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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  • Iraq Occupation: Huge Problems

    EMAN AHMED KHAMMAS Khammas is co-director of the newly founded Occupation Watch Center in Iraq. She said today: “We are all happy that Saddam Hussein is gone, but we continue to pay a very high price with our lives, our health and our country. The security situation here is hell, I don’t know how else…

  • Mr. Blair Goes to Washington

    MEL GOODMAN Goodman, a former CIA analyst, is a professor of international security at the National War College in Washington and a senior fellow for intelligence reform at the Center for International Policy. He said today: “The administration is now asserting that statements about Iraq’s alleged attempts to obtain unenriched uranium from Africa may well…

  • Iraq Interviews Available: “Had I known…”

    On July 11, 2003, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice told the press aboard Air Force One: “Had I known that there was a forged document here, would I put this in the State of the Union? No.” RAHUL MAHAJAN Mahajan, author of the new book Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond, has…

  • WMD: The Dog Ate My Homework

    GREG THIELMANN Thielmann served as director of the Office of Strategic, Proliferation, and Military Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research until September 2002. He said today: “I believe the Bush administration did not provide an accurate picture to the American people of the military threat posed by Iraq…. Going down the…

  • Bush in Africa: Photo-Ops vs. Policies

    SALIH BOOKER Booker, the executive director of Africa Action, said today: “While Bush has made much of his commitment to fighting AIDS in Africa, this is becoming a cruel hoax… The president requested no new money this year and only $450 million in new money for 2004. He has virtually sidestepped the Global Fund to…

  • Independence Day: Interviews Available

    CECILIA O’LEARY Associate professor of history at California State University at Monterey Bay and author of To Die For: The Paradox of American Patriotism, O’Leary said today: “Under the banner of patriotism, the right has successfully institutionalized repressive policies and justified an occupation of Iraq with no end in sight. Aspirations for American empire are…

  • * Fed Rate * World Bank Reform? * Homeland Profits? * Free Trade in Canadian Drugs and Internet Music

    ELLEN FRANK Professor of economics at Emmanuel College in Boston and author of the forthcoming Money Illusions: The Rise of Finance and the End of Economic Policy, Frank said today: “The fact that this Fed has cut rates this low indicates that they are concerned about a prolonged economic slump setting off deflation. If prices…

  • * Estate Tax * Minimum Wage * Housing Crisis

    CHUCK COLLINS Today the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a permanent repeal of the estate tax. Collins is co-founder of United for a Fair Economy and co-author, with William Gates Sr., of Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes. Collins said today: “The bill to permanently repeal the federal…

  • * Mideast ‘Honest Broker’? * Iraq Turmoil * Iran

    CHRIS TOENSING CATHERINE COOK Toensing and Cook are with the Middle East Research and Information Project based in Washington. They can discuss the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. More Information BRIAN AVERY An activist with the International Solidarity Movement, Avery has just returned to South Carolina. Two months ago in the West…

  • * Iraq’s WMD * Israel’s Nukes * ‘Terrorism’

    RAHUL MAHAJAN Mahajan is the co-author of an op-ed published today in USA Today titled “End the Deception” and author of the forthcoming book Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond. He was featured in an IPA news release on March 18, 2003 titled “White House Claims: A Pattern of Deceit,” which noted…

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