US House Committee Targets Non-Profit Press Freedom

As part of a probe of leftwing nonprofits, a congressional committee subpoenaed BreathThrough News, the People’s Forum and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

By Stephen Prager

Common Dreams

 

Press freedom groups have issued dire warnings that House Republicans’ efforts to subpoena the nonprofit left-wing news organization BreakThrough News represent a dangerous new step in a McCarthyite war on political dissent.

On Wednesday, Fox News reported that BreakThrough, a New York-based outlet, was one of three nonprofits that had been issued subpoenas by the GOP-controlled House Ways and Means Committee as part of an investigation into $39 million worth of donations from tech mogul Neville Roy Singham, a self-described socialist who has used his wealth to fund left-wing nonprofits.

In letters sent Tuesday, the committee, led by Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), said that BreakThrough, as well as two other organizations — the People’s Forum Inc., a New York-based activist hub, and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research — had not turned over any documents that had been requested as part of an investigation into whether rules around tax exempt status for nonprofits should be tightened to protect against foreign influence.

The committee has accused Singham, an American who now lives in Shanghai, of exploiting the tax code and using shell companies and donor-advised funds to hide foreign money that has been used to promote the interests of the Chinese Communist Party. It does not, however, make any specific accusation of legal wrongdoing.

The subpoena requires BreakThrough News to turn over records about its finances, foreign donors and grant recipients, fiscal-sponsorship arrangements, and communications with Singham and any foreign entities.

BreakThrough News said it was “under attack.”

“For years, Republican lawmakers have painted a target on our backs, falsely claiming that our political views and reporting are part of some foreign plot,” the outlet said in a statement. 

“Now, the MAGA-dominated House Ways and Means Committee has issued us a subpoena — demanding internal communications, financial records and more. Make no mistake, this is a flagrant abuse of power, and a direct attack on our work as journalists and on the First Amendment generally.”

BreakThrough said it does not receive any funding from foreign governments or institutions and that it already complies with all the tax and public reporting requirements that nonprofits have to follow.

“We are not charged with any crime, because our only ‘crime’ has been to tell the truth – by covering the activities of the Palestine solidarity movement, unmasking the truth of ICE’s terror in our streets, and exposing Washington’s crimes around the world, from Cuba to the Congo,” the outlet said. 

“That’s the journalism they want to shut down. Their goal is to saddle us with legal proceedings and hostile media to drain our resources and stop this important work.”

While the committee stated that they are investigating BreakThrough over its financing rather than its politics, letters sent to the organization have treated the content of its reporting as circumstantial evidence of malign foreign influence, referring to it as “anti-American” and claiming that its negative coverage of Israel was “sowing division within the United States.”

Chip Gibbons, policy director of the free speech advocacy group Defending Rights & Dissent, told Common Dreams that the subpoena of BreakThrough was a “deeply chilling assault on the First Amendment.”

“Such tactics are, quite literally, a throwback to the House Un-American Activities Committee, which today is mostly viewed as a disgrace,” Gibbons said. “I say mostly, because just three days ago [Secretary Marco] Rubio’s State Department released a report preposterously attacking the US left, including some of these groups, as Cuban fronts that cited old HUAC reports.”

[See:Chris Hedges: Trump’s Phantom Leftwing Enemies]

He further emphasized in a press release that there was “no plausible need” for a news organization to provide documents as part of a broad congressional inquiry.

“The only thing these groups are accused of is essentially receiving donations from a U.S. citizen who has been the subject of an intensive campaign of demonization,” Gibbons said. 

“It is lawful for Americans to donate to activist causes and media projects while holding views disfavored by Congress. This is clearly not a valid legislative inquiry at all, but an attempt to intimidate and chill dissenting opinions.”

Seth Stern, chief of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, agreed that “Congress shouldn’t be using a tax investigation as a pretext to dig through a newsroom’s internal communications or financial records. 

“Freedom of the press,” he said, “applies to all journalists, regardless of whether politicians like their editorial slant or their politics.”

In what it has portrayed as a fight against “left-wing terrorism,” the Trump administration has increasingly blurred the lines between violent activity and protected political speech that they claim “incites” violence.

National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, signed by Trump in September, designates large swathes of left-wing viewpoints on race, gender, immigration, and other topics as “indicators” of domestic terrorism that have been used to link entire groups of people to violent acts they themselves did not commit.

[See: Prairieland Crackdowns Are Trump’s Palmer Raids]

Rubio said last week that the administration would soon be designating more left-wing organizations as terrorist groups, while senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller said that the full force of the state would be used to “disrupt, identify, defund, de-bank, arrest, prosecute” those deemed to “foment” political violence, not just those who actually commit it.

