election on Friday

    NADER DAVOODI Nader Davoodi, an Iranian photographer who lives in Tehran, describes himself as “a very close friend to” the campaign of Mostafa Moin, the reformist presidential candidate in Iran. Davoodi said today: “In an ‘adsphere’ [where] most of the presidential candidates in Iran introduce themselves as a very helpful technocrat and sell themselves as…

  • Downing Street Memo: Deception and Cover-Up

    On Thursday June 16, 2005, from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Room HC-9 of the U.S. Capitol, Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and other members of Congress will hold a hearing on the Downing Street Minutes and related evidence of White House efforts to cook the books on…

  • Debt Relief for Africa: How to Proceed

    MARK ENGLER Mark Engler is the author of an op-ed in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer titled “Credit Globalization Movement for Debt Victory.” He said today: “Thanks in large part to persistent campaigners in the global South and their international supporters, a plan granting 100 percent multilateral debt relief for 18 impoverished countries has been approved by…

  • Iran’s Presidential Election

    Voters in Iran will cast ballots for a new president on Friday (June 17), choosing from a field of eight candidates that includes hardline clerics and reformers. The following analysts are available for interviews: NORMAN SOLOMON Currently in Tehran, Solomon is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and author of the new book…

  • Bush, Posada & Terrorism Hypocrisy

    The AP is reporting: “Luis Posada Carriles’ Cold War past has made for an uncomfortable present. The Cuban exile accused of planning the deadly bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976 was set to make an appearance before an immigration judge Monday on charges that he entered the United States illegally earlier this year. His…

  • Medical Marijuana: Key Vote in Congress Looms

    STEVE FOX BRUCE MIRKEN Fox is director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project which provided funding for Angel Raich’s litigation in the recent Supreme Court decision. Mirken is director of communications for the organization. Fox said today: “The Raich decision does not overturn any state medical marijuana law or take away any protections…

  • Bush on Iraq: “Comforting Families” and Telling Lies

    Yesterday, President Bush, in an appearance with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, addressed the Downing Street Memo — minutes from a July 23, 2002, meeting of British foreign policy leadership — for the first time. The memo is evidence that Bush lied about his reasons for invading Iraq and the timing of his decision. The…

  • Five Hundred African Children Die Each Hour as Bush and Blair Fail to Agree on Africa Policy

    Reuters is reporting that “Africa can expect compassion but little action when G8 finance ministers meet this week, as no real commitments on slashing debt, doubling aid or making trade concessions will be on the table. … President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair failed to reach a final agreement on African debt relief…

  • Democracy in the Americas

    The 34 members of the Organization of American States are meeting for the first time in the U.S. since 1974. The AP is reporting from Bolivia: “President Carlos Mesa, his 19-month-old free-market government unraveling amid swelling street protests and a crippling blockade of the Bolivian capital, offered his resignation in a nationally televised address. The…

  • Bush & Blair & Bolton & Bustani: “War-Gate”?

    GLEN RANGWALA A lecturer in politics at Cambridge University, Rangwala is a leading expert on U.S. and British policy toward Iraq. He said today: “A series of leaked documents from March to July 2002 originating from the highest levels of the British government demonstrate the extent to which senior members of the U.S. government were…

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