Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20150224 : vimarsana.com

Nuclear bomb within one year. We will go to doha. Then to raymondville, texas where thousands of immigrants locked up in a privately run prison have staged an uprising to protest lack of medical care. Can we continue our look back at malcolm x, 50 years after his assassination. There is institutionalized systemic racism, unfortunately. What was so wonderl about malcolm is that he addressed the problem. He offered resolutions. He was a man of action. We will speak with malcolm x s daughter Ilyasah Shabazz and to his friend peter bailey. They were both inside the audubon ballroom when malcolm was assassinated. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Islamic state militants have reportedly kidnapped scores of christians in northeastern syria. The britishbased syrian observatory for human rights said 90 assyrian christians had been captured, while another group put the number between 70 and 100. The captures come as i filed militants retreated from Kurdish Militia backed by the u. S. Led coalition. The Obama Administration is planning a major offensive in iraq to retake the isil isiscontrolled city of mosul, iraqs second largest city. Speaking in kuwait monday after meetings with top u. S. Officials in the region, newly sworn in defense secretary Ashton Carter vowed to defeat the islamic state. Our discussion this afternoon affirmed the seriousness and the complexity of the threat posed by isil, especially, in an interconnected and networked world. Defeat of this group can and will be accomplished. Earlier this month, isis released a video of the beheading of 21 egyptian Coptic Christians in libya. Amnesty international now has accused Egyptian Forces of failing to take key precautions before launching retaliatory airstrikes, which killed seven civilians in the libyan city of derna. A new report has raised questions about israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus effort to thwart a nuclear deal with iran. According to al jazeera, israels spy agency, the mossad contradicted netanyahus own dire warnings before the u. N. General assembly about irans ability to produce a nuclear bomb within one year. The news comes as u. S. Officials have reported progress in Nuclear Talks with iran. Well and as netanyahu is due to address Congress Next month. Well have more on the story after headlines. In the United States, a manhattan jury has found the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization liable for allegedly providing support for terrorist attacks in israel which killed or injured americans. The groups have denied any involvement in the attacks which took place over a decade ago. In a statement, Palestinian Authority spokesperson dr. Mahmoud khalifa vowed to appeal the jurys decision saying , this case is just the latest attempt by hardline antipeace factions in israel to use and abuse the u. S. Legal system to advance their narrow political and ideological agenda. The jurys finding will impose 655 million in damages at a time when the Palestinian Authority faces a financial crisis over israels withholding of more than 100 million tax revenue. Israel has blocked the funds over the palestinian decision to join the International Criminal court. Secretary of state john kerry has warned the move threatens the Palestinian Authoritys survival. If the palestinian authorities ceases or war to cease cooperation or even to decide to disband as a result of their economic predicament, and that could happen in the near future if they dont receive additional revenues, then we would be faced with yet another crisis that could also greatly impact the security of palestinians and israelis. And that would have the potential of serious ripple effects elsewhere in the region. Israeli forces have shot and killed a palestinian teenager in a refugee camp in bethlehem. The Israeli Military says the soldiers opened fire after they were attacked with rocks and incendiary devices during an arrest raid. The local government says the 19yearold was shot and killed while watching the clashes from his roof. Police in the maldives have physically dragged environmentalist and former president Mohamed Nasheed into court to face charges of illegally ordering the arrest of a judge while he was still in offi. Nasheeds arrest sunday marked e latest chaer in a battle er his decision to arrest a judge appointed by his predecessor, Maumoon Abdul gayoom, who ruled the maldives for 30 years before nasheed was became its first democratically elected president in 2008. He became famous in 2009 for holding a Cabinet Meeting underwater to show the threat of Climate Change to his island nation. Nasheed was ousted in 2012 and what he called an armed coup by gayoos supporters. To see our interview, you can go to our website at democracynow. Org. Senate democrats have blocked a fourth republic and the to defund president obamas executive actions on immigration in exchange for continuing to , fund the department of homeland security. Dhs is due to run out of money on friday unless Congress Passes legislation to fund it. But republicans have sought to tie the funding to a rollback of obamas plan to spare millions of immigrants from deportation. Democratic senator Barbara Mikulski of maryland criticized the deadlock. The coast guard is on the job. Theyre working in the cold. Theyre working in the wind. Theyre breaking up ice not only in maryland, but all over to these frozen ports. And what do we say . Good job, guys . There they are on tv and we love you, but we might not pay you. What is this . They are out there saving lives and were playing parliamentary pingpong. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell has announced he will split the attempts to defund obamas immigration initiatives into a separate bill in order to end the stalemate. A court in texas has stayed the execution of an africanamerican man who has been on death row for 19 years, after his attorneys presented new evidence supporting his innocence. Rodney reed was scheduled to die march 5 for 1996 murder of stacey stites, a white woman with whom he says he was having an affair. But reeds attorneys say a new investigation has uncovered evidence stites was actually killed hours before state prosecutors claimed. The new timeline appears to implicate stites fiancee, jimmy fennell, a former Police Officer now in prison for sexually assaulting a woman while on duty. Officials in houston, texas have cleared a threedecade backlog of more than 6,600 rape kits. The testing turned up 850 dna matches in a national database. Authorities acknowledged some suspects whose dna was in the houston kits committed other crimes while the evidence languished. Houston is one of several cities nationwide with massive rapekit backlogs. Three los angeles Police Officers have avoided criminal charges for shooting an unarmed, disabled veteran on live television. Billy beaird was shot in december 2013 following a car chase which aired live on local news. Beairds father was among those who watched live as beaird got out of the car, raised his hands and was shot 13 times. Prosecutors found the fatal shots hit beaird as he fell or while he was on the ground, but they said there was insufficient evidence to prove the officers didnt fire to defend themselves or someone else. Late last year, police chief charlie beck found the officers violated department rules, but he has not yet determined their punishment. The city approved a 5 million settlement for beairds family. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Mcdonald has apologized for falsely claiming he served in the u. S. Special forces. Mcdonald made the claim last month while speaking with a homeless veteran in a segment that aired on cbs evening news. Army, navy . Army. What unit . Special forces. I was in special forces. Mcdonald actually served in the armys 82nd Airborne Division not special forces. In a statement monday, mcdonald said i incorrectly stated that i had been in special forces. That was inaccurate and i apologize to anyone that was offended by my misstatement. Top climate scientist Rajendra Pachauri has stepped down as head of the u. N. s nobel prizewinning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change amid an investigation in india over sexual harassment. A female researcher at pachauris group the energy and resourcs institute accused him of sending her harassing email and text messages. Pachauris attorneys say his accounts and phone were hacked. Labor unions are heading to the Wisconsin State Capitol today to protest plans by republican Governor Scott walker to sign antiunion legislation. The socalled righttowork bill would undermine the ability of private sector unions to collect dues and collectively bargain. The center for media and democracy has revealed the bill in wisconsin is taken wordforword from model legislation proposed by the rightwing American Legislative Exchange council. Alaska has become the third u. S. State to legalize recreational marijuana. A ballot measure passed by voters in november takes effect today, allowing people ages 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of pot. Fifteen former students of the forprofit Corinthian Colleges system have launched what they say is the nations First Student debt strike. The students have refused to pay back loans they took out to attend corinthian, which has been sued by the federal government for its predatory lending. Meanwhile, an activist group has announced it has erased over 13 million of debt owed by students of everest college, a corinthian subsidiary. The rolling jubilee uses donated funds to purchase debt at discounted prices, then abolish it. And those are some of the headlines, this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. I am amy goodman with aaron mate. Welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Just days before his controversial speech to the u. S. Congress, an explosive report has raised new questions about israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus effort to thwart a nuclear deal with iran. According to al jazeera, israels spy agency, the mossad contradicted netanyahus own dire warnings about irans ability to produce a nuclear bomb within one year. In a leaked cable to South African counterparts in october 2012, the mossad concluded iran was not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons. The assessment was sent just weeks after netanyahu went before the United Nations General Assembly and literally drew a red line. Netanyahu pulled out a cartoonish diagram of a bomb with a fuse to help illustrate woody progress on a nuclear weapon. This is a bomb. This