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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  • Global Coalition Pushes for Countries to Back South Africa at World Court Against Israel

    A newly formed coalition is urging other countries to file Declarations of Intervention at the International Court of Justice in support of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. The International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine convened around the urgent need for nations to invoke the Genocide Convention as a way to end the State of…

  • Bombings in Lebanon and Iran

    “A deadly attack near the tomb of Iran’s Gen. Soleimani, assassinated by the U.S. four years ago, has left at least 86 dead as per Iranian media. This is likely to escalate the already high tensions in the Middle East, with many in Iran suspecting Israeli involvement. … Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi: ‘The first…

  • South Africa’s Genocide Case Against Israel

    Boyle assessed that a South African victory was likely at the ICJ in spite of the presidency of the Court being held currently by Joan Donoghue, a former State Department official. He also charged the Biden administration with “aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide” and “violating the the U.S. Genocide Convention Implementation Act.” He stressed the…

  • South Africa Invokes Genocide Convention Against Israel

    “This section provides an overview of the acts in which Israel has engaged that are genocidal in character, having regard to their nature, scope and context. These acts are ongoing, and ongoing in a conflict context, where Israel is deliberately imposing telecommunications blackouts on Gaza and restricting access by fact-finding bodies and the international media.…

  • * The Lancet: State Parties to the Genocide Convention Must Act * UNSC Resolution

    “The two abstentions by Russia and the United States will further convince” much of the world that “Russia is the more worthy of their support. They are both abstaining because the resolution does not call for a cease-fire that would stop the killing. But Russia wants the cease-fire, whereas the United States does not.”

  • Beyond U.S. Isolation at UN: What’s Not Being Done

    “The U.S. government is continuing to veto and delay at the UN Security Council as Israel violates international law with its bombing in Gaza and other actions. There’s a whole host of things that should be happening under international law that are not being done. This is partly a result of U.S. government obstruction, but…

  • 20 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know About the War on Gaza

    “The ideal war for the U.S. government and the weapons dealers that have such control over it is a war fought with U.S. weapons by non-U.S. fighters. The war in Ukraine, the Saudi war on Yemen, the current war on Gaza — these risk few U.S. lives directly but enrich U.S. oligarchs substantially. …”

  • Genetically Engineered American Chestnut Trees

    The American Chestnut Foundation announced it would drop its signature effort to develop a genetically engineered American chestnut tree. The decision has far-reaching implications for the future of genetically engineered organisms.

  • Israel, U.S. Campuses, and the “Fragility of the Coloniser”

    “For the first time Israel has lost legitimacy among young people in the U.S. Zionists are losing the argument. With their usual propaganda no longer effective, they have turned to the blunt imposition of power, censoring and penalising any expression of support for Palestinian freedom.”

  • Biden Threatens Houthis in Yemen as They Try to Force Israeli Ceasefire

    “Yemen has been under a U.S.-supported, Saudi-led blockade for over eight years and Gaza is under siege. The results have been horrific. Yet no one cared and now, a military coalition is coming to aid Apartheid Israel while it is committing Genocide in Gaza.”

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