Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20131025 : vimarsana.com

KQED PBS NewsHour October 25, 2013

Support also comes from Carnegie Corporation of new york, a foundation created to do what Andrew Carnegie called real and permanent good. Celebrating 100 years of philanthropy at carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And friends of the newshour. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff there were fresh calls today in europe for the u. S. To rethink its spying activities across the atlantic. Newshour correspondent kwame holman narrates our report. Reporter european leaders wound up a summit in brussels, demanding an end to u. S. Eavesdropping on their people and themselves. Revelations this week said cell phone calls by german chancellor Angela Merkel were monitored by the National Security agency. Also, that thousands of french phone records were collected. Today, merkel joined french president Francois Hollande in calling for a no spying agreement with the u. S. By years end. translated i think the most important thing is to find a basis for the future on which we can operate and as i said today trust needs to be rebuilt, which implies that trust has been severely shaken, and the translated france and germany will take an initiative, we will start discussing the we will make sure that between the various services, we can not only clarify what happened in the past but we can agree upon rules for the future. Reporter the u. S. Has similar agreements dating from World War Two with britain, australia, new zealand and canada. In washington today, state Department Spokeswoman jen psaki said the Obama Administration is ready to discuss the issue. We are happy to have those conversations and listen to our partners around the world as they express their concerns. As we cooperate with those and many other countries on counterterrorism operations, and we expect and are hopeful that that will continue. Reporter meanwhile, in usa today, president obamas assistant for Homeland Security lisa monaco pointed to a review of u. S. Intelligence gathering, commissioned by the president. She wrote, we want to ensure we are collecting information because we need it and not just because we can. But there were also skeptical voices. Republican senator marco rubio of florida whos on the Intelligence Committee said much of the outrage from european leaders is for show. These leaders are responding to domestic pressures in their own country. None of them are truly shocked about any of this. Theyre aware of it because of my third point, and that is everyone spies on everybody. Reporter still, germany is sending its top intelligence chiefs to washington next week and members of the European Parliament will visit, as well. Woodruff well have more on the diplomatic and financial fallout from the surveillance revelations, after the news summary. The federal governments point man for fixing the faulty Health Care Website says most of the road blocks can be cleared by the end of november. Jeffrey zients told reporters today it will take a lot of work, but, in his words, healthcare. Gov is fixable. The Obama Administration also announced that q. S. S. I. One of the companies hired by the government to work on the website will take the lead role in overseeing repairs. J. P. Morganchase agreed today to settle claims that it misled mortgage giants fannie mae and freddie mac about risky Mortgage Securities. The bank will pay 5. 1 billion. Its still negotiating a broader deal with the justice department. The Mortgage Securities lost billions of dollars in value when the housing bubble burst. Wall street finished this friday on a high note. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 61 points to close at 15,570. The nasdaq rose 14 points to close at 3,943 its highest point in 13 years. For the week, the dow was up 1 . The nasdaq was up more than 1. 5 demolition began today on the school in newtown, connecticut where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults last december. The razing of sandy hook elementary is expected to take several weeks. Plans call for every trace of the old building to be removed and a number of townspeople said its for the best. Ive lived in town for 54 years. Ive lived on this street my whole life. Were a very Strong Community and were going to overcome this. Were going to move on and theyre going to put up another Beautiful School and were going to move on. Woodruff the new school is expected to open by december of 2016. In nigeria, the military announced an air and ground assault killed 74 suspected fighters from the Islamist Group boko haram. The offensive targeted two camps in borno state, in the african nations northeast where boko haram has its strongest presence. Also today, the Nigerian Navy said its working to rescue two americans who were kidnapped by pirates this week from an oil supply vessel. Ousted chinese politician bo xilai will spend the rest of his life in prison for corruption and abuse of power. The former member of the ruling politburo lost his appeal today, flanked by security guards in a courtroom in eastern china. Hed been a rising star in the communist party before being engulfed in scandal. Woodruff still ahead on the newshour new limits from the f. D. A. On prescriptions for pain killers; getting ready for a worst case scenario. Plus, shields and brooks on the weeks news and a look inside College Football programs. Woodruff europes anger over surveillance activity by the United States is just the