Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20151119

Paris attacks killed in police raid on a paris apartment that resulted in eight arrest in two deaths. His remains were just identified. Meanwhile, french lawmakers are debating a proposal to extend the state of emergency. The measure would grant president hollande a sweeping extension of state powers, including easing police raids without a warrant and allowing the government to strip citizenship from dual passport holders convicted of terrorism. Well get reaction from Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist Glenn Greenwald. Well also discuss what hes called the cias exploitation of the paris attack after cia director john brennan said revelations about mass spying have made it harder to find terrorists. In the past several years because of a number of unauthorized disclosures and a lot of handwringing over the governments role in the effort to try to uncover these terrorists, there have been some policy and legal and other actions that are taken that make our ability collectively, internationally, to find these terrorists much more challenging. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In france, the authority said the alleged mastermind behind last weeks paris attacks has been killed. And belgianlhamid, National Committee said to have died in the police raid wednesday on an apartment in the paris suburb of st. Denis. It sparked intense shootout and one other death, a female suicide bomber, who detonated an explosive vest. At least seven people were detained, some say eight. The news comes as Belgian Police conduct raids across brussels in the hunt for paris attack suspects. Belgium says the raids are targeting people who may be connected to one of the alleged suicide bombers involved in fridays attack on Frances National stadium. This comes as the French National assembly has voted to approve president hollande plan to extend the state of emergency by three months and to grant hollande sweeping powers including easing police raids without a warrant and allowing the government to strip citizenship from dual passport holders convicted of terrorism. The French Senate is slated to vote on friday. French authorities have also announced they have canceled the november 29 march the day before the opening of the u. N. Climate summit due to the heightened security situation. As many as 200,000 people were expected to attend. In response, french campaigner of 350. Org said the government cant prohibit boost immense rations, but our voices will not be silenced. While this makes it difficult to go forward with our original plans, we will still find ways for people in paris to make the call for Climate Justice heard. A young muslim woman wearing a headscarf was punched and stabbed by a man as she exited a metro station in central marseille on wednesday. She said the attacker accused her of being a terrorist before stabbing her in her chest with a box cutter. A jewish man was also stabbed in marseille yesterday. Members of isil published a photo in their online magazine wednesday, which they say shows the bomb that brought down the russian plane over the Sinai Peninsula in egypt last month, killing all 224 people on board. This comes one day after russian authorities confirmed a bomb brought down a plane. An accompanying article in the magazine said the bombing was punishment for russias airstrikes in syria. Republican president ial candidate jeb bush has proposed deploying u. S. Ground troops to fight the socalled Islamic State. Speaking at a Military College in south carolina, bush called for a nofly zone over syria, arming Kurdish Forces and , increasing troop presence on the ground. United states should not delay in leading a Global Coalition to take out isis with overwhelming force. Of french president hollande to make clear, the United States will not be alone and galvanizing this global effort. Militarily, we need to intensify our efforts in the air and on the ground. While air power is essential, it cannot bring the results we seek. The United States, in conjunction with our nato allies, and more error partners, will need to increase our presence on the ground. Amy the house is scheduled to vote on legislation introduced by republican lawmakers to restrict refugees coming from iraq and syria from resettling in the United States. The republican measures would require individual sign offs by top federal officials for every person from iraq and syria seeking refugee status. President obama has vowed to veto the legislation if it reaches his desk. This comes as a family of Syrian Refugees who spent three years living in a camp in jordan as they waited placement in the United States were rerouted from indiana and were instead resettled in connecticut wednesday. Indiana is one of more than two dozen states where the governors have said they do not want Syrian Refugees resettled. Meanwhile, mayor david bowers of roanoke, virginia, has sparked outrage after he cited the widespread internment of japaneseamericans during world war ii in order to justify suspending the resettlement of Syrian Refugees to his city. He wrote in a statement im reminded that Frank Wendy Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese Foreign nationals after the bombing of pearl harbor and it appears the threat of harm to america from isis now is just as real in syria as that from our enemies then. Was government has issued a formal apology and paid reparations to some of the more 120,000 japaneseamericans who were illegally interned, two thirds of them were u. S. Citizens. In response, japaneseamerican actor george takei, best known for his role as hikaru sulu on the Television Series star trek wrote my family and i spent 4 years in prison camps because we happened to look like the people who bombed pearl harbor. It is my lifes mission to never let such a thing happen again in america. Tens of thousands of students at dozens of universities across the United States protested wednesday against racism on campus in a day of action called studentblackout. The