Transcripts For ALJAZAM Consider This 20140512 : vimarsana.c

Welcome to consider this, here is more on what is ahead. Responsibility. For what we is down for the United States, they have paid the price. Other concern is about other interpreters, the ones in iraq and afghanistan. Vampire affair. Youth. Studies show that the blood of young mice can make the cells of older mice younger again. Growing up in the philippines, i always knew i was going to america. Jose Antonia Vargas is a. I lived the american dream. I was living a lie. Is the global war on drugs a lost cause of the United Nations stated goal of a drugfree world is it a dream. Five nobbelprized winning economists and former secretary of state George Schultz are a group of politicians and academics saying that, signing off on a report from the London School of economics calling for an end of the drug war and resources to be redirected to what they call effective policies. Im joined from london by john collins, International Drug policy coordinator at the London School of economics ideas center for the study of the international affairs. He is the editor of the schools expert groups report ending the drug wars. Good of you to join us. You write that International Efforts to control drugs have been going on for more than a century. Have they been a failure, have they slowed the flow and use of Illegal Drugs . Its a complicated question when we look over a century. Over the last few sent ris they have been a failure. They generated enormous international harm. We cant quantify what they have avoided in terms of what size the market would be ab sent controls. What we can quantify is the harms in terms of what current drug policies are doing, resulting in thousands of deaths, massive levels of incarceration, levels of violence, destroying economies and security in producer and transit countries and for little outcomes, drug prices are declining and purity rising. It is fair to say that the International Drug control system is and has fail. You mentioned displacement. Massive displacement along the border with the United States, more than 200,000 there and within columbia, there were more displaced syria. Yes, i think its sued , but column sudan, but columbia outpaced them. Drug violence has an enormous level of impact on these places. It has spillover effects for all aspects. People flee the violence, Foreign Investment dries up, corporations dont set up. Economies go into decline. There are spillover consequences on pursuing the war on drugs. The call for a drugfree world became a rallying call in 1998. You say talking about a drugfree world is not just counterproductive. Yes, it is not just talking about a drugfree world, but aiming towards something that is not achievable. It is not a rational goal to aim for a drugfree world. Theres never been a truck free society. When you pursue a drug free world you spend an enormous amount of resources on something that is effective and harmful, at the expense of things that are expensive and reduce the harms of drugs. We have a situation where things like marm reduction Harm Reduction at the International Level. Things that have an enormous body of evidence showing that they work and are effective are underfunded and some states wont mention them at the International Level because of a derchens to the drug war, to the idea that eventually well achieve a drugfree world and shouldnt make accommodation with drugs. Thats why its an idea to talk in terms of a drugfree world. One of things the government focused on is the supply side in going after Illegal Drugs, by destroying poppy fields, cocaine and marijuana plantations, going after the drug cartels, would the war work better if governments focus on the demand side, drug users of course, that led to what you talk about, mass iincarceration. Massive ipp cars rigs. Incarceration. My view we should manage the drug issue as something that is prevalent in societies and be around. How do we minimize the harms. Theres no evidence or case to be made that the war on drugs is the way to do that. Whether its going in and burning crops which has zero impact, or whether its lacking a vast amount of drug users and warehousing them in gaols, which is highly detrimental to societies. Neither of those courses has real merit. What we want to do is pursue an evidence based. Public health based approach, and trying to minimize the impact of illicit market in producer and transit countries. Instead of focussing on suppressing the flow and supply of drugs, which is chasing commodities around the world and the violence, you focus on minimising the violence, focus on maximising security, human rites, Public Health. What about decriminalization. Port call decriminal used drugs in 2001. The netherlands are wellknown, colorado legalized marijuana, Washington State is close behind. Some argue that the portugal experiment is a success. Now we see now reports of issues in colorado. Now, the important thing here is to not conflate decriminalization. Its just removing the sanctions for individual drug users, and the evidence is in on this. It is clear that the benefits of criminalizing drug users has in no way been proven. The costs prove to be enormous, pushing people away from Public Health service, they create damage in peoples lives, making it difficult for people to integrate in society. Decriminalization is the route for the community to go on this issue. They should not punish people who are addicted to drugs thats not where resources are going, its not an effective way to do this. Legalization is a different matter. Its a long way from saying the war on drugs failed to legalize everything. Definitely we are not advocating a headlong rush in that direction. Legalization