Agency. We will look at this victory for Net Neutrality. Into the case of sami alarian. I was confined 23 hours a day, and sometimes for weeks, 24 hours a day. I wasnt allowed to call my family for six months. I wasnt allowed to make a single phone call. A prominent palestinian activist in florida professor sami alarian was deported from the United States this week. In one of the most controversial prosecutions of the post9 11 era, laila alarian alarian was accused, but a jury failed to convict him. Since 2003, alarian has been 5. 5 years in jail and many more under house arrest. He will join us from turkey in a broadcast exclusive. And we will speak to his daughter laila. All of that and more coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman the leaders of germany and france are in russia today for talks on ending the renewed violence in Eastern Ukraine and restoring a september ceasefire. German chancellor Angela Merkel and french president Francois Hollande are meeting with russian president Vladimir Putin in moscow to discuss an initiative partially based on kremlin proposals. Merkel spoke in berlin earlier today ahead of her trip to russia. It is a question of peace and preserving european peace order. It is a question of free selfdetermination of the people as part of this european peace order, and were doing what we believe to be our duty at this time namely, trying to do everything in our power to end the bloodshed. Merkel and hollande met with ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko in kiev on thursday. Dismissing rebel demands to account for recent territorial gains, poroshenko called for a return to the ceasefire terms agreed to in september. The plan is simple. Immediate ceasefire, releasing hostages closing the internationally recognized border, removing foreign troops from the ukrainian territory launching import process of the political regulation by the election local election and ukrainian legislation. On thursday, the ukraine government said it had arrested a senior military officer on charges of spying for russia, raising new concerns about the infiltration of ukraine forces. The developments come as the Obama Administration says it is considering sending military aid in kiev and what would be a major escalation of u. S. Involvement. In meetings with ukrainian leaders on thursday, secretary of state john kerry accused russia of aggression in Eastern Ukraine, and said he expects a decision on u. S. Military aid soon. We talked about the largest threat that ukraine faces today and that is, russias continued aggression in the east. There is no other way to call it. We are not seeking a conflict with russia. No one is. The president is reviewing all of his options. Among those options, obviously the possibility of providing defense defensive assistance to ukraine. And those discussions are going on. The president to make his decision, i am confident, soon. The weaponry under consideration includes antitank missiles, battlefield radars and reconnaissance drones. Speaking in washington, White House Press secretary josh earnest acknowledged internal concerns that sending weapons could worsen the crisis. One of the concerns we have about providing military assistance and it does contain the possibility of actually expanding bloodshed and that is what were trying to avoid. The whole reason were trying to encourage both sides to sit down and hammer out a diplomatic agreement is to end the bloodshed and and the escalating conflict in that country. On thursday, the kremlin said u. S. Arming of ukraine would threaten russian security. German chancellor merkel has opposed calls to send military aid to the ukraine government in kiev. At a meeting in belgium thursday, nato defense ministers signed off on a plan to establish a network of command centers in Eastern Europe at a large Rapid Reaction force to counter russia. Saying the measures mark the alliances biggest reinforcement of collective defense since the end of the cold war. We decided on the immediate establishment of the first six multinational command and control units. In bulgaria, estonia, latvia lithuania, holland poland and armenia. If the crisis arises, they will assure national and nato forces from across the alliance are able to act as one from the start. They will make Rapid Deployment easier, support planning for collective defense, and help coordinate training and a are sizes. Jordan has intensified its airstrikes on the Islamic State following the immolation of a captured jordanian Fighter Pilot in syria. Jordan says dozens of fighter jets struck isis sites on thursday in syria, and for the first time, in iraq. Jordan has vowed to expand its role in the u. S. Led antiisis Coalition Following the pilots death. Jordans announcement followed reports that the united arab emirates, a Key Coalition member, suspended its airstrikes in december over concerns for its pilots safety. Meanwhile, scores of people were killed in and around the syrian capital of damascus on thursday when rebels fired a barrage of rockets into several neighborhoods and government warplanes bombed oppositionheld areas. Greeces new finance minister has wrapped up his inaugural tour of europe following the syriza partys historic election victory last month. Yanis varoufakis visited a number of European Countries as part of his governments push to roll back austerity and renegotiate greeces international bailout. On thursday, varoufakis was met with a chilly reception in germany, greeces biggest creditor and the leading european backer of its austerity. At a News Conference with german counterparts, varoufakis made a direct appeal to german taxpayers. My message to be hardworking taxpayer is that you have given us too much money in the last five years, not too little. Unfortunately, this was not an act of solidarity even though it was portrayed as one to the greek people. 