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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  • Are Congressional Democrats Leading a War Party?

    “The doubletalk coming from many congressional Democrats in response to President Trump’s peace initiative with Iran has been a political wonder to behold,” Norman Solomon wrote in The Hill today. “While correctly declaring that Trump should not have started the war, they’ve routinely gone on to condemn the memorandum of understanding that offers a process to end it.”

  • Kucinich Warns NDAA Provision Forfeits U.S. Sovereignty. Merger of US-Israeli Military “Inherently Unconstitutional”

    “It is beyond ironic that as America celebrates the 250th anniversary of our Independence from Great Britain, we are about to violate our own Constitution in order to forfeit our sovereignty in the State of Israel.”

  • Israel’s Genocide and Journocide

    “Israel killed Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Wishah in a strike on his house in Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp.⁣ His killing comes two months after Israeli forces killed his brother and fellow Al Jazeera journalist, correspondent Mohammed Wishah.  Since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 260 journalists and media workers in Gaza, 12 of whom…

  • An Ordinary Insanity

    The new documentary An Ordinary Insanity focuses on Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg’s calls to action about the global threat posed by nuclear weapons. In the film, Ellsberg, who died three years ago, says: “Can humanity survive the nuclear era? We don’t know. I choose to act as if we have a chance.”

  • Colombia Election Interference?

    “Should the results hold, I fear that Colombia will return to the days of terror against the population, and specifically against the social movements. This is the result the Trump administration wanted and helped to bring about — not only in Colombia, but also in other Latin American countries.  We are witnessing a new Operation…

  • UAW Votes to Divest from Israel Bonds

    “I don’t just hope, but I know … that this is going to send a message to — not just the billionaire class — but to politicians and any single person who is not afraid of standing up to genocide, to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu, to the United States government, and will put the…

  • 1,000 Palestinians Killed Since “Ceasefire” — Is Gaza More Vulnerable with Iran Deal?

    “A very dangerous new nightmare we are living in Gaza City, and no one in the world is paying attention to it.  Days ago, the Israeli army installed huge military cranes, each about 30 meters tall, on the eastern areas it controls. These cranes are equipped with machine guns and cameras, and they fire randomly…

  • Proposed USPS Rule Would Disrupt Mail Voting

    Last week, the New York Times reported that the U.S. Postal Service “proposed a new rule that would allow it to refuse to deliver mail ballots in states that don’t turn over voter rolls to the federal government.” The prospective rule asks states to create lists of mail voters to screen ballots for eligibility, and…

  • Understanding U.S.-Iran Deal

    According to this text, the first point includes a declaration that the U.S. and Iran “will refrain from the threat or use of force against each other.” But Trump just said: “It’s a memorandum of understanding. And if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their head.”

  • British Court “Redefines ‘Terrorism’ to Mean Opposition to Genocide”

    “The Court of Appeal decision is reactionary, says nothing about the ‘lawful business’ of Elbit in providing the means to commit genocide and they have redefined ‘terrorism’ to mean opposition to genocide.” 

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