methods are a positive thing. They are happening in washington, colorado and uruguay. We learn a lot from what happens there. Theres a lot of questions hanging over the experiments. We dont know what the outcomes will be. I would be certain that the outcomes would be less bad than the current war on drugs approach, because the cost is so clear and large. We want to do it in a correct way that minimises the growth in cannabis consumption. We want to make sure it was a well regulated market. And it was too early to tell what happened in washington or uruguay for that matter. Its the beginning of drug poll suggests being looked at. Well say on top of the story. Googles motto is dont be evil. New documents may have people questioning how much it followed that. Al jazeera obtained two sets of email changes showing they had a closer relationship with the n. S. A. Than the company admitted to. It showed exchanges between n. S. A. Director general Keith Alexander and google executives, sergay bryn and eric schmitt. Revelations are surprising. Our al jazeera journalist, jiften leopold, who obtained the emails, is with us. Conventional wisdom is that the phone companies shared and the tech giants did so when compelled by courts, acting as if they were bullied into it. The emails showed there was not much bullying. No, thats it right . A year before the Edward Snowden revelations in those documents, here we see that google, apple, microsoft, dell, Hewitt Packard they had all been involved in some aspect of information sharing with the n. S. A. Many of the emails focussed on a project called enduring Security Framework, and it coordinates action between the government and industry leaders. I read that civil libertarians said that there needs to be information exchanges between major Computer Companies and the n. S. A. What happens here seems to have gone too far. Its not clear that it went too far. The reason its not clear is because much of the information revolving around the enduring Security Framework is classified. The briefings, meetings that have taken place, that n. S. A. Director Keith Alexander articulates or discusses, take place in a classified setting. We dont know what is being discussed. The two sets of emails that we obtained show that, one, they wanted to discuss mobility, security and threats. There was another previous meeting that took place on Software Vulnerability issues relating to when you start up your personal computer, shedding light into what has been discussed previously. Talking about threats. Part of the process may have involved an alleged thwarted plot by china that the n. S. A. Said could have destroyed the u. S. Economy, and some question whether the Computer Companies should work with n. S. A. To help with that security. Theres two sides of it. On one hand you have, you know, some civil libertarians saying information sharing is essential. Theres no guidelines on how the information sharing should take place. Theres no transparency about it as well. We dont know to what extent, or what extent they have been sharing information, what type of information they have been sharing, how they is share the information and whether consumers information has been compromised as a result. One of the questions is whether in that context of possibly helping the companies, whether the n. S. A. Could have companies. Exactly. And in one email thats where we put the pieces toot. It together. It discusses what is revved to as a biosecurity threat, and that is what i indicated about the starting up your computer, and how it more or less you can attackers can brick a computer. That is what the snowden documents revealed. Thats what the n. S. A. Were doing. They were hacking into the bios software, to the platform there, and exploiting it. Exploiting the vul neribility yits that they then go to the vulnerabilities, that they then go to the tech firms. Asking them to open the door to allow the n. S. A. In to address the issues. Bricking the computers is useless. Google is not commenting but said that they work with experts, including the government to stay ahead of the game. Where do you think these partnerships will go from here. Will they be more public. Will theyor is there continue or will there be a pull back because of this. I think the partnerships will continue. However, its important to also note that there wont be transparency because of the revelations that we have made here. I made this freedom of the information act requests. I filed this. I wanted to find out what communications the n. S. A. Had with the tech giants. So this was sort of the First Release of documents that i received, showing what those communications were. So it really is going to take more foyer requests to find out the extent of how these conversations are continuing. Great investigative work, raising questions. Jason leopold good to have you with us. Thanks for bringing this information to us. Im Joe Berlinger this is the System People want to believe that the Justice System works. People wanna believe that prosecutors and police do the right thing. I think every american needs to be concerned about that. We do have the best Justice System in the world, in theory. The problem is, its run by human beings. Human beings make mistakes. Id like to think of this show as a watch dog about the system. To make sure justice is being served. Wrongful convictions happen, we need to be vigilant. With our personal liberties taken away from us, it better be done the right way. Is justice really for all . Thousands of afghans are waiting for visas they earnt working alongside u. S. Forces. While they wait they live in fear. The state department ramped up the approval of these visas. Many believe the government is not doing