Two of us were Sexual Assault to before classes even started. I would to the dean of students office. I said, i want to make sure that you dont want to talk to anyone. Then we speak with california senator Barbara Boxer about the bill dylan with Sexual Assault her plans for retirement and and what she supports president obamas war. I dont support going to war. I support president obamas plan to not do that. But to make sure we can help people fight against this terror group, which is so frightening and so frightening to humankind. Then this week, Egyptian Forces killed 18 protesters as they mark the anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator hosni mubarak. We will speak with prizewinning film makers Jehane Noujaim and karim amer who document of the egyptian revolution in 2011 from its roots in tahrir to the square. All of that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The jordanian government has agreed to release a female prisoner in exchange for the freeing of an air force pilot captured by militants in syria a month ago. The Islamic State had threatened to kill the pilot and a kidnapped japanese journalist if the prisoner, sajida alrishawi, was not released. She had been facing a death sentence for her role in a 2005 attack on three hotels in amman that killed more than 57 people. In other news from the region, tension is growing along israels borders with both syria and lebanon. Four Israeli Soldiers were injured when an antitank missile hit an Israeli Military vehicle to the lebanon border. Hezbollah claimed responsibility or what has been described as the biggest attack on Israeli Forces by hezbollah since 2006. Lastly, israeli airstrike killed six hezbollah soldiers and entering into iranian soldier. On tuesday, at least two rockets from syria hit the Israeli Occupied golan heights. The United States has agreed to give the Ukrainian Government 2 billion in loan guarantees as fighting increases between Ukrainian Forces and russianbacked rebels. Three more ukrainian soldiers reportedly died over the past 24 hours. On tuesday, ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko warned about the growing threat of a continental war. I will not mention clear and obvious parallels between the events in europe in the 1930s and present developments. The threat of continental war is great as never before. There should be no doubt the ambitions and appetite of the aggressor go far beyond ukraine. In greece, the countrys new Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras has promised radical change as his new government begins to roll back key parts of greeces international bailout. The government has put off the planned sale of the countrys biggest power utility while pledging to raise pensions for those on low incomes and reinstate some fired Public Sector workers. On tuesday, the new greek government was sworn in. George katrougalos is deputy minister of public administration. The reforms the country needs, not dictated from outside. We must restart the economy. It is a big challenge, but i think we are up to it. President obama has wrapped up a short visit to saudi arabia to meet the new king salman and pay his respects following the death of king abdullah. In an interview on cnn president obama defended the United StatesClose Partnership with saudi arabia despite the the kingdoms poor human rights record. Sometimes we have to balance our need to speak to them about human rights issues with immediate concerns that we have in terms of countering terrorism or dealing with regional stability. The Mexican Government is now saying the 43 mexican students who disappeared four months ago were murdered on the orders of a drug cartel who mistook them for members of a rival gang. Attorney general Jesus Murillo said the gang members suspected of killing the students had been so thorough in the destruction of their remains, that it was difficult to identify them. The remains of only one of the missing students has been identified so far. On monday, attorney general murillo discussed the case with reporters. Closing the investigation is perhaps not the most adequate word, while we dont have all the suspects, i cant close it. It is not the right word. You ask me if the elements we have are sufficient enough to determine what is there, that killed him, burned them. I would say, yes, much more than in any other case. Mexicos account contradicts published reports that directly tie governmental officials to the disappearances of the students. According to the mexican magazine proceso, federal police played a role in the attack, and federal authorities likely tortured key witnesses. On capitol hill, the confirmation hearing of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch begins today to replace outgoing attorney general eric holder. Lynch is currently the u. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of new york. The state of georgia executed an intellectually disabled prisoner last night, ending a fourlegal battle. Warren hill was determined to be mentally retarded by several doctors, but georgia officials disputed their finding. In 2002, Supreme Court banned executing mentally retarded people, but gave states some discretion in deciding who qualified for protection. More information has to come to light about the small drone that crashed on the grounds of the white house on monday. The recreational drone was operated by an employee of the national geospatialintelligence agency. According to the agency, the employee was off duty and is not involved in work related to drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in any capacity. In florida, Domestic Abuse survivor Marissa Alexander has returned home after three years in prison. She was jailed after firing a warning shot into a wall near her abusive husband. Alexander, who is africanamerican, was originally sentenced to 20 years in prison. Alexanders attorneys unsuccessfully tried to use floridas stand your ground law in her defense, saying she feared for her life when she fired the shot. After an Appeals Court ordered a new trial over faulty jury instructions, a deal for her Early Release was reached. The Justice Department has agreed to pay 25,000 to a College Student who was detained at an airport for five hours in 2009 for having arabic language flashcards in his pocket. The student, nicholas george, was studying arabic and had visited several mideast countries through a summer study program. His flashcards included the words bomb and to kill. One Transportation Security Administration supervisor interrogating him asked about the september 11 attacks and noted that Osama Bin Laden also spoke arabic. Parts of new york and massachuetts are digging out after a massive snow storm. Massachusetts second largest city, worcester, received a recordbreaking 33 inches of snow. The entire island of nantucket lost power during the storm. And the top u. S. Trade official has told lawmakers the 12nation Transpacific Partnership trade deal could be wrapped up within months and urged congress to give the white house Fast Track Authority to approve the deal. Protesters who oppose the tpp repeatedly interrupted u. S. Trade representative Michael Fromans testimony before congress. We are advancing those goals by knocking down barriers to u. S. Exports and leveling the Playing Field for American Workers and businesses of all sizes. As we work to open markets around the world youre not telling American People the truth. [indiscernible] lets have order. Remove this person. [indiscernible] protect our workers from poor conditions. [indiscernible] no tpp removed these people. [indiscernible] no tpp protesters interrupting Michael Froman at a hearing about the Transpacific Partnership. The protesters were all arrested after being removed from the hearing. And those are some of the headlines, this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Were broadcasting from the Sundance Film Festival in park city, utah where a new documentary on campus rape has just premiered as a major conviction is unfolded in tennessee. A jury in nashville has convicted two former Vanderbilt UniversityFootball Players of raping a fellow student in a dorm room. Brandon vandenburg and cory batey could face decades in prison after being convicted on a combined total of 16 felony counts, including aggravated rape. Two other former vanderbilt Football Players are awaiting trial over their role in the rape. The victim, who was unconscious at the time, says she does not remember being raped as the assailants took photographs and videos of the attack. After the verdict, assistant District Attorney jan norman read a statement from the victim. I am also hopeful the simplicity of the case believed to a discussion of how we can end Sexual Violence on College Campuses. Finally, i want to remind other victims of Sexual Violence, you are not alone. You are not to blame. Thank you. The vanderbilt case marks a rare example where College Students accused of rape have been punished both by their universities and the legal system. The four students were kicked off the Football Team and banned from campus after the charges were filed. One of the students, jaborian mckenzie, transferred to another school, alcorn state, where he was allowed to play football despite the criminal charges against him, before being removed from the team amidst a media firestorm. A fifth player, chris boyd pleaded guilty to helping cover up the rape, and agreed to testify against his fellow students. He was dismissed from the Football Team, but allowed to keep his scholarship and finishes schooling. Here at the Sundance Film Festival in park city, utah, a groundbreaking new film has premiered that deals with the issue of Sexual Assault on College Campuses and shows just how rare, will convictions like the ones that vanderbilt are. The Hunting Ground was created by the makers of the oscarnominated documentary the invisible war. This is the trailer for the Hunting Ground [captioning made possible by democracy now ] i got a call from the dean of admissions asking if you are to get into harvard, would you accept. I said yes because i knew my mom would kill me if i said anything house. The first few weeks i made some of my best friends but two of us were sexually assaulted before classes had even started. I went to the dean of students office. I want to make sure that you dont talk to anyone about this. They protect perpetrators because they have a financial