latest Foreign Policy disruption created by leaked information from the National Security archives. Former n. S. A. Contractor Edward Snowden did the leaking. Hes now in moscow, resisting u. S. Efforts to prosecute him for espionage. Ray suarez looks at the fallout from his actions. Suarez it began on june 5, the Guardian Newspaper in london first reported the National Security agency has monitored millions of domestic and International Calls by verizon customers. A day later, disclosures of a Program Named prism that gives the n. S. A. Access to servers of major internet companies. President obama was quick to defend the surveillance. Nobody is listening to your telephone calls. Thats not what this programs about. They are not looking at peoples names, and theyre not looking at content. But by sifting through this so called metadata, they may identify potential leads with respect to folks who might engage in terrorism. Suarez the president insisted the program did not apply to u. S. Citizens or those living in the u. S. But in late june, stellar wind was made public. The program collecting bulk u. S. Email records began under the Bush Administration and continued until 2011. On august 21, the n. S. A. Released court documents, acknowledging it inadvertently gathered thousands of emails a year from americans not connected to terrorism. Meanwhile, objections arose overseas with reports that the u. S. And britain spied on diplomats during the 2009 g20 summit in london. And that u. S. Intelligence bugged the embassies of several key allies as well as European Union offices. translated if it is confirmed that diplomatic representations of the European Union and single European Countries were bugged, we must say that eavesdropping on friends is unacceptable. It is a no go. Were not in the cold war anymore. Suarez on august 30, the Washington Post reported u. S. Intelligence carried out more than 200 Cyber Attacks in 2011 aimed at the likes of iran, russia, china and north korea. And, in september, a brazilian t. V. Newsmagazine reported the n. S. A. Targeted communications of president dilma rousseff. translated meddling in such a manner in the life and affairs of other countries is a breach of International Law and, as such, it is an affront into suarez similar surveillance targeted mexican president pena nieto. Still other reports, showed the n. S. A. Has cracked the security of International Financial transactions, plus americans social media connections. And just today, a new Washington Post account said u. S. Officials fear documents not yet made public could compromise relations with third countries that reportedly aided u. S. Efforts. What impact have the revelations had on u. S. Interests abroad and intelligence operations . P. J. Crowley is a former assistant secretary of state for public affairs, now a professor at George Washington university. And philip mudd, a Senior Research fellow at the new america foundation, held senior positions at the c. I. A. , f. B. I. And the National Security council. P. J. Crowley, these latest revelation, the surveillance of the communication of heads of state and heads of government, is that a serious breach, serious diplomatic problem for the United States now . Is a serious and awkward diplomatic problem for the United States. You know, that said, at the end of the day, interests drive relationship, politics matters. It animates those relationships and the willingness of leaders to stand together in common cause and do whatever needs to be done to keep their perspective countries safe. You know, those relationships also matter. We have been through these stresses and strains before. We when through them with wikileaks, remember that iraq wasnt very popular during the Bush Administration. So im confident that because the relationships with the United States and europe is so deep, is so broad, is so meaningful, well get through this. But it will take some time. Suarez philip mudd, how seriously should we take the furry coming from europe today . I think this is a shortterm problem. As pj suggested, im not sure it is a longterm issue. The issue is not just the revelations and isolation, it is this cascade through the summer and into the fall about spying on americans, spying on citizens in europe, spying on foreign leaders. This cascade is going to, i think, lead to months, maybe a little longer of tensions. These political leaders to to respond. But when Security Services feel a threat, for example a threat from terror cells they will continue to cooperate regardless of what we see at the political level. Suarez but philip, is there a qualitative difference between the germans for instance, knowing that we are looking at their emails and phone calls and actually sharing some of that intelligence with them, and the idea that their chancellors phone is being tapped . I think there is a qualitative difference. I as a former professional look at this and say im not sure what value you get, what the cost benefit is when you look at the chancellors phone. I dont think the cost is worth it im not sure what the value is of those conversation. That said, i could see value at looking at other information across europe, for example telephone numbers that might suggest that someone in europe is talking to a phone number we have on file in a place like yemen so there is a qualitative difference in looking at the leader of an ally country, i think. Pj, are there specific things that get set back during a period like this, trade talks, ongoing consultations