the one nation speakers rally. first, brazil postelection heading to a runoff. the leading candidate will become the first woman to lead brazil. all that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. bank of america has joined j.p. morgan chase in suspending foreclosures in 23 states following relevant -- revelations that employees and lenders had approved thousands of foreclosure affidavits and other documents without proper vetting. in massachusetts, an employee admitted she signed as many as 8000 foreclosure documents and typically did not read any of them because of the high volume. attorneys general in california, colorado, connecticut, and illinois have launched investigations into what seemed to be widespread fraud. it is unknown how many hom owners lost their homes due to foreclosure fraud. banks are expected to seize a record 1.2 million homes this year, a 12-fold increase since 2005. in washington, d.c., reunions and scores of labor organizations gathered for the one nation rally. the focus was jobs, justice, education, and peace. speakers included the rev. allan sharpton. >> we need jobs. we bailed out the banks, the insurance companies. now it is time to bail out the american people. >> we will have more on the rally after headlines. protests are continuing in europe after planned budget cuts and sweeping economic reforms. in france, hundreds of thousands marched on saturday, calling for the president to drop plans to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. iraq seems one step closer to forming a government seven months after parliamentary elections were held. backers of moqtada al-sadr arkansas threw their weight behind prime minister alabama maliki. it is still unclear whether maliki has enough support to form a new government as sunni politicians are threatening to boycott. in brazil, a presidential runoff vote sent later this month after no candidate earn 50% of the election. lula's hand-picked successor dilma rousseff won 46% of the vote. we will have more on what that means. historian wellesley college is uncovering evidence that u.s. government researchers deliberately infected hundreds of guatemalans with syphilis and the diarrhea in the 1940's, in an experiment. details of the study were uncovered by a medical historian. on friday, pj crowley ofhe state department said the obama administration had apologized to the guatemalan government. >> yesterday, the president called the president of columbia to show the shock of this research, and apologize on behalf of the american people. during the course of the conversation, guatemalans was invited fully in the merit -- investigation. >> in pakistan, armed men have set on fire 20 oil tankers carrying supplies for nato troops in afghanistan. it was the third such strike since friday. last week, the pakistani government blocked a supply route after a helicopter attack mistakenly killed three pakistani troops. meanwhile, "the wall street journal" as reported that the u.s. government has started to loan helicopters to aid. a record number of cia drone strikes were launche in september. wired.com has revealed a shell company run by black water has run part of a 10-year $5 billion contract to provide security services to diplomatic missions around the world. and the news blog, upshot has revealed the army has used local cbs television affiliates in georgia and north carolina as training posts for some of its psychological training personnel. active duty soldiers working at the stations, as part of the army's training with industry program, the psyops soldiers learned broadcasting and communications expertise that they can use to influence the motives and ultimately behavior of foreign audiences. three ecuadorean police kernels are under criminal investigation for rebellion and attempted assassination following last week's revolt against rafael correa. on saturday, the president attended the funeral for one of five people killed in last week's unrest. >> the 24-year-old student went through 6000 people to rescue the president. they met him with bullets, tear gas, snipers on a rooftop. how can you call that being police? the police themselves should be the ones to arrest the worst elements. if they had any dignity, they would surrender their weapons, uniforms, badges. they do not deserve to be called police. >> palestinians set fire to a mosque this morning south of bethlehem. a fire damaged parts of the mosque and destroyed about a dozen coppery some of the koran. local fire -- officials say that the fire was caused as protest to the settlement buildi. on saturday, palestinian officials suspended talks with israel and left. >> the palestinian leadership holds responsible for obstructing the negotiations and the political process and the working the political efforts of the american administration,he quartet, and entire international community. likewise, the palestinian leadership confirms the resumption of negotiations requires tangible steps to prove they are serious at the forefront of them, a freeze on settlements, without condition or exceptions. >> two israeli soldiers have been used as using a nine-year old palestinian boy as a human shield by forcing him to search for suspected booby traps in 2009. an attorney said the soldiers are being skate goaded by the israeli military. >> these two are the ones that pay the price for the mistakes of senior people. >> the indicted nations has issued a long-awaited report documented atrocities in the war on the democratic republic of congo that left 5 million people dead. part of the report accuses the rwanda military of war crimes and possibly even genocide. the report said remontant troops and allies killed tens of thousands of members of the hutu ethnic group. the un high commissioner for human rights. >> because the law of war forbids the killings of civilians, it points to crimes against humanity, and in some instances, may amount to genocide. the report makes clear it is only a court of law that can determine what crimes have been suspected of having been committed. >> the rwandan government protested the release of the report and threatened to withdraw from the peacekeeping mission in darfur. rwanda's foreign affairs minister. >> it is a report that is destabilizing for the region. we have seven countries named in the report. none of us have been contacted, none of us were given a chance to respond to accusations. we are accused by anonymous people. >> in political news, new york republican gubernatorial candidate carl paladino is coming under criticism for receiving $3 million in tax breaks by promising