Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20151016 : vimarsana.com

The assassination complex, the kill chain, and manhunting in the hindus. An unprecedented glimpse into obamas drone wars. Reversesresident obama course on afghanistan. Maintaining our current posture through next year rather than a more rapid drawdown will allow us to sustain our efforts to train and assist afghans forces as they grow stronger. Not only during this fighting season, but into the next one. Amy the longest war in American History has been indefinitely extended. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. President obama has officially reversed course and announced he assaulted the withdrawal of u. S. Troops from afghanistan. Speaking at the white house thursday, obama described the Afghanistan War as vital to our National Security interests and said u. S. Forces will continue to go after al qaeda. First, i decided to maintain our current posture of 9800 troops in afghanistan through most of next year, 2016. Their mission will not change. Our troops will continue to pursue those two narrow tasks that i outlined earlier, Training Afghan forces and going after al qaeda. But maintaining our current posture through most of next year rather than a more rapid drawdown will allow us to sustain our efforts to train and assist afghans forces as they grow stronger. Not only during this fighting season, but into the next one. Amy across the United States military families reacted to the , news. In oceanside, california, the father of an active duty soldier expressed concern over the prolonging of the occupation. I was truly, chile hoping because my son has less than a year to complete his 20 years, i was truly, truly hoping that he would be getting out, but he signed on for two more years prior to this announcement. He and i have some talking to do. Amy we will have more with Jeremy Scahill later on the u. S. War in afghanistan as well as his explosive new report in the intercept called, the drone papers. Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders says a u. S. Tank has forced its way into the afghan hospital destroyed by a u. S. Airstrike sparking concern the , u. S. Military may have destroyed evidence in a potential war crimes investigation. The october 3 airstrike on the hospital in kunduz, afghanistan, killed 12 medical staff and 10 patients. 33 people remain missing. Doctors without borders the u. S. Tanks unannounced and forced entry damaged property, destroyed potential evidence and caused stress and fear. This comes as the Associated Press reports Us Special Operations analysts were gathering intelligence on the afghan hospital days before the airstrike out of suspicion it was being used as a base for the taliban. The intelligence included maps of the regions with a circle drawn around the hospital. The white house has described the u. S. Airstrike on the hospital as a mistake. In news from israel and the occupied territories, local media sources are reporting violence by Israeli Forces is escalating in the west bank cities of ramallah and bethlehem, just as israel says its deploying more troops to the border with gaza. Media sources say Israeli Soldiers have shot and wounded at least a dozen Palestinian Protesters with live or rubbercoated bullets. This comes as the israeli Justice Minister has announced Palestinian Family members of suspected attackers would be stripped of their jerusalem residency rights and social security. At least 32 palestinians and 8 israelis have been killed in the past two weeks of violence in israel and the occupied palestinian territories. On thursday, secretary of state john kerry condemned the violence. Thee strongly condemn terrorist attacks against innocent civilians, and there is absolutely no justification for these reprehensible attacks. And we will continue to support israels right to defend its existence. It is critically important, be restored aslm soon as possible and we, the administration, will continue to stress the importance politically and privately of preventing inflammatory rhetoric , accusations, or actions that could lead to violence. Amy meanwhile, israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is disputing the account of a 13yearold boy who was videotaped bleeding in the streets of east jerusalem. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas claims the boy was executed after he allegedly took part in a stabbing attack. But netanyahu says the boy has been hospitalized and his condition is improving. Israel released photos thursday of the boy in the hospital. Following the photos release, the israeli physicians for human rights issued a statement saying the move was a violation of juvenile law and medical ethics. In news from the campaign trail, Democratic Candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have raised more money than any other candidates over the last three months. Clinton raised 30 million. Sanders, 26 million, despite continuing to refuse to accept Campaign Donations from corporations and super pacs. Ben carson raised 20 million, the most of any other republican candidate. At this point, the 2016 campaign is significantly outpacing recent election cycles in campaign contributions. Half the money raised so far has come from outside groups like super pacs. Meanwhile, republican frontrunner donald trump and his challenger ben carson are threatening to boycott the next republican president