U. S. Troops will remain in afghanistan until the end of 2016. 15 years after the start of the longest war in american history. We will speak with anand gopal, author of, no good men among the living america, the taliban, and the war through afghan eyes. Then we look at africa. The good news for the girls, we know where they are. We cannot tell you. Just leave us alone. We will get the girls back. But as nigeria claims to know the whereabouts of the close to three hundred kidnapped schoolgirls, with the crisis be used to justify further u. S. Militarization of africa . Then to egypt. As general lcc is expected to win the authority, authorities had to extend voting another day because so few people have headed to the polls. We will speak with sharif abdel kudos Sharif Abdel Kouddous in cairo. All of that and more coming up. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. President obama has announced u. S. Occupation of afghanistan will continue until the end of 2016. On tuesday, obama said the u. S. Will maintain almost 10,000 troops in afghanistan after its formal Comment Mission concludes at the end of this year. The u. S. Will eventually withdraw troops until only a small residual force remains after 2016. At the beginning of 2015, we will have approximately 9800 u. S. Servicemembers in different parts of the country. Together with our nato allies and other partners. By the end of 2015, we will have reduced that presence by roughly half, and will have consolidated our troops in kabul and on bagram airfield. One year later, at the end of 2016, our military will draw down to a normal embassy presence in kabul, with the Security Assistance component test as we have done in iraq. By the time he was fully withdrawals, the war will have lasted over this teen years, the longest in u. S. History. We will have more on afghanistan after the headlines. Thousands of people have at the university of california Santa Barbara for a day of mourning honoring the victims of fridays shooting and stabbing rampage. Elliot rodger killed six people and then himself after posting a video online saying he was seeking revenge against all women for rejecting his sexual advances. Uc Santa Barbara students joined together to remember their classmates. I know it hit close to home for some students here and i felt like we needed a space to recognize that. When one person hurts, we all heard. Santa barbara is going to this tragedy, we are, too. The father of one of the slain victims is now vowing to continue speaking out in favor of gun control. Richard martinez, whose 20yearold son christopher was killed, made headlines in italy following the attack after calling out the nra and politicians who stand in the way of gun reform. On tuesday, martinez said he rejects condolences from lawmakers saying i dont care about your sympathy. Get to work and do something. Martinez says he is calling on all americans to send a postcard to Congress Demanding the passage of gun reform gun control. Speaking at tuesdays memorial, martinez paid tribute to his son, as well as another son, saying their deaths wont be in vain. , mom and dad son are very proud of you. Your sacrifices werent in vain. Wake thefice will power and authority of america. It is time to stop the gun violence. Our children deserve a land free from fear. Son, you will be at peace in the hands of god. According to the gun violence archive, firearms have killed over 4100 people in the United States since chen were he first of this year. Aesident obama is delaying review of his administrations controversial deportation practices until after the summer. Obama had ordered Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson to look into legal ways to scale back deportations amid rising pressure from civil Rights Groups who have dubbed him the deporterinchief. Proposals have included limiting the deportations of undocumented immigrants who do not have criminal records, who account for some two thirds of the 2 Million People obama has deported. But the white house now says obama wants to put off any potential reforms to avoid angering House Republicans and dooming chances of passing a conference of Immigration Reform bill this year. House republicans have refused to take up Immigration Reform despite the senates passage of a bipartisan measure offering a path to citizenship, one year ago next month. A Top White House advisor says obama plans to give republicans one more chance to negotiate a compromise measure. Ukraine says it has taken control of the airport in the eastern city of donetsk following fierce clashes with separatist rebels. The government says fortier people were killed, nearly all rebel fighters. The organization for security and cooperation in europe, meanwhile, has announced it has lost contact with four monitors your in donetsk during the airport standoff. The violence followed ukraines election of billionaire chocolate tycoon Petro Poroshenko in the countrys first president ial vote since the ouster of viktor yanukovych. More than 30 people have been killed in the boko harams latest attack in nigeria. Militants struck a military base in the state of joeb. President haser reportedly met with figures close to the boko haram. The Nigerian Government has ruled out formal talks, but has not tonight that some form of discussions are underway. The head of nigerias military has said the military now knows where the abducted girls are being held, but has ruled out using force to rescue them for fear of endangering their lives. We will have more on a jury later in the broadcast. A computer hacker who led a series of cyberattacks on