incentive to do so. The problem of Sexual Assault on campuses is enormous. Theres a lot of victimblaming. They lectured us how we should not go out and short skirts. It could only prove that he loved me. They discourage them from going to the police. It is more likely to end up as a public record. Universities are protecting a brand. Canvas police cannot contact tenacity. He won the heisman trophy. Where are the hotspots . Sexual assault is expected. The secondmost common is rape. He was allowed back on campus. The message is clear, youre not going to win. We started seeing what was happening in campuses across the country. Why had no one connected the dots before . Students went from Sexual Assault items to survivors and now activists. My name is alexis swartz. My name is ari. This is a national problem. I was getting threatened. It was working in their favor to silence me, and a was terrified. Deal the action they took was against me. We have a lot further to go. The trailer for the Hunting Ground. Just after we arrived, i sat down with the filmmakers, kirby dick and amy ziering. Their 2012 film the invisible , war, exposed the issue of Sexual Assault in the military. That issue remains in the spotlight as just this week a former Army Prosecutor who oversaw Sexual Assault cases was found guilty of rape. Major erik burris was sentenced to 20 years in prison following a court martial. I began by asking amy ziering why they decided to make a film on campus rape. We werent anticipating making another film in the same area, but every time we saw just showed the square are from, people would tell us how it was going on in their school. Kirby was finding that an honest every screening a different universities across the country. We started getting letters, we please make a film on campus assault . We actually were working on a very different project. We just looked at each other and said, we cannot not make this film. We were shocked this was going on. We felt compelled to make the film. I went to one of your premieres here at sundance. The response afterwards was overwhelming. You are besieged. I watched one woman say, it happened to my daughter. It happens with this film also. Also, mother say, it happened to me 30 years ago at dartmouth. Ive got that a lot. Thank you for doing this, i could not speak then. Kirby, this film is not only about people who have been deeply hurt, raped, it is about women who are organizing right now all over the country and it is led by two women from the university of North Carolina both of them were raped. Any clark and anmddrea pino. They found each other and are now traveling the country helping victims at universities file title ix antidiscrimination complaints to the department of education. They were raped early on in their College Careers . Yes, i think both of them were assaulted within the first or second year they were there. Andrea found out about annies activism and they formed this bond. Annie was appalled this was still going on. They decided to really do something. The first thing they did was start to investigate and how to file title ix complaint. Without any attorneys, they wrote and filed a complaint against the school, which was accepted by the department of education. One of the most galling parts of this film amy, how administrations respond or dont respond. You have annie clark, when she was raped and went to the university of North Carolina administration, one of the officials said, it is like a Football Game . What is like a Football Game . Rape is like football. You have to think back to what you would have done differently just like any play in any game. She said that is what the administrator had said to her. We interviewed on camera over 60 women and men and we were over and over you would hear the stories of these women who were assaulted, and that was profoundly, you know, it was traumatizing to them, but they trusted their school. That the courage to come forward and trusted their school would do the right thing, and in so many cases, you heard this form of victim blaming, like it was your fault you drank too much, your dress too provocatively. It was across the board whether it was ivy league, some in small liberal arts colleges, it was shocking. Can you talk about some of the examples of some of the punishments that are meted out to students. Are they found responsible . The punishments are ridiculous. One was like 75 fine, 25 fine, a book report, poster board on 10 ways to approach a girl you like. 50 hours of Community Service at a rape Crisis Center. The perpetrator is told to serve at a rate Crisis Center . Yes, which is just the most absurd. Kirby, you have these screens in the film that show statistics. The number of people that complain on campuses of rape or Sexual Assault, of course, this is a very small impaired how many are actually raped or assaulted, but those numbers compared, the people are expelled. At university after university, you see on the screen, a big fat zero. Yes. This is what was so shocking. These schools i mean, we know assaults are going on in each of these schools and hundreds of times a year, wraps thousands of times a year, and yet no one is getting expelled year after year after year. University of