90 of that money never came to greece. It was a single transfer of banking losses, initially under the shoulders of the greeks. Everybody knew the shoulders of the greeks were not Strong Enough to sustain that weight and it would spillover do you. We are coming here to begin for the first time, a dialogue about how to minimize the cost of the greek crisis to the average greek, german, finn, spaniard portuguese, and so on and so on. German economy minister Sigmund Gabriel countered varoufakis by saying that greece must be held responsible for its previous commitments. Every country has the right to democtically elect a new government. Of course, every government has the right to determine a new policy course. Certainly, if it has a clear mandate. But it must be clear the consequences, particularly the financial consequences come of new direction in greek policy cannot be transferred other countries and financed by the taxpayers in these countries. Germany says its offered greece a contingent of 500 german tax collectors to help athens recover taxes from wealthy citizens. The two sides say theyve agreed to disagree. Meanwhile, in athens thousands of people rallied outside parliament in a show of support for the governments antiausterity campaign. In an address shortly after his own return from a european tour, Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras said greece will not be bullied by its creditors. Greek democracy does not take orders and certainly not through emails. Greece has a clear position. Greece has its own voice. Greece has its own negotiating strength. It is our obligation and duty not to allow our citizens to be deceived once again. We are a sovereign country. We have a democracy. We have a program and an agreement with our people, and we have to honor this agreement. The European Central bank has rejected greeces initial demands for help, tightening rules that will make it harder for greek banks to obtain loans. Greeces bailout with european and imf creditors is due to expire at the end of the month. The International Monetary fund has granted partial debt relief to the three western african countries worst hit by ebola. Imf chief Christine Lagarde announced guinea, liberia and sierra leone will be eased of around 100 million in debt payments. The imf is giving debt relief to these three countries through the Catastrophe Containment and relief trust, which will provide grant aid used to relieve the debt for the next two years. I have actually received already from one major donor the commitment to provide additional funding, and i hope you will not be via that there will be more that will follow suit. The 100 million figure amounts to about onefourth of the total the three countries collectively owe. The joint debt is set to jump to 620 million over the next three years because of previously announced loans. In a statement, the group Jubilee Debt Campaign said grants should be given to cope with the impact of ebola, not more loans which leave an unjust debt to be repaid over the next decade. The Obama Administration says the recidivism rate of Guantanamo Bay prisoners has fallen since president obama took office. According to the white house just six guantanamo prisoners have engaged in militant activity after their release since 2009, for a rate of under 7 . The comparable rate under president george w. Bush was 19 . But even the lower new rate could be too high. According to al jazeera america, there has been only one case of a guantanamo prisoner turning to militancy after release that can be independently confirmed. The groups cage and the center for Constitutional Rights say they know of no cases. At a Senate Hearing this week, republican senator tom cotton spoke out against president obamas call to close Guantanamo Bay, saying he believes the prisons only problem is too many empty cells. In my opinion, the only problem that Guantanamo Bay is there are too many empty beds and sells. We should be sending more terrorists there for further interrogation to keep this country safe. As far as im concerned, every last one of them can rot in hell. As long as they dont do that, they can rot in Guantanamo Bay. Two people are dead after an apparent murdersuicide at the university of south carolinas school of public health. One of the victims was a school professor. The campus was put on lockdown for about an hour on thursday. Three democratic lawmakers have announced they will skip israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu us upcoming speech on iran. John lewis butterfield, say they oppose the visit at a time when washington seeks a nuclear deal with iran. The trip has caused a major rift with the white house. On thursday, nancy pelosi said she hopes the address is canceled but dismissed talk of a boycott. Im seriously considering going. As i said, as of now, it is my intention to go. It is still my hopes that the event will not take place. There is serious unease, but dont even think and terms of the word boycott. Embers will go or they wont go as they usually go or dont go. And john boehner has announced another foreign speaker who will address congress. Pope francis will become the first ever hope to address a joint session of congress when he visits the