campuses included Yale University harvard university, Dixie State University in utah, the university of california berkeley, tufts university, and stanford where students held black balloons, which organizers said symbolize the weight and burden of being voiceless. The day of action was called for by the black liberation collective, which issued a series of demands ahead of the mobilizations, including reparations in the form of free tuition for black and Indigenous Students and school divestment , from forprofit prison companies. Each University Also issued a local set of demands, which range from increased funding for Health Services for students of color to renaming campus buildings commemorating leading proponents of slavery such as residential dorm Calhoun College at Yale University, named after Vice President john calhoun, one of the most prominent proslavery figures in history. At Princeton University in new jersey, student occupied the president s office, demanding cultural competency training for all staff, that the university rename buildings named after woodrow wilson, and that there be a cultural Space Dedicated specifically for black students. Inside the president s office, princeton students recalled how profits from the slave trade helped build the university itself. [chanting] amy in minneapolis, swat teams fired mace and marker rounds at protesters encamped outside the 4th precinct wednesday, only hours after officials named the two Minneapolis Police officers involved in the Fatal Shooting of unarmed 24yearold African American jamar clark. Authorities said clark was shot in the head sunday after a scuffle with officers who responded to a report of an assault. But multiple witnesses have said clark was shot while handcuffed. Minneapolis Police Officers Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze have been placed on administrative leave during the investigation. As of thursday morning, protesters were still camped outside the north minneapolis precinct, despite wednesdays police raid in which multiple protesters reported being beaten by police with batons and attacked with mace. Meanwhile, in chicago, a trove newly released data about the Chicago Police department shows only a fraction of the tens of thousands of civilian complaints of Police Misconduct since 2011 have resulted in discipline against the officers. In one case, a white officer accumulated 68 complaints against him but received no disciplinary actions. In total, the data shows in 97 of the cases of complaints filed over the last four years, officers received no punishment whatsoever. The documents were released after a decadelong legal battle by the nonprofit journalism the invisible institute, and the legal aid clinic at the university of chicago law school. In nigeria, two suicide bomb attacks killed as many as 15 people in a market in the Northern City of kano wednesday, less than 24 hours after another suicide bomb killed more than 30 people at a crowded market in the northeastern city of yola. Authorities say the militant Group Boko Haram is likely responsible. This comes as a new report released this week says boko haram was responsible for more attacks than any other socalled nonstate military group, including isil. In detroit, nine activists headed to a jury trial wednesday on charges of blocking trucks from shutting off residents water during the summer of 2014, when the citys wave of shutoffs left tens of thousands of families. The United Nations has condemned the ongoing water shutoffs as a violation of International Human rights law. Defendant Marian Kramer of Michigan Welfare Rights Organization spoke out before the opening of the trial. How would you like for your children drink some water early in the morning and end up with lead poisoning . How would you like turning your fossett on and dont have the ability to be able to watch herself up or anything like that . That is our basic human right and were here to defend that. In the prosecutor keeps talking about how she represents the people. She doesnt represent the people, she is representing the interests of the corporations. Amy in gary, indiana, the forprofit Prison Company geo group has dropped plans to build an 800bed immigration detention facility after widespread resistance from the group the northwest Indiana Federation and black lives matter northwest indianagary. On tuesday, Gary City Council members applauded when they heard geo group had withdrawn its zoning request to build the facility. And today is the 100th anniversary of the execution of legendary labor activist and songwriter joe hill. Born in sweden on october 7, 1879, hill moved to the United States and worked as a miner. He became a Union Activist for the Industrial Workers of the world. His famous songs include, there is power in a union, rebel girl, and casey jonesthe union scab. Hill was executed by a utah firing squad on november 19, 1915, after being convicted of murder in a controversial trial. It is widely believed he was framed for the murders because of his labor activism. On tuesday, legendary musician joan baez paid tribute to joe hill in a concert at the troubadour in west hollywood, california. Joe hill amy and those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Nermeen welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. French Authorities Say the alleged mastermind behind last weeks paris attacks has been killed stuff abaaoud abdelhamid, a belgian national, is said to have died in wednesdays police raid on an apartment in the paris suburb of st. Denis. It sparked an intense shootout and one other death. A female suicide bomber who detonated an explosive vest. Police say they confirmed abaaoud abdelhamids death through friends of tests on his remains. The news comes as Belgian Police conduct raids across brussels in the hunt for paris attack suspects. Belgium says the raids are targeting people who may be connected to one of the alleged suicide bombers involved in fridays attack on Frances National stadium. As the manhunts unfold, the governments of france and belgium