governments and corporations before turning fbi informant has been released from prison. Alias sabu, he walked free tuesday after being sentenced to time served. He was seven months hes spent behind bars. He was once a key member of , launchingnd lulzsec cyberattacks that caused an estimated 50 million worth of damage. But he later turned on his cyber. Omrades, working for the fbi he allegedly directed his friends to carry out more Cyber Attacks while feeding investigators enough incriminating evidence to indict them. Defense attorney peggy crossgoldenberg said sabu hopes to put his past behind him. It has been a long and hard three years for mr. Monsegur. Were very pleased that the judge recognized both what instrument personyears and extraordinaire efforts he has gone through in the past three aroundo turn his life and to make up for his conduct and really to, as she said, use his skills to do good. Those who know him know he is a smart, diligent, loyal, hardworking person. And he and his family are looking forward to putting this behind them and moving on with their lives to do good things. Sabu also played a key role in the governments arrest of computer hacker jeremy hammond, who sentenced last are to 10 years in prison for hacking into the computers of the private Intelligence Firm stratfor. Hammond has accused sabu and the fbi of using him to attack the webpages of foreign governments. The Supreme Court has struck a law that limited how death row prisoners can prove their mentally disabled. Federal law bans the execution of the mentally impaired. The law says prisoners must have an iq below 70 four being allowed to present any additional evidence to prove their case. In a five to four decision, the court ruled the law violates the eighth and amid ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Democratic Congress Member john conyers of michigan has won a place in his districts upcoming primary ballot after facing the threat of exclusion. The Wayne County Elections clerk had initially ruled conyers was not eligible for the primary because his campaign failed to collect enough valid signatures and one of his staffers were not properly registered to vote. But a federal judge has ruled the step icon near staffers was the missteps by conyers staff were the result of goodfaith mistakes. The nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden has spoken out in his first interview with an American Television network. Speaking to nbc news anchor brian williams, snowden rejected governments attempts to dismiss his views by painting him as a low level analyst. What i do is ipo put systems to work for the United States. And i have done that at all levels on the bottom on the ground all the way to the top. The government might deny these things and frame it in certain ways and say, well, he is a lowlevel analyst. But what theyre trying to do is theyre trying to use one position that i have had in a career here or there to distract from the totality of my experience, which is that i have worked for the Central Intelligence agency undercover overseas. I have worked for the National Security agency undercover overseas, and ive worked for the defense Intelligence Agency as a lecturer at joint Counterintelligence Training Academy where i developed sources and methods for keeping our information and people secure and dangerous environments around the world. So when they say im a lowlevel systems administrator, that i dont know what im talking about, i would say it is somewhat misleading. The full interview airs wednesday night. In a democracy now exclusive, and the former top counterterrorism official said he believes president george w. Bush is guilty of war crimes for launching the 2003 invasion of iraq. Richard clarke served as National Coordinator for security and counterterrorism in president bushs first year in office. He resigned in 2003 following the iraq invasion, and later made headlines by accusing bush officials of ignoring pre9 11 warnings about an imminent attack by al qaeda. On tuesday, Richard Clarke spoke to democracy now in an interview that will air next week. Do you think president bush should be brought up on war crimes and Vice President cheney and Ronald Rumsfeld for the attack on iraq . I think things that they authorized probably fall within the area of war crimes. Whether that would be productive or not, i think is the discussion we could all have. Have we have established teachers with the criminal court and the hague asre people who take actions serving president s or prime ministers of countries have been indicted and have been tried. So the president is there. To do that sort of thing. And i think we need to ask ourselves whether or not it would be useful to do that. In the cases of the bush a administration, and is clear that things the Bush Administration did, in my mind at least it is clear, that some of the things they did were war crimes. Richard clarke, the nations former top Counter Terrorism official under president george w. Bush. Tune into democracy now next week for our full interview. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. President obama has announced the longest war in the history of the United States will last another two. 5 years. On tuesday, obama said the u. S. Will maintain almost 10,000 troops in afghanistan after its formal combat mission concludes at the end of this year. Obama said the u. S. Will eventually withdraw troops until only a small residual force remains after 2016. By then, the war will have lasted over 15 years. The combat mission will be over by the end of this year. Starting next year, afghans will be fully responsible for securing their country. In anan personnel will be advisory role. We will no longer patrol afghan cities or towns, mountains or valleys. That is a task for the afghan people. Clear thate made it we are open to cooperating with afghans on two narrow missions after 2014. Training Afghan Forces and supporting Counterterrorism Operations against the remnants of al qaeda. That was president obama speaking tuesday, one day after he made a surprise memorial day visit to afghanistan. During the ceremony, he paid tribute to more than 2000 u. S. Soldiers who have lost their lives in the war. Meanwhile, the second round of president ial elections in afghanistan is scheduled for june 14. The frontrunner in the race is former foreign minister abdullah abdullah, who won almost 45 of the vote in the first round while x finance minister ashraf 31 . Came second with over but to talk more about afghanistan, were joined by anand gopal, author of the new book, no good men among the living america, the taliban, and the war through afghan eyes. He is a journalist and fellow at the new America Foundation and spent years reporting on afghanistan. Welcome back to democracy now talk about the president s announcement. It wasnt really a surprise. Realize theant to war is not going to and even after 2016 because the west has allied with powerbrokers, warlords, and the afghan army. We will continue to fight war on terror on usb have. But after to sell than after 2016, will it only the afghan warlords fighting or special Operation Forces will remain . It will only be afghan warlords. For the next two years, it will be special Operation Forces. What he means is night raids, turkey killings and outline targeted killings an outline with these warlords. What about mercenaries and private contractors . When i say warlords, i mean private contractors. There are hundreds of thousands of them around the country. And they will leave, according to this plan, by the end of 2016 or continue . These are afghans. Mercenaries and private contractors, they are afghans. U. S. Has been paying them unofficially. They will continue. It will look like a proxy war of afghans who are being paid by the u. S. To fight against the taliban. Do we have an idea of these 9800 troops that will remain in afghanistan, how many of them will be special Operations Forces or Specials Forces . Is unclear, but we can expect a sizable number to be special forces. You dont need a lot of advisers. What do they do as against regular military personnel . Special Operations Forces to Counterterrorism Operations, which means night raids, for example. Owing into peoples houses, taking people suspected to be al qaeda or taliban and sending them to bagram. Previously they sent them to guantanamo. It also means targeted killings. There are list of those were supposedly enemies of the u. S. Will be targeted through drone strikes or conventional types of attacks. Can you talk about the election taking place in what the two major candidates represent . What is the role of karzai . Both candidates have a surprisingly similar platform. Theres not much different. Both have pledged to sign the agreement that would keep u. S. Forces in afghanistan over the next two years. Both are considered to be very proamerican. They both recognize without the u. S. Support, Financial Support in particular, they would not exist. The Afghan Government would not be able to exist because the u. S. Government pays for them to function. You are reporting in afghanistan over the course of the work you have done there and what did you find was the affect among afghans of the kinds of operations that you suggest special forces will continue to carry out . Afghanistan is complicated because the war is only being fought in about half the country. And where these rates are being carried out, people are very angry and have been angry at the u. S. Forces. If you ask someone, what you think about the United States . They will say, these are those who come down and kick our doors down and take our loved ones away. Talk about the people you profile in your book. You have spent years reporting from afghanistan. You look at three major figures. Thats right. I look at three afghans that i followed their lives from 2001 until today. One is a taliban fighter, somebody who had been a Major Taliban commander in the 1990s during the taliban government and then quit in 2001, tried deliver civilian life but for various reasons, mostly because of the warlords the u. S. Had supported, couldnt. He was driven back into the insurgency. The second is a warlord the u. S. Has supported over the last 10 years. He rose from obscurity to become a very rich and powerful person. It is symbolic of many of the types of warlords we have supported over the last decade. The third isnt an afghan housewife, someone who grew up in kabul and fled to the countryside. It is interesting to get the point from afghan women. Talk about how they will each fair now, what theyre doing. Give us more about the way you flesh them out in these profiles in your book. Fighter, hes interesting because he had quit the fight in 2001. Most taliban had quit when the u. S. Invaded. They tried to switch sides. What ended up happening, you essentially had no taliban fighting and no al qaeda because al qaeda had fled the country as well. On the groundts without an enemy to fight. That is where the alliances with the warlords can in. They would accuse people of being al qaeda or taliban and a lot of people that wrongfully arrested and sent to guantanamo. This taliban fighter was one of those wrongfully arr