The crisis in the middle east, blackwater on trial, and more. And iraq veterans against the war. It has been personal, we have been transformed in our own lives. Each of our stories is important and people need to understand the reality and the human cost of war and occupation. A group of veterans came back from combat to form iraq veterans against the war. A decade later, the group is now organizing against another war in iraq. All that and more coming up. To democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Australia has become the latest country to join the usled military campaign against militants from the Islamic State in the iraq and syria. Prime minister tony abbott said australian planes will take art in air strikes and special forces would be deployed. Turkeys parliament has also authorized the government to order military action against the militants. The news comes as the Iraqi Defense minister claims iraqi forces have made gains against isis. The United Nations has released a report detailing possible war crimes and an accelerating death toll in iraq. Since january, more than 9000 have been killed, more than half the isis offensive began in june. The u. N. Sperson for high commissioner for human rights unveiled the reports findings. Report,is a devastating it covers just nine weeks. Just a huge array of a appalling human rights abuses, mostly by isil. This includes rape, murder, exution, sometimes large numbers of people, abduction, recruiting of children, making them into fighters, destruction churches, amosques, litany of her in this abuses affecting minis of thousands of people. While the report focused on a license militants, it also found iraq he airstrikes had caused significant civilian deaths, striking villages, hospitals, and schools, in violation with international law. A u. S. Marine believed to have been lost at sea has become the first reported casualty of the campaign against isis. The marine and a colleague who survived ejected from their aircraft after it lost power over the persian gulf. Prodemocracy leaders in hong kong have agreed to talks with the citys top leader after days of mass protest. Leung chunying has refused to step down despite protests. Protests erupted over chinas plan to select candidates in hong kongs 2017 elections. Authorities are assessing 100 people who may have had contact with the first ebola patient diagnosed in the u. S. The partner of Eric Thomas Duncan says that she and three other family members have been quarantined in the apartment where duncan was staying under threat of criminal charges if they leave. The sheets and towels used by duncan remain inside the apartment as authorities struggle to find a company willing and able to safely take them. Ancan was sent home from dallas hospital last week despite telling a nurse he had been to liberia. He was readmitted four days later. The hospital blamed a gap in its electronic Record Keeping that prevented a dr. From seeing the nurses note about his travel. Saidephew josephus weeks that he personally called the cdc. I called the cdc again, i was concerned for his life. He was not getting the appropriate care. I feared that other people might also get infected if he was not taking care of. Liberia, a freelance cameraperson who worked for nbc news has become the fourth american diagnosed with ebola. Ashoka mukpo will be flown to the u. S. For treatment. A federal Appeals Court has allowed texas to immediately begin enforcing a sweeping antichoice law effectively gutting access to abortion overnight. 13 of the states remaining clinics have been forced to close, leaving texas the second largest state with just eight abortion facilities, all of them in four metropolitan areas. Nearly a million texas women will now have to travel a minimum 300 miles to access abortion. The court ruling requires all clinics to meet hospital style building requirements, immersing the order of a lower court judge who found the restrictions posed an undue burden. The lower judge had also allowed two clinics in texas to reopen after they and many other facilities were forced to close under a separate Provision Requiring hot will admitting privileges. But the fifth Circuit Court of appeals also reversed that decision, shuttering the clinics and leaving no abortion facilities west or south of san antonio. The Rio Grande Valley is home to many undocumented immigrants who cannot travel north due to border checkpoints and are cut off from legal abortion. The center for reproductive rights said in oklahoma, one of just three abortion providers in the state is challenging a law requiring providers to obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital. He has beenrns says unable to obtain privileges at any of 16 nearby hospitals after many refused to even process his application. In alabama, the American Civil Liberties union is suing to block a law they say could force minors seeking abortion to stand trial. The law applies to minors who cannot safely obtain parental content consent for abortion, which is required in alabama. It allows the court to appoint a guardian for the fetus and would allow them to call witnesses to testify against the minor. Brazil is Holding President ial election sunday. Dilma rousseff faces a challenge from marina silva, who served as the environment minister under Luiz Inacio Lula da silva and became a candidate after her running mate died in a plane crash. Marina silva group up in the amazon rainforest come a fought its devastation along rubber tapper chico mendes. Supporters say she would become the worlds first green president but as critics worry as an evangelical christian, she would implement rightwing policies. Also note that her running mate has ties to agribusiness. Tens of