are each pushing a major expansion of state power in the attacks aftermath. Trench lawmakers have begun debating president hollande proposal to extend the state of emergency by three months. Holland is also seeking the authority to allow police raids without a warrant and district citizenship from dual passport holders convicted of terrorism. Amy in belgium, the Prime Minister has asked her limit to approve a sweeping security bill that would double the antiterrorism budget, troubled the allow Detention Time without charge to 72 hours, and grant authorities the power to shut down mosques that preach messages deemed by the government to be hate speech. Here in the u. S. , top officials have seized on the paris attacks to defend mass surveillance and to dismiss those who challenge it. Speaking at a Cybersecurity Conference wednesday, fbi director james comey said intelligence and Law Enforcement officials need to have access to encrypted information on smartphones. Nearly all of the information we need to be effective sits on the private sectors infrastructure, which is a great thing, a wonderful thing that the internet is in private hands in the u. S. Within these resides private sector, so we are going to be good at what we do, we have to cooperate better. In the absence of effective cooperation, were left and on forstmann like Police Officers patrolling a street with 50 foot high walls on either side. Amy his comments come just no apparent evidence that the paris attackers used encryption. Meanwhile, others have used the paris attacks to criticize nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden. In recent days, cia director john brennan suggested revelations about mass buying have made it harder to find terrorists. While James Woolsey has said snowden has blood on his hands. For more were joined by Glenn Greenwald, Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist. Start it is great to have you with us from brazil. Lets start with how we know what we know took place in paris. The Media Coverage of the horrific attacks on friday the 13th. There are things we dont know, including much of which the media has simply tacitly assumed in order to mindlessly propagate what the cia and other agencies in the u. S. Government want people to believe. For instance, one thing we do not know at all is how the people who perpetrated the attack actually communicated with one another. We dont know whether they used the internet at all as opposed to simply meeting facetoface, given that some of them were siblings and others were from the same neighborhoods in belgium and france. We definitely dont know whether they used encryption. And we really dont even know the extent to which they actually took direction from or received funding for arms from isis in syria. And so there has been assault Propaganda Campaign to try and demonize encryption, demonize the Silicon Valley companies that have been providing it such as apple, google, facebook, and of course, demonize Edward Snowden and the journalists who worked with him for supposedly teaching terrorists have used encryption. There are so many reasons why that claim is deceitful and false, and we can talk about those, but one of the most glaring omissions from the entire discussion is that nobody even has any idea whether the terrorist in this attack used encryption at all. It shows you the extent to which propaganda is so easily circulated by the u. S. Media in the wake of an attack. Nermeen earlier this week, cia director john brennan invoked the paris attacks to defend mass surveillance. In apparent reference to disclosures by nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden, brennan suggested revelations about mass spying have made it harder to find terrorists. In the past several years because of a cut number of unauthorized disclosures and a line of handwringing over the governments role in the effort to uncover these terrorists, there has been some policy and legal and other actions that are taken that make our ability collectively, internationally, to find these terrorists, much more challenging. Nermeen that was cia director john brennan. Glenn greenwald, could you respond to what he said and also to how the media has covered his comments . We have not heard such blatant, shameless lying from intelligence and military officials since 2002 and 2003 when they propagandized the country into invading iraq race on utterly false pretenses. John shocking to listen to brennan say that. The proof of just what a liar he is is the fact yesterday New York Times editorial page, which is usually very constrained and establishmentoriented, published in editorial remarkable in terms of the rhetoric he used in which a called what the cia is doing in terms of exploiting the paris attacks a new low and disgraceful. It also pointed out that john brennan, the head of the cia and obamas closest National Security aide, is a pathological and inveterate liar. It details all the ways he has been lying to the public about numerous issues for many years and said, how can anyone possibly believe a word that comes out of his mouth . As far as the specific claim you just mentioned goes, there are so many reasons, so many obvious , clear evidencedriven reasons why what he is saying is utterly false. To begin with, think about how many largescale mass terrorist attacks were successfully perpetrated long before anyone knew the name Edward Snowden. You had the 2002 bombing of the nightclub in bali, the 20042005 attacks on the trains in madrid and london, the 2008 mass mumbai, april in 2013 attack on the Boston Marathon all of which were successful multiterrorist plots carried out without the u. S. Detecting them long before anyone knew the name Edward Snowden. If youre someone who wants to blame Edward Snowden or the disclosures for this attack, you have to answer, how did all of those other attacks take place without the cia or nsa discovering them . And the answer is very obvious. The answer is this terrorists have known for decades that the u. S. Government is trying to read their