Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20141217

Yes, pakistan is in mourning a day after after taliban militants killed 135 people, 132 of them children at a school in , the city of peshawar. We will go to pakistan for the latest and speak to tariq ali. Then as protests continue over the killing of Michael Brown, we look at the strange case of witness 40. The duty of the grand jury is to separate fact from fiction. After a full, impartial examination of all of the evidence in the law, and deciding the smoking gun website has revealed the witness who claimed Michael Brown charged at Ferguson Police officer Darren Wilson like a Football Player suffers from Mental Illness and has a history of posting racist messages online. Did she lie to the grand jury about seeing the shooting . About even being in the neighborhood . We will get an update on one of the most significant press freedom cases in decades. On tuesday New York Times reporter james risen learned he will be subpoenaed to answer questions ahead of the trial of a former c. I. A. Officer accused of leaking classified information. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. A Human Rights Group in berlin, germany, has filed a criminal complaint against the architects of the Bush Administrations torture program. The European Center for constitutional and human rights has accused former Bush Administration officials, including cia director george tenet, and defense secretary donald rumsfeld, of war crimes, and called for an immediate investigation by a german prosecutor. The move follows the release of a Senate Report on cia torture which includes the case of a german citizen, khaled al masri, who was captured by cia agents in 2004 due to mistaken identity and tortured at a secret prison in afghanistan. So far no one involved in the cia torture program has been charged with a crime except the whistleblower john kiriakou, who exposed it. In a statement today, wolfgang kaleck, head of the group which filed the complaint, said quote by investigating members of the Bush Administration, germany can help to ensure that those responsible for abduction, abuse and illegal detention do not go unpunished. The death toll from a Taliban Attack on a school in peshawar, pakistan, has risen to 141, making it the deadliest single attack in the groups history. Over an eighthour period, a group of taliban gunmen killed 132 School Children and nine staff. The taliban has said it carried out the attack in return for the Pakistani Militarys attacks on taliban families in north waziristan. Secretary of state john kerry condemned the school massacre. The images are gutwrenching Young Children carried away in ambulances. A teacher burned alive. In front of the students. Ehouse a learning turn into a house of unspeakable horror. The Prime Minister said these are my children, my loss. This morning, wherever you live, wherever you are, those are our children, and this is the world s loss. Well have more on the attack after headlines. As the attack was underway in pakistan, a u. S. Drone strike killed 11 people in eastern afghanistan. A local official said the dead were militants, including four members of the Pakistani Taliban. The Obama Administration has confirmed that it will seek limited testimony from New York Times Investigative Reporter james risen. On tuesday, risen was ordered to participate in a hearing early next month in advance of the trial of a former cia officer jeffrey sterling who is charged , with giving risen classified information that revealed a botched cia plot to disrupt Irans Nuclear program. If verizon refuses to testify, he could be jailed. N refuses to testify, he could be jailed. Well have more on the case later in the broadcast. Hundreds of attorneys have joined the nationwide protests over unpunished Police Killings of African Americans. The attorneys, many of them in business attire, staged a diein outside a los angeles courthouse, lying on the ground in the rain for four and a half minutes one minute for each hour that Michael Browns body lay in the street after he was shot dead. Attorney Carmina Ocampo said lawyers have a particular obligation to speak out about the failure to indict Police Officers who killed brown and eric garner. Lawyers have felt anger and grief about what has been happening, and as legal actors, we feel particular responsibility to call out and theemn the injustices in criminal system, and the racism. As people uphold the law, study law, we enforce the law, take of to uphold the law and we want to speak out against these practices in the criminal system that are racist and result in the failure to indict police who kill unarmed people. It is expected that at a Brooklyn Criminal Court scores of lawyers will also host a diein. In ohio, the family of a 22yearold African American shot dead by police as he held an unloaded bb gun inside a walmart have filed a federal lawsuit against the retailer and police. The lawsuit accuses walmart of negligently leaving the gun unpackaged on a shelf and Faults Police for shooting John Crawford within a second of their initial contact. Surveillance footage shows crawford was on the phone with the gun swinging loosely toward the ground, but a grand jury found the shooting was justified. Video published by the guardian show that after the shooting police aggressively questioned crawfords girlfriend, who was in the store with him. As tasha thomas sobbed, police accused her of lying and threatened to jail her. I want to be clear. That man produced that weapon. That man had the weapon, you picked him up. You had your car or something. You understand we are investigating and a serious incident. You lied to me, and you