new jobs in the buffalo area. according to an investigation, he created only 25 jobs. to justify tax breaks, he sold vacant lots that he owned to himself and then claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars in real property investment. he is a multimillionaire real- estate investor backed by the tea party. the rupert murdoch-owned media giant news corp. has donated another million dollars to a business coalition campaigning against democrats in the election. the donation to the chamber of commerce comes two months after making a $1 million donation to the republican governors association. cnn has fired rick sanchez after calling jon stewart is aa bigot. born in cuba, he was one of the most high-profile the team of journalists on television. from pacifica, this is democracy now! in brazil, 135 million voters cast ballots sunday on a closely watched presidential election. dilma rousseff has succeed president de silva and -- but failed to win the 50% of votes to claim an outright victory. if she wins, she will be the first woman to lead brazil. for the last five years, she has served as the chief of staff. in the 1960's, she was involved in the struggle with the brazilian dictatship. she spoke on sunday night after the results were announced. >> i will face the second round with a lot of strength and energy. on the second round, i will have the opportunity to further detail my proposals. present my projects to eradicate misery and develop the country. >> her main rival is the former mayor of sao paulo. he previously served as state governor and health minister. he won praise for defying the pharmaceutical lobby to market inexpensive generic drugs and free anti-aids medicine. in 2002, he lost the presidential election in a runoff with the law. with 90% of the votes counted, rousseff has won 47% of the vote. the two will face each other in a runoff vote later this month. the green party candidate won 19% of the votes. we are joined on the line now by a professor of the school of arts and communications at the university of sao paulo. joining us in new york is a teacher of latin american history at new york university. his most recent book is called "fordlandia." welcome to democracy now! explain who dilma rousseff it is, and the significance of the election yesterday? >> hello, good to have you with us. >> good to be here. dilma is 63 years old. she was born to a bulgarian father and brazilian mother. she started politics while a student during the dictatorship. she represents the current president movement, who is very popular, but can not run for a third term in a row. so he has strongly campaign for her. she is a tough woman, would be the first brazilian woman to be president. this is actually -- there was another woman, due to her high number of boats yesterday, introduced something new in the election. it will turn to the election in the runoff. distil but is a interesting woman, too. she comes from a very poor background in the northern state in then, where she became a leader. we have a very interesting setting here where two women play a very important role. >> could you talk more about dilma rousseff's will during the brazilian military dictatorship, and what happened? >> she was the member of a short-lived revolutionary organization that populated in brazil during the dictatorship in the late 1960's. she was a university student. it was an organization involved in bank grubbing in order to continue on the -- operations. she was captured in 1970, imprisoned for three years. then she came out and began to work with other social movements to lead brazil to this transition in democracy. >> what was the brazilian democracy -- dictatorship? >> there was a coup in 1968, which was part of a march mar radical right-wing agenda. that ran from 1968 until 1980. there was a coalition of social organizations that eventually coalesced behind the worker's party, people like the law, rank-and-file workers like dil ma. >> da silva, who will not be part of the runoff, born in the amazon, green party activist. >> this is the most populous country in latin america. one of the strongest growing economies in the world, and 70% of the population voted for a former marxist guerrilla war for an afro-brazilian who broke with the worker's party to run on the green party ticket. it would be interesting to know if -- comparing it with germany, for instance -- the green party receiving 20% of the vote. that is a remarkable turnout. >> you are talking about 130 million voters. ester, dilma rousseff will now run against the sec to set up. do you think that she got $0.20 -- 20% of the vote and will not run in the runoff, where will her vote go? >> that is the question everyone is asking today. that is why it is interesting two women have important roles. she has the chance to decide who is going to win in the runoff. it is probably that her party will support -- but she will remain neutral, so it is hard to say what will happen. he is also an economist who was a militant in the anti-ta dictatorship. he was a member of the student union when the military took over. he went to chilly and then came back with amnesty and became a deputy and senator, and then minister of health. then he was the mayor of sao paulo, the governor of the state of sao paulo. he is the oldest candidate, 67 years old. he was a member of the democrats. if he makes an alliance with marina, he has a chance. if not, it is hard to say that he will have more than yesterday. >> could you talk about the role of the mst, the landless movement in brazil? i know that they have an uneasy alliance with lula. >> as a social movement, they have an easy political parties. they always have their own agenda, but they have an important role in pushing brazil to have a more democratic, agrarian structure. although we are now in a good economic situation, and although poverty has decreased in the last 20 years, we are still and the unequal country. the main challenge for the next president is to move ahead and change the structure of the country. i think the reason marina has surprised with her 20% is because she has a discourse of structural change. >> esther hamburger, you have an interesting system in brazil. voters have to vote. people between age of 18 and 70, not voting can result in a small fine, making it almost impossible to get a passport or a government job. talking about 135 million voters, unlike in the u.s., people vote. >> yes, and they like to vote. they talk about the election a lot. the election was the main subjects all weekend, and even today. not only on the media, but