Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20240622

Amy as the fbi and nsa demands special access to encrypted communication, a group of leading security technologists warn that government overreach could have devastating consequences. We will speak to security guru bruce schneier, author of data and goliath the hidden battles to capture your data and control your world. Then eric holder goes home to the Corporate Law firm that represents many of the wall street giants he refused to prosecute. We will speak to the Rolling Stone matt taibbi. Then to gaza one year after the launch of the israel assault. We will speak to journalist Mohammed Omer in gaza city. Mohammed i believe gaza will need several years to fix or reconstruct the damages caused by the israeli military. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. European creditors have given greece five days to reach a deal to bail out its floundering economy. On sunday, greek voters overwhelmingly rejected further budget cuts and tax hikes in exchange for the bailout. As greek banks remain closed european leaders have given greece until the end of thursday to present a detailed reform plan ahead of a summit in brussels on sunday. Donald tusk, president of the european council, said this weeks deadline is final. Council president tusk we have only five days to find the agreement. Until now i have avoided talking about deadlines, but tonight i have to say the final deadline ends this week. All of us are responsible for the crisis and all of us have a responsibility to resolve it. Amy iran and world powers have extended talks on a nuclear deal for another few days after missing a selfimposed deadline tuesday. U. S. Officials are still hoping to secure a deal by thursday the last day before a mandatory congressional review period jumps from 30 days to 60 days. The talks have already been extended past a previous deadline of june 30. The white house says a deal is close but differences remain. U. S. Drone strikes have killed up to 49 people in afghanistan. The strikes reportedly took place in an area along the Pakistani Border where the taliban and militants with the selfdescribed Islamic State have been clashing. Local sources put the death toll as high as 49, and said the victims were militants. A spokesperson for the Afghan Spy Agency claimed the secondhighest figure loyal to isil in afghanistan, gul zaman was killed in an airstrike in the area. Meanwhile Afghan Government officials and taliban representatives met in pakistan tuesday, marking the first known talks between the two sides. In kenya, at least 14 people were killed when the militant group alshaabab attacked a residential compound with guns and grenades. The victims were mostly quarry workers who lived in the compound near the somali border. Alshaabab has staged a series of attacks in kenya following kenyas 2011 invasion of somalia. The massacre comes just weeks before president obama is due to visit kenya. Defense secretary ash carter has acknowledged the Obama Administrations program to train and equip moderate Syrian Rebels currently has just 60 vetted candidates. Speaking before the Senate Armed Services committee, carter said the trainees have been subjected to intense screening. Secretary carter we are also in the early stages of our Training Mission in syria. Three months into the Program Training is underway and we are working to screen almost 7000 volunteers to ensure they are committed to fighting isil passe counterintelligence screening and meet requirements required by u. S. Law and necessitated by operations. As of july 3, we are currently training about 60 fighters. The number is much smaller than we had hoped for at this point, partly because of the vetting standards i described. Juan amy amy the Syrian Rebel Training Program cost 500 Million Dollars this year. The South Carolina senate has given final approval to a measure to remove the confederate battle flag from the capitol grounds. The final tally was 36 to three. The vote came 20 days after the massacre of nine africanamerican churchgoers in africanamericans at a Charleston Church by a white suspect who embraced the confederate flag. The wife of South Carolina state senator reverend clementay pinckney visited the Senate Chambers after the measure passed. State senator Gerald Malloy addressed the family. Senator malloy this state love senator pinckney and this state loves you and your girls and the entire pinckney family. We will keep our arms wrapped around you and his family forever. It is the least we can do for our brother and we hope to have you back here soon to hang his portrait so that he will be sharing this spot with us forever. Amy the confederate flags fate now rests with the South Carolina house. Meanwhile activists from charleston and a nephew of massacre victim Myra Thompson are heading to the u. S. Capitol in washington, d. C. , today to press lawmakers to approve legislation on gun control. In the spanish capital madrid, the new leftist city council has announced plans to remove all names relating to former spanish dictator general Francisco Franco from city squares and streets. Despite a 2007 law aimed at replacing symbols of francos decadeslong rule, about 170 madrid streets still bear the names of regime figures. Madrids new mayor, manuel carmena, is a retired judge and former member of spains underground communist party. She worked as a labor lawyer defending workerrights activists detained under franco. In