thousands marched in mexico city to mark the anniversary of the tlatelolco student massacre. Days before mexico city hosted the olympics, Government Forces opened fire on students in the plaza de las tres culturas, killing up to 350 people. To date, no one has been tried. Anniversary comes as 40 students remain missing in the mexican state of guerrero following an ambush last week. Witnesses say police and unknown gunmen attacked buses carrying students from a Rural Teachers College and players from a soccer club, killing six, including three students. Enrique espinosa, who survived the massacres, says that this is a sign of the level of impunity in mexico. It seems that we are returning to the same thing that happened in those years back in the 1960s, oppression, political prisoners, persecution, and in justices. In venezuela, a lawmaker in the Ruling Socialist Party has been found murdered in his home along with his partner. Robert serra was the youngest member of the venezuelan congress. The motive remains unclear but the Justice Minister said the killings were carried out with great precision. In the gulf nation of bahrain, the human rights activist nabeel rajab has been detained after posting tweets critical of the government. Rajab leads the Human Rights Center center for human. Ights in colorado, the Jefferson County school board has passed a proposal to institute a Curriculum Review Committee despite protests by High School Students and teachers. The committee will review district courses, adding material to promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials, and benefits of the freemarket system. Democracy now asked the proposals author about the proposals mention of obedience to authority. I took those lines out of the National Republican resolution as well as texas because i when we are teaching our students, it is not to suppress them. I want to teach them that our country is a great place to live. Jpmorgan chase has disclosed one of the largest corporate data breaches in u. S. History. While the hack had been previously disclosed, prior estimates said only about one million accounts had been impacted. Now the banks says 76 million household accounts in 7 million and 7 million Small Business accounts were copper rise as hackers gathering customers names and contact information. It went undetected for two months. Streets toook to the protest austerity and unemployment as the leaders of the European Central bank met in naples italy naples, italy. Bank leaders voted to keep Interest Rates at a record low and announced plans to begin buying private sector assets that month. In missouri, the st. Louis prosecutor is investigating a possible leak by the grand jury considering whether to indict Police OfficerDarren Wilson for the shooting of michael brown. A tweet posted to the account of Susan Nichols read grand jury deliberations are supposed to be secret. She has claimed her account was hacked. A 79yearold peace activist has been sentenced to three months in jail for protesting at a base in upstate new york where you us drones are piloted remotely. Jack gilroy is among several activists are face trial in Dewitt Town Court for protesting at hancock air base. He spoke before his sentencing on wednesday. We are killing people around the world and our statement was take a message. That will be primarily what i will be saying today. First amendment right, the right to take a message and not to be killed because you are the messenger bringing the information to stop the killing. The peace activist and author frank branfman has died of als at the age of 72. He unveiled the covert bombing of laos. Than 2. Dropped more million tons of bombs on the small Southeast Asian country. Branfman interviewed refugees and helped to illuminate their plight for other journalists and activists, including gnome chomsky, who traveled there in 1970. Speaking at Harvard University last year, professor chomsky praised branfmans work. He is the first man that worked, four years, on this enormous courage and effort to try to those what were called the secret wars. The secret wars were perfectly public wars which the media was keeping secret. This is in laos. He finally did succeeded in with thethrough tremendous exposure of huge wars that were going on. Branfman also worked in the mystic politics including as Research Director to california governor jerry brown. Life, he committed himself to advocating a new Human Movement against Climate Change and to cultivating what he called lifeaffirming awareness of death. Last month in his final piece for alternet, he wrote about israelss assault on gaza by directly addressing israels supporters, asking, how do you justify your support for mass misery inflicted on hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians . He continued, i answered such questions for myself 45 years ago when i discovered that civilians were well over 90 of the victims of pass bombings. I concluded then that there was never any moral or legal justification for mass bombing or shelling of civilians. Died lastman wednesday in budapest, hungary, where he shared a home with his zsuzsa. Whose a he was 72 years old. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Theears ago, six members of u. S. Military came together to break their silence over what they witnessed over the usled invasion of iraq. They form the group iraq veterans against the war. Over time they gathered likeminded veterans from across the country to form a contemporary gi resistance movement. Each member has a personal story about why they joined the military, what they witnessed when deployed, and how they came to oppose the invasions in iraq and afghanistan. Executivese vasquez, director of iraq veterans against the war. I grew up in california. As a high school student, i felt like i did not have many options. The only people reaching out to me were army recruiters. I had some experience with the military, my father served in vietnam, my uncle in the gulf war. To me it seems like something that men in our family did. I was against the iraq war from the beginning. 