emails and listen to their telephone calls. They did not need Edward Snowden to tell them that. And they have known how to use sophisticated encryption. We have articles we found going 2001to 2001, february before the 9 11 attack, were the fbi is saying, Osama Bin Laden and al qaeda use extremely sophisticated encryption in order to prevent as from spying on what it is they are saying and what it is they are plotting. You can even go back earlier to the mid1990s after the mcveigh attack on obama city, the Clinton Administration said, we need to get back doors into encryption because terrorists are using these to prevent as from knowing what they are saying. Theres a huge mountain of evidence that shows long before Edward Snowden came along, terrorists have been using really sophisticated encryption because they know u. S. Government is trying to spy on them. What Edward Snowden taught the world is not that the u. S. Government was trying to spy on hasorists everybody known that with the snowden revelations show the world is that it isnt just the terrorists there spying on, but everybody in the world. That is why theyre so angry about these terrorist attacks. The final point i would make about what brennan said, the reforms that he is complaining about in trying to cause them to be blind and not find the paris attack, these legislative reforms, aside from the fact they are incredibly mild, two critical points about these reforms that prove what john brennan is saying is a complete and total lie. Number one, the reforms of the congress implemented after snowden pertained only to domestic metadata collection, and not remotely to their ability just by on foreign nationals on foreign soil. So there have been zero restrictions in the wake of the snowden revelations on their ability to listen to people in france or belgium or syria or anywhere else outside the United States. Secondly, the reforms he is talking about havent even started yet. Theyre not in effect. Congress passed the metadata reform bill, but it hasnt yet been implemented. Theyre still collecting metadata exactly as they were 3, 4, six years ago before Edward Snowden ever emerged. Nothing has changed in terms of their ability to spy on al qaeda or spy on isis or spy on anybody else. What really is happening here, and to me this is the absolute critical point, is that there are all sorts of ways u. S. Government itself bears responsibility for strengthening isis. Fundedve armed and groups in iraq and syria that ended up in the hands of isis. Just today, four whistleblowers aom the u. S. Air force said major recruiting tool of isis is obamas Drone Program, killing muslims drives people into the arms of isis. The closest u. S. Allies in the world saudi arabia and United Arab Emirates andqatar, have been funding isis more less directly. And you have these agencies like the cia and nsa that have received tens of billions of dollars every year and only have one mission. Their mission is to find people plotting terrorist attacks. In the case of paris, they profoundly failed at their job. 129 people ended up dead as a result. , brennan, the head of the nsa, or others, you want to blame everyone else for euro and failures. You want to be able to tell the world, dont look at us for having failed in our job to find the terrorist attacks, blame Edward Snowden are blame facebook and apple or blame the journalists who reported on a secret mass surveillance programs we implemented. That is what is really going on. You have heard i was done of what i said in most media discussions because what most are doing is simply mindlessly repeating what government officials tell them to say without any questioning, without any contrary evidence been presented exactly like they did in the runup to the iraq war. Nermeen Glenn Greenwald, i would ask you about the New York Times editorial. Piece is headlined, nyt editorial slams disgraceful cia exploitation of paris attacks, but submissive media role is key. Could you talk about what you think accounts for the Editorial Board taking a line that the other media has not mimicked . Well, i mean, one of the things that is motivating it is the New York Times itself published many, many snowden documents. And this is an important point. You have all of these people who are saying Edward Snowden is to blame for the paris attacks, even saying he has blood on his hands, because of what he revealed to the world. There is a huge amount of cowardice taking place with the people are saying that. And the reason is this Edward Snowden himself did not reveal a single document to the public. Not a single document. He could have. He could have made them public on the internet or otherwise, but he can to journaliss and said, im not the one who should be making decisions about what the public sees. I want the editors and journalists at the leaving newspapers and Media Outlets in the west to make a decision about which of these documents should be published. And it is the leading Media Outlets in the West New York nbcs Washington Post news, the huffington post, paris and spain all of the leading Media Outlets in the west and beyond, hindu in india, brazil, that made the choice to reveal these documents to the world and chose which document specifically should be revealed. So if you have the courage of your convictions and want to say that what cost the paris attacks is not the failures of u. S. Government or not the Drone Program are not isis but rather the people we should blame are the ones he made these documents available, if you have the kurds of your convictions come he would say, the people who are to blame for the paris attacks and the people who have blood on our hands of the top editors of these Media Outlets. Nobody is saying that. None of these journalists are blaming snowden or these think tank experts who are blaming snowden are saying that because they are total cowards. They dont want to blame the Media Outlets for making these documents available to the public because theyre petrified of losing their media access or because of craven careerism