is a fuse. In the case of Irans Nuclear plans to build a bomb, this bomb has to be filled with enough enriched uranium and iran has to go through three stages by next spring, at most by next summer, at current enrichment rates to finished the medium enrichment and move on to the final stage. From there, it is only a few months, possibly a few weeks before they get enough enriched uranium for the first bomb will stop a red line should be drawn right here. Before before iran completes the second stage of nucle enrichment necessary to make a bomb. That was israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in september 2012. The mossad assessment contradicting netanyahu was sent just weeks after, but it was likely written even earlier. It said iran does not appear to be ready to enrich uranium to the higher levels needed for a nuclear weapon. A bomb would require 90 enrichment, but mossad found iran had only enriched to 20 . That number was later reduced under an interim nuclear deal the following year. That 2013 agreement laid the basis for the ongoing talks in geneva this week between secretary of state john kerry and his iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad zarif. The u. S. And iran are seeking a Framework Agreement to curb Irans Nuclear program and impose International Monitoring in return for an easing of u. S. Led sanctions before a march 31 deadline. The talks appear to be gaining momentum, with the involvement of highranking officials from both sides and leaked details of a plan to limit Iranian Nuclear production for at least ten years. They are set to resume next week. The advancing talks and the new leaked cable come just as netanyahu prepares for a controversial u. S. Visit where hell try to undermine the nuclear deal. On march 3, netanyahu will address a joint session of congress on iran at the invitation of Republican House speaker john boehner. The trip has caused a major rift with the white house to the point where obama has refused to host netanyahu for a meeting and Administration Officials are also reportedly withholding details of the talks from israeli counterparts. Speaking last week, White House Press secretary josh earnest said israel has spread false information about the negotiations. Theres no question some of the things the israelis have said in characterizing our negotiating position have not been accurate. With the white house accusing israel of spreading falsehoods the new revelations about israels own intelligence assessments mark the second time in one week tying netanyahu to dishonest claims. The leaked cable appears to have come from inside south africas intelligence service, revealing its exchanges with counterparts around the world, including the u. S. , israel, russia, britain, france, and several arab and african nations. Other revelations so far include cia attempts to establish contact with hamas despite a u. S. Ban and a threat by president obama to force the Palestinian Authority to abandon its bid for u. N. Recognition. More disclosures are expected in the coming days. For more, we are joined by clayton swisher, director of Investigative Journalism at al jazeera, which broke the iran story and several others in a series of articles called the spy cables. He cowrote the piece leaked cables show netanyahus. Welcome to democracy now explain what has happened, what did south africa get a hold of . Is there a South African Edward Snowden . Well, i think after the Edward Snowden experience, someone would have to have their head checked to publicly fess up to being the source of such a leak, given the travails that followed Edward Snowden after he essentially outed himself. This was a digital leak made to al jazeera. One of the reasons people bring information to al jazeera in the past, the palestine papers and other projects, they know we will take every step we can to protect or shield their identity. The way we got these files is not a for discussion. But i will gladly describe for you in unprecedented window into how espionage is conducted, not just in south africa, but the broader continent. What we have obtained is perhaps best thought of if you look at the discarded bag of rubbish you wont know what is inside into you open it up. Similarly in this, it is not rubbish, it is actually very useful information, but it is an absolute assortment of things that are seemingly unrelated but nonetheless, highly newsworthy. There is a high concentration of humdrum, routine intelligence tables within the south African Security services that we came into possession of. In addition, correspondences from a variety of western and Foreign Intelligence Services asking the South Africans to take certain actions or trying to influence the South African Intelligence Services on a certain course of action. It is an absolute fascinating window into how things are done, but it is a fragment in the mosaic. We are missing the rest of the painting, but what we can do is reveal what operational cables we can put into context, and that is why we said were not publishing everything purely, because it wouldnt be in the Public Interest or would not add up to a bigger story in and of itself. So talk about what has emerged on the issue of iran. Talks are picking up between the u. S. And tehran. Just as netanyahu is coming to the u. S. Trying to undermine their deal,