guatemala, governmentbacked experts have declared former dictator Efrain Rios Montt mentally incompetent to stand trial for genocide. The National Institute of Forensic Sciences says rios montt, who is 89, cannot understand the charges against him. The declaration could potentially derail attempts to retry rios montt for overseeing the killings of nearly 2000 ixil mayans under his rule in the 1980s. Rios montt was found guilty in 2013 but a court annuelled his 80year sentence less than two weeks later. Fbi director james comey is set to testify against encryption before the Senate Intelligence committee today. Encryption refers to the scrambling of communications so they cant be intercepted and read without a key or password. The fbi and British Intelligence have been pushing for expanded access to encrypted data. Thirteen of the worlds preeminent cryptographers computer scientists and Security Specialists have issued a letter opposing the push. Well speak with one of them bruce schneier, later in the broadcast. Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and progressive allies have reportedly stalled president obamas plans to nominate a financial regulator with ties to wall street. Politico reports obama was planning to tap corporate attorney keir gumbs to fill a democratic seat on the securities and exchange commission. But activists protested gumbs record, including his work representing the American Petroleum institute before the sec. Gumbs is a partner at the Corporate Law firm covington and burling, the same law firm to which former attorney general eric holder has just returned after leaving the Justice Department. Earlier this year, gumbs and colleagues at the firm wrote a guide advising corporations on how to avoid disclosing their political spending to shareholders. Senator warren wants the sec to require companies to disclose such spending. Protests by her and others have now reportedly delayed gumbs nomination, at least until until august. We will talk more later in the broadcast. At least nine people were arrested tuesday as hundreds took part in a series of direct actions against oil and gas extraction in vermont and upstate new york. Protesters blockaded trucks carrying fracked gas in Addison County vermont, blocked construction and staged a lake flotilla in ticonderoga, new york. Using the slogan not by truck not by rail, not by pipeline, the organizers denounced attempts to make the champlain valley into an oil and gas corridor. The events are part of a week of action marking the second anniversary of the lacmegantic oil train derailment, which killed 47 people in quebec. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced plans to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Police Killings of unarmed civilians. Cuomo said tuesday he will appoint new York Attorney general Eric Schneiderman under a oneyear executive order. The move will make new york the first state to institute an independent prosecutor for Police Killings, a step recommended by president s obamas task force on policing. Cuomos move came the same day mothers of new yorkers killed by police rallied outside his office to accuse him of backtracking on a promise to appoint the special prosecutor if state lawmakers did not take action. Gwen carr, mother of eric garner, who died after a Police Chokehold in staten island, said all cases should be investigated not just those where Police Acknowledge the victim was unarmed. She also urged Governor Cuomo to appoint the special prosecutor for more than one year. Gwen we want justice for all not just for one. Not just one year. It would be renewed after one year. It would not be just for unarmed killings. We know how things go. Sometimes they will say the person was arms and the person was not armed. We have seen South Carolina, different cases. Thank god for the videotape. Amy gwen carr, mother of eric garner, who died almost exactly one year ago, on july 17, after police pulled eric garner to the ground in a chokehold and piled on top of him while he said i cant breathe 11 times. A grand jury declined to indict the officer who used the chokehold, daniel pantaleo. The prosecutor was recently elected to congress. The incident was caught on video by ramsey orta, who has been arrested repeatedly since garners death, alleging police harassment. New york city is announcing a plan today to end cash bail payments for thousands of people accused of lowlevel or nonviolent crimes. The city has faced calls for reform after a mentally ill homeless man died in a sweltering cell at Rikers Island jail because he couldnt make a 2500 dollar bail payment. Protests increased after the suicide of 22yearold kalief browder, who spent three years at rikers as a teenager, after he was accused of stealing a backpack and couldnt pay 3000 bail. He denied he committed the crime and was eventually released without charge. The plan described by the Associated Press ahead of todays announcement will replace bail for lowlevel suspects with daily checkins and text message reminders. And new york city will hold a ticker tape parade for the u. S. Womens National Soccer team for their world cup victory, a rare honor for a team not based in new york. Manhattan borough president gale brewer had urged mayor bill de blasio to hold the parade, writing quote new york city has a strong history of honoring sports achievements. But has never held a parade to honor a womens team. Our newest soccer champions represent an