Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20140415 : vimarsana.com

KQED PBS NewsHour April 15, 2014

Jetliner has turned to a robotic submarine to scour the ocean floor, diving some twoanda half miles under the sea. Those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by ive been around long enough to recognize the people who are out there owning it. The ones getting involved, staying engaged. They are not afraid to question the path theyre on. Because the one question they never want to ask is, how did i end up here . I started schwab with those people. People who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives. Supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Ifill wall street got the week off to a good start, as stocks recovered ground lost in last weeks selloff. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 146 points to close at 16,173. The nasdaq rose almost 23 points to close at 4,022. And the sandp 500 added nearly 15 to finish at 1,830. A powerful bomb ripped through a bus station in nigeria today, killing 71 people and wounding 124. The blast in abuja was the worst terrorist attack ever in the african nations capital. It destroyed dozens of buses and cars, and left charred, mangled metal amid the blood stains. President Goodluck Jonathan visited the scene and blamed boko haram, the Islamist Group thats killed thousands in nigerias northeast. Ifill a wildfire burned for a third day in valparaiso, chile, as the military moved to evacuate 700 more families. The fire, which erupted saturday, has killed a dozen people, forced thousands to flee and destroyed 2,000 homes. Firefighters worked through the night to contain flames being whipped by Pacific Ocean winds. Today, air and ground crews tried to keep the blaze from consuming even more homes. translated it is very hard to be in a place where you grew up, played, ran, and had a good time, shared with so many people and today no one has anything. To be burned like this, in ruins, its as if a war has happened. Ifill the chilean Forestry Agency warned it could take another 20 days to extinguish the fire. Syria has now shipped out about twothirds of the Raw Materials for chemical weapons that it admits to having. But, the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons said today damascus still has a long way to go to meet a june 30th deadline. A u. N. Agreement mandates that syrias entire chemical stockpile be destroyed by that date. Exposes on government surveillance won Pulitzer Prizes today for the Washington Post and the guardian, in the Public Service category. Their stories were based on leaks by Edward Snowden, a former National Security agency worker. The boston globe won for breaking News Coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing. New york times images of one boston victims recovery took the feature photography prize. The times also won for breaking news photos of the mall attack in nairobi, kenya. In the arts, donna tartt won the Fiction Prize for her novel, the goldfinch. Well have more on the continuing debate over those surveillance stories, later in the program. Also ahead on the newshour the widening unrest in Eastern Ukraine; a look at the deadly shootings near kansas city; myanmar tries to move on after years of rebellion; plus, the robot taking the search for the missing jetliner 15,000 feet under the sea. Federal and state authorities continue their investigation today into the shootings in kansas that left three people dead. Federal authorities confirmed it today, they believe the passover eve shootings at two Jewish Community sites were motivated by we have unquestionably determined through the work of local and federal authorities that this was a hate crime. We needed the verification of some investigation to make this determination. Its more than just an opinion, its actually a legal status. Ifill the suspect in sundays shootings, 73yearold Frazier Glenn cross, also faces state charges of firstdegree murder. Police say that cross is also known as Frazier Glenn miller, a former grand dragon of the ku klux klan. After his arrest, he yelled nazi slogans from a patrol car. The gunmans first target was a popular Jewish Community center, where two people died, a 14 yearold boy and his grandfather, who was dropping him off for a singing competition. They were not jewish. Today the boys mother, mindy corporon, spoke to reporters. People keep saying how come youre so strong and im strong because i have family, im strong because i have faith, i know that god did not do this, i know that there are evil, evil actions but what we do have is each other, and we have love and we have prayer and we have friends. He was with us for wonderful 14 years he had really full life for a 14 year old, and we were very blessed. Ifill a theater coach says she huddled inside, in lockdown, for about 90 minutes with a group of children in her care. It was really scary, i thought that i was fine and under control and when i called my mom and she started crying and then i started crying i kind of just couldnt help thinking of sandy hook, looking around at these very young children, i was really scared. Ifill minutes later, a third person was killed outside a jewish assisted living center, about a mile away. She, too, was christian. In washington this morning, president obama joined in condemning the attack. Nobody should have to worry about their security when gathering with their fellow believers. No one should ever have to fear for their safety when