enough. Thats why a senator with bipartisan support introduced new legislation to extend and programme. I believe we have a responsibility to fulfil the obligation to thousands of civilians that risk their lives to help our country during the time of war. Without an extension of the programme, our failure to help those that helped us remains a dark spot on our reputation abroad and hinder our ability to future. Matt zeler joins us, the cofounder of no one left behind. He attended the event to introduce the afghan allys extension act. This is his first time to join us, to discuss his fight to bring his interpreter and his family to the u. S. He joined us with him once he was granted a visa and arrived in the United States. Great to see you again. This is a long fight for you. Janis saved your life, why has it been a struggle . Its been a struggle for a couple of reasons. The state department dropped the ball in implementing the programme. Two, there was previous to the pictures that happened, there wasnt a lot of coordination going on between the state department and entities who did the security reskew. Everyone that comes has to clear lee hurdles, they have to prove that because of that service they are under during es and pass a National Security Background Investigation. Frankly, for people doing the Background Investigation and people at the state department were not talking and we hope a lot of fixes implemented in a law that was placed and a number this year will have a profound effect on the programme. In a positive way. Thats the hope. One of your fellow veterans referred to this process as being kafkaesque and as a college grad he couldnt deal with the forms he was trying to deal with for his interpreter. According to the New York Times, there are 5,000 afghans deemed under threat. They are competing for 2300 visas, hundreds more are applying as we move along. Fixed . Yes. I dont know if the the times numbers are accurate, i would argue more are under duress and would qualify for a visa. It extents the programme. If the law doesnt pass and we fail to get it through, the programme does not exist as of september 30th. We have to get it through to keep the programme going. It increases visas. Its a start. Well probably have to do pore h its something, better than nothing. It makes a number of legal clarifications. Afghans like janice could not bring their extended family. The av significant law is different to iraqi. Iraqis can bring mums, dads, brothers and sisters so long as they can prove their life is in danger. Janis lives in a compound, living with his mum, brothers and sisters. Because he no longer lives there doesnt mean their lives are not in daner. When the law pass, hell bring his parents here. The other thing it does. This is weird. The state Department Things that any interpreter that works for the interNational Security Assistance Force isaf doesnt count as working for u. S. Forces, which is kind of ridiculous, because the u. S. Headed isaf. The law will declare that any working for isaf probably worked for u. S. Forces and they get to come here. Last time you were on, janis is on the show. How is he doing. Believe it or not he forks congressman jim moran as an immigration officer. Who Better Qualified to try to help fix the problem and programme, than somebody that went through it and experienced it first hand. You gave us a picture of then secretary of defense robert gates accompanied by his interpreter. He received a visa. When he came to the United States he was homeless in san francisco, whats happened to him. Is anything being done to help interpreters and their families once they get to america . Its a great question and my next fight. You mentioned we founded an organization, no one left behind. We used the money to help jappize resettle. That was jan. S request saying brother, you raised all this money. I dont know what we can do with it, can we use it to resettle others. The gentleman that we show you a picture of. He found out about jan. S and i by watching one of your stories. When he made it to america and found himself in dire straits, he borrowed a phone, called kabul and said can someone put nee in fuch with janis, maybe they can get me to matt and they can help me out. We have helped out about 10 families, at least get apartments, with furnish them and jobs in a couple of days. Theres nor that needs to be done. I literally know of hundreds in the d. C. Area that are former iraqian translators, dont have jobs, receive little support from the organizations that are supposed to help them here. Well have to do better. As you pointed out. This is a tip of the iceberg, if the law passes and im confident it will. Well be able to keep our promise to the majority of the afghans and iraqis, that we said if you gave us service and hep them out. Well bring them back to the country. It thats the case, well be inundated to our allies, and we owe it to them to help them. Its an incredible mission, you have done incredible work. Level of luck with the efforts. North korea is rattling what it calls its treasurured sword, nuclear sabre. Reports say the country appears to prepare for a gamechanging Fourth Nuclear weapons test. A document leaked from chinas army shows beijing is preparing for a north korean collapse. China calls the report groundless, it includes plans for holding North Koreans in camps where they can be controlled and establishing more camps for refugees. Last week beening warned beijing warned north korea it would by no moons allow war or chaos on our doorstep. Im joined by gordon chang, a contributor writing on asia and the author of Nuclear Showdown north korea takes on the world. Beijing does not seem happy with the north korean antics, and i dont mean to make