opportunity for new york to recognize that heroes and role models come in all genders, she wrote. The last time new york city honored a group of National Athletes was in and those are 1984. Some of the headlines this is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan and i am want gonzales. Welcome to our listeners and viewers around the country and the world. We turn now to the latest sign of the revolving door between wall street and washington. We see that eric holder is returning home to covington and burling, where he worked for eight years before coming becoming head of the Justice Department. During his time, clients included ubs and the fruit giant chiquita. The list included many of the big banks that the Justice Department failed to criminally prosecute for their role in the financial crisis, including bank of america, jp morgan chase, and citigroup. Amy in a new interview with the National Law Journal holder said it might mean that certain institutions would not work with him, and that is fine. However, in 2013 he suggested some banks are too big to jail. Attorney general holder i am concerned that the size becomes too large that it does become hard to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy. I think that is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large. Im not talking about hsbc. It is more of a general comment. It has an inhibiting impact on our ability to bring resolutions that i think would be more appropriate. Well amy well for more we , are joined by matt taibbi, awardwinning journalist with Rolling Stone magazine, who writes about holders time at covington and burling, and much more, in his book, the divide american injustice in the age of the wealth gap is now out in paperback. You were tweeting up a storm yesterday. Talk about the significance of this. Matt this is the biggest example of the revolving door we have had. We have had some whoppers in the past. Previously, the louisiana congressman leaving congress and taking a 2 million year job with pharma after he helped to pass the Prescription Drug benefit bill. What holder did blows that away spending six years guiding these wall street firms, many of whom are clients of the company is working for. He guided them to profitability allow bankers to escape prosecution, and now he will go back to the firm and enjoy lucrative partnership, whether he ever works again for the rest of his life. Juan holder became a point person for these extrajudicial settlements. Can you explain what they were and how they worked . Matt holder pioneered ways these banks were able to buy their way out of trouble and one of the most notorious was that he included ways that were not reviewed by a judge. We did have instances where pesky judges i think one of the most infamous was Jed Ray Croft who throughout a settlement with citigroup because he thought it was not harsh enough. To fix the problem, holder started striking deals had not submitting them for judicial review. He did a settlement with j. P. Morgan chase were no judge signed off. It was done in secret. He institutionalized the back room. It was bankers with justice officials, money changed hands and that was it. All of the criminal charges went away. It is very dangerous. Juan he also took the term Collateral Damage into the financial world, out of the military world. Matt he actually predated the Collateral Damage idea back when he was a lawyer in the clinton Justice Department. He wrote a memo now known as the holder memo where he outlined the policy known as collateral consequences and basically all it says is if you are a prosecutor and you are worried about prosecuting a company that employs a lot of people and you are concerned that innocent people might suffer as a result of a prosecution, you may pursue noncriminal remedies when you go after that country company. The problem is when he became general, the economic landscape had these enormous, too big to fail companies and there was a real threat that if you prosecuted the firms it might cause a serious damage to the overall economy. You saw what happened with lehman brothers, for instance. This became the unofficial policy of the United States. We started taking companies that had done very bad things hsbc is the biggest example laundering money for war drug dealers, money for drug dealers we got the banks to pony up a big find that shareholders paid and they got to stay in business. Amy as you were tweeting your criticism, a lot of obama supporters were pushing the line that holder did not send anyone to jail because no laws were broken. Matt this comes directly from something barack obama said on 60 minutes once. He said some of the worst behavior, the least ethical behavior was not illegal. He corrected the phrase. He did not say all of it. He said some of that worst behavior, and that is true, but some of it was very illegal. To the worst cases, hsbc admitted to laundering 880 billion for a pair of south American Drug cartels, including a cartel infamous all over the world for torture videos. We have hsbc, europes largest bank washing hundreds of millions of dollars for people who chop peoples heads off with chainsaws. That is a crime. Anyone who thinks that holder did not send anyone to jail because they did not commit crimes is not paying attention to what went on at this time. Amy also at covington and burling, eric holder will be reunited with lenny brewer. Explain the significance. Matt lenny brewer went to be his