2004 was a turning point when the abu ghraib scandal broke. One of my friends who i was deployed with was at abu ghraib, and it brought the war home for me. For a while i was the only one opposed to the war but started to do Research Online and stumbled across iraq veterans against the war. That was the only place where i heard the voices of soldiers and veterans speaking out against it. That was the executive director of iraq veterans against the war, ivaw. The Group Celebrates its 10th anniversary, a bittersweet moment, as the u. S. Is back in iraq. Are in 48w members states and in numerous bases overseas. They have called for reparations for damages caused by the invasion. They have also called for Adequate Health care including Mental Health care for all returning servicemen and women. For more, we are joined by three of the members of iraq veterans against the war. Kelly dougherty is the groups cofounder. Membercintosh is an ivaw who served in afghanistan. He applied for Conscientious Objector status and was discharged in may 2014. Scott olsen also joins us, former marine who was critically wounded not in iraq but after being shot in the head by a police projectile at occupy oakland, where he was protesting. With ahospitalized fractured skull, broken neck vertebrae, and brain swelling. E, too, is a member of ivaw welcome back to you all. At one point or another, we have had you on. Kelly, you are gathered here for this 10th anniversary in new york . Yes, we had a fundraiser last night, a time to reflect on the work over the past 10 years, and as you said, it is bittersweet. Tohave been building this counter war and militarism and here we are bombing iraq. We are celebrating our losses bh with more militarism and losses within our community of our friend jacob george, who recently passed away. Mcintosh, what are your thoughts on the current bombing of iraq and syria . I think the media has often portrayed isis as being some organization that just suddenly emerged over the last year or so , but this is the same organization that many of my allies in ivaw were fighting when they were in iraq. Nearly 10 years of going to war with isis, with several hundred thousand american soldiers on the ground, was not able to eliminate isis. It is strange to think that some limited airstrikes over the next few years will be able to destroy isis. Reports from the fbi have shown that recruitment has grown since we started bombing them. Scott olsen, how did you come to fight in iraq . Corpsoined the marine after i graduated high school. Our country was a more, i felt like it was the right thing to defend our up and freedoms and democracy. Where did you grow up . In wisconsin. After i joined, i was in iraq after about a year, after joining the marine corps. That was in 2006. I was in anbar province, a majority sunni population, where the Islamic State is making huge recruitment gains. The population that they are recruiting. Your thoughts right now on this renewed war in iraq . It is renewed, but it is really the same more. Leftbecause our military does not mean that the war was over. It is the same complex, the same bigions, that we played a part in stoking. These are the consequences of war. 10 years later, it is the same thing. The most senior military officer has said u. S. Ground troops may be needed in iraq as part of the administrations offensive against the Islamic State. General Martin Dempsey testified before the Senate Armed ServicesCommittee Last month. My view at this point is that this coalition is the appropriate way forward. I believe that will prove true, but if it fails to be true and if there are threats to the u. S. , then i would go back to the president and make a recommendation that may include the use of u. S. Military ground forces. Kelly dougherty, your response . I find it a little ironic that, over the course of the Bush Administration, the country really turned against the occupation of iraq and wanted the troops to come home, and then last year when we saw a proposal to bomb syria, there was great opposition. Now with all the fear mongering that is going on, it seems like ofrnight, the majority people support bombing iraq, syria, and even the idea of sending more troops back into recipehich seems like a for continued longterm destruction and catastrophe. Both for the u. S. Soldiers involved and for the people of iraq that have been living generalization of a generationally in war and conflict. The people who are in isis were kids when i was in iraq, living in a constant state of disorder, violence, and conflict and occupation. We are going to break and then come back to the discussion. Our guests are kelly dougherty, brocker of ivaw mcintosh, served in afghanistan, scott olsen, twice in iraq. They are all members of iraq veterans against the war, celebrating their 10th anniversary, as the u. S. Goes back to war in iraq. We met a few months after i got back from afghanistan, we cofounded the afghanistan brothers against the war committee. After that we went to afghanistan again as civilians. We met with a group called the afghan peace volunteers, which have been doing wonderful organizing against the occupation of afghanistan, organizing for an end to were in general in their country. We also went to several schools, orphanages, displaced persons camps. Jacob son about those experiences. Talk about what happened to jacob. Jacob deployed to a