New Releases by Russell Lee

"The New Deal and Folk Culture Series. 86 of the 250 photographs taken by Lee for the Farm Security Administration, July 1940. Remarkable portrait of the villagers, village life, adobe construction, handicrafts. Essays on Lee and the villages by Wroth (former curator of Taylor Museum), Charles L. Briggs (Vassar), Alan Fern (National Portrait Gallery).The thoughtfulness and thoroughness that went into the development of this book make it extraordinarily valuable"--Fern Lyon, New Mexico Magazine, from alibris.com.

This thesis explores the impact and importance of public opinion in the American strategic/political planning process. It begins with a discussion of the special role of public opinion in the United STates, how it has changed, and how it effects policymakers. After a general consideration of the uniqueness of that relationship, the role of public opinion in determining the national interest is examined. Two case studies are then presented. The first deals with how a knowledge of existing public opinion on such general areas as support for defense spending could be used by the Executive branch to obtain support for a particular strategic policy, specifically; arms sales to foreign countries. The second case deals with how a complex strategy related to nuclear deterrence (deployment of the MX missile) was apparently adjusted to gain public opinion support. The thesis concludes with a consideration of the implications of the case study findings. (Author).

A brief biography of the photographer followed by his photographs of people and places.

After the evidence closed in US v Sean Combs, each side presented it the jury, each on their down day. On June 26, Day 21 of the trial, Assistant US Attorney Slavik emphasized just how easy it is to convict under RICO: only two of the many predicate acts presented, and both can be in the same category. She presented a menu, from sex trafficking to arson, kidnapping to obstruction, drugs to bribery. On June 27 Comb''s lead counsel Marc Agnifilo said Sean inspired people, that Mia loved him and lied about being raped - as, he said, did Cassie. That he called a love story, telling the jurors they would cry in deliberations if they read, really read, text message before the two. Then he read some raunchy ones, apologizing theatrically to his mother. There remained an insistence on anonymity for Jane and for Mia, despite the defense having played a video with her face unredacted. The threats for reporting on them remained hanging over the trial; it remained unclear if Jane''s lawyer even did submit the hit-list she said she would. Still things were coming to a close; the jurors would have three days to deliberate, even four if they came in on July 3. Inner City Press will publish Week 8 with whatever notes and answers, and with the final verdict. Diddy Do It? Soon the jury will speak.

The first day of the fourth week of Sean Combs trial featured the defense putting up as an exhibit a video of pseudonymous victim-witness "Mia" sending a birthday greeting to Combs. It was shown with Mia''s face entirely visible; it was presented as having been entered into evidence. It was then, and only then, linked to. Then in open court:: Assistant US Attorney: ... media outlet reporting Mia''s true identity. We''ll send that to the Court. It was reported on X yesterday with reference to the birthday video exhibit that was admitted, containing a link to that exhibit online showing that witness''s true identity. THE COURT: I''m happy to hear if there is any step that you''d like the Court to take. AUSA: The government would respectfully request that the Court consider directing that outlet to remove the post and consider whether any further additional steps should be taken, such as barring individuals who break the Court''s order from attending this trial either in this courtroom or in other courtrooms. THE COURT: Do you want to put in a submission along those lines? I''ll certainly consider it. AUSA: Sure, we can. THE COURT: I''ll do that Do what? It has been committed that such a submission has not been / will not be made. And then, voluntary compliance. But this? In the fifth day of the fourth week of Sean Combs'' trial, counsel to pseudonymous witness "Jane" spoke in order court of identifying those seeking to identify here client - in a letter she would submit ex parte to the judge, seeking sanctions without providing any notice or opportunity to be heard. Some were quick to justify this by saying if the outlets were named, it would only amplify them. But at what point does the gap between what is out there, and what is and can be reported from inside, because too wide, a credibility gap? Perhaps we will find out in week five. And that, closing and deliberations. This series will continue.

Sean Combs'' father was shot and killed in Harlem. Sean Combs sold music and clothes and liquor, forced Cassie and Jane and others to have sex with multiple male dancers while he filmed and more. Was it a racketeering conspiracy? The SDNY jury said no. But still the two convictions. So how much time would he get? Inner City Press covered the trial, and now the sentencing. And, if seems sure, the appeal. Here were the motions and sentencing arguments, a voice of Diddy, a voice of Guo. A voice of woe.

