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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  • * 9/11 First Responders * Administration Deceptions, Then and Now

    MEG BARTLETT Bartlett is founder of the group Ground Zero for Peace — First Responders Against War. As an emergency medical technician, she responded to 9/11. She said today: “We do not want our experiences to propagate further violence. No one should have to see what I’ve seen. But people around the world have seen…

  • What Did the EPA Know and When Did It Know It?

    JOEL KUPFERMAN Kupferman is the executive director of the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project. He said today: “On September 19, 2001, one day after the EPA declared that the ‘air was safe to breathe,’ we took samples in lower Manhattan and sent them to two respected labs — the results came back with…

  • 9/11 and Aftermath: Tragedy and Deception * Relatives of Sept. 11 Victims * Military Families

    DAVID POTORTI Potorti is the primary author of the new book September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows: Turning Our Grief into Action for Peace. His brother was killed in the World Trade Center. He said today: “With the worst kind of cynicism, George W. Bush continues the hallucinatory link of Iraq to the deaths of…

  • Senior EPA Specialists Comment Today on Deletions of Warnings About 9/11 Toxins

    Two senior specialists with the federal Environmental Protection Agency commented Thursday on emerging information about the White House role in early press releases from the EPA about potential health hazards in lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks. The comments, by Cate Jenkins and Hugh Kaufman, were released by the Institute for Public Accuracy on Sept.…

  • Electricity and Deregulation: More Corporate Scams?

    WENONAH HAUTER TYSON SLOCUM Hauter is director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program; Slocum is research director for the group. Hauter said today: “The House blackout hearings today and tomorrow will be nothing more than a high-wire act promoting transmission policies benefiting Enron-esque power marketers at the expense of consumers. That’s because…

  • * Ten Commandments * Labor Day * Against School * Psychiatric Protests

    Rev. GRAYLAN S. HAGLER Senior pastor of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ and national president of Ministers For Racial, Social and Economic Justice, Hagler said today: “The legal controversy around the Ten Commandments monument in Alabama highlights the misuse and abuse of religion in the United States. A monument of this kind is a…

  • Crisis with North Korea: Critical Analysis

    As representatives of six governments hold talks in Beijing regarding North Korea’s nuclear capability, the following analysts are available for interviews: BRUCE CUMINGS Author of several books including The Origins of the Korean War, Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History and most recently Parallax Visions: American-East Asian Relations at the End of the…

  • Bush at American Legion: Interviews Available

    PAUL COX Cox is a Vietnam War veteran and the commander for the American Legion Post 315 in San Francisco. He said today: “Bush made assertions that the primary reason for the invasion of Iraq was weapons of mass destruction. Exactly a year ago today, Cheney said to the Veterans of Foreign Wars: ‘Simply stated,…

  • Interviews Available: The March on Washington

    The 40th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is August 28. Events begin today in Washington, D.C. The following analysts and activists are available for interviews: Rev. JAMES LAWSON Pastor emeritus of Holman United Methodist Church, Lawson was a longtime associate of Martin Luther King Jr. and is available for…

  • The U.N. Role in Iraq: Interviews Available

    NANCY LESSIN, CHARLIE RICHARDSON Co-founders of Military Families Speak Out, Lessin and Richardson have a son, Joe, who just returned from Iraq. They said today: “Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson and others are arguing that attacks in Iraq mean we have to send more troops. We have 58,000 names on a wall — and millions of…

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