deputy. From the sources i have spoken to he was terrified of going to court when he did not have been have an absolute victory. What happened early in their tenure together was they took one case to trial, went to trial against a pair of guys from bear stearns who were accused of defrauding clients, and they lost. It ended in an acquittal. From that point forward, they did not take anyone to court. In all of these cases they went the settlement route instead presumably because they were afraid of going into a courtroom. They were worried juries do not understand the material, that it was too complicated, so rather than risk losing, getting a bad headline, they let off all of these people that had done bad things, so we had this legacy of cash instead of punishment. Juan can you talk about how the composition of these agencies has been changed since holder has been there . Matt this is something i hear over and over again. A certain kind of person who used to work in the regulatory agencies, a career civil servant, the Law Enforcement types they grew up through the ranks just trying to get the criminal at all costs, primarily motivated by trying to extract justice from wrongdoers that kind of person is gradually disappearing from the ranks of the regulatory bodies and they are being replaced, increasingly, particularly at the higher levels, but people from the corporate Defense Community and holder was very profoundly a symbol of that kind of person, and the difference was when you have people that come from the corporate defense world like holder, lenny brewer, they tend to approach the settlements not to get a pound of flesh out of wrongdoers, but instead they want to emerge with a settlement that leads everybody happy when they walk out of the room, but that is not really a good approach to fighting crime. That is not the kind of attitude you want in your top crimefighter in the country. As a result, that is why we got so many of the settlements, which, again, were concluded in secret in the bedroom back room, and people like jamie dimon were walking out saying this is not so bad and their share prices would go of the day after it was concluded. That is not what we want from the top cop in the country. Amy this goes to the central theme of your book. Attorney general eric holder was held as a great civil rights hero. After ferguson, he actually went to ferguson. I was in the soma church when he gave a powerful speech about young, black men. His own son, eric holder the. , in the third in his front row. It reminds me of reverend barber, of the naacp, after dylan strong dylan roof was arrested he said the perpetrator has been arrested, but the killer is at large and he was talking about the system beyond the cap had a red flag, where it represents the confederate flag, what it represents, mass incarceration. On the one hand, a crusader, but when it comes to issues of who gets put in prison, who remains free talk about where eric holder has stood. Matt to be fair, eric holder has talked a lot about reform of prison sentencing and according to their statistics incarceration has actually declined under the Obama Administration in the first time in i do not know how many years forever, but still, we have these enormous problems that you report on on this show people in jail not just for months, but years at a time because they cannot afford bail. We have millions of people behind bars for crimes that are far less serious than what, for example, a just bc was doing. The chief problem with what eric holder did is all of these people are in jail for crimes because it is easy to put away people who do not have enough money to defend themselves cannot pay enormous fines. Those are the people that go behind bars for money laundering, whatever it is. But you have this rationale for hsbc, credit suisse, bnp paribas that are caught doing tax evasion, money fraud, whatever it is somehow this class of defendants, we can allow them to pay their way out of trouble while his other group of people has to go behind bars. We cannot have that. That system is inappropriate. As much as eric holder wants to hold himself up as a civil rights leader, and has been good things does dichotomy is a huge problem. Juan and the issue of him returning to covington and burling, can you talk about its role in the washington scene and also what are the limitations on appointed officials in terms of what they leave once they leave office what they can and can not do, and in the Obama Administration put restrictions on their employees . Matt there is a twoyear coolingoff period, they call it meaning they have to wait two years before they can interact with the Justice Department again. Im sure he will sit and be compensated during that time. Juan advise the lawyers that do direct interaction. Matt exactly. They will figure out a way where it is superficially legal. Covington and berlin it is one of the biggest whitecollar defense firms in america. It is notable because it has such a lengthy list of too big to fail banks among its clientele and interestingly played an Important Role in helping to create the subprime mortgage crisis because it represented a Company Called mers them of the electronic mortgage registry system, which helped to create a lot of the confusion and chaos in the paperwork area of the mortgage system. All of these people trying to find out who owns their home and cannot find the note, a lot of that was chalked up to the work they did to