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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  • New Bombings and Military Aid * Iraq * Israel * Indonesia

    DAVID MacMICHAEL A former analyst for the CIA, MacMichael said today: “Whether the Iraq insurgency is made up of disparate elements or is controlled or coordinated by some central group, the insurgents have as an important part of their strategy the attacking of those Iraqis they see as cooperating with the U.S. occupying forces or…

  • Haiti: One Year After Aristide Coup

    Late February and early March of last year witnessed the ouster of Jean Bertrand Aristide from Haiti. Several groups are holding events on Monday, Feb. 28. BILL FLETCHER SELENA MENDY SINGLETON President of TransAfrica Forum, Fletcher said today: “One year after the coup in Haiti displaced the democratically-elected government of President Jean Bertrand Aristide, the…

  • Election Reform: Unresolved Issues

    Key issues related to voting rights remain on the front burner for some legislators and activists. The following commentators are available for interviews: BOB KIBRICK Bob Kibrick, a legislative analyst with Verified Voting, said today: “Multiple election reform bills have been submitted to Congress during the past month. The issues addressed in those bills include…

  • Major Developments in 9/11 Whistleblower Case

    There are major developments in the case of Sibel Edmonds, a government whistleblower who has stated that prior to 9/11, in April 2001, the U.S. government had information about plans for airplanes to be used on suicide missions in U.S. cities in the coming months. Her statements contradict what administration officials told the 9/11 Commission…

  • * NATO * Bush with Putin

    Bush is currently meeting with heads of NATO countries and will be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. The following analysts are available for interviews: Sen. TINY KOX Kox is a senator in the Dutch Parliament and a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, which met in Brussels shorty before the heads of…

  • Bush in Europe

    DIRK ADRIAENSENS George W. Bush is now in Brussels. Adriaensens is coordinator for SOS Iraq and an organizer for the Brussels Tribunal, a hearing committee composed of academics, intellectuals and artists in the tradition of the Russell Tribunal, set up in 1967 to investigate war crimes committed during the Vietnam War. Adriaensens is participating in…

  • Malcolm X: Double Anniversary This Year

    Malcolm X was assassinated on Feb. 21, 1965 — forty years ago this Monday. He was born May 19, 1925 — eighty years ago this year. The following are some of his statements. Malcolm X broke with the Nation of Islam in early 1964; a chronology is available at BrotherMalcolm.net. “The entire American economy is…

  • Negroponte Appointment: Topping a Career of Human-Rights Violations

    DIANNA ORTIZ Sister Dianna Ortiz is the executive director of Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International. She was abducted and tortured in Guatemala while teaching indigenous children to read. She said today: “For those of us who work in the area of human rights, this is yet another sad day. The Bush administration seems…

  • Syria and Lebanon After Hariri Assassination

    PATRICK SEALE Available for a limited number of interviews, Seale is a British journalist now living in Paris; his books include Asad of Syria and The Struggle for Syria. Seale said today: “If Syria did indeed kill Rafic Hariri, it must be judged an act of political suicide. It exposes Syria to attack from its…

  • As Senate Holds Hearing on Nuclear Arms Today, North Korea and Iran Are Casting Big Shadows

    A Senate Armed Services Committee hearing today on the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons budget features testimony from Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. While the U.S. government has termed North Korea and Iran “outposts of tyranny” and made demands regarding their nuclear programs, the New York Times last week reported that U.S. scientists “have begun designing a…

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