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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  • * The Future of Medicare * Exxon Valdez Anniversary

    ALAN SAGER DEBORAH SOCOLAR Sager and Socolar are directors of the Health Reform Program at Boston University’s School of Public Health. They released a report in October 2003 entitled “New Medicare Rx Benefit Means Big Profits for Drug Makers.” Sager said today: “In 2003, actuaries predicted that the Medicare Trust Fund would be depleted in…

  • 9-11 Commission

    DAVID MacMICHAEL A former analyst for the CIA, MacMichael said today: “Richard Clarke is not the first to make the point, though he does it from the inside, that the administration had priorities that superseded protecting the American people. According to Gary Hart, the Hart-Rudman report lay unopened until August 2001 on Condoleezza Rice’s desk;…

  • Israel’s Assassination: Larger Context

    STEVE NIVA Niva wrote “Israel’s Assassination Policy: The Trigger for the Latest Suicide Bombings?” and other articles on Israeli violence and Palestinian suicide bombings. Niva, who is writing a book on the subject, is professor of international politics at Evergreen State College in Washington. More Information More Information MUSTAFA BARGHOUTHI, M.D. President of the Palestinian…

  • * Global Public Opinion * Role of U.N. * Blix’s Fibs

    ED BICE Executive director of the People’s Opinion Project, Bice said today: “International public opinion polling shows continued strong opposition to U.S. foreign policy among the people of the world… The Pew Center poll released yesterday found majorities in all foreign countries surveyed, except Britain, had unfavorable views of the U.S. and ‘believe that controlling…

  • One Year Later: The Invasion of Iraq

    SUE NIEDERER Niederer’s son Army 2nd Lt. Seth Dvorin was killed on Feb. 4 by a roadside bomb in Iraq. More Information DENIS HALLIDAY Halliday is former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq and a former U.N. Assistant Secretary General. WRIGHT SALISBURY Salisbury lost his son-in-law Ted Hennessey on Flight 11 on September…

  • * Spanish Election * Aristide Back in the Caribbean * Israeli Occupation: Rachel Corrie Anniversary * Korea Impeachment

    CAROLA REINTJES Director of international affairs for the Spanish non-governmental organization IDEAS, Reintjes said today: “The Spanish electorate punished the ruling party for participating in a war opposed by 90 percent of the people, and also for manipulating the media, lying to the public and exploiting people’s fears for electoral gain in the aftermath of…

  • * Trade Deficit * Jobs

    MARK WEISBROT Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Weisbrot said today: “The newly released record trade deficit numbers underline the fact that the United States cannot go on borrowing more than 5 percent of GDP each year, indefinitely, from the rest of the world. This current account (mostly trade) deficit has gotten…

  • * Prisoner Aristide? * Back from Central African Republic * Haiti Case Against the U.S.? * National Endowment for Destabilization?

    BILL FLETCHER President of TransAfrica Forum, Fletcher said today: “Like so many people concerned about the situation in Haiti, I am perplexed by the lack of response to the de facto imprisonment of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Though the U.S. claims that President Aristide left Haiti voluntarily, this seems to fly in the face of the…

  • * Firefighters React to New Bush Ads * 9/11 Families — Firefighter Mom Traveling to Afghanistan * International Women’s Day in Afghanistan and Washington

    HAROLD SCHAITBERGER, [contact: Jim McBride] Jeff Zack Schaitberger, the general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, AFL-CIO, issued the following statement today after President Bush unveiled new political ads that use images of firefighters on September 11, 2001: “I’m disappointed but not surprised that the President would try to trade on the heroism…

  • Squeezing Life Out of Haiti

    JEAN BELIARD LUCIEN General manager of Radio Lakay, a New York City-based radio station that serves Haitian-Americans, Jean Beliard Lucien said today: “An elected government has been overthrown by an armed rebellion under the watch of the U.S…. This year is the bicentennial of Haiti’s independence. Aristide’s asking France to pay back for money that…

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