and dont to criticize the heads of these organizations because they are afraid of what impact that might not might have on their reputations or future career prospects. They try to dump the blame on Edward Snowden. The reality is, it is the leading Media Outlets that publish these documents and so the New York Times editors who not only work at the paper that published a lot of these documents, they also have been defendings own for the last two years and they were the first establishment outlet to call for an amnesty to be given to snowden. I think New York Times understands how odious and disgusting and how dangerous it is for the u. S. Government to try to bla journalism and whistleblowers and transparency for their own failures and try and shift lame away from themselves blame away from themselves. The problem is, many journalists in the u. S. , as we all know, ived to theluv iraq war does this, use them as mindless servants. T emile down and call on their hands and knees over to these officials and get whispered into their here what theyre supposed to say and then they go and printed. There are all kinds of journalists and all sorts of Media Outlets in yahoo news, evenily beast, politico in New York Times and Washington Post who are mindlessly asserting the reason the paris attacks happen is because of encryption and Edward Snowden, even know there are all sorts of reasons to understand this and the New York Times pointed out this is a disgraceful lie. They do that because their spokespeople for those in power rather than watchdogs over them or adversary really scrutinizing them. Pulitzer prizewinning , journalist. One of his recent pieces for the intercept is headlined, nyt editorial slams disgraceful cia exploitation of paris attacks, but submissive media role is key. We will continue our discussion with him for the hour in a moment. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. With nermeenan shaikh. Our guest for the hour is Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Glenn Greenwald. As we turn to, its made by former cia director James Woolsey on sunday, speaking to npr, he said Edward Snowden has blood on his hands following the paris attacks. I am no fan of the changes that were made after snowden, so leaks of classified information. I dont think they have improved our ability to collect and use intelligence, and i think they are fiercely reduced our abilities. I think snowden has blood on his hands from these killings in france. Amy your response to the former director of central intelligence, Glenn Greenwald James Woolsey . First of all, it is absolutely remarkable James Woolsey, of all people, is the person who has been plucked to be the authoritative figure on the paris attacks are leading Media Outlets such as cnn and msnbc news when he is by far one of the most extremist and radical neoconservatives ever to be puked up by the intelligence world. He was not only one of the leading advocates of attacking iraq, but one of the leading proponents of the lies that led to that invasion and has been calling for a war and other sorts of really extremist policies and disseminating lives of the neck and people for decades. So to hold him out as some sort of authority figure, some sort of respected elder intelligence statement on these attacks, is just the same desk what we have been talking about, the state of the American Media. Not one person is challenged anything he has said. I should also note that what this really is about is this really shameless effort on thfft the emotions that have been generated by launching watching the carnage in paris for all sorts of longstanding policies. If you go back to 2013, the same James Woolsey went on fox news and said two years before the paris attacks not only do i think Edward Snowden is a traitor, i think he should be hung by the neck until he is dead. That is the mentality of the kinds of people who the media is holding out as our leading experts. As far as who has blood on their hands, there is zero evidence that the attackers used encryption or anything else that was revealed as a result of Edward Snowden, but there is lots of evidence that the cia utterly failed in their mission and that the Us Government has done all sorts of things unwittingly to strengthen isis. I think if you want to talk about who has blood on their hands, personally, i would look first to isis, the people who inually shot those people the paris streets. It is really weird. Usually after a terrorist attack, no one is usually allowed to suggest anybody has blame other than the terrorist themselves. In this case, leading establishment figures and journalists feel they should distract attention from isis and say, no, it is not isis that has blood on their hands, it is Edward Snowden. For some reason, that is allowed. If that is the game were playing, i would look to the u. S. Government first because they fail to find the plot despite huge amounts of money and Unlimited Power to do so, and because theyve done all sorts of things to strengthen the group that apparently bears responsibility for this attack. Nermeen i would like to turn to a clip from an out to zero interview in august with the former head of the u. S. Defense Intelligence Agency michael , flynn. The host, mehdi hasan, questions flynn about how much the u. S. Knew about the rise of the socalled Islamic State in syria. Many people would argue the u. S. Actually saw the rise of isil coming and turned a blind eye or even encouraged it as a counterpoint toassad in a secret agency you rent, defense Intelligence Agency in august 2012 said there is a possibility of establishing undeclared there is the possibility of establishing declared or undeclared caliphate in Eastern Syria and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want in order to isolate the syrian regime. U. S. Saw the isil caliphate coming and did nothing. I think where we missed the point where we totally blew it, i think, was in the very beginning. We are talking for years down to this effort in syria. Most people would not even remember the free