Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20130802 : vimarsana.co

Ns Surveillance Program is coming under increasing criticism in washington from an unlikely bipartisan coalition. We will speak with republican huggers member Thomas Massie of kentucky and democratic congressman or her john conyers of michigan on their efforts to tracking everyom phone call in the United States. It is my fear that we are on the verge of becoming a surveillance state, collecting billions of electronic records on lawabiding americans every single day. Then, a National Strike for a living wage and the right to unionize in the fast food and retail sectors spreads across 7 cities. [indiscernible] we cannot support our families on what we make. Workerill speak with one who went on strike. He is a father of three who works at both burger king and pizza hut. All of that and more coming up. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The Obama Administration is reconsidering plans for a summit with russian president Vladimir Putin next month after russia granted a year of temporary asylum to National Security Agency Whistleblower Edward Snowden. On thursday, snowden left the moscow airport where he had been sheltering for more than a month while the United States sought his return to face espionage charges for revealing nsa spy programs. In a Statement Released by wikileaks, Edward Snowden said a russian lawyer for snowden said he is set to begin a new life in russia. We will have more on snowden and the latest nsa leaks after headlines with two members of congress were trying to defined the nsas all collection of phone and data records Democrat John conyers of michigan and Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie. Says iraq hasions closed out its deadliest month in more than five years following a wave of sectarian bombings and shootings. In total, the violence killed 1057 iraqis and injured more than 2300 in july. Many of the attacks focused on iraqs shiite majority which leads the government. In egypt, supporters of former president Mohammed Morsi are. Aunching new protests today the interimedge by government to gradually clear out morsi supporters who have been occupying cairo squares, protesters said thursday they will remain in place. We will not evacuate the square until Mohamed Morsi is returned to power and legitimacy and the parliament returns. Thats all we did thats all. A peaceful message is more powerful than bullets. It is more powerful than bullets. President obama and the yemeni president met at the white house thursday and pledged to Work Together to repatriate yemeni prisoners held at guantanamo. Human Rights Groups criticized obama for failing to lay out concrete steps for the transfers. Of the 86 guantanamo prisoners cleared for release or transfer, 56 are yemeni. The meeting between obama and president hadi came just hours after a u. S. Drone strike in yemen killed four people. I Yemeni Security official said the victims were al qaeda suspects. It was the third u. S. Strike in yemen in five days. Secretary of state john kerry told pakistanis on thursday he hopes the u. S. Strikes in their country very, very soon. He made remarks in a Television Interview following a meeting with the pakistani prime minister. He claimed president obama has a very real timeline for ending the drone strikes. Thewhile, investigation by bureau of Investigative Journalism solidifies claims the cia targeted rescuers at the scenes of earlier drone strikes in pakistan last year. A report by pakistani journalist commission by the bureau found five socalled double tap strikes took place in mid2012, 1 of which also struck a mosque. In total, the attacks killed 53 people in injured 57. A parallel investigation by the legal Charity Reprieve found 8 pakistani civilians died in one double tap strike last july. Afghan officials said nato helicopter that was called to assist Afghan Police at a highway check point opened fire and mistakenly killed five afghan officers. A spokesperson for the governor in the Eastern Province said the Police Officers had come under fire and called for air support from nato. Spokespeople for the usled interNational Security Assistance Force in afghanistan provided a slightly different version of the incident to the associated press, saying the nato helicopter killed five Afghan Soldiers during an operation involving both international and afghan troops. They said an investigation is underway. As the u. S. Army has launched a new investigation into allegations it special forces have abducted and killed afghan civilians. Afghan president karzai briefly ordered a band u. S. Troops in earlierince of wardak this year over claims of the abuse and disappearance of nine u. S. N prisoners read the military has denied involvement in the abductions. An afghan translator recently arrested for his alleged involvement has accused the u. S. Forces he worked with of committing the abuses. The translator says he knows of three afghan civilians who were handed over to the u. S. Forces alive only to later turn up dead. The United States is closing a number of its diplomatic post around the world