people talk about it. it is mandatory to vote, but the fine is pretty low. so it is not that big of a deal, but people like to vote, they know they have a chance to say something, to change something. >> i am wondering if you know this, gregg, in that america for a wise, if there is mandatory voting. if you end up getting more progressive candidates, progressive people tend not to go. >> yes and no. peru does something similar. i do not think venezuela does. bolivia does. the fine is low in brazil. i think there was 85% turnout. i would say that 15% was probably from the poor, social base of the workers party. in the next round, they would probably vote for dilma. >> critical issues in brazil right now? >> what is remarkable is the overlap of gender. this speaks to the success of president lula, leaving brazil a stronger country. not only were these two women of the left, the opposition candidate was not on the right, he was a social democrat. you mentioned in your introduction is challenged to international pharmaceutical regimes, and in a lot of ways, the government ahead of president bill the put into place a lot of social spending. he ran in the shadow of the true heir of lula, although that did not really work. finance interest rates has been his focus. lula has kept them fairly high, despite the recession, as a way to stimulate. for the most part, he has been quite orthodox, keeping the bond markets d international bankers happy. it represents an industrial sector in brazil that wants lower interest rates. domestically, he would also be willing to impose some sort of the liberal reform on labour, which dilma would not do. the workers' party would not go for that kind of reform. it is in foreign policy where you see the biggest difference. this comes back to something that happened just last week, the attempted coup in ecuador. lula left not only brazil stronger but that in america stronger. more specifically, south american solidarity. dilma promises to carry on with that. lula has protected bolivia, ecuador from brazilian economic interests, where as some others may be more willing to go after the smaller countries in the periphery. a lot of that stuff -- not to take credit away from lula -- because he did increase spending, and started a lot of big programs, but he has had two terms to take credit for it. and he should. >> ecuador. what has been talked about as an attempted coup. now police kernels are being brought up on attempted assassination. what is your assessment? >> it is early. the government has made a lot of, i think, accurate accusations that it was not just a spontaneous social protest against austerity. it was too coordinated. it happened so suddenly and it was completely organized. there are some that are dissatisfied with korea and the military. certainly, with the past president gutierrez, who claims to be populist, but is more of an exile in brazil. he called for rafael correa to step down. there is some evidence that he has been behind some of the destabilization. he seemed to have managed the upper hand, and now he is rolling back the state of emergency. it is early to see how it will shake out. correa has had more contentious relationships with social movements compared with other countries. he is not organically linked, in some ways, the way that morales is in bolivia, environmental, social movements. it will be interesting to see how this plays out. >> we will leave it there. thank you for being with us. "fordlandia" was a pulitzer prize nominee. also thank you to esther hamburger from the university of sao paulo. thank you for joining us. when we come back, protests in washington, d.c. we will hear from, among others, harry belafonte. >> more than 100,000 people gathered at the lincoln memorial on saturday to rally for a progressive causes. labor unions, gay rights, including other organizations gathered for the one nation rally. the focus of the day w jobs, justice, and education for all. the rallies on to said that they also hoped to demonstrate that they, not the tea party, represented the nation's majority. the gathering ftured more than four hours of speeches, poetry, and music. we want to bring you some clips of harry belafonte. he began talking about dr. king part --'s march on washington 47 years ago. >> in 1963, martin luther king jr. stood on the steps of this memorial and declared that this nation should come together and embraced its ideals. he said that we should rally together and overcome in justice and racism, and that all citizens should not only have the right to vote, but that we should exercise that right and make america a whole -- america whole. that is why we are here today. but we also had to attend to other grievances. in his "i have a dream" speech, he said america would soon come to realize that the law that we were in at the time, that this nation waged in vietnam, was not only unconscionable, but on winnable. 58,000 americans died in that cruel adventure. over 2 million in the knees and cambodians perished. now today, almost half a century later, as we gather at this place where dr. king parade for the soul of these great nations, tens of thousands of citizens from all walks of life, have come here today to rekindle his dream and once again hope, all america will soon come to the realization that the wars that we waged today in faraway lands are immoral, unconscionable, and unwinnable. [applause] the central intelligence agency in its official report tells us that the enemy we pursued in afghanistan and pakistan, al qaeda, delaware, nonetheless, 50 people. do we really think sending hundreds of thousands of young american men and women to kill innocent civilians, women and children, and antagonizing the tens of millions of people in the whole region somehow makes us secure? does this make any sense? the president's decision to escalate the war in that region alone costs the nation $33 billion. that sum of money could not only create 600,000 jobs, here in america, but would even leave us a few billion to start rebuilding our schools, roads, hospitals, and affordable housing. it could also help to rebuild the lives of the thousands of returning, wounded veterans. dr. king loved this nation. he saw, as all of us have today, that this great nation should not be allowed to perish. his vision was also the vision of abraham lincoln, who understood the evil of slavery and abolishing that eagle saved america. although slavery may have been abolished, crippling poison of racism still persists in the -- and the struggle continues. we have the largest prison population in the wo