might be on your way to jail. Police questioned thomas for over an hour and a half before telling her that her boyfriend, John Crawford, was dead. Former Florida Republican governor jeb bush has announced announced he will actively explore a run for president in 2016. Jeb bush is the brother of former president george w. Bush and the son of former president george h. W. Bush. In 2000, as the governor of florida, his administration wrongfully purged 12,000 eligible voters from the rolls. Jeb bush expressed skepticism about humancaused Climate Change and once said during a failed bid for governor in 1994 that women on welfare quote should be able to get their life together and find a husband. In a departure from his partys right wing republicans, he supported comprehensive immigration reform. President obama has vowed to sign a new round of sanctions against russia and new military funding for ukraine. The move comes as the russian currency has punched. Jason furman, chair of the White House Council of economic advisors, said us sanctions are having an impact. If i was chairman of president putins council of economic advisers, i would be concerned. They are between a rock and a hard place the uncertainty they have created for themselves with their international actions, and the falling price of oil has put their economy on the brink of crisis. Thousands of people gathered in the occupied west bank for the funeral of a palestinian man shot dead by Israeli Soldiers during a raid on the qalandiya refugee camp. The Israeli Military the man threw an explosive device, but witnesses told reuters he was watching from the roof of his home. The shooting comes as palestinians plan to submit a draft resolution to the u. N. Security council today calling for israel to end its 47year occupation. The United States expected to veto the measure. Mass protests are continuing in haiti over delayed local and legislative elections which were due to take place in 2011. The protests forced haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe to announce his resignation over the weekend. Protesters are now calling for president Michel Martelly to resign as well. One of the leading musicians in cuba has told the u. S. Agency for International Development to quote go to hell for ensnaring his son and other hiphop artists in a botched plot to foment antigovernment unrest. Silvio rodriguez made the comments on his blog following revelations by the Associated Press that usaid tried to recruit cuban rappers under the guise of civic causes like hiv prevention. As part of the program, usaid hired Creative Associates international, a firm that also played a key role in the cuban Twitter Program a fake social Media Program launched in another bid to undermine the cuban government. In the hiphop case, Creative Associates was directed to recruit young rap artists looking to make social change. But the Program Ended up endangering some of the artists, spiking their careers and forcing some, like rodriguezs son, to move to florida. The vatican has praised the role of nuns in the United States following a controversial yearslong probe into their adherence to catholic doctrine. The report marks a shift in tone from a 2012 vatican reprimand which resulted in an allmale takeover of the Largest Group of u. S. Nuns. The nuns were accused of promoting radical feminist ideas and challenging teachings on homosexuality and the allmale priesthood. At a News Conference tuesday, sister sharon holland, president of the Leadership Conference of women religious, praised the latest vatican findings. As the reexport as the report itself acknowledges, the visitation was met by some religious with apprehension and suspicion. The expect the expressed purpose, to look into the quality of life of religious women in the United States was troubling. Some congregations reported that their elder sisters felt that their hold whole lives had been judged and found wanting. Apprehension, however, today we are looking at an affirmative and realistic support which we know is based on the study of written responses, and on countless hours of attentive listening. In a statement, the nun Justice Project called the investigation into catholic women quote both demeaning and a huge waste of time and energy. The vatican report came as another denomination, the church of england, appointed its firstever woman bishop. Reverend libby lane will serve as the bishop of stockport in northern england. A leading Brain Injury Program designed to treat soldiers veterans of war has expanded its mission to include professional Football Players. The Eisenhower Center has announced it will become the top center for treating brain National Football League Players who suffer brain injuries. The nfl estimates nearly a third of its players will develop crippling brain conditions, including alzheimers. In upstate new york, 41 people, including 25 teachers have been arrested for blocking the gates of a gas Storage Facility as part of a campaign against the texasbased company crestwood midstream. The group we are seneca lake has staged regular blockades over the companys plans to expand methane gas storage in lake which provides Drinking Water to 100,000 people. Biologist and activists said the action was led by teachers. We had 40 people blockading among them, many teachers. Special education teachers, Elementary School teachers, my sons fifth grade teacher, my husband the art teacher was among them, professors who teach constitutional law ive never been so proud of educators. This is the kind of education that the whole world needs right now. A new report finds the number of imprisoned journalists in prison has increased, with 220 currently