on sunday citing unspecified security concerns. Departmente spokesperson did not elaborate on the nature of the threat against u. S. Facilities, but said its possible some may remain closed for more than a day. The department of state has an drug did has instructed to suspend operations on sunday, august 4. At the department has been apprised of information that of an abundance of caution and care for our employees and others that may be visiting our installations indicates we should institute these precautionary steps. The United Nations has chemical weapons inspectors are poised to enter syria after the syrian president Bashar Alassad agreed to allow them to gather firsthand evidence for the. Irst time the inspectors will investigate three sides of alleged chemical weapon use, including one outside a let go where at least 30 people died in march. The alassad regime and antigovernment rebels each blame each other for the attack read on thursday, the steering observatory for human rights said a rocket attack by rebels on an arms dump old at least 40 people in the central city of homs. A prominent blogger has been arrested him for rain days after the ruling monarchy vowed to intensify crackdown on antigovernment protest. The blogger has also worked as an assistant to foreign journalists visiting bahrain. Earlier this week, the regime backed a proposal to ban demonstrations in the capital and impose penalties including revoking citizenship on protesters convicted of violence. Uruguay is set to become the first country to fully legalize marijuana. He would create a state controlled Legal Marijuana market where the people would be allowed to grow a limited amount of marijuana in their homes and purchase it from pharmacies after entering their names in the federal register he. The bill now goes to the burglary and where it is expected to pass. There are going president has touted the bill as a way to undermine the legal drug trade, which he termed a monopoly of mafias. And washington, d. C. , dozens of immigrant leaders and allies were arrested thursday after blocking a major intersection is the capital to call for the passage of conference of Immigration Reform as Congress Prepares for summer recess. More than 40 people were detained, including some who are undocumented, as they protested republican efforts to increase Border Security wut providing a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants read later in the day, more protesters were arrested for blocking the hallway outside the office of Republican House speaker john , who so far has refused to take up the senate bill that includes a path to citizenship. This week, Illinois Democratic Congress member Luis Gutierrez noted 44,000 people will be deported before Congress Reconvenes early next month. Has confirmed obama nominee Samantha Power as the next u. S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Power served as obama senior foreignpolicy adviser during his first run for the white house before being forced to resign for calling Hillary Clinton a monster. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for her book a problem from hell america and the age of genocide. Progressives has accused her of ignoring this bike atrocities will supporting humanitarian intervention abroad. President obama has tapped a former pervert restructuring expert to oversee the irs. John koskinen oversaw the overhaul of mortgage buyer freddie mac during the financial crisis and served as Deputy Director of the office of management and budget under president clinton. Statement, obama called him an expert in reform. The irs has faced scandal over scrutiny of certain political groups to apply for taxexempt status. In ohio man who held three women captive for a decade while repeatedly raping them has been officially sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole free at real castro pleaded guilty last week to hundreds of kidnapping and rape charges in the forced imprisonment of three women who all escaped in may. On thursday, castro delivered a ringling statement before his sentencing, apologizing to his victims but also claiming a consented to sex with him. Survivor Michele Knight confronted him in court. I remember all of the times that you came home pointing out what everybody else did wrong. You said, at least i didnt kill you. You took 11 years of my life away and now have got it back hell. Spent 11 years in now your hell is just beginning. I will overcome all of this that hellned, but you will face for eternity. A federal jury in new york has found a former Goldman Sachs Vice President dubbed the fabulous fabric liable for fraud in a civil case over a Mortgage Backed securities deal that cost investors 1 billion. Jurors found Fabrice Tourre intentionally misled investors in the lead up to the financial crisis by sick with a hedge fund on Investment Scheme destined for implosion. Piecesthe more notorious of evidence was an email he wrote to a girlfriend saying Fabrice Tourre could face a fine or be banned from the industry. Calls fors rejected an independent probe of the fbis Fatal Shooting of an unarmed chechen men question for