Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20140703 : vimarsana.com

Woodruff from outlaw to legend, Willie Nelson discusses his first album of selfwritten material in more than fifteen years. Well i think i innately knew that music draws people together and that good music is liked by almost everybody, you know people are going to like, because you like it. Woodruff those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. 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. 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 Tropical Storm arthur neared hurricane strength in the Atlantic Ocean today. By late in the day, it was centered roughly 200 miles south of charleston, south carolina. It could skim the outer banks of North Carolina tomorrow. A swath of about 200 miles of North Carolina coast is now under a hurricane warning on this week that brings fourth of july vacationers. Arthur is the first named storm of the atlantic season. A bipartisan Government Panel reported today the National Security agencys internet surveillance is an effective tool against terrorism. The privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a group appointed by the president , said the socalled prism program, under a provision of the foreign Intelligence Surveillance act, section 702, is constitutional. David medine chairs the board. Overall the board has found that the information the program collects has been valuable and effective in protecting the National Security and producing valuable foreign intelligence information. Outside of this fundamental core, certain aspects of the section 702 program do raise privacy concerns and push the Program Close to the line of constitutional reasonableness. Woodruff the panels report on internet surveillance contrasted sharply with its earlier finding on phone data collection. It said that effort lacked a viable Legal Foundation and should be shut down. The federal department of Homeland Security is moving to increase security at overseas wairps direct flights to the United States. News accounts today said u. S. Officials are concerned7umyc opd yemen are trying to create bombs to smuggle on to planes. The new security measures will take effect in the next few days. Officials did not specify which airports are affected. Israeli police and palestinian youths fought street battles in jerusalem today, as a new cycle of violence loomed the clashes were triggered by the murder overnight of a palestinian teenager. Lindsey hilsum of independent Television News reports from jerusalem. Reporter the clashes began this morning after a 16yearold palestinian boy was allegedly kidnapped by israeli youths in a van and his burnt body dumped in a forest in jewish west jerusalem. The air is acrid from the smoke of tires that the palestinian youths are burning as they throw stones at the Israeli Security forces. This seems to have been what some israelis call price tag, a revenge killing. Extreme israelis, possibly settlers, taking revenge for the killing of the three jewish teenagers in the west bank. Reporter mohamed abu khadeir was outside the mosque when he was seized. The police have c. C. T. V. Footage from a next door shop that apparently shows what happened. Inside the family home, his relatives sit in shock, they say translated for three people they turned the world upside down. But nobody cares about my son. Reporter last night a crowd of extremist israelis rampaged through the streets of jerusalem shouting death to the arabs. They attacked five arab men, two of whom ended up in hospital. This Morning Jewish settlers reportedly burnt a barn on a palestinian farm near nablus this morning. The graffiti in hebrew reads price tag, jewish revenge. This afternoon they held the funeral of mohammed abu khadeir, a palestinian boy in the wrong place at the wrong time. The danger now is that someone will exact vengeance for his killing and the cycle of revenge will never end. Woodruff in washington, the white house called the killing of the palestinian boy a despicable act. It urged both sides to tamp down calls for revenge. Woodruff in eastern ukraine, Government Forces say they carried out more than 100 attacks on prorussian rebels. The offensive began yesterday after countrys leaders let a ceasefire lapse. Meanwhile, Foreign Ministers from france, ukraine, germany and russia met in berlin. German chancellor Angela Merkel warned that moscow may face additional sanctions. translated regarding sanctions against russia, we have so far reached level two and we cannot rule out having to go further. We discussed this as well with the ukrainian president and many issues will be further discussed in connection with this issue. But no decision has been made yet. Woodruff later, the ministers agreed on a series of steps leading toward a possible resumption of the ceasefire. Police in hong kong forcibly removed hundreds of sitin protesters in the citys financial district today. Officers moved in around 3 00 a. M. After issuing a series of warnings to demonstrators who locked arms with each other. More than 500 were arrested. The protesters had staged an overnight sitin, following yesterdays mass march demanding elections free from mainland chinas control. Woodruff on wall street today, the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 20 points to close at another record high, 16,976. The sandp 500 added one point to finish at 1,974, also a new high. And the nasdaq fell about a point, to 4,457. Still to come on the newshour the alleged mastermind behind the 2012 benghazi attacks appears in