eliminate paper mortgages. They had an enormous role in helping to create the subprime mortgage market. Eric holder is the regular for all of that activity as the attorney general. It was a little weird to say the least. Amy can you talk about keir gu mbs, the man senator warren has been protesting. Matt they will put him on the fcc commissioner presumably, and kevin king and Burling Covington and burling is becoming a shadow Justice Department. We have six alums from the Justice Department that returned and now they are sending another person to the Justice Department to occupy a ranking seat in the sec. It is problematic when you have so many people from the same firm talking to each other. It is this secretary club. What happens when these people have this congenial relationship, they end up making deals that are much more favorable to clients than they would be otherwise. Juan maybe they can regulate the Goldman Sachs alums in other agencies. Amy the significance of keir gumbs coming from covington and burling, and also representing American Petroleum. He and others advising organizations on how to avoid political spent exposing political spending to shareholders. Senator warren wanting the sec to require companies to expose that kind of spending. The question is will president obama respond to senator warrens pressure. Matt probably not. It says a lot that this is the kind of person they will be bringing to the sec. People do not want a corporate defense attorney who has spent however many years to telling comping how to avoid punishment, taxes. I would much prefer to have a career investigator in that job. Amy we want to thank you, matt taibbi, awardwinning journalist with Rolling Stone magazine. His most recent book the divide american injustice in the age of the wealth gap, is now out in paperback. This is democracy now. When we come back, we had across the pond to london to security google bruce schneider. Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan we turn now to a major push by the u. S. And britain to allow Law Enforcement agencies to unlock encrypted digital messages. Encryption refers to the scrambling of data sent for example via your phone or applications like facebook so it cannot be read without the correct key or password. The fbi and ghcq have said they need exceptional access to encrypted communications in order to track criminals and stop them from acting. More recently theyve said new Encryption Technologies will prevent them from monitoring the communications of terrorists. Amy but in a paper released tuesday, thirteen of the worlds preeminent cryptographers computer scientists and Security Specialists argued there is no way to allow the government such access without endangering all confidential data, as well as the broader communications infrastructure. Today, fbi director james comey is set to testify against encryption before the Senate Intelligence committee. In a blog post monday, comey wrote quote the current isil threat involves isil operators in syria recruiting and tasking dozens of troubled americans to kill people, a process that increasingly takes part through mobile messaging apps that are endtoend encrypted communications that may not be intercepted, despite judicial orders under the fourth amendment. This is comey speaking about encryption last october. Director comey we see more and more where we cannot crack the password, and this becomes the norm suspects will walk free chavez petition will not be discovered and prosecutor justice may be denied because of an encrypted device. Juan meanwhile, a federal courts report on wiretapping in 2014 published last week found that Law Enforcement personnel at the state and federal level were only hindered by encryption on four wiretaps all year. Amy for more we go to london where we are joined by bruce schneier, a security technologist and author of data and goliath the hidden battles to collect your data and control your world. He is one of the coauthors of the paper released yesterday by encryption experts called keys under doormats mandating insecurity by requiring government access to all data and communications. Hes also a fellow at harvards Berkman Center for internet and society and a board member of the Electronic Frontier foundation. Welcome back to democracy now a major paper that you all have just released talk about the significance of what the u. S. And britain are demanding right now and why you can it such a threat. Bruce it is extraordinary that governments, free governments are demanding that security be weekend because government light want to have access might want to have access. Its the kind of thing we see out of russia, china, syria, but to see it in western countries is extraordinary. As technologist, we say trying to do this would be damaging. You talked about comey talking before the senate. We want to inform the debate and that is why we report wrote the report. Juan why do you say it will be damaging . Bruce because what comey wants is encryption he can break with a court order, but i cannot design a computer that operates differently when a secret certain piece of paper is nearby. If i make a system that can be broken, it can be broken by anyone, not just the fbi, so his requirement for access gives criminals access, the Chinese Government access. We need encryption for security for many more reasons and he wants to break it. Trying to break it just makes it week. We all have less security because of that. Amy