syrian army, that movement. Where are they today . Alnusra, where are they today and how much have they changed . When you dont get in and help some of the, theyre going to find other means to achieve their goals. I think right now what we have allowed you were allowing them. These extremist militants come in why did you allow that . You are head of the defense agency. Quoted from. O i did you see this document in 2012 . Yeah, yeah, i paid close attention. Did you not pick up the phone and say, what on earth are we doing . That kind of information is presented what did you do . I argued. In 2012, your agency said al qaeda and iraq are the major forces driving the insurgency in syria. In 2012, the u. S. Was helping coordinate arms transfers to the same groups. Why did you not stop that if youre worried about the rise of i hate to say thats my job, but my job was to be sure that the accuracy of our intelligence that was being presented was as good as it could be. I will say it goes before 2012. When we were in iraq and we still had decisions to be made before the was a decision to pull out of iraq in 2011. It was very clear what we were going to face. Amy that was the former head of the u. S. Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn being hdi hasan of alme jazeera. Glenn greenwald, could you respond . You have said repeatedly the u. S. Media tends to simply echo what u. S. Government and military officials say. Explain what you think accounts for that. First of all, that clip is unbelievable. It is literally one of the three most important military officials of the entire war on saying general flynn, the u. S. Government knew that by creating a vacuum in syria and then flooding that region with arms and money, that it was likely to result in the establishment of a caliphate by islamic extremists in Eastern Syria which is exactly what happened. They knew that was going to happen, and they proceeded to do it anyway. So when the u. S. Government starts trying to point the finger at other people for helping isis, they really need to have a mirror put in front of them because by their own documents, as an extraordinary clip demonstrates thomas they dare huge responsibility for that happening. To say nothing of the fact, as i said the closest allies in the region actually funded. A step further back, Washington Post reported six months ago what we call isis is really nothing more than a t militaryxbaathis officials who were disempowered and alienated by the was invasion of iraq and the subsequent instability that it caused and then the policies of the securing the securing policies of Prime Minister maliki and basically taking away all of the power of those shiite and iran militias and the like. I think what everyone understands the reason theres such a thing as isis is because u. S. Invaded iraq and caused massive instability, destroyed into our society, destroyed infrastructure, destroyed all order and it was in that chaos that isis was able to emerge. If youre looking for blame beyond isis, the u. S. Government is a really good place to look. As far as why the media go ahead. Sorry. Amy go ahead, glenn. As far as why the media is willing to sort of spread these claims so uncritically, i mean, there are complicated reasons. I mean, one is the media itself is very nationalistic and they get wrapped up and caught up in this sort of uber patriotism as much as nonjournalists do and see the world through that lens. Another is they spend a huge amount of time with his government officials. They are in the same socioeconomic fear. They talk to them all day and night because that is where they get their stories from, the ones that are fed to them by officials so they see the world through their lens and also the same time, want to serve them and please them in order to continue to get sources. A lot of these people are people who work for large corporations and large corporations want to give positive relations with the u. S. Government, so report favorably on them rather than in a way that would anger the government because that is not in their interest to do. Finally, theres a lot of resentment and bitterness to this note and reporting among lots of journalists because they were excluded from the story, though journalism won a lot of awards that they themselves have never won. And they hate Edward Snowden and they hate the journalism he enabled and this is their chance to demonize not just him, but the journalism. They are eagerly giving a platform to any u. S. Officials who want to say the person who has blood on their hands as Edward Snowden. Amy were going to go to break and then come back. Were talking to the Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist Glenn Greenwald. We will be back with him in a moment. [music break] amy the ballad of joe hill. Utahill was executed in 100 years ago today. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Our guest for the hour is six prizewinning journalist Glenn Greenwald, speaking to us from brazil. Lets turn to a clip from a cnn withview on sunday morning Yasser Louati from the collective against islamophobia in france. Cnn s john vause and isha sesay spent several minutes grilling their guest on the role of the Muslim Community in the attacks. It seems to me this is a pretty big plan, surely, someone be on the seven guys who have been killed over the last 48 hours would have to have known something and that was probably within the Muslim Community, but yet no one said anything. Sir, the Muslim Community has nothing to do with these guys. Nothing. We cannot justify ourselves of the actions of someone who claims to be muslim. Service knew about these guys. Just like the january attacks, turns out they were all on a blacklist somewhere on a desk. So right now we cant take responsibility for anything. Why not . What is the responsibility whats the french nation. Sir to interrupt you, but what is the responsibility within the Muslim Community to identify what is happening within their own rights when it comes to people who are obviously preparing to carry out