over security, things of that nature . Well, i think philip is right that at the intelligence level the cooperation will go on, provided there arent some political decision. And thats item consultations and dialogue that has already started is very meaningful. I think in these kinds of things, theres no bright line between secrecy or surveillance and privacy and intelligence cooperation. Those lines are con stanley being redrawn. And so you know, i am sure that there has been political guidance given to the u. S. Intelligence communities already. You know this is a steep far pulled back so that a jay carney can stay at the white house, whatever he might have been doing before we are not doing that now, we will not do it in the future. So these conversations will go on country by country by country, and new understandings as part of it. In the substance of this you know, we are embarking on new trade negotiations. Privacy issues are something that will be negotiated. There is a difference of view between the u. S. Side and the european side on where that line is drawn. And im sure this will have an impact in terms of the tone and substance of these negotiations going forward. Philip mudd, even amidst news of bugging, high level phone communications, Prime Minister David Cameron in the u. K. Said that this is signaling it to people who mean to do us harm, how to evade and avoid intelligence and surveillance and other techniques. That this is a setback in part because it tips the hand of International Intelligence agencies, as to how were doing this. Is that a loss on these revelations. I think its a potential loss. Lets not overplay that, there a big difference between what you are collecting, the phone cause of a leader, of citizens and countries like france, and how you do it. This is more a conversation about what were doing. It is em bar rags, i dont necessarily think people are learning about sort of the pipes of how we collect this kind of information in a way that could allow them to avoid our surveillance. And furthermore im not sure a terrorist could lock and say hey, theyve given me a clue about how to communicate more securely across the terror network. The embarrassment is what we are doing, not how. Suarez do you agree with that, pj, that in effect there are trails that go cold from this kind of thing . Why dont you just get rid of all your cell phones if you know that the nsa might be listening to the ones youve got . I think through revelations that have come through the snowden affair, back to revelations in 2006, any terrorist, for example, you know, has to know that any time he uses any kind of electronic gear he is leaving digital fingerprints thatco will have an impact. So i agree with that. By the same token you cant dismiss that in the short term, you know, there havent been some, you know, some instance instances where weve lost some intelligence channel because of this. But i think there is this larger question, why would you spy on your friends. I mean think about what we have just gone through in the past 30 days here in the United States. A political circus, surrounding the debt, closing of the government. Im quite confident that leaders overseas turn to their intelligence professionals and said find out what the u. S. Bottom line is here. You know s the United States going to drive over a fiscal cliff and take the Global Economy with it . So understanding the thinking and psychology of not only your adversaries, but also your friends, that actually pave the way to identify shared interests and pursue them together. And quickly, philip, are there assets that need to be rebuilt . Is this going to cost a lot of money as well . I think it possibly will. When you look at the adversaries we really worry about, that is things Like International crime syndicates, terrorists, they are going to be studying it this closely for tactical clues about how they avoid this. It is not this instance in isolation that the chancellors cell phone was intercepted. As pj said if you are a terrorist and dont know your cell phone is being intercepted, are you not a very good terrorist it is the cavalcade of information over the sum their a terrorist will look at the on the internet and find clues about how to avoid it that will cost money to catch up over time. Philip mudd and p. J. Crowley, gentleman, thank you both. Thank you, ray. That. Woodruff online, our chief Foreign Affairs correspondent Margaret Warner writes about the socalled five eyes countries the u. S. And four allies who have agreed not to spy on each other. Woodruff the use of prescription pain killers has grown substantially in the u. S. , providing relief to millions, but addiction to the drugs is also on the rise. More than five billion pills were prescribed to nearly 50 Million People in 2011, according to the most recent government estimates. Now, regulators want to set new limits on how they are used. Hari sreenivasan looks at what the government wants to change. Sreenivasan the painkilling drugs in question contain the narcotic hyrocodone. Its often found in brand name drug such as vicodin or lortab. The f. D. A. Said yesterday that abuse of them has reached epidemic levels in some parts of the country and announced plans to change the way the drugs can be prescribed and refilled. Barry meier of the New York Times has the details. Hes long covered this subject and is the author of an ebook called painkiller. So barry, kind of lay out the chan

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