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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  • With the Kyoto Pact Taking Effect, Eyes of World Are on U.S. Rejection

    The Kyoto Protocol on climate change will take effect on Wednesday (February 16). The United States initially signed up to Kyoto’s framework but the Bush administration rejected the accord in March 2001. The administration also opposes caps on carbon dioxide emissions, deemed responsible for the greenhouse effect and global warming. ROSS GELBSPAN Gelbspan is the…

  • REAL ID Act — Increasing or Decreasing Security?

    The House of Representatives has begun debate on the “REAL ID Act of 2005” (HR 418) and may vote as early as Thursday. The following people are available for interviews: JUDITH GOLUB Available for a limited number of interviews, Golub is senior director of advocacy and public affairs for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She…

  • Guaranteed Income — Brazil, U.S., Iraq

    Senator EDUARDO SUPLICY A senator from Brazil, Suplicy was the sponsor of the “Citizen’s Basic Income” legislation that was signed into law last year. The law is grounded in the concept that an unconditional and guaranteed minimum income is the simplest and most effective step toward the eradication of poverty. It will be implemented gradually…

  • While the United States Makes Demands on Iran, Budget Calls for Boost of U.S. Nuclear Weapons

    The New York Times reported Monday that U.S. scientists “have begun designing a new generation of nuclear arms meant to be sturdier and more reliable and to have longer lives, federal officials and private experts say.” More Information JACQUELINE CABASSO Executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation, which focuses on nuclear policy, Cabasso said…

  • Budget

    FRANCES FOX PIVEN Author of the recent book The War at Home: The Domestic Costs of Bush’s Militarism, Piven said today: “The new budget proposals continue the Republican strategy of emasculating the parts of government that serve ordinary Americans in order to build the military, subsidize corporations, and slash taxes on the affluent. With deficits…

  • Rice Trip

    Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is currently traveling to Europe, Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. The following are available for interviews: GEORGE MONBIOT Monbiot is a columnist for the London-based Guardian and author of the book The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order. More Information HOUZAN MAHMOUD Mahmoud is the U.K.…

  • Social Security: Behind the Spin

    LEE PRICE Price is research director at the Economic Policy Institute. He said today: “Four years ago, President Bush assured us that we could afford his massive tax cuts tilted toward the well-to-do and still maintain a budget surplus large enough to maintain Social Security commitments. Now, four years later, we have deficits largely caused…

  • State of the Union: * Social Security * Health Care

    The following analysts will be available Wednesday night and Thursday to comment on policy proposals in the State of the Union address: DIANA ZUCKERMAN Zuckerman is president of the National Research Center for Women & Families. She wrote the article “Social Security and Women.” More Information BILL SPRIGGS Spriggs wrote the recent articles “African Americans…

  • * Gonzales Nomination * Guantánamo Ruling

    The Senate is expected to debate the nomination of Alberto Gonzales for attorney general until Thursday, a nominee that lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights describe as one of the architects of Guantánamo as well as the torture and abuse of detainees. U.S. District Court Judge Joyce Green on Monday ruled that special military…

  • Aftermath of Iraqi Voting

    ANTONIA JUHASZ Juhasz wrote the recent article “Of Oil And Elections.” She said today: “The front-runner for the new Prime Minister of Iraq is Adel Abdul Mahdi, Iraq’s current Finance Minister who announced on Dec. 21 that his government was hoping to privatize its oil and that this would be ‘very promising to the American…

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