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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  • Al-Jazeera: Blaming the Messenger?

    Secretary Rumsfeld: “I can definitively say that what al-Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable.” Q: “Do you have a civilian casualty count?” Secretary Rumsfeld: “Of course not, we’re not in the city [Fallujah]. But you know what our forces do; they don’t go around killing hundreds of civilians. That’s just outrageous nonsense! It’s…

  • * Iraq * Bush and Cheney Before 9-11 Commission * Syria

    PHYLLIS BENNIS A fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of several recent papers on Iraq at the above web page, Bennis said today: “Having a little sovereignty is like being a little pregnant. Either a country has sovereignty or it doesn’t. Under the U.S. plans, Iraq will not have real sovereignty.” More…

  • Iraq: On-the-Ground Realities

    RAHUL MAHAJAN Just back from a three-week stay in Baghdad, Mahajan was in Fallujah on April 11. He is author of the book Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond. Mahajan said today: “As the tense standoff over Fallujah and Najaf continues, we need to be clear about some things. U.S. actions include…

  • Interviews Available on Negroponte: * Meaning of “Sovereignty” * Support for Death Squads

    ANDRES THOMAS CONTERIS Conteris is a Latin America human rights activist. He was detained and released in the Capitol after speaking up Tuesday at U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte’s Senate confirmation hearing on his nomination to be ambassador to Iraq. Negroponte was U.S. ambassador to Honduras during the Nicaragua Contra war in the early 1980s. At…

  • “A Politics for Reproductive Justice”

    GWENDOLYN MINK Mink is the author of the book Welfare’s End and is scheduled as a speaker at the March for Women’s Lives on April 25 in Washington. She said today: “On Sunday, women of color of all classes and low income women of all races will raise new voices in the struggle for reproductive…

  • * Earth Day * World Bank and IMF Meetings

    BERN JOHNSON Today is Earth Day. Johnson is the executive director of the U.S. office of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, which works with activist attorneys in 60 countries to protect the environment through law. He said today: “Not only has the current administration abandoned environmental protection at home, but it is pressuring other countries…

  • * Vanunu — Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower — to be Released * Jordanian King’s Cancellation * Separation Wall

    JACK COHEN-JOPPA FELICE COHEN-JOPPA They are coordinators of the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu. Jack Cohen-Joppa said today: “Mordechai Vanunu, a former nuclear technician who revealed Israel’s nuclear capacity to the London Sunday Times in 1986, is scheduled to be released from prison Wednesday. Vanunu has been jailed by Israel for 18 years, most…

  • Bush’s War Road Ahead

    MATT ROTHSCHILD Rothschild is editor of The Progressive magazine and author of a piece about last night’s Bush news conference — titled “A Scary Performance, and a Signal for Slaughter” — in which he writes that the president’s performance was scary because of such statements as: “Our commanders on the ground have got the authority…

  • 9-11 Commission: Role of the FBI

    NAT HENTOFF A writer for the Village Voice with a focus on civil liberties and author of the book The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance, Hentoff said today: “A primary problem of interagency cooperation, then as now, is the imperious culture of the FBI. As police chiefs around the country…

  • Fallujah and Baghdad — Eyewitness Accounts

    RAHUL MAHAJAN Currently in Baghdad, Mahajan was just in Fallujah. He is regularly posting to a blog at the above web page. Mahajan is author of the book Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond. Mahajan said today: “During the course of roughly four hours at a small clinic in Fallujah, I saw…

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