i want to go back to fbi director james comey speaking in october when he warned against smartphone encryption. Director comey encryption is nothing new, but recent default in the name of increased security and privacy with the apple operating system, for example, the information stored on many iphones and many apple devices will be encrypted by default. Shortly after apples announcement, google announced plans to follow suit with its android operating system. This means the companies themselves will not be able to unlock phones, laptops, tablets to reveal photos, documents emails, stored text or recordings. Amy that is fbi director james comey. Your response. Bruce he said that, but when we hear these arguments we do not get examples. We found that it was only in four cases. Comey is not able to give examples of iphones being encrypted. He gave some examples that were refuted. We get scare stories, but we do not get credible evidence this is hindering Law Enforcement. It turns out we have a lot of that at that is not encrypted and cannot be encrypted. Facebook, email, conversations location data on our cell phone this is the golden age of surveillance and a lot of the stuff could be used against us. Remember apple took photos from servers that were leaked, rising photos of celebrities. This is how the data is being stored. The fact that some stuff is being put on phones communication is secure that is not a hindrance to him. He says it is, but they are scare stories. We heard this before. In the mid1990s we have the same debate and most of us released a report in the mid1990s saying the same thing. Here we are 20 years later, and there has not been a problem. I do not see a problem, and i am afraid the solution is damaging. Juan it seems to be more damaging to the issue of a potential isolated group of terrorists being able to take advantage of the incident and not all of the companies that are on a daily basis being breached in one way or another. Consumers are going crazy with private information being grabbed by all kinds of other folks that are able to penetrate systems so that the emphasis, it seems, should be on more encryption, more protection for consumers on the internet, and not the government being able to access everything. Bruce and that is exactly right or we are concerned about criminals, chinese nationals the security of our data, and encryption is a valuable tool. To deliver the week and that at the behest of the fbi or the u. K. Government we can that weaken that at the behest of the fbi or the u. K. Government makes us more at risk. Juan what is David Cameron proposing for the United Kingdom . Bruce he is proposing something even more extreme, that secure encryption should be illegal. That would be incredibly damaging, and it is also unworkable. If he has to make that so, he has to seize my computer laptop when i enter the country. He will not do that. That will destroy tourism. The noise here is more extreme it should be a crime to ensure in scripture. I think issue be the option that not using it should be liable. Amy can you talk about the backdoors that exist especially for completely lay audiences around the world what we should be concerned about now, and also what the u. S. And britain are considering what comey will be testifying about today . Bruce it is an interesting question. While encryption is powerful and strong, Computer Security is very weak. We do not know how to build secure computers. I can protecting corruption of your phone, but i cannot stop someone from hacking into it. If you look at what the nsa does, the Chinese Government does, what criminals do, they hack into devices and this is something we are very much at risk at. The big breaches are not breaches of encryption. They are hacking. We know the fbi does hacking. A lot of us believe lawful hacking is the solution comey tos problem to comeys problem. It is something we cannot really prevent, and it gives you, the fbi, the excess you need and that is both a problem and a solution. We need to get better at it. The breaches you are seeing show how bad it is, whether it is the office of Personnel Management target, home depot, any bank these are breaches of Computer Security from these flaws. Juan i wanted to ask about one of those. Leaked documents showing italybased Spyware Company known as a hacking team were selling software to governments around the world, allowing users to seize control of another persons computer and customers include the fbi, the Drug Enforcement administration, the u. S. Army, and foreign governments including ethiopia, saudi arabia and bahrain. They were published to the companys twitter feed following a bridge. Bruce this is an amazing story. Hacking team is a company that sells to the u. S. Government and oppressive regimes all over the world. Hacking team has been responsible for people dying. I have no doubt about that. What happened is some hacker decided to publish all of the documents. We learned some extraordinary things, like the company has secret access into the product it solds to all of these countries. Hacking team has to satisfy customers with hit squads. This is going to be bad. The company that i believe has behaved immorally. I am happy to see them on the road here. Amy i wanted to ask you about edward snowden. The person youre talking about in the last segment, attorney general eric holder, interestingly, after he stepped down, he recently said he thinks the possibility exists