Unprecedented Push for Whistleblowing Is Set to Launch; Ellsberg to Join with NSA Whistleblowers in Announcement

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One year after Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA spying first shook the U.S. government, a major new organization will launch this week — “encouraging whistleblowers to disclose information that citizens need to make truly informed decisions in a democracy.”

On Wednesday morning, a National Press Club news conference will hear from two whistleblowers credited by Snowden with inspiring him. One of them, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, says in a prepared statement that the new organization will make it “more possible for sources to tell their truths when government is off the rails here and to make it possible for us to get it back on track.”

Ellsberg is joining with NSA, State Department, EPA, Justice Department and British GCHQ whistleblowers to help launch the new organization, which will be part of the Institute for Public Accuracy. Several of those whistleblowers will be at the news conference Wednesday, speaking briefly and answering questions from reporters. Ellsberg’s full video statement will be released at the news conference.

The June 4 news conference begins at 9:30 a.m. in the Zenger Room of the National Press Club.

The new organization, ExposeFacts.org, “aims to shed light on concealed activities that are relevant to human rights, corporate malfeasance, the environment, civil liberties and war. At a time when key provisions of the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments are under assault, we are standing up for a free press, privacy, transparency and due process as we seek to reveal official information — whether governmental or corporate — that the public has a right to know.”

Ellsberg will serve on the advisory board of ExposeFacts along with more than 40 other individuals with expertise in such areas as intelligence, national security, foreign affairs, the environment, corporate malfeasance, investigative journalism, the First Amendment and freedom of the press.

The ExposeFacts.org website goes live on Wednesday. It will feature the “SecureDrop” whistleblower submission system provided by the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Further information about ExposeFacts.org is embargoed until June 4. Journalists who wish to inquire about possible interviews for later this week can contact IPA Communications Director Sam Husseini at samhusseini at gmail.com, or can email IPA Executive Director Norman Solomon at solomonprogressive at gmail.com.