NCAC launched “War and Speech” as a clearinghouse for information about free speech issues relating to the “War on Terror,” including press freedom, government secrecy, and surveillance. We encourage you to explore the collection of articles and incident reports below, and to participate in campaign actions being conducted by our colleagues in the First Amendment community.
Incidents
Propaganda or “Fake News”
- Glenn Greenwald debunks the latest “good news” about the war, Slate, 8/12/2007
- The U.S. Propaganda Machine: Oh, What a Lovely War by Andrew Buncombe for The Independent, UK, 3/30/2006
- Military’s Information War is Vast and Often Secretive by Jeff Gerth for The New York Times, 12/11/2005
- U.S. Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press by Mark Mazzetti and Borzou Daragahi for The L.A. Times, 11/30/2005
- Secretary of Spin? by Richard Cohen for The Washington Post, 3/17/2005
- Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged Television News by David Barstow and Robin Stein for The New York Times, 3/13/2005
For more information on government propaganda, and to join the campaign for transparency in government-produced information, visit the Center for Media and Democracy.
Suppression of Information
- White House accused of censorship by Paul Richter, L.A. Times, 12/19/2006
- New DoD Iraq Report Undercounts Attacks by Eason Jordan, 12/19/2006
- U.S. Military Shuts Down Soldiers’ Blogs in Newsday, 1/2/2006
- The News Media and the Anti-War Movement by Norman Solomon, 9/27/2005
- Why Do We Censor War? by Sydney Schanberg, The Village Voice, 5/10/2005
- U.S. Military Tried to Censor Coverage of Saddam Hussein Hearings by Robert Fisk, reporting from Baghdad, 7/31/2004
- Salon.com’s authoritative collection of information and images on torture in American military prisons. WARNING: this page contains disturbing and/or graphic images. 10/22/2003
- Curtains Ordered for Media Coverage of Returning Coffins in The Washington Post (article no longer available online), 10/21/2003
- CNN Practiced Self-Censorship in USA Today, 9/14/2003
For ongoing coverage of censored and strategically “underreported” news stories, visit Project Censored.
Surveillance
- First Amendment lawyer Glenn Greenwalds provides lucid analysis of ACLU v. NSA, 8/17/2006
- Potential Evidence Surfaces of Illegal NSA Wiretaps by Onnesha Roychoudhuri, for Alternet, 5/18/2006
- NSA Has Massive Database of Americans’ Phone Calls by Leslie Cauley, in USA Today, 5/11/2006
- Spies Among Us by David E. Kaplan, from US News, 4/30/2006
- Political Opposites Aligned Against Bush Wiretaps in SFGate, 1/26/2006
- Bush Defends NSA Spying Program from CNN.com, 1/1/2006
- Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts from The New York Times, 2/16/2005
- Analysis of the (Il)Legality of the NSA Program, by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee
- Details on the ACLU’s Lawsuit Against the NSA
For more information on NSA wiretapping and government encroachment on our civil liberties, visit the ACLU.
Violence against Journalists
While the articles linked below detail physical harassment, and in some cases, the imprisonment or even murder of journalists around the world to suppress the information they seek to impart to the public, recent developments highlight the aggressive tactics beings used to intimidate journalists here in America — namely, the threat of legal action to suppress politically damaging information (information which, in our view, the public has every right to know). For an excellent analysis, see law professor Geoffrey Stone’s article, “Scared of Scoops” in the New York Times on 5/8/2006.
- Iraq Has Become the Most Dangerous Place for Journalists by Katharine Q. Seelye in The New York Times, 2/14/2006
- Did Bush Really Want to Bomb Al-Jazeera? by Jeremy Scahill in The Nation, 11/23/2005
- Journalists Held Without Charges from Reuters, (article no longer available online) 8/31/2005
- The American Society of Journalists and Authors’ Call for an Investigation of Journalists’ Murders 8/25/2003
- Foreign Media Suffer Baghdad Losses from the BBC, 4/18/2003
For more information on the murder, arbitrary detention, and intimidation of journalists in Iraq, visit the Committee to Protect Journalists
Censorship of Political Art
- Political Piece Returned to Art Installation, 3/16/2005
- Chris Savido’s “Bush Monkeys” Results in Closing of Exhibition, 12/20/2004
For more information, visit Art Now: Artists Respond to the Political Present
Censorship of Public Dissent
Articles/Analysis:
- The Crisis of Public Dissent by Fran Shor on counterpunch.org, 9/9/2004
- Free Speech Zone: The Administration Quarantines Dissent by James Bovard in The American Conservative, 12/15/2003
- Secret Service Violates Protesters’ First Amendment Rights: A Report from the ACLU 9/23/03
Incidents
- California Student Anti-War Group Monitored by the Pentagon 3/15/2006
- Demonstrators Arrested Outside the U.S. Mission to the United Nations 2/28/2006
- Cindy Sheehan Arrested for Lawful Dissent at the State of the Union Address 2/1/2006
Resources
Historical Analysis of Free Speech in Wartime
Articles Online
- “An Unknown Casualty,” by Tom Wicker
- “The Nixon Syndrome,” by Bob Herbert
- “Media, Propaganda, and Vietnam,” by Anup Shah
- U.S. Suppressed Images of Hiroshima for Decades
- On “Wagging the Dog,” by Chen-Roy Simpson
Books
- The Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the 1991 Gulf War by John R. MacArthur
- War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death by Norman Solomon
- Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism by Geoffrey R. Stone
Organizations
Organizations who are working to promote free speech — and to restore public access to government information — relating to the war.
National Security and Government Secrecy
- The National Security Archive at George Washington University
- The National Security Whistleblowers Coalition
Suppression or Manipulation of News
- The Center for Media and Democracy’s Campaign to Stop Propaganda
- Project Censored: The News That Didn’t Make the News
Government Infringements on Privacy
- The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
- The Campaign for Reader Privacy
- The PEN Campaign for Core Freedoms
Violence Against Journalists