mass murder . Sir, theyre not from our ranks. If they were trained, they were trained abroad. Amy when the interview with louati concluded, john vause and isha sesay had this discussion. Im yet to hear the condemnation from the Muslim Community. The point he is making, its not our fault. At the fact of the matter is, when these things happen, the finger blame is pointed at the Muslim Community. You have to be preemptive. It is coming from the community. The word responsibility comes to mind. You cant shirk that. , yourlenn greenwald Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist. Can you talk about what they said and how they treated this muslim civil rights activist in paris . Interview isthat so despicable that it almost leaves me speechless. I think that is probably the 10th time ive heard it and it is hard to believe that any human beings, let alone people calling themselves journalists, with a unit of the horrific things they said let alone any of the horrific things they said. He was a civil rights activist in paris. Educated, smart, very very savvy about the law and about politics. And so to go on an essentially accuse him of bearing responsibility for terrorist attacks because he is muslim and the people who did it are muslim, i mean, it is so reprehensible. Amy i was thinking, glenn, about after Timothy Mcveigh blew up the obama city building. If they had brought obama city building. If they are brought on by christian male after mail and said, he is from your ranks, what do you say . Worth they did a story on the israeli who went to the gay and does gayreat pride pride parade and everton at a jewish guest on said, why did you not do anything to stop about it and why are you as jews condemning this and the responsibility . They would be fired before the interview was over. They said no muslims are condemning this, which is a total lie. Every leading Muslim Organization in the west issued statements in the daily condemning the paris attacks like they always do in these cases. I wish they would not do it because it bolsters the idea that the obligation, but the reality is, they did. One small part is the live these journalists told. The other part is, you as muslims always lead to about this plot it had a responsibility to stop it and failed to do so all of the leading worlds intelligence agencies with tens of billions of dollars and massive surveillance infrastructure had no idea about this plot yet they are telling yasser and louati and every other muslim and france new about it and is guilty for not stopping it. It is what is in the ether. It is absolutely the really scary climate that has emerged in the wake of paris and extremely antimuslim strain of animosity that we are seen historically in the past that is both ugly and really dangerous. Nermeen Glenn Greenwald, lets go to what of the reasons that have been cited for the growth of the Islamic State, not the Muslim Community in france, the guardian reported wednesday that four former air force Drone Operators have written an open letter to Barack Obama Warning the program of targeted killings by drones has become a Major Driving force for isis another terrorist groups will stop they write Glenn Greenwald, t could you respond to that . It is amazing how we refuse to learn this lesson. There are some differences between isis and al qaeda, but there are many, many more similarities than differences. One thing we should have went and many have learned, including not just leftwing activist or independent journalists, but even think tanks and even the rumsfeld pentagon to mission to study funding this that what fuels and strengthens terrorist organizations is resentment toward the United States as a result of the policies that we engage in, the actions we engage in and that part of the world. Yemen is probably the best example. If you talk to yemenis, they will tell you there is no al qaeda in yemen or very little al qaeda in yemen, very weak and the presence was marginal prior to the u. S. Escalating its Drone Campaign in 2009, 2010 and killing huge numbers of civilians which is what drove the yemenis into the arms of al qaeda and strengthen al qaeda. You will always have a violent extremists. We have them in the u. S. , as amy mentioned earlier, people like Timothy Mcveigh who kill abortion doctors or whats permissive who going to church and charleston and shoot up people in a church for no reason other than hatred of the race. You cannot eliminate violent extremists. The question is, how do you avoid giving them an infrastructure of support and feeling and strengthening the willingness of people to run into their arms . Is so much of what we are doing from dropping bombs on civilians in multiple countries in that region to pouring weapons and money to the region that end up in the hands of isis is absolutely strengthened in them and as these four air force whistleblower said this morning, the obama Drone Campaign is a Major Recruitment tool for isis because people in that region constantly see, just like we just saw in paris, they constantly see images of dead women and children and innocent man at the hands of the United States government. Just like we have anger report isis when we see that and what to do violence to them, the people in that part of the world who see images of our victims want to do that as well to us and run into the arms of isis is the natural thing for them to do. Amy Glenn Greenwald, what about if the media did not see war as an option . For example, you have these horrific attacks in paris. The Immediate Response is the pummeling ofraqqa. The they say it is headquarters of the Islamic State. It has hundreds of thousands of civilians. France calls it, the u. S. Pulls it, russia pummels it. Where are the questions in the media about the civilian death toll . And then the people fleeing that hellhole will be stopped from resettling anywhere, as we see from the United States to europe. So that question of broadening the discussion to peaceful options, clearly, war has not worked for well over 14 years now taliban controls more