his ties of the Boston Marathon bombers in may. Agents were questioning him at his apartment in orlando when he allegedly tried to attack them. For multiple anonymous claims that he was armed, it emerged that he had either a knife or a gun. In a statement, the aclu, which had asked for the rejected probe, said a federal court is weighing a bid by gerald civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart to obtain compassionate release from prison. The 73yearold grandmother, stewart is fighting stage four cancer that has metastasized, spreading to her lymph nodes, shoulder, bones and lungs. She is serving a tenyear sentence of federal prison after being found guilty of just riveting press releases on behalf of her jailed clients, egyptian cleric omar abdel rahman. The federal bureau of prisons recently denied her transfer to a hospital despite the recommendations of her prison warden. And a new court filing, stewarts attorneys right on wednesday, supporters in new york rallied outside a federal courtroom where the arguments in the case were heard. Robert boyle, an attorney with Lynne Stewarts defense team, says he expects a decision as early as next week. , even from thet time she was arrested, even the government has never said she was a threat to anyones safety breed and so what really basis can they have in her condition to keep her incarcerated . It is inhumane, it is cold, it is all of that. I could go on and on. In i think the judge today giving a next but i did scheduling is treating it seriously at a very minimum and hopefully, will do the right thing next week for you according to doctors, Lynne Stewart may have less than a year to live for it you can go to democracynow. Org for our previous coverage of her case. Those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. And vice obama President Joe Biden met with a group of tall top lawmakers thursday to discuss growing concerns about the nsas broad Surveillance Programs. The meeting occurred just hours after russia granted nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden tipperary asylum for a year. Snowden was the source behind a number of recent weeks about the nsas ability to conduct surveillance across the globe. Most recently, the Guardian Newspaper revealed the existence of a secret program called xkeyscore that gives nsa analysts realtime access to nearly everything a typical user does on the internet including emails, chats, and browsing history. The guardian has also revealed the u. S. Government has paid more than 150 million to the q over they agency gch last few years to secure access to and influence over britains intelligence gathering programs. On thursday, White House Press secretary jay carney criticized russia for granting snowden asylum. We are extremely disappointed the russian government would take this step despite our very clear and lawful requests in public and in private that mr. Snowden expelled to the United States to face the charges against him. Mr. Snowden is not a whistleblower. He is accused of leaking classified information and has been charged with three felony counts, and he should be returned to the United States as soon as possible where he will be accorded full due process protections. This move by the russian government undermines a long standing record of law ,nforcement cooperation cooperation and has recently been on the upswing since the Boston Marathon bombings. Russias decision to grant Edward Snowden asylum comes at a time when the white house is coming under intense criticism from an Unusual Coalition of democrats and republicans over the nsa Surveillance Programs. Last week the house duly passed a measure that would have prevented the nsa from using the patriot act to collect phone records of individuals who are not under investigation. The measure failed by a narrow 217 to 205 margin. The bill was written by republican democrat duo from michigan. Meanwhile, group of lawmakers including Republican Congress of indiana rokita democratic commerce member adam schiff of california have introduced a bill entitled the ending secret law act. This would require Public Disclosure of opinions from the foreign Intelligence Surveillance court. We go now to capitol hill where were joined by to Congress Members, Democrat John conyers of michigan and raking member of the House Judiciary Committee and republican Thomas Massie of kentucky, who cosponsored the amendment to limit nsa surveillance. We welcome you both to democracy now let us begin with Congress Member john conyers. You were the sponsor of this amendment, you cosponsored with amash, a republican from michigan. Why now . What are you calling for . And tore calling for the this metadata end to this metadata of phone numbers of everyone in the United States of forica without any regard criminal investigation going on or anything else. Is toint we are aiming at have relevance, which is written into the section 215 of the patriot act, be observed and adhered to which it wasnt read what theyre doing is creating a haystack in which to put a needle. Commerce member Thomas Massie , republicans and democrats are not usually known for work