The Diddy Trial Begins Sean Combs is dressed up in a sweater and has nine lawyers. Cassie Ventura is eight and a half months pregnant, sitting in the witness box, being asked to read her own text messages setting up freak offs, many with an escort named Jules. Videos are shown to the jurors, who wear headphones, but not to the public or the press. Likewise, both sides lawyers talk about filings to Judge Arun Subramanian that are nowhere to be found in the public docket on PACER. I have been covering the case since the indictment. In fact, I reported the presentment the night before it happened. But now the trial has taken over the courthouse, and both sides of Worth Street out in front of it. It is troubling that there is no other way. I file a challenge to the confidentiality, first by email to the judge and parties, then into the docket. And I live tweet as fast as I can, and respond to as many question as possible. Some other accounts simply steal the tweets; one site spoofs mine and bring Nicki Minaj into the mix. (As I''m requested, I sent out a clarifying tweet, but decline to sue. Have I told you I don''t like lawsuit? Even as I appeal sealing in the OneCoin crypto case to the Second Circuit). After my second book about the Diddy case was blocked on one platform, I moved the second to another platform, which now also has this third, which covers week one. What will come next? Watch Inner City Press.

In the lobby of the Hotel Rotana in Khartoum in Sudan, there was an automated teller machine that spat out US dollars as if you were in Dubai. As a journalist I was part of a UN Security Council mission to Sudan and South Sudan, as well as Chad, Kenya, Ivory Coast, DR Congo - and Rwanda. It was the UN, notoriously corrupt, which told me to violate UN sanctions to pay my part of the hotel bill. Back in Chad, I had cut out without paying the bill at the once grand Hotel Kempinski in N''Djamena, redecorated with artillery shells during a rebel raid on the capital. But the Rotana demanded payment. I violated US sanctions as the UN told me - then wrote about it, then and now. In between, I was thrown out of the UN for my reporting on their failures. When we were in South Sudan, people threw rocks at our caravan of expensive white 4 by 4s. This would happen again when I went on my last trip with the UN, to Haiti, right before Secretary General Antonio Guterres had me thrown out for asking and writing about his murky finances. Now I have been covering the trial against BNP Paribas for its role in enabling genocide in Sudan. Each day I live tweet the testimony, including the bank''s paid experts saying that it did nothing wrong, or that the Janjaweed would have killed Darfuris with or without BNP as the regime''s lone correspondent bank. Then I email questions to the stonewalling spokesperson who has served, in order, Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon and Guterres: Stephane Dujarric. He lives in a penthouse on Manhattan''s Upper East Side, and refuses all of my questions. I post videos of his staged noon briefings during the lunch break of the BNP genocide trial. And I remember back... The UN plane flew over the moonscape of Sudan. I sat in the back row, looking out the window. I was listening to Joy Division on headphones, tuning out the conversation of the UN scribes, so-called Correspondents, in the rows up ahead. On our last trip, to Sri Lanka, they had accused me of undermining their relationship with the UN''s then-humanitarian chief John Holmes. He had briefed us on the UN plane to Colombo, and I''d asked what he did with all the emails from Tamils asking why the UN was letting them be slaughtered. I just delete them, Holmes said. When we got to Colombo and were shuttled to our hotel, I quickly wrote up what he''d said and uploaded it as a story to Inner City Press. The next morning in the lobby, where we were supposed to assemble to be ferried by helicopters up to what had been the war zone, the Bloodbath on the Beach, I was told: John Holmes is looking for you. I went and found him and began to explain when he cut in. "I will never speak to you again," he said. "You never said it was off the record," I reminded him. He shook his head and walked away. Later that day as we were fed a huge Sri Lankan lunch on an air force base from which sorties over the Tamil refugee camps were flown, bombing and strafing civilians, the reporter from Reuters approached me. "You knew it was meant to be off the record," he hissed. I shook my head. The woman from BBC said, "You ruin it for all of us." Indeed. So on this trip to Sudan I sat in the back of the plane. Planning my questions for UNAMID chieftain Ibrahim Gambari, the Pasha of Al Fasher. In New York, Gambari had invited me along these some of these correspondents to an expensive Lebanese dinner - of course paid for by the UN, meaning taxpayers. But when UNAMID whistleblower send me photos of Gambari lounging around his El Fasher palace, even lying on big pillow, Gambari was angry. So too UN Peacekeeping chief Ladsous, when his meeting with indicted war criminals was exposed, as had been Gambari attending the wedding of the daughter of Musa Hilal. Other blasts from the past, as the UAE-armed Rapid Support Forces moved in on El Fasher in 2025: JEM... Mini Minawi. See below - leading to October 17, 2025 verdict over $20 million. Book published on day of verdict, October 17, 2025 Republished Oct 29 after Amazon banned book