for the Justice Department to cut a deal with nsa whistleblower edward snowden, allowing him to return to United States. I wanted to get your response to that and also how Edward Snowdens revelations, now in political asylum in russia, have inform your work, bruce. Bruce the data snowden revealed has been nothing short of amazing. We learned a lot about how the nsa works the justification behind what they do, the things they do, and by extension, what other countries do as well. The nsa is not made of ajit. These are the same things that magic. In the same things that other countries do. We are learning a lot about nation state surveillance. That teaches us how to make things more secure. At the same time we had this great political debate in the United States about what are the limits of u. S. Surveillance . There has been less of a debate in the u. K. , but there has been some as well. Snowden has done two things in my perspective showing citizens with the government has done in their name and technologists with the capabilities of attack are so we can build better defensive capabilities. Amy d think he should be allowed to come back into the United States and live as a free man . Bruce i certainly think he should but that is very much a political decision. I may technologist. The emotions are very raw intelligence community. He did betray them. I do not know how many years have to pass before it does not sting anymore, how many people have to retire. I think would be great if he returned as a free man, but i do not know. Amy bruce, we want to thank you very much for joining us. Bruce schneier is a security technologist and author of data and goliath the hidden battles to collect your data and control your world. One of a group of 14 preeminent technologists in the world to a published a paper on what the u. S. And british governments want to do about encryption. When we come back, we are going to gaza city. It is the First Anniversary of the Israeli Attack on gaza. Stay with us. [music break] amy m. I. A. This is democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan we turn now to gaza which remains in a state of crisis one year after the launch of israels 50day war. It was the third war in gaza in six years. 2,200 palestinians, including 550 children died. On the israeli side, 73 people were killed, all but six of them soldiers. The attack destroyed 12,000 homes in gaza. Another 100,000 were damaged. None of the destroyed homes have been rebuilt so far in part due to the ongoing israeli blockade. Channel 4 news in britain has just posted drone footage showing how much of gaza is still in ruins. A recent United Nations report found quote serious violations of International Humanitarian law which may amount to war crimes by both Israeli Forces and Palestinian Militants during the assault. Amy the world bank is warning the gaza economy is on the verge of collapse. Overall unemployment now stands at 43 the highest in the world. 68 of gazans aged between 20 and 24 are unemployed. Twothirds of gaza 1. 8 million residents are now recipients of un aid in one form or another. To mark the anniversary of the war, unicef has just released video featuring a 12yearold girl named malak who survived last years attack. Malak the doors are gone, the windows are gone the walls it is if we are living on the street. It has been a year since the war and there is still not enough water, not enough electricity. We will stay here because we have nowhere to go. I have nightmares every night. It was not like that before the war. I want to become an engineer so that i can rebuild peoples homes, our house, our neighbors house so i can help people and they can be safe. Amy we go now to gaza city where we are joined by palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer. He is author of the new book shell shocked on the ground under israels gaza assault. He is a past winner of the Martha Gellhorn prize for journalism. It is great to have you with us. Talk about this First Anniversary of the assaults where does gaza stand today where you are standing . Mohammed thank you, amy. Well, in gaza, today we mark the First Anniversary of the war. Last summer, the 51day war that resulted in the killing of 2250 palestinians, the majority of which were civilians. Palestine is still in the same situation. The only thing we do not have really is f16s overhead and israeli drones flying overhead, but we still have a lot of things closed as a result of the war and nothing has been fixed. Not one single home has been built after the war. People are still struggling to get back to their lives. To where i was just yesterday talking to people, they are still living in ruins. Some are still living in prefabricated houses and nothing has changed on the ground. International Community Support for the people of gaza is close to nonexistent, unfortunately. The people of gaza are hoping there will be some moves by a Palestinian Authority to take israel into the International Criminal court. We do not know this will if this will be happening anytime soon. The experience is quite strong today, i would say, despite the fact they are now morning the fact those that are lost, and they are numbering the days of the war and the agony they lived during the month of ramadan just last year, when israel bombed the gaza strip for 51 days. Juan why has there been no rebuilding taking place . What has been the optical . Mohammed the United Nations has installed a reconstruction