they go to pray. We have to stand unioned against this kind of terrible violence which has no place in our society. Cross has not yet appeared in court. Formal charge kos come tomorrow. They have been keeping an eye on the suspect in this latest crime for some time. Mark potok of the center has more about his history, and beliefs. He joins us from montgomery, alabama. Welcome. So the authorities said today the federal authorities, u. S. Attorney said this is definitely a hate crime. So start off for us, defining what that means. Well, a hate crime simply means a crime that is mood vated largely or in whole by a particular type of prejudice. It varies according to the state law but generally its sexual orientation, race, religion, ethnicity, those kinds of things. So and the classic hate crime is where a person kills another person who he doesnt know at all. And that is precisely what appears to have happened here. It seems that cross allegedly murdered people simply because they were jewish or he thought they were jewish, wrongly. Ifill thats an important point, does it matter whether the victims were actually of the group that he was seeking to terrorize. Thats right t has no legal meaning at all. Its simply what he thought he was doing. Ifill so tell us about franklin cross, what do you know . We have known him as Frazier Glenn miller before he apparently legally changed his name to cross. As a grand dragon of a group called the carolina knights of the include klux clan in the early 80s. He later formed a group called the White Patriot Party. Both of these groups were essentially klan groups but very Para Military in orientation. They marched through the streets with guns. They wore fat agencies that kind of thing. We got involved because we sued the White Patriot Party in the carolina knights over their intimidation of black people in north carolina, and also their operating of a Paramilitary Organization it turned out they were actually being trained and supplied with stolen weapons by active duty marines at ft. Bragg. So it was quite a scandal at the time. Ultimately glenn miller, agreed to break up his group to stop the Paramilitary Organization. He broke that agreement. Was convicted of contempt, went on the lam and was a fugitive until the fbi found him in 1987 in a trailer filled with explosives, with grenades, with weapons. And as it happens, also a plan to murder, to assassinate the founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center where i work, morris dees. Thoughso that was our original encounter with glenn miller. Ifill so if it turns out he indeed is found guilty of a hate crime what is the penalty, more he is vore than if he was just found guilty of an attempted or committed murder . I dont think so. Because i think in this case he can be charged under state law with a capital crime. The federal hate crime statute does not have i Death Penalty provision in any case. There are some civil rights laws that could bring the Death Penalty to bear but i dont think you cant get any worse than death and that is what he is likely going to be tried for in the state. Ifill it is easy to dismiss people who make these kinds of threats of simply being maybe not so simple, unbalanced. How do you make the distinction about when they cross the line into being dangerous in a way they can help head off at the pass these kinds of attacks . Well, two things. One, i think its a mistake to describe all people in the extreme or even most people as mentally ill it that is a way of pushing the way and saying it really has nothing to do with in our society. The reality is our society is changing. We are becoming less white it that of course very much represented in the election of a black president. And people like glenn miller are reacting. Now glenn miller is a particularly vicious and violent man. Certainly in his rhetoric over the years and the kinds of things hes tried to do. You know, there really, but the reality, of course b somebody like glenn miller is that when he says that the world would be a wonderful place if only we killed all the jews, he is 100 protected by the First Amendment to the constitution. So its very hard to look at someone like glenn miller who didnt do much for the last 20 years other than publish propaganda and say he looks like he is about to commit a mass shooting. I dont think there was really any indication that that was coming. Ifill for anybody watching who is a little confused, i want to be clear this man goes by a couple different frames, Franklin Glen cross, glenn miller, Franklin Miller so, Everybody Knows were talking about the same person are. People like this always loners, individuals, or are there conspiracies we should be keeping an eye on or that you are keeping an eye on . Much, much more often than not these days they are loners, socalled lone wolves. And that is largely because conspiracies tend to be found out so very quickly and often quite easyly by Law Enforcement. Also conspiracies when actually a whole group of people actually plan a crime or domestic terrorist attack, they will very likely all go down, if even only one of them is caught. So today almost all of these attacks, certainly the most dangerous attacks come from lone wolves or people with operating with just one or two friends like, for instance, Timothy Mcveigh and the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building in 1995. Ifill at what point, you mentioned tim knee mcveigh, that is an example. At what point do we begin to treat