of afghanistan that it did before the u. S. Invaded. Afghanistan is the perfect example, amy, which is if you go back and listen to what american political leaders in both parties and journalists and pretty much the entire country 90 of the american ropulation supported the wa in afghanistan. When everybody was saying at that time was they were speaking out of rage and anger and hatred and disgust for the taliban for their involvement or perceived involvement or responsibly for the 9 11 attacks. Yet it was, we will obliterate the telegram, bomb them out of existence. The bush of administration was cheered on by the media and the overwhelming population to do that. And they tried. As you just said, 13 years later, the televangelist robert than ever because you cannot do that. All you end up doing is turning people of afghanistan against you and therefore driving them into the arms of the televangelist we wont learn that lesson. And the reason is twofold. Number one, a lot of what is being stoked a really potent instincts in human nature. Our travel list instinct, desire for vengeance. Paris,u see cartage in im sure its true for you and it is for me, all of us have the impulse to say, the people who did this are monsters and we want to destroy them. But as human beings, we not only have impulse, we have reason. The purpose of our reason is to control our instincts and impulses. We dont just act by instinct and pulses impulses. If we did, we would just be animals. The media is stoking that. To focus on the idea to obliterate, even when it is not in our interest to do so. The second reason is, the American Media benefits immensely from war. A huge number of people watch cnn and msnbc when there are wars. They get to go to war zones and dress up as soldiers with camouflage and embed with the media. It is exciting. They win awards and feel nationalistic and feel like they have purpose. Telling people they are part of a civilization war and fighting fofreedom and democracy, that makes people feel good, especially journalists. Journalists are hungry for war. You can basically see them drilling in the press conference with obama a few days ago were they try to badger them into sending Ground Troops into syria. All of these emotions and instincts and really impulses are combining into this really toxic brew that weve seen many times in the u. S. Over the last since 9 11, but i dont think we have seen it quite as potent two thousandor three. It is amazing to watch of the repeat itself. Amy just to clarify the issue of the halla band, the telegram control more of the country now than right after the u. S. Invaded what is supposedly the u. S. Was going to take charge and forced the taliban out. Nermeen Glenn Greenwald, talking about the increasing militarization of the conflict, if spoken of the effects of pouring so many weapons into the region and your recent article, one of your recent articles is headlined, stock prices of weapons manufacturers soaring since the paris attack. Could you talk about what you found, what arms manufacturers and where are increasing their arms sales . It was amazing that the paris attacks happened on friday night, last friday night so the markets obviously were not open over the weekend. They opened first thing in the morning monday. Instantly, if you look at the ofrts of the stock prices the leading weapons manufacturers, not only in the u. S. , but also in france, there was a massive leap the minute the markets opened. It was like buyers or investors mouth tohing at the buy the stock of the leading arms manufacturers such as boeing, general dynamics, raytheon, and in france from the leading one in each case, you see this straight up vertical line beginning at the beginning of the day and throughout the day, the stock prices continued to increase from anywhere from 3 to 5 to 6 in the following day, in a lot of cases, he continued, even as the rest of the market was a sickly flat or of very, very slightly. Very, veryy flat or slightly. Every time theres a terrorist attack, western leaders exploit that attack to do more wars amy was just saying which in turn means they transfer huge amounts of american taxpayer money and money in france and Great Britain to these corporations that sell arms. And so investors are fully aware that the main people who are going to benefit from this escalation as a result of paris are not the American People or the people of the west and certainly not the people of syria, it is essentially the military Industrial Complex that is going to profit greatly. Amy you talk about the weapons manufacturers. What about the countrys . We can end on saudi arabia. We only have 30 seconds. The u. S. Signing a massive arms still after another with saudi arabia. It is the weirdest part of the war on terror, there is one country basically most dignified with the 9 11 attacks in the ideology that drove it and that happens to be the second closest ally of the United States in that region, which is saudi arabia. They not only were responsible for lots of parts of al qaeda, but our funding in lo of different ways isis as well yet we continue to hug them while waging wars on countries that have never had anything to do with attacks on our country. Amy Glenn Greenwald, thank you for being with us, Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist. We will link to your articles, among them nyt editorial slams , disgraceful cia exploitation of paris attacks, but submissive media role is key. Glenn greenwald is speaking to us from brazil. That does it for our broadcast. Democracy now is hiring a director of development to lead our fundraising efforts. Find out more at democracynow. Org. 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 ] rallo on this episode of eat drink italy . This is one you dont wanna miss. Its kind of a sicilian kitchen sink pasta. Well learn about how important beans and roasting are to a great cup of coffee. And a trip to a market in palermo motivates me to make pasta alla norma, a pasta and eggplant dish. 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