held around the world. The committee to project protect journalists says the tally is the second highest since its tally began in 1990. China and iran are together holding one third of all jailed journalists. In the United States, the jailed journalist and activist Barrett Brown has had his sentencing postponed until january 22 following a hearing tuesday. Brown faces up to eight and a half years in prison on charges related to the hacking of the private Intelligence Firm stratfor, which exposed how the firm spied on activists on behalf of corporations. Brown originally faced 100 years in prison before pleading guilty to lesser charges. And u. S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning turns 27 years old today. Manning is serving a 35year sentence for leaking secret documents on the iraq war and us diplomacy to wikileaks. Among those who have sent her birthday messages is nsa whistleblower edward snowden, who wrote quote i thank you now and forever for your extraordinary act of service. You have inspired an angry public to demand a government that is accountable for its perpetration of torture and other war crimes. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. And i am one gonzalez. Welcome to our listeners and viewers around the country and around the world. We begin todays show in pakistan, where people in the North Western city of peshawar are burying their dead after a Taliban Attack at a school killed at least 145 people, including 132 children in the , talibans deadliest attack to date. According to the pakistani army, tuesdays attack was carried out by seven Taliban Attackers against the army public school, which both military and civilian girls and boys attend. One of the surviving students described the scene of the attack. As soon as the firing started, our teacher made us sit in a corner and told us to lower our heads. When theut one hour, firing subsided, Army Personnel came to rescue us. We saw friends that had been shot. Some data, some injured. Blood spilled all over the place. Prime minister nawaz sharif has declared three days of mourning and convened a meeting of all parliamentary parties in peshawar to discuss the response to the attack. The army has reportedly launched attacks at militants in the region. The taliban said they targeted the children of military families in retaliation for pakistans antitaliban campaign in north waziristan. Since june, at the urging of the United States, pakistan has waged a massive offensive in the region, which coincided with the resumption of u. S. Drone strikes. Pakistani taliban spokesman Mohammad Khurasani said the militants had been forced to launch the attack in response to army attacks. In a statement, khurasani said quote we targeted the school because the army targets our families. We want them to feel our pain. Pakistani education activist and Nobel Peace Prize activist Malala Yousafzai said she was heartbroken by the attack. My family and i are heartbroken after hearing the news that more than 100 innocent teachers and students have lost their lives. We stand with those families and those children who are injured right now suffering through this big trauma, and it is time that we unite and i call upon the international community, all political parties, everyone, togetherhould stand up and fight against terrorism, and make sure every child gets safe, and a quality education. That is Malala Yousafzai speaking in birmingham on tuesday. Earlier this month, yousafzai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The youngest ever. In 2012, she was shot in the head by a taliban gunman who boarded her school bus. She survived and continued to campaign for the right of girls to go to school. For more, we are joined by tariq ali, a britishpakistani political commentator, historian, activist, filmmaker, novelist, and an editor of the new left review. Welcome. Can you respond to this horrific attack . Two things need to be said about this. This has very little to do with religion. What we are witnessing in akistan now is a form of power struggle going on between militants aligned with the umbrella of taliban groups known as the Pakistani Taliban movement, which is a single movement. A struggle between them and segments of the pakistani state to determine who controls the country, and the fact that over so,next last decade or the authorities of the state, the military and the political parties, especially those parties sympathetic to the taliban have been incapable of or have refused to do anything about it. We now see the impact of that. That is the first point. The second is that we should not forget for a moment that one reason these taliban groups have not been dealt with is because sections of the state still feel, even after this atrocity, by the way, that they cannot completely get rid of them because they are linked to the and the afghanistan, high commanders think they need afghanistan to give strategic depth always a nonsensical notion but it is now extracting a heavy price in pakistan itself. At the time the United States went into afghanistan, i remember writing in the guardian, that one consequence of this presence of troops is going to be the destabilization and the advancement of terror inside of pakistan itself. So, it is an horrific attack. It cannot be justified. What the taliban are saying, is of course true, they are bombed, their kids die, and no one says a word. That is absolutely true, but you cannot justify one crime by continuing another. Tariq ali, what about this attack by the pakistani government as the troops wind . Own and leave the country this is the milliondollar question. Are they going to leave the country. Are they going to take