these kinds av tacks as domestic terrorism, not just as hate crimes or individual acts . Well, i mean, they are domestic terrorism. Lets be plain. There is nothing to distinguish this from other forms of terrorism. It is a way n this case. Terrorizing the Jewish Community around kansas city in particular but around the country in general. And thats what terrorism is. Its a criminal act that is aimed at far more people than the immediate victims. You know, the Law Enforcement has been off and on about being candid about the terrorist nature of these attacks. But i think today by and large american law enforce suspect perfectly well aware that there is a very serious domestic radical right and some people within that milieu are, in fact, terrorists. And we expect formal charges to be brought against him tomorrow. Mark potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, thank you very much. A pleasure, thanks for having me. Woodruff now, to ukraine, where the government in kiev appealed today for u. N. Peacekeepers. Thats after prorussian gunmen defied demands to surrender. They now control key buildings in ten eastern cities. We begin our coverage with a report from lindsey hilsum, of independent television news. Shes in ukraine. They may look like a disorganized mob but the authorities in kiev were sure that the men that attacked the police being today were acting on orders from moscow. The crowd that gathered was enthusiastic, but western journalists were not welcomed. The Police Inside didnt get much choice. If they remain loyal to kiev they would be beaten up. The crowd chanted bring the real government. We demand the peoples head of internal affairs in this region this is our only demand, for that person to support the people. All the heads of Regional Administration have switched to the size of the people and refuse to recognize the government in kiev. Reporter one of the intruders raised a russian flag and got rid of the ukrainian colors. A few streets away we saw a group of young men marching around town carrying the russian flag. People seemed unsettled by the turn of events that had no faith in the authorities in kiev. For sure they must consider the opinion of the people in the southeast. They put us down. We want them to hear our opinions. We want a referendum and russian to be an official language. Reporter in the reporter in the regional capital, a Group Calling itself the peoples republic of donetsk has controlled the Municipal Building for more than a week now. The prorussian groups occupying government buildings like this across the Donetsk Region took absolutely no notice of the ukrainian president s deadline this morning. That makes the authorities in kiev look weak. And if president putins aim is to destabilize Eastern Ukraine, hes succeeding. Theyre calling for a referendum on donetsk becoming independent. Sort of. I dont want listen kiev. I dont want to listen europe or United States. Thats why. Reporter what about moscow . Moscow, they are our brothers. Reporter at the entrance to the town of sloviansk, seized by prorussian forces yesterday, they believe they have god on their side. But if prayer is not enough, behind the barricades of tires, they had molotov cocktails at the ready. No need. There was no sign of the anti terror operation to dislodge them, promised by the Ukrainian Government. The man in charge insisted that a local camera crew film us. It would be evidence, he said, if he took us to court for failing to tell the truth as he saw it. translated i speak russian. I live in russia, no, i, i mean in ukraine. Look, the situation is as follows, there are too many provocateurs and thats why we duplicate the video of all the reporters who come here to film. So we can see if you change the information. And we will tell the whole world that yours is the worst channel. Reporter inside sloviansk, crowds gathered. And the men in charge felt secure enough to hold a press conference. translated dear president of the russian federation, Vladimir Putin. We ask you to look personally into the Current Situation and help us to the extent possible. In a sign of unity of the two brotherly nations, we will raise the flag of Donetsk Republic next to the flag of the russian federation. Nothing disorganized about those in control here. They were professional soldiers with all the and they looks uncanily like the men who seized in crimea in february just before a hastily organized referendum and annexation by russia. Woodruff president obama and russian president putin spoke by phone this afternoon, but the white house gave no details. Spokesman jay carney did say the u. S. Is looking for ways to support ukraine, but not with any kind of lethal aid. So who is behind these separatist takeovers in Eastern Ukraine . For an assessment of the situation there we turn once again to adrian karatnycky, a senior fellow at the atlantic council. He just returned from a trip to ukraine earlier this month. And Michael Mcfaul was u. S. Ambassador to russia from 2012 until this past february. Hes now a professor of Political Science at stanford university. Welcome to you both, adrian karatnycky, who are these people, they appear to be in came flouj uniformed, very well armed t seems orchestrated, what is known . It is already known because of conversations on their internal communications that have been revealed by the Ukrainian Security forces that these people are acting under the direction of russian

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