u. S. In september. On september 24, his holiness, pope francis, will visit us here at the United States capitol. On that day, his holiness will be the first pope in our history to address a joint session of congress. We are humbled the holy father has accepted our invitation and certainly look forward to receiving his message on behalf of the american people. And those are some of the headlines, this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Congratulations amy on your if stone Lifetime Achievement award it was really wonderful. Particularly, to be there with laura poitras, who also won this i asked on metal for journalistic independence. After we receive the awards, we did a kind of talk back last night with tom ashbrook and then the high point a dinner was spending time with i have stones daughter i f stones daughter and peter davis. We had a great time. Will deserved award. Thank you. And you have a cover story in the new york daily news. Reporting today on a new report by the new York City Department of investigations. It is something ive been covering for over five years which is the massive overhaul in previous Bloomberg Administration of the citys final 911 emergency communication system. It is a startling report. It shows, among other things, the report shows that the project is 10 years behind schedule and has increased by over 1 billion in cost during the period it began in 2005. The report also finds that city officials tried to order their employees to sanitize the reports to minimize the problems that the program had. It found officials also hid about 200 million in additional costs on the project in the budgets of different city agencies, so no one can really know how much the cost the project was spiraling out of control. It finds the private consultants are running amok basically very little control, driving up the prices to the city, sometimes as much as markets of 600 . Were talking about Major Companies like motorola, hewlettpackard, northrup roman, verizon. It is another example of what i have been calling one of the biggest scandals in modern government, local and state government, which is these Huge Technology projects that are supposed to create efficiencies in government, but actually and up as boondoggles. This is the latest one. The new de blasio the administration has sent a whole lot of those private consultants packing and have brought inhouse to have government workers and government managers in charge of it. We will see if that makes a big difference in the future. But it is really astonishing report of a decadelong project that went awry. I hope you continue to give us reports like this. The biggest when you broke was city time, the biggest financial scandal. This is bigger in money but in city time about one dozen people ended up being indicted. That was the citys payroll system, computerizing the payroll system for 300,000 city workers. That ended up with a dozen people arrested and most of them sent to long prison terms as a result. That was right that was outright fraud. This is just as management. We will link to your piece at democracynow. Org. After much anticipation, this week the chair of the federal Communications Commission unveiled what he calls the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the agency. In a blog post published wednesday on website of wired magazine, fcc chair tom wheeler backed the regulation of Internet Service like a public utility to uphold Net Neutrality, the principle of a free and open internet. Noting he used to think the fcc could assure internet openness through a determination of commercial reasonableness, wheeler wrote while a recent Court Decision seemed to draw a roadmap for using this approach, i became concerned that this relatively new concept might, down the road, be interpreted to mean what is reasonable for commercial interests, not consumers. That is why i am proposing that the fcc use its title ii authority to implement and enforce open internet protections. Wheelers plan will let the agency prevent Internet Service providers like comcast from blocking access to websites, slowing down content or providing paid fast lanes for Internet Service. It would also extend such protections to Internet Service on cell phones and tablets. Wheeler discussed the plan on pbs newshour. What were doing is we are taking the legal construct that once was used for phone companies and pairing it back to modernize it so it specifically deals with this issue. It is not really utility regulation, but it is regulation to make sure that there is somebody watching out for the consumer, like you said, that there is no paid prioritization or blocking or throttling. And most important, there will be ongoing rules in perpetuity so that there will be a yardstick to measure what is fair for consumers. Tom wheeler, a former lobbyist for the cellphone and cable industries, was not initially expected to take a strong stand on Net Neutrality. His proposal comes after the fcc received a recordsetting number of comments nearly four million, almost all in support of strong protections. By comparison, Janet Jacksons accidental exposure of her breast during the 2004 super bowl triggered 1. 4 million comments to the fcc. On wednesday, democratic senator ed markey of massachusetts hailed wheelers proposal. Today is a day where consumers and innovators entrepreneurs, anyone who counts on the internet to connect to the world is going to now be protected in the 21st century. Reclassifying broadband under title ii is a major victory for our economy, for our consumer