military bases with them . The military bases will stay with a limited number of troops. The taliban has emerged as the winner in this conflict, and there is no doubt in my mind that they are in touch with elements of the Pakistani Military apparatus to discuss what to do now. They have been close for a long time, so they will be discussing the. That is why the thing becomes much more complex. I do not think the Pakistani Military has given up ever on the notion of taking afghanistan back once the west leaves, and the fact that the taliban in afghanistan, with new supporters, has managed to hold the west at day and defeated them effectively, politically, if not militarily, is a sign that the Pakistani Military has not given up. Were also joined by asad hashim. The Al Jazeera English web correspondent in pakistan, based in the capital, islamabad. Talk about the latest there in the latest in pakistan. Can you hear us . Yes, i can hear you. Thef you could talk about latest and past pakistan and the response to this horrific massacre. Well, the public response has been, as you can imagine, one of shock, outrage, and or. As mr. Tariq ali said, this is unprecedented. There have been attacks for many years now, but we have rarely seen something on this scale, and it is not just about the scale, but about the fact that it was children killed in executionstyle killings. They lined them up in the face down,in rows, and were shooting them in the head. Today, really, the day was spent in numb horror, i think. A lot of shops were closed today even though there was not necessarily a strike called of any kind. People did not want to work. Front, therecal was a conference that you alluded to. It ended a while ago, but not with anything concrete. The Prime Minister nawaz sharif held a press conference, but they did not say anything concrete. They said they would come up with a plan to resolve the issue of extremism, which is a nothing statement, to be honest. I wanted to ask can you talk a little bit more about the p, the group that has claimed responsibility, and his relationships to other groups because there are reports that the taliban in afghanistan have condemned the attack. Yes, i have condemned the attack and it isnt they have condemned the attack and that is interesting in itself. Sufferedas actually from factions and internal leadership issues, and certain commanders pledging allegiance to the islamic state, which is a competitor in the global terrorism game, i suppose, to al qaeda. You have them suffering for their allegiance. Now that they have condemned the disappointing for them. So, we haveyear or seen them weakened. There were leadership issues when they elected their new leader. He is not from the tribal area where the group operates. A Successful Campaign against the pakistani state and on the back of that he was given the leadership role. From the time he has been in office, since november, last flip,he has seen the ttp with having to fire commanders who were not willing to follow him. Since the military operation on june 15, we were already expecting a large number of blowback attacks in urban areas. We have seen similar operations in the past. This time, we have seen limited attacks. There was an attack on the border that took place last month. That was the first really largescale attack, and this is unprecedented in its scale 141 people killed, 143, i believe, with the death toll rising. , in 2012 one of , pakistans leading english daily newspapers revealed that a large majority of highprofile terrorism cases had resulted in acquittals in the countrys largest province. The piece appeared in the express tribune and was headlined highprofile cases in punjab 63 terror suspects acquitted. Could you explain how the pakistani state, and in particular, the judiciary have dealt with the rising number of militant attacks in the country . Truey, this is absolutely what the express tribune reported, and i would add to it the fact that his own bodyguard , andd the late governor the guy is still awaiting punishment, and the fact that many lawyers in the court came to welcome the assassination of the governor is an indication of gotten. The rot has a number of the senior magistrates and judges in charge of the terrorism courts are basically scared. Witnesses that have come before them are threatened, so way withdraw their testimony. That leaves them with no legal basis on which to punish or sentence the perpetrator, and they have to release them. Large number of judges in these courts are scared. They are scared that if they do their duty they will be shot dead, and the inability of the state to protect them is something that a number of people have remarked on. Thing tod just add one what your man in islamabad was saying, it is not the first time they have attacked the pakistani , socalled, supporters. They did so years ago when there were other atrocities carried out, and the basic difference between the two groups is the Afghan Taliban feels the main target should be nato and the west, and not the pakistani state, on which, after all, they have relied for a long time. We are going to leave it there. Thank you both for being with us. We will continue to cover this horrific story, this massacre that has taken place in peshawar. Tariq ali is a britishpakistani political commentator, historian, activist, filmmaker, novelist, and an editor of the new left review. And thanks to asad hashim is the Al Jazeera English web correspondent in pakistan, based in the capital, islamabad. He recently coauthored two pieces for al jazeera one headlined breaking down the tehreeketaliban and the other titled children massacred in Pakistan School attack. When we come back, we