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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  • Elections in Iraq

    ANTONIA JUHASZ Juhasz wrote the recent article “Of Oil And Elections.” She is a scholar with Foreign Policy In Focus. More Information ABBAS KADHIM Kadhim has written several pieces on the elections, including “The Expatriate Vote,” “Hellish Elections” and “Wag the Vote.” He is originally from Najaf, where he has family. He joined in the…

  • Asians on Tsunami Relief: Drop the Debt

    Activists from Asia are addressing how to best recover from the tsunami that devastated parts of the region a month ago. Now at the World Social Forum, a global gathering of activists and non-governmental groups taking place in Porto Alegre, Brazil: LIEM SOEI LIONG Liem Soei Liong works with TAPOL, a London-based Indonesian human rights…

  • Competing World Forums: Africa Debt

    Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Tony Blair were among the speakers today at the World Economic Forum, a gathering of CEOs and government officials in Davos, a Swiss ski resort. They addressed issues of poverty in Africa. AP reports that the singer Bono praised Gates, saying: “He is a brainy man and he thinks extreme…

  • Resolution Urging Withdrawal of U.S. Troops from Iraq Set to Be Introduced in House of Representatives Today

    Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) plans to introduce a congressional resolution today in the U.S. House of Representatives calling on President Bush to begin the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Woolsey, who is in her seventh term in the House, told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “Removing some 130,000 soldiers from Iraq immediately is…

  • The U.S. and the World * Global Warming — Blow to White House Stance * World Social Forum

    The White House is on the defensive about global warming today in the wake of statements by Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the official U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who said he now believes the world has “already reached the level of dangerous concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.” Pachauri’s statements — which…

  • Bush and Freedom

    REED BRODY Brody is special counsel with Human Rights Watch and author of the article “Prisoner Abuse: What About the Other Secret U.S. Prisons?” and the report “The Road to Abu Ghraib.” He said today: “It is one thing to say you are on the side of freedom, it’s quite another to be a leader…

  • Inauguration: Policy and Protest

    The following will be available to comment on Bush’s speech today and underlying policies: STEPHEN ZUNES Zunes is a professor of politics and chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco, and Mideast editor of Foreign Policy in Focus. More Information SUSAN AKRAM Akram, associate professor at the Boston…

  • Rice Nomination — Context and Contradictions

    Sgt. KEVIN BENDERMAN, MONICA BENDERMAN At the Senate confirmation hearing for Condoleezza Rice today Sen. Barbara Boxer, apparently referring to members of the U.S. armed forces such as Sgt. Kevin Benderman, said: “You know, if you were rolling out a new product like a can opener, who would care about what we said? But this…

  • * Tsunami Debt Relief * Volcker Oil-for-Food Report * Zoellick at the State Department

    MARK ENGLER Mark Engler, a writer based in New York City, is a commentator for Foreign Policy in Focus. He said today: “Those of us in wealthy nations believe that our governments donate generously to help these people. Yet many poor countries pay out more in debt service than they receive in aid — the…

  • Palestinian Elections; “Salvador Option” for Iraq

    MICHAEL BROWN Author of a recent oped in the International Herald Tribune — “Palestinian Elections: Voting is Good. Freedom is Better” — Brown is the executive director of the nonprofit organization Partners for Peace. More Information ALI ABUNIMAH Abunimah is founder of the Electronic Intifada. He said today: “The election in the occupied territories is…

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