He has previously pledged to use the law to “dismantle” organizations that use heated rhetoric to refer to their right-wing opponents, including calling them “fascist” or “authoritarian.”

Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at Free Press, described the subpoena of BreakThrough as an extension of a “retaliatory ethos” Trump has taken towards critical journalists “with the goal of shutting down criticism and dissent.”

She told Common Dreams, “BreakThrough News is not the first, nor will it be the last, to come under official attack for bringing people alternative and useful news coverage about ICE abuses, foreign policy, Palestinian rights, and other topics.”

“Allowing a congressional committee to harass an independent newsroom with a broad subpoena sets an awful precedent,” Stern said. “If lawmakers can abuse tax oversight to single out outlets whose reporting offends them today, no newsroom in America is safe from government intimidation tomorrow.”

Stephen Prager is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

This article is from Common Dreams.

https://consortiumnews.com/2026/07/24/us-house-committee-targets-non-profit-press-freedom/

 

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Congress Just Voted to Embed a Foreign Military Inside the Pentagon. Both Parties Made Sure You Couldn't Watch.

On July 22, 2026, the House passed the FY2027 NDAA by 216 to 212, keeping Section 219 intact.

The provision creates a permanent US-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative and orders the Pentagon to appoint an executive agent to synchronize American and Israeli military technology.

A bipartisan amendment from Reps. Massie and Khanna to strip it was blocked by the Rules Committee 214 to 211, so no recorded vote on the provision ever took place.

The Senate version contains a parallel provision, Section 1217. Conference Committee is the last chance to remove it. Call your senators.

https://www.reversecanarymission.org/banner/congress-just-voted-to-embed-a-foreign-military-inside-the-pentagon-both-parties-made-sure-you-couldnt-watch-6a627e3faea0be8276b2c8ec

 

 

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From Ally to Problem: How the 2026 Middle East Crisis Is Reshaping the U.S. Alliance and the Fate of the Persian Gulf

Viktor Mikhin, July 25, 2026

What began as a joint U.S.-Israeli operation against Iran had, by mid-2026, morphed into a tectonic shift in the entire Middle East security architecture.

 

The Islamabad Pause, Not Peace

On July 12, 2026, the world learned of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran. The document should have been the endpoint of a protracted conflict. Yet an editorial in China Daily called it “a fragile tactical pause, not peace.” It’s hard to disagree.

What began as a joint U.S.-Israeli operation against Iran had, by mid-2026, morphed into a tectonic shift in the entire Middle East security architecture. Watching Washington’s moves, the Gulf states arrived at an unsettling conclusion: the American “security umbrella” no longer seemed reliable, and the U.S.-Israel alliance was experiencing a structural rupture that would reshape the region for years to come.

The question is not whether the conflict will resume, but what devastating form it will take next time and what unbearable price the global economy—already gasping under the weight of American adventurism—will have to pay 

Strategic Divergence: Washington Wants Out, Tel Aviv Wants to Finish the Job

The central theme running through all analytical coverage of this period is the fundamental disconnect between U.S. and Israeli endgames. As analyses from global news agencies note, Washington is pivoting toward diplomacy and “managing” Iran, while Israel’s objectives remain laser-focused on Tehran’s nuclear program, missile arsenal, and regional proxy networks.

Expert and in-depth analysis adds an important nuance: Israel wants to use the current window of opportunity to fully neutralize Iran, whereas the U.S. is looking for an “exit from the Middle East quagmire.” This isn’t a tactical disagreement—it’s a structural imbalance in which Israeli actions could drag Washington back into a deeper conflict it would rather avoid.

Particularly telling in this context was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt in July 2026 to secure a meeting with President Trump. As international commentators have written, the Israeli leader felt compelled to project a “strong bond” with Washington, but according to experts, this display is “political narrative, not strategic reconciliation.” Trump, for his part, made it clear to Netanyahu that he “knows who’s in charge,” signaling a palpable chill in the leaders’ personal relationship.

Erosion of Trust: How the Gulf Is Losing Faith in America

The most significant geopolitical effect of the conflict lies not on the battlefield but in the realm of trust. Global experts and many political figures have pointed out directly: the conflict has undermined Gulf states’ confidence in the U.S. as a security guarantor. Washington’s approach is seen as “selective and heavily tilted toward Israel’s security interests.”

This conclusion is backed by a July 2026 statement from U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, who acknowledged: “There is a lot of talk about how much influence the Israeli government has on American policy, and there are some in the Israeli government who hate this agreement.” Notably, Vance also stressed that the U.S. does not seek regime change in Iran — “that is a decision only the Iranian people can make.”