go to missouri, to witness number 40. Who was she . Stay with us. [music break] music by Rabih Abou Khalil this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. As protests continue across the country over the Police Killing of Michael Brown, new questions are being raised about the grand jury that failed to indict Ferguson Police officer Darren Wilson for shooting brown. Many questions center on a woman identified in the grand jury documents simply as witness 40. She told the grand jury that brown charged at wilson quote like a Football Player. Her testimony largely supported wilons versions of events and has been citied repeatedly on fox news. He then looks like a Football Player i am meeting like a Football Player. Michael brown was charging like a Football Player. One witness described it as charging at officer wilson like a Football Player with your head down. Earlier this week the smoking gun website identified witness 40 as Sandra Mcelroy. The website described her as a quote bipolar missouri woman with a criminal past who has a history of making racist remarks and once insinuated herself into another highprofile st. Louis criminal case with claims that police eventually dismissed as a complete fabrication. It now appears mcelroy may have lied about witnessing the shooting which occurred 30 miles from her home. She gave conflicting accounts to prosecutors about why she was near the canfield Green Apartments in ferguson at the shooting. She first said she wanted to pop in on a friend she hadnt seen in 26 years. Later she read from a notebook in which she claimed to have been visiting the neighborhood to conduct personal research to help her understand black people. It has also come to light that mcelroy had a history of posting racist comments online and helped raise money for wilson and other Ferguson Police officers. On tuesday the rev. Al sharpton said the report about witness 40 gave new hope to the brown family. He told the New York Daily News it shows the grand jury was quote not a fair process. Joining us now is william bastone, editor of the smoking gun. He coauthored the piece exposing the identity of witness 40. Tell us more about her and how . Id you find out who she was we looked at two volumes of her grand jury testimony, which is reductive, but we zeroed in on the portions that gave a little bit of biographical detail about her. Excuse me. We use that information, everything from the fact that she was adopted, divorced, had a couple of felony convictions, and some other stuff, and basically went online and looked at a Facebook Page that we believed she was associated with i will spare you the details, but by a process of elimination, we zeroed in on her, figured out, got her name, and went on and checked with Sandra Mcelroy s background, and it dovetailed with witness 40, everything. In her testimony, she had admitted she was convicted of check fraud. Check fraud, tiddly will felony counts in 2007, two felony counts in 2007. We reached out to other people and were convinced it is the same person. Would do the District Attorney know, and explain what she said what did the District Attorney know, and explain what she said. She approached Law Enforcement a month after the incident, gave an account of what occurred. Five weeks later, she met with two Justice Department prosecutors and the day after that they put her in the grand jury for the first time. So, she comes up with this story that she sat on for a month, tells the cops this story, and then five weeks passed before she goes to the grand jury. What is puzzling is i do not think anyone attempted to determine what she told them was true or not. As we point out in the story, our interest in investigating her began and we found that everything about her in todays. We two days. We do not have subpoena power. We did not get phone records. Her,ok us two days to find and the cops had five weeks. First, the story on its face was wholly unbelievable. There were simple investigative tasks the cops could have done to disprove her. What they did, who knows what they did, but the effect, as we point out in our story, is they basically allowed her story to get baked into the narrative of the grand jury. Interestingly, her initial claim, because she changed the story, was because she was a white woman in a largely black neighborhood, when she was asked why she was there was she was trying to find a former High School Friend she had not seen in over 20 years, got lost, address. Find the and amazingly this cataclysmic event happens in front of her. Couldnt the police say lets see if the video footage of her car is anywhere in the vicinity. That they basically said you know, there are surveillance cameras in the area and no one picked your car up, how could that be, and she had no explanation. They asked her how she got there, and she described her path of getting there. She described her path, and after it occurred, how did you leave, and she gave an explanation that was impossible. It was clear she looked at a map of the area, or if you go online and look at the map, it appears there is a pathway out of the area, and that is the way she took, but that thing has been closed for tiddly will or three years, he would have physically years, ando or three that she wouldve known that it she was physically there. It is unknown if anyone bought that story or if it figured into the final decision. It is a scary part a person comes up with an insane story, approaches the cops, and the way it works is thank you for coming in, we will be in contact, and they are never heard of again. Your article notes that Sandra Mcelroy appeared at the ferguson grand jury on november 3 with a spiral notebook