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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  • Gonzales Confirmation Hearings; Ohio Vote Challenge

    MARK DANNER Available for a limited number of interviews, Danner is author of the new book Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror and of an opinion piece in today’s New York Times, “We Are All Torturers Now.” In that op-ed, Danner wrote: “Through a process of redefinition largely overseen by…

  • Perspectives on Tsunami Disaster

    ALFREDO QUARTO The Wall Street Journal recently published an article titled “On Asia’s Coasts, Progress Destroys Natural Defenses.” Quarto, executive director of the Mangrove Action Project, said today: “The severity of the current tsunami disaster is beyond comprehension. The tremendous force of the 9.0 earthquake that occurred off the coast of Sumatra caused extremely powerful…

  • Oil for Food: What’s the Real Scandal?

    DENIS HALLIDAY Former head of the U.N. Oil for Food Program in Iraq and assistant secretary general of the U.N., Halliday resigned in protest in 1998. Currently in New York City, he is available for a limited number of interviews. Halliday said today: “The Oil for Food ‘scandal’ is not a scandal of the United…

  • Social Security: The Manufactured Crisis

    The White House is hosting a two-day conference on the economy with special emphasis on Social Security starting tomorrow. MARK WEISBROT Weisbrot is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and co-author, with Dean Baker, of Social Security: The Phony Crisis (University of Chicago Press). He said today: “The following facts have…

  • Reporter Who Examined CIA-Contra-Cocaine Link Dies

    AP reported this weekend that “Gary Webb, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who wrote a controversial series of stories linking the CIA to crack cocaine trafficking in Los Angeles, has died at age 49…of an apparent suicide.” AP wrote: “Webb’s 1996 series in the Mercury News alleged that Nicaraguan drug traffickers had sold tons of…

  • The Election in Ohio … and in Ukraine

    EVAN DAVIS SUSAN TRUITT Co-founder of the Citizens’ Alliance for Secure Elections (CASE), Truitt said today: “The Citizens’ Alliance for Secure Elections has organized a rally to demand that every vote be counted accurately from the November 2 election. We demand a full recount of Ohio’s votes and a thorough investigation of all reported irregularities…

  • Bhopal: 20 Years After the Disaster

    A series of events are planned this week as human rights, legal, environmental and other experts are demanding that Dow Chemical, the current owner of Union Carbide, be held accountable for the Bhopal disaster, which took place 20 years ago in India. On Wednesday, Dec. 1, at 1:00 p.m. ET there will be a media…

  • Bush in Canada

    MAUDE BARLOW Barlow is national chairperson of the Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest public advocacy organization with over 100,000 members. The group has done extensive work on examining various policy issues around U.S.-Canadian relations. More Information MICHAEL MANDEL GAIL DAVIDSON Mandel is a professor of law at Osgoode Hall Law School in Canada and author…

  • Thanksgiving: * Supporting the Troops * First Thanksgiving * Buy Nothing Day

    MIKE HOFFMAN Co-founder and national coordinator of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Hoffman said today: “For Thanksgiving, one can expect President Bush and others to pontificate about the troops and the sacrifices we’ve made in Iraq; but what has he actually done to support us?” Hoffman is currently near Philadelphia. More Information ROBERT W. VENABLES…

  • American Politics at a Crossroads

    MICHAEL PARADIES SHOOB Shoob, co-director (with Joseph Mealey) of the recent documentary film about Karl Rove titled “Bush’s Brain,” commented today: “I would say that the ‘mark’ of a Rove operation is absolute control, no leaks, no visible dissent. And, it would seem to me that the resignation of Colin Powell and the wholesale purge…

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