For the Gulf monarchies, this signal is doubly alarming. If Washington isn’t willing to guarantee regime change in Tehran and can’t restrain Israel from acting unilaterally, what kind of security guarantee does that offer Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, or Doha? The answer is clear: regional states are being forced to seek more independent and diversified security mechanisms.

“Neither War nor Peace”: The Long-Term Outlook

American scholar Helena Cobban offered the most precise formula for the region’s future: a prolonged state of “neither war nor peace.” In her view, the cost of war will ultimately compel the U.S. to strategically withdraw, and the world is moving toward a more multipolar order in which economic cooperation becomes the dominant paradigm.

This conclusion echoes *China Daily*’s analysis, warning that the world risks normalizing “permanent low-intensity conflict,” which will be bankrolled by global consumers through energy price spikes. The scenario in which the Strait of Hormuz remains under threat of closure and attacks on energy infrastructure become routine is not a hypothetical danger but a highly realistic forecast.

A March 2026 game-theory analysis adds another layer: the current conflict is playing out as a “Nash equilibrium” in which all sides persist with their current strategies until a coordinated pause becomes optimal. In other words, the parties are stuck in a strategic dead-end with no easy way out.

Alternative Scenario: Iran as a Partner by 2040?

Not all forecasts are so bleak. One alternative scenario suggests that the Middle East’s balance of power could be redefined not by direct conflict but by a gradual internal shift within Iran. In this scenario, a more pragmatic Iranian elite could emerge, potentially opening the door to a realignment and transforming Iran into a potential partner for Israel and the U.S. by 2040.

Still, this forecast looks more like “light at the end of the tunnel” than a realistic near-term prospect. Too many factors—the nuclear program, ballistic missiles, regional proxy forces—remain unresolved for rapprochement to be imminent.

The Gulf’s New Reality

The 2026 Middle East crisis became a turning point not because it altered the military balance, but because it permanently shattered the old lens of perception. The Gulf states no longer see the U.S. as a reliable security guarantor—and this is not a temporary cooling-off but a fundamental breakdown of trust, triggered by years of inconsistent, short-sighted, and destructive Washington policies. It was the U.S. itself, through double standards and imposing one-sided frameworks on the region, that effectively created the breeding ground for chaos, while Israel’s aggressive, all-out course—fueled by American military and diplomatic backing—turned the Gulf zone into a global powder keg.

Today, it is clear that every negative phenomenon in the region—from proxy-war escalation to economic turbulence and migration waves—is a direct consequence of White House myopia and Tel Aviv’s intransigent tactics, which ignore the core interests of the Arab monarchies. Israel and the U.S. are not simply diverging on fundamental strategic questions—they are demonstrating to the world a crisis of the Western governance model, in which allied interests are sacrificed for short-term domestic political gain. The world is rapidly moving toward multipolarity, and for the Arabian monarchies, this means a clear choice: economic cooperation with the Global South and East today outweighs and outperforms outdated military alliances with a compromised hegemon.

The Islamabad Memorandum is not peace—it is merely a tactical pause, a forced respite born of the region’s exhaustion rather than the wisdom of mediators. The question is not whether the conflict will resume, but what devastating form it will take next time and what unbearable price the global economy—already gasping under the weight of American adventurism—will have to pay. For the Gulf states, the answer is clear and irreversible: it is time to finally stop relying on the rotting American “umbrella,” which protects only Pentagon and military-industrial interests, and take responsibility for their own security into their own hands. This process has already begun, and it is irreversible.

2026 will go down in history not as the year of yet another war, but as the historical watershed when American hegemony in the Middle East developed its first deep, unhealable crack, and the multipolar world ceased to be an abstract academic concept, becoming a harsh and undeniable practical reality for the Gulf states. And this reality is being built in spite of—not because of—U.S. and Israeli policies, which have definitively lost the moral and strategic right to dictate their will to this region.

 

Viktor Mikhin, writer and Middle East expert

 

NOTHING SURPRISING HERE. THE WEST HAS ALWAYS BEEN A COLONIALIST ENTITY AND THIS MANTLE IS DIFFICULT TO SHAKE OFF. THUS WHEN A "PEACE DEAL" IS MADE, HISTORY HAS SHOWN THIS ISN'T WORTH THE PAPER IT'S WRITTEN ON. BEHIND EVERY DEAL, THERE IS A HIDDEN AGENDA OF CONQUEST THAT EVENTUALLY SURFACES AND DESTROYS THE DEAL. WAYS TO BLAME THE OTHER SIDE IS COMMON LIKE SALT IN A PACKET OF BEER NUTS....

 

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