purportedly containing her handwritten journal entries from august. The opening entry in mcelroys journal on the day brown died declared, quote well im gonna take my random drive to florisant. Need to understand the black race better so i stop calling blacks niggers and start calling them people. That was her quote. I never use that word, but it was so significant now because she used that word. What did Robert Mcculloch understand about who she was . It was at the end, her waning moments of her first appearance and she was virtually out the door, when she says you know, i wrote all of this stuff down in my journal after it happened, would you like to see it, and they were like sure. That meant she was coming back. 10 days passes and she appears with this one volume a ,otebook, her august notebook and everything that precedes august 9 r oneline entries. I wrote they should have checked to see if the ink was white. There is no doubt it was create wet. There was no doubt it was created after the fact to buttress this harebrained story that she told. We knew what her facebook handles work, her youtube account, her twitter account and after the shooting, even after her grand jury testimony, she was saying these incendiary things online. What youyou talk about found from her social media accounts in terms of her biases and her support of Darren Wilson and Police Officers in general, and have you talked to her general . And have you talked to her . I will explain that she is a very active commentator on Michael Brown. She has a couple of Facebook Accounts we have linked to her and she has knowledge she has acknowledge they are hers. She was constantly commenting about the case, in support of officer wilson, and most of what in theld do would be comment sections of television stations or print publications and. She would do things like publications. She would do things like one afternoon commenting on a new , and sheut ferguson posts a graphic that floats around in these rightwing circles, a photograph of Michael Brown lying dead in the street and it is something along the lines of stop asking for justice for Michael Brown. Got his justice she was constantly doing stuff for officerpray wilson, and when she was in the grand jury she denied she was a stooge for officer wilson, but was there to tell the truth. She was involved in a Facebook Page she started 10 days after the shooting that purportedly was there to support Law Enforcement officers and First Responders in ferguson and had nothing to do with officer wilson. They were raising money in a crowd sourced fashion, and in the end they donated all of the money to the office and will officer wilson trust fund. This is all attainable. Could she be charged with perjury question mark she should be charged with perjury. She lied to the cops perjury . She she should be charged with perjury. She lied to the cops. The first time they put her in the state grand jury, she lied. The second time, she admitted she lied. Yes, she should. It is one of these things where, yes, she has said she suffers she has been diagnosed as being bipolar, and she has bouts of mania. She insinuated herself into a case of National Importance and spun out a story that was totally untrue, and do you walk with the government just saying that is fine, the next time Something Like this happens, if you are a lunatic and you want to create a story that backs up the cops, come on in . The bigger question is not what she did, but prosecutors either they were totally inept in, as you say, one of the times, cases of recent or they knew and suspected she was lying and did not care, which is even worse. If you are a prosecutor and you know someone is going to come into a grand jury and lie, you cannot really allow them to do that. Can a new grand jury be convened . I think that is probably a fairly tough thing to do. You spoke to her . Yes. She would not talk to us before the story came out. We publish the story on monday morning. Yesterday, i corresponded with her, and she admitted she was in fact witness 40, and expressed concerns for the safety of her three minor children, and she is trying to erase her social media presence. Then she wanted to have a conversation off the record, and we had a lengthy conversation off of the record, and we will try to see if she wants to move some of that on the record. Of course, witness 40 the importance of her testimony was that she, and at least one other witness, witness 10, who were the ones that said brown charged and Police Officer wilson, so, obviously, if her testimony is impugned, the issue becomes what about this other witness . I want to turn to lawrence odonnell. He dissected the credibility of the other witness, witness 10. Witness number 10 was working in the name neighborhood and begins his story to the police with ive seen the two young guys walking down the street on the same sidewalk i was on. Six weeks later, witness number 10 testified and changed his story about where Michael Brown was walking. He said under oath i seen mike brown and his friend walking down the street, closer to the curb, not on the sidewalk. That is the kind of thing the District Attorney was complaining about last night witnesses changing their stories to fit the publicly known facts. Here is why witness number 10 was the most [music break] have a little faith this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In one of the most significant press freedom cases in decades, they noticed this government has confirmed they cy would seek testimony from james verizon. On tuesday, risen was ordered to participate in a hearing early next month in advance of the trial of a former cia officer who is charged with revealing