ial debate if the host network cnbc dont agree to their demands. They want to limit the debate time to two hours and to inclu the previous Republican Debate stretched on for a full three hours. The debate is scheduled for october 28. This comes after the first democratic president ial debate also sparked controversy, after congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of hawaii said she was disinvited one day after calling for more democratic debates than the six currently scheduled. Meanwhile, a close friend of Vice President joe biden has released a letter to bidens former staffers saying that he will be making a decision soon on whether to join the 2016 president ial election. The letter also asks the staffers for their support and involvement should joe biden declare his candidacy. Cnn reports a senior democratic official has said the Vice President will likely decide within the next three days. A frequent fox news commentator and chargedested for falsely claiming to have worked for the cia for decades. Wayne simmons said he worked as a outside Paramilitary Special Operations Officer for the cia from 1973 to 2000. A claim u. S. Prosecutors say is false. Simmons allegedly tried to use his phony record to get Government Security clearances and to secure work as a military contractor. He was identified as a cia operative in appearances on fox news. Simmons frugally made dubious claims such as is generally statement that their at least 19 paramilitary muslim Training Facilities in the United States. After his arrest, fox news that yet only appeared as an unpaid guest. Simmons is charged with major fraud, wire fraud, making false statements to the government. He faces up to 35 years in prison. Volkswagen has issued a mandatory recall of 8. 5 million cars across europe, amid the scandal over its installation of emissionscheating software in its diesel cars. This comes after germany ordered volkswagen recall 2. 4 million cars. Volkswagen was required to extend the recall thursday to all european cars under European Union regulations. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has declared a state of disaster in a Central Texas county after a wildfire destroyed nine homes and sent dozens of people fleeing for their safety. The hidden pines fire in bastrop county, texas, covers more than 4000 acres and is only 15 contained. Meanwhile, a Global Insurance company has estimated that californias wildfires this summer caused nearly 2 billion in damage. The fires were among the worst in state history. Governor jerry brown has connected the fires to Climate Change and californias historic drought warning this is the , future. In news from europe, an afghan refugee has been shot and killed by bulgarian Border Guards while trying to cross from turkey. The United Nations Refugee Agency says it was the first case of a Fatal Police Shooting of a refugee on the eus borders. This comes as the European Union and turkey have agreed upon a plan for turkey to stop refugees fleeing conflict from crossing by sea into europe. In exchange, european leaders will give turkey billions more in aid money, to ease restrictions for turkish citizens traveling to europe and to restart turkeys longstalled negotiations to join the European Union. This comes a the world bank meanwhile, is considering a plan to compensate syrias neighboring countries for the cost of hosting refugees for long. The time. The second point to emphasize, we recognize for many of these countries, there is a cost associated with hosting refugees and so they need to be compensated. To enterite prepared into that dialogue with our shareholders as to how we support the compensation of countries. And in particular, the middle Income Countries that often do not have access to concessional resources. And that is the conversation that is taking place. Amy in nigeria, at least 14 people have been killed in two suicide bomb attacks in the northeast borno state. The attacks hit a mosque during prayer hour thursday. This comes one day after 5 people were killed in bombing attacks the day before. No one has taken responsibility for either attack, but authorities said they suspect boko haram. This week, president obama announced the us would be dispatching 300 troops to the neighboring country of cameroon to fight boko haram. In michigan, the family of a 17yearold teenager who was shot and killed by an eaton county sheriffs sergeant after a february traffic stop has filed a federal lawsuit against over his death. Sergeant Jonathan Frost stopped Deven Guilford after the teenager flashed his bright lights at the sergeant because he thought the sergeants brights were on. When deven did not give sergeant frost his drivers license which , he had left with his girlfriend, frost pulled the teenager out of the car, ordered him to lie on his stomach, and fired his stun gun into the teenager as he handcuffed him. According to the eaton county prosecutor, some form of altercation then ensued, in which sergeant frost shot guilford seven times in a snowfilled ditch. Guilford was unarmed. His family filed a wrongful death suit against sergeant frost and the county four months wednesday, after sergeant frost was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. Frost remains on active duty. Both frost and devon were quite. In a recent episode of showtimes hit series airbag featured arabic graffiti homeland is racist and there is no homeland turko three said they were behind the three artists say the graffiti was in protest of the tv series false and misleading stereotypes of muslims. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. One of the most secretive military campaigns in u. S. History is under the microscope like never before. In a major expose based on leaked government documents, the intercept has published the most indepth look at the u. S. Drone Assassination Program to date. The drone papers exposes the innerworkings of how the drone war is waged, from how targets are identified to who decides to kill. They reveal a number of flaws, including that strikes have resulted in large part from Electronic Communications data, or signals intelligence, that officials acknowledge is unreliable. The documents also undermine government claims that the drone strikes have been precise. During one fivemonth period of an operation in afghanistan, 9 out of 10 casualties were not the intended target. And among other revelations, the documents also corroborate previous reports that all foreign males in a target zone have been treated as militants unless they are proven innocent after death. Amy the documents were leaked to the intercept by an unnamed u. S. Intelligence source who says he wanted to alert americans to wrongdoing. With obvious comparisons to nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden, snowden himself weighed in, tweeting out when we look back on today, we will find the most important National Security story of the year. In a statement, Amnesty International said the leaks should spark an independent congressional inquiry over whether the usa has systematically violated international law, including by classifying unidentified people as combatants to justify their killings. The leaks include detailed files on the drone war in afghanistan just as president obama has announced his plan to again delay the withdrawal of u. S. Troops and extend the occupation of afghanistan indefinitely. For more we begin with Jeremy Scahill, cofounder of the theintercept. Com and coauthor of the, drone papers series. His contributions to the series include the articles, the assassination complex and find, fix, finish. His latest book, dirty wars the world is a battlefield, is out in paperback. His film, dirty wars, was nominated for an academy award. He is also the author of the bestselling book, blackwater the rise of the worlds most powerful mercenary army. In our next segment, we will be joined by his coauthors, Ryan Devereaux and cora currier. Jeremy, astounding revelations. Why dont you first summarize what you have learned. The first drone strike outside of declared war zone happened in november 2002 in yemen. And in that strike, it was a cia operation with the military and the whole thing was coordinated out of command center in washington, d. C. Six people were killed, including an american citizen. At that time, condoleezza rice, senior official in the bush a administration, was defending the right of the president of the United States to assassinate individuals, including u. S. Citizens, based on intelligence they never had to make public. There wasnt another drone ,trike in yemen until 2011 2012, the Obama Administration really starts to intensify Drone Operations in yemen. Despite the fact that at times pakistan was being bombed once every three days by drones, you had an active Drone Program in afghanistan, it wasnt until may of 2013 that a sitting u. S. President gave an official address where he acknowledged that drones were being used by the United States. It was a scenario where you would have the president making jokes about killing the Jonas Brothers at the White House Correspondents Association dinner, he would talk about it on a google hangout in response to questions from people talking to the president , but they never really fully owned this thing in public. What we published is an extensive look into how this program has operated historically, but specifically, under president obama. One of the most significant findings, and my colleague cora currier dug deep into this, we published for the first time the kill chain, what the bureaucracy of assassination looks like. Theseat you see is all of officials, including people like the treasury secretary, are part of signing off on all of this. Where they have these secret meetings and they discuss who is going to live and die around the world. At the end of that process, it is the president of the United States who signs what amounts to a death warrant for whoever they decided should die based on what amounts to a parallel secret judicial system in the u. S. That is not really subjected to any kind of judicial review, where the president asked sort of as emperor, issues and needed that you die. What we show, and this is the first documentary evidence, the president gives the military a 60 day window to hunt down and kill these individuals. Watchth from human rights pointed out today if the standard is that the people who are being targeted for assassination is that they represent an imminent threat, which is what the president says u. S. Policy is, then why do they have 60 days to do it . Why dont they need to do it now if it is imminent . They have redefined the term imminent to be so vague as to not even resemble its actual commonly understood definition. Juan one of the things that struck me, your finding that so much of the information upon which they base these at