News Items

  • Calls to Suspend Syrian Refugee and Other Recent Anti-Muslim Statements by Government Officials

    Compiled by the Institute for Public Accuracy with Arun Kundnani and Deepa Kumar. Kundnani said: “While it’s very easy to denounce Trump’s recent repugnant, bullying statements — and much of the political class has — it’s important to keep several things in mind: First, as the compilation of statements by elected officials makes clear, he made these statements after many officials from across the country made scores of statements playing on unfounded fears against Syrian refugees and other Muslims.”

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  • Classified Politics: A System and a Clinton in Disrepute

    It is most unlikely, however, that Hillary Clinton will fall victim to accusations that rely on improper over-­classification. The State Department and White House, including President Obama himself, sought to protect her and to minimize the effects of her behavior. The case is extremely high­-profile, Democrats in Congress would attack any borderline classification, and a host of well-­paid lawyers would rise to her defense. Improperly classified items or those deemed Sensitive but Unclassified may be redacted from publicly released documents, but it is hard to imagine that Mrs. Clinton would be falsely accused of felonies.

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  • Video of Sterling News Conference

    Please enjoy the full video of Holly Sterling’s news conference, which was her first such appearance since her husband’s trial and imprisonment. The news conference also featured Thomas Drake, Delphine Halgand, Ray McGovern, and Jesselyn Radack.

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  • Open Letter to President Obama from Holly Sterling

    Does the government have no shame in destroying one man’s life and wasting tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to punish a man who had the audacity to do two things: Stand up for his constitutional rights and utilize proper channels provided to him to express concern for the citizens of our country? I am deeply saddened by our lives’ events that Jeffrey and I have suffered and endured. You publicly committed to a transparent government led by your administration, yet it has been shrouded in mistruth and secrecy.

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  • Unprecedented News Conference: Wife of Imprisoned CIA Whistleblower to Speak Out

    Jeffrey Sterling was convicted under the Espionage Act as a source for New York Times reporter James Risen’s book State of War. He began serving his three-and-a-half year prison sentence in June. His wife’s news conference will be the first time the spouse of a CIA whistleblower has made such an appearance.

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  • Cultural Shift Needed on Police Militarization

    Police militarization is a 25 year long trend that has only grown in momentum over time. The restrictions on militaristic gear directed by the White House while important symbolically, will certainly not substantively impact this trend in and of itself. Police militarization at this point is as much a cultural problem as it is a material one, and reversing the cultural trend toward police militarization will require more far reaching efforts.

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  • Watch the Short Documentary “The Invisible Man: CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling”

    “‘The federal courtroom in northern Virginia where Holly and Jeffrey Sterling returned for the sentencing on May 11 was the scene of a disturbing, though scantly reported, simulation of justice in late January. At the outset, covering the trial, I noted that ‘prospective jurors made routine references to ‘three-letter agencies’ and alphabet-soup categories of security clearances.’ Steeped in a local atmosphere of deference to mega-employers like the CIA and Pentagon along with numerous big contracting firms nearby, ‘the jury pool was bound to please the prosecution.’”

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  • On Jeffrey Sterling: From the Filmmaker of “Invisible Man”

    “The most shocking element of this story it that Jeffrey Sterling seems to be punished because he ‘pulled on Superman’s cape’ first with a racial discrimination suit they were able to squash and then by reporting what he considered a dangerous CIA operation to the proper government channels for hearing such a concern.”

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  • News Conference: Whistleblowers Weigh In on Policy

    William Binney (NSA), Thomas Drake (NSA), Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers), Raymond McGovern (CIA), Jesselyn Radack (Justice Department), Coleen Rowley (FBI) and Kirk Wiebe (NSA) spoke at this news conference, sponsored by ExposeFacts.org, a project of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

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  • Netanyahu Victory Opens Door for One-State Solution

    Just before the election, Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu ruled out the creation of a Palestinian State, which means that he repudiated the two-state solution to the dispute between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This has been the pronounced objective of American foreign policy since the Madrid Conference and the Middle East Peace Negotiations in 1991 held under the auspices of the United States government and with the full support of the international community.

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  • Major Issues on Immigration

    JUDITH GOLUB Congress is expected to soon pass a piece of legislation known as the Real ID Act. Golub is senior director of advocacy and public affairs for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She said today: “Real ID is an example of the legislative process gone wrong — both procedurally and substantively. It’s been tacked…

  • Thirty Years After Vietnam War: The Logic of Withdrawal from Iraq

    HOWARD ZINN Thursday marks the 30th anniversary of the withdrawal of the U.S. military from Vietnam. Zinn’s 1967 book Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal argued for the U.S. to pull its troops out of Southeast Asia. He said today: “The U.S. is not doing any good with its military in Iraq. It’s not bringing liberty…

  • Where’s the Accountability? * One Year After Abu Ghraib * Misleading About WMDs

    MARJORIE COHN Thursday is the first anniversary of the publication of the Abu Ghraib photos. Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, executive vice president of the National Lawyers Guild, and author of “Torture of Prisoners in U.S. Custody,” Cohn said today: “Although Donald Rumsfeld approved the use of physical coercion and sexual abuse of…

  • Big Oil: High Prices, Record Profits

    TYSON SLOCUM Research director for Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, Slocum said today: “Since Bush took office, the largest five oil companies operating in the U.S. have after-tax profits of $205 billion. We need to examine the relationship between U.S. oil company profits and the higher prices for consumers and American industry.…

  • Behind the Hand-Holding: Bush and the Saudis

    AS’AD ABUKHALIL AbuKhalil is author of the book The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism, and Global Power, professor in the Department of Politics at California State University, Stanislaus, and visiting professor at University of California, Berkeley. He said today: “The meeting today will cement the continued improvement in U.S.-Saudi relations despite criticism of the…

  • The New Pope: The Silencer?

    LEONARD SWIDLER Professor of Catholic thought and interreligious dialogue at Temple University, Swidler said today: “I have known Ratzinger since 1964 when I published an article of his promoting ecumenical dialogue in the first issue of the new scholarly journal my wife Arlene and I launched, the Journal of Ecumenical Studies. Unfortunately he is not…

  • Earth Day: “Sleepwalking into an Apocalypse”?

    Friday, April 22, is the 35th Earth Day. The following environmentalists are available for interviews: BERN JOHNSON MECHE LU Johnson is executive director of the U.S. office of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, which works with attorneys in 60 countries to protect the environment through law. He said today: “The damage that we are doing…

  • The New Pope and “Dictatorship of Relativism”

    ROBERT ELLSBERG Available for a limited number of interviews, Ellsberg is editor in chief of Orbis Books, the publishing arm of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. He is author of a number of books, most recently The Saints’ Guide to Happiness. He said today: “This would indicate that the cardinals viewed doctrinal orthodoxy as a…

  • Marla Ruzicka in Iraq: War Victims Discounted

    Marla Ruzicka, who founded the organization Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, was killed in Iraq over the weekend. The Washington Post reports today that she “won over Congress and the U.S. military, persuading the United States to free a precedent-setting $20 million for civilians it injured” in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Post writes: “This…

  • Global Finance Showdown in Washington

    STEPHANIE WEINBERG Weinberg is trade policy advisor at Oxfam. The group has helped organize April 10 to 16 as a “Global Week of Action for Trade Justice,” which organizers estimate will involve more than 10 million people in 70 countries. Oxfam has just released a report titled “Kicking Down the Door,” which finds that “the…

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