court; iraqi kurds contemplate independence from baghdad; heroics and heartbreak for the u. S. At the world cup; how the Civil Rights Act changed the nation; alleged fraud halts progress in afghan elections; and country legend Willie Nelsons new album. Woodruff the militia leader accused of involvement in the 2012 attack on an american diplomatic compound in benghazi, libya, had his second day in an American Federal Court today. Abu khattala was captured last month by the u. S. Military. This past saturday he pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges. The attack resulted in the death of four americans including the u. S. Ambassador to libya, christopher stevens. Here to tell us more about this case and what happened today is New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt who was in the court room. Michael, welcome to the newshour. Tell us, what did you see . What did you hear . Today was fairly uneventful. It started with ten minutes in the courtroom where they couldnt get the hearing device that mr. Khatalla was supposed to wear to hear his translator to work. It was sort of embarrassing for the court. After this the government came in and laid out their case for why they think he should continue to be held. It was similar to papers they had filed last night in which they said he continued to plan threats, i mean, plan thoughts against the United States in the past few months. And they said he had nowhere to go in the United States because he has no family here and he was likely to flee. After that his lawyer came up and said, look, we cant really question your contention that you want to hold him, but we do have some concerns about the case. You havent really provided us with a lot of evidence to back up what youve said about my client, and from there the government came back and said, well, we gave you some stuff and well be giving you more over next few days. The judge order for him to remain in detention and that was it. Woodruff well, did the government provide any evidence linking khatalla to what happened . The government has yet to provide any evidence that he was involved in the killings. That has not happened yet. What the government has said is it has videotape and eyewitness accounts that show that he was at the mission when they went back there after the first fires were set, and then he was with other of his militia members at one of their Training Camps before theyn ; annex and attacked that and killed two more americans. They have not given specific information, though, on his role in any of the violence. Woodruff but youre saying theyre suggesting they have that kind of evidence or north . Theyre suggesting they have that. The thing here is they have not played all their cards yet. They have only indicted him on one count. Thats a count of conspiring, a terrorist conspiracy charge. They havent gone as far as the murder charges yet because theyre still working on that evidence and theyre looking at what he said and what other stuff that they may have. So they. We have not seen everything yet. Weve only seen a little. Woodruff as you just reported, his lawyer, the publicly appointed or the governmentappointed public defender challenged them on the evidence. Is this going to be the defense . Or is this just the early, i guess, posturing . This is still very early. This is sort of posturing. The government, i find it hard to bereave the government would have gone all the way over to libya and used the Defense Department to do that without having a lot of evidence to base their case on and too bring him all the way back here. I think what the lawyers trying say, hes trying to push the government as far as she can to learn as much as she can as possible. Its undleer unclear what her client told her. As she said today, i have to look at press reports to learn what the government knows. Woodruff michael, tell us, how did khatalla look . How did he behave . Hes very calm. There have been no outbursts. Hes said very little. First day he had black sweatshirt and sweatpants. It was not a typical uniform by someone in jail. Today he was wearing a green jumpsuit that said prisoner on the back in white lettering. Woodruff is very much known, im sorry if youre having trouble with your ear piece, but is very much known about what happened to him on navy ship where he was held while they were bringing him to the u. S. . What we do know is he spoke with the interrogators. There he spoke with them as part of a sort of intelligencegatherrering discussion. They were trying to question him under a Public Safety exemption that allowed them to ask him what did he know about planned attacks or about past attacks or about anything that may sort of impact Public Safety. Beyond, that we know that hes cooperated with them. Hes told them what he[bhinq ÷c happened on that day, but what we dont know is whether hes told them anything about his role in it. We dont believe hes incriminated himself. Woodruff just quickly finally, michael, what happens next . Well, hes scheduled to appear before a judge next week, and this is the judge who will be handling the case. The first two judges hes seen have just been judges hes give an plea to and who have discussed his detention. Next week its the judge who is going to have the actual case. Could the jung set date for a trial . Possibly. But probably there will be more discussion tact evidence in the case, about the indictment, about what else the government may have. So we really wont get to sort of that meaty stuff until then. Woodruff all right. Michael schmidt with the New York Times. We thank u. Thanks. Woodruff now to the crisis in iraq, where dozens more were killed today. Here in washington, kurdish leaders are making their case for independence, despite pleas from the Obama Administration to keep iraq intact. Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports. Warner the city of tikrit has echoed with gunfire this week, as iraqi troops battle to regain control from sunni militants of the Islamic State, or i. S. I. L. Today, 100 miles away, in baghdad, Prime Minister Nouri Almaliki warned iraqs neighbors that the fighting there is just a sample of what could face them too. translated whether its alqaida or i. S. I. L. , their transformation to a caliphate is a message to all states in the region that you are inside the red circle now. I. S. I. L. Talked about the state of iraq and the levant and now talks about a caliphate. No one in iraq or any neighboring country will be safe from these plans. Warner maliki voiced hope that Iraqs Parliament will agree on a new unity government next week. But the shiite political leader gave no indication hed bow to pressure from sunnis and kurds to step down. Iraqi kurds have enjoyed autonomy in northeastern iraq since the 1991 gulf war. Millions of other kurds live in parts of iran, turkey, and syria. Now, iraqs kurds are taking advantage of baghdads battle with the insurgents. On june 12th, they took control of the oilrich city of kirkuk, a longrunning point of dispute with baghdad. Oil deposits that would eliminate any need for funding from iraqs central government. At the same time, their peshmerga militia blocked encroachments by i. S. I. L. Fighters, and fortified new frontlines. And, kurdish leaders are vowing to hold a vote on independence, a move Prime Minister maliki denounced today. translated nobody has the right to take advantage of the current situation. Saying we are going to hold a referendum on establishing an independent kurdish state. I tell the Kurdish People now that this will hurt you and it will send the region into a disarray that you will not be able to get out of. Reporter the u. S. Is also concerned. Secretary of state john kerry met in erbil last week with kurdish president Massoud Barzani last week, urging him to works things out with baghdad. Today, in washington, kerry received other kurdish leaders, including Falah Mustafa bakir, Foreign Relations chief for Kurdish Regional government. I spoke with bakir this morning. Prime minister bakir, thank you for joining us. Thank you. We have seen the collapse of the iraqi army up in the northern part of the country, in the face both the sunni militants from the Islamic State of iraq and your own kurdish fighters who seized all this territory up there, including kirkuk. Are we simply seeing the collapse of the iraqi state . Iraq as state did not exist that much. Iraq is an artificial state. Whats built on old foundations will not be able to survive. We as kurds have suffered a lot. We pay the price of keeping the balance between sunnis and shias in iraq. Time has come in order to correct that critical mistake. Were not ready to pay more prices for the instability of that area. The iraqi army collapsed because it was built or rebuilt on old foundations. It was not an army in order to protect the country and the people of the country. It was used against the kurds when we had political differences with baghdad. Therefore we lost hope in the new iraq. This was not the iraq that we have contributed so positively, and this was not the iraq that the americans have sacrificed their lives for. Warner so this additional territory the kurds have taken, youre building fortifications around it now, this is for good . We have not taken new territory. It was our territory that was taken by others. So we have waited for ten years in order to implement a threestage process of normal ization. Indeed, we have been betrayed. We did not find partner, so therefore, today we proved in to protect the people of theseqn areas, regardless of their national, ethnic and religious backgrounds. We said that its the people of these areas in a referendum, they will decide whether they want to be part of kurdistan or not. Were not when president barzani says there will be referendum and independence, thats for certain, and if, so how soon . We have done everything we can to help the political process succeed, but it did not succeed. People are not ready for sharing the power and wealth. People are ready only for monopolization of power, for denying others power. Therefore we are determined to go ahead with the referendum. Its the people of kurdistan who would determine their own future, and we hope the International Community will understand our position. In the last decade or so, we have introduced a successful government. We are land of stability. We are proud of our cultural tolerance and peaceful coexistence. Is that your message to the administration coming here, that essentially you have not left iraq, iraq left you, baghdad left you, and now the kurds are going their own way . Not only baghdad left us, baghdad betrayed us. Therefore we are working on two paths. One path to help the political process in baghdad. If there were any hope for it to succeed, otherwise we have to go our own way for the people of kurdistan to determine that. We hope that the u. S. Administration understands our position, looks at kurdistan for what it stands for. We have been the most loyal and faithful friend and ally of the United States. We stand for the same values that you stand for freedom, democracy,