of gaza mechanism and it is not working properly. The only thing we get is a few bags of cement for people to build their homes, but only people that have had partial homes destroyed that could fix the damages, that is not enough. For example, if someone had lost a [indiscernible] and he wanted to fix that, he can only use a few bags of cement and gravel. There are so many shortages of supplies, Construction Materials that israel is not allowing it to the gaza strip therefore slowing the process of gaza reconstruction. It is not only that. Also a distribution. Pete aide distribution. People are still living in dire conditions, particularly in the east part of gaza city is in the gaza strip where people are living on the ruins of demolished homes were prefabricated homes. The International Community has failed to deliver aid failed to convince israel to allow Construction Materials into the gaza strip. There have been some materials that have gotten in to the gaza strip. The people that have no means to build their homes, they end up selling cement in the black market because they want to survive because they find it is more important that they get some food on the table and not necessarily a shelter over the head. Amy Mohammed Omer, if the crew can give you a hand microphone the wind is hitting your microphone, making it hard to hear what you are saying. I wanted to ask you about where you are living. Your reports last year were chilling. Are you continuing to live in gaza . Mohammed yes. I am continuing to live in gaza. Gaza is my home. I will say i do not have anywhere else i want to go, even though i am lucky enough to have dutch nationality, i could be living outside, but i am pleased to be here to tell my story and the story of the people in gaza. People tell their story in an honest way. I do not [indiscernible] there is a lot of beautiful things in gaza that we need to focus on. It is something i am very proud of. It is something that i find extremely important [indiscernible] especially seen the life of people in gaza and how much they are suffering. They are living under very good circumstances despite all of the obstacles because they have enough not to get into the depression around them. Juan i wanted to ask about the u. N. Aid organization gaza. The director is leaving and he said about his tenure in gaza Housing Construction could begin soon. Finally, they announced a technical issues related to total reconstruction could be resolved. There is a residential stream that would allow for the reconstruction of homes. We submitted the next batch of Refugee Families that had been identified. They were approved yesterday. We are signing undertakings and trying to put money in their pockets next week. Juan that was Robert Turner who is leaving as the director of the u. N. Refugee Aid Organization in gaza. Your response . Mohammed i do not know what we are expecting from the International Committee. I have Great Respect for mr. Turney turner. Gaza is still living under the most difficult circumstances. As i said, the International Community is not able to convince israel. One year we received a lot of promises that people would be receiving Construction Materials into the gaza strip, but so far people are fed up. Why the promise coming now after a year, a year after the instruction of gaza, the war and the damages caused. People have survived a very dreadful winter in different parts of the gaza strip simply because they do not have proper housing. Have we seen what happened in zaire and areas that sustain several rockets and missiles did we see how much the children suffered . Why did International Committee allow people to survive that long and now we are saying israel will be improving this. People on the ground not trust israel will improve the situation at all. I do not see this will be changing unless there is more International Pressure on israel to allow Construction Materials into the gaza strip. The u. N. Mechanism, is unfortunately failing to deliver what is needed because the u. N. Is simply not able to convince israel of the importance of rebuilding the gaza. One palestinians have no hope, i have no homes, what do you expect . Amy we only have one minute and i wanted to ask about the Islamic State saying they are going to take over gaza. How real is this . Mohammed it is not real. Many people believe hamas is much stronger on the ground in the Islamic State. They have informed me that those people have a cycle of distress and they are people that do not know what theyre talking about people not necessarily able to transit with a headset on the ground. I believe hamas is stronger on the ground. I believe also that the environment in gaza will not allow an Islamic State like a group to spread in the gaza strip. People do not want this mentality in the gaza strip. We have seen that. People supporting the Islamic State have received resistance from people. This is something which i doubt is going to be happening anytime soon. Amy we have to leave it there. Thank you very much for being with us, awardwinning palestinian journalist reporting in the gaza strip. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ] ay well lose half of the worlds biological diversity. The most dire numbers, i think, are on the timescale of about 35 years. Do we know enough about whats going on to be scared by it . My answer as a scientist ishell yes i do not think we in any way should feel complacent that we are not on the list