classified information. However, risen has vowed not to testify at the trial of jeffrey sterling, who is accused of giving him classified information that revealed a botched cia plot to disrupt Irans Nuclear program. If he refuses, risen could face jail time. Speaking on democracy now earlier this year, risen emphasized the importance of a free and unhindered press. Without aggressive investigating, we cannot have a democracy. The only real oversight for the government is an independent and aggressive press. I think that is what the government really fears more than anything else and aggressive investigative reporting in which we shine a light on what is going on inside of the government. We cannot do that without maintaining confidentiality of sources. For more, we go to grand rapids michigan. We are joined by marcy wheeler. Talk about the significance of what the Justice Department put forward to james rising yesterday. Well, they claim it was a limited testimony, asking him to confirm that he wrote the chapter of the book in question, as well as two earlier articles, one in which they claim, and one where he explicitly refers to jeffrey sterling as a source, so they will ask to lay out that he did write these articles. They will ask him to say that his source or sources, he has a confidentiality agreement with they are basically not going to ask who his sources are, but they are going to get him on the stand. I think what that then does is give the defense the opportunity to be the bad guys because they have every incentive to try to demonstrate that verizon has more than one sort risen has more than one source for the story. The hope is the defense would begin to question him and put him on the spot. The last line of the filing said this is what we are going to do, we cannot control what the defense does and they have a sixth amendment right to actually confront their accusers. Jeffrey sterlings lawyers have started saying we have all of these documents that are not necessarily related to this story, but things like fedex receipts, and we might want to ask about that, and one of the underlying things that has3 developed in this case recently is we now know that four of the other people who were cleared into this compartment for the story, the botched Nuclear Weapons story, they have, according to the cia, mishandled classified information in the past, and one of those people was the guy who was sterlings supervisor at the time, and who would be one of the key witnesses hear it i can understand he is facing prison time himself. I would understand why he would want to raise doubts or questions about how many sources risen has, and frankie, a reporter of james risen caliber does not rely on a single source. It would put them in a position to reveal details about his reporting, the number of sources, that would get to the same questions doj was getting too, and would have the same effect of putting him at risk for contempt of court. That means he still faces years in prison. He still could be jailed because frankly, in this case, the judge was saying i think the government needs to decide if they want to take this or not if they cannot rely on risen. The defense has the right to mount a defense, and the most obvious way for sterling to do so is to say look, all of these are the people were cleared into this. They have been confirmed to have brought documents home from work, and therefore there is no reason why you should assume that i am risens only, or even his source at all, and that would rely on digging up details about risens reporting. I do not know if that is what the defense wants to do, but it seems like the obvious thing, and the government is clear at this point they have a limited request and they cannot control what the defense will do. You have a person like james verizon who is james risen, who is well known as a journalist, the Chilling Effect that it has another journalists . Absolutely. Remember that his sources were being investigated, not just for this story, but also for the warrantless wire story, and there was at least the appearance that this limited case was the doj effort to go after risen directly. One of the details that has come out in this case, as i said, the amount of documentation about risens reporting that doj already has in hand. A, it is chilling. It makes it very clear things like phone records, travel records doj is getting th, or at least got that in the case of one of the most top investigative journalists in the country, and moreover they would keep going with this. We are going back to 2000. It is an old story. It is not a risk to National Security anymore, yet doj persists and persists in pursuing risen on the stand and that just seems like a witch hunt. And the Obama Administration may try to force another journalist to testify in a trial over bombings by al qaeda. Preet bharara, the u. S. Attorney has asked attorney general eric has asked attorney general eric holder to approve a subpoena of , 60 minutes producer robert bonin over his interactions with al qaedas press office during a bid to interview Osama Bin Laden during a period of time. Yes, and again, eric holder woodlike to appear that he does not rely on journalist sources, but time and time again they at least consider it, even while the government we keep getting more and more evidence about the government leaking their own information, yet journalists keep getting targeted. Marcy wheeler, thank you for being with us. Investigative blogger who runs emptywheel. Net and writes for exposefacts. Org marcy wheeler, this breaking news allen gross has been freed and is on his way to the u. S. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. u