Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20161229

The founder of the internet archives, Brewster Kahle. The archive Just Announced plans to near its site in canada to protect itself from the new administration. Then to donald trump and the bomb. Will the president elect start a new Nuclear Arms Race . We will speak with arms control expert joe cirincione, author of Nuclear Nightmares. Plus, we look at what was once called the crime of the century. Someone had passed americas atomic bomb secrets. The federal government had laid the crime at the doorstep of two new yorkers. Amy more than 60 yearafafter the e ecution, the rosenberg casese i still stirring ntrorovey and d bate. Thelels sons are asng presint o oba to exerate thr mother as a new rerepo shows ethel was execudd becausshe refud to coorate wi theovernme doubt nvict her husband. To help convict her husband. All of that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In breaking news, russian president Vladimir Putin said today syrias government has agreed to a ceaeasefire with rebels said to begigin at midnit tonighght. Putin said russia and turkey would guarantee terms of the truce and that the deal excludes fighters with isis, the so proclaimed islamic state. It was not immediately clear which of the dozens of rebel groups fighting the regime of syrian president Bashar Alassad would take part in any truths. Claims of a truce came as the syrian observatory for human rights said 40 people, including children, were killed in air strikes. Amateur video purports to show the aftermath of the attacks with children and adults seen fleeing through smokefilled streets. In washington, d. C. , s secretary of state john kerry blasted israels government, saying in a address s the relentless expansn of jewish settlements in the occupied west bank has allbutended the prospect of a twostate solution with thee palestinians. Despite our best efforts over the years, the two state solution is now in serious jeopardy. The truth is that trends on the ground, violence, terrorism, incitement, settlement expansion, and the seemingly endless occupation, their combining to destroy hopes for peace on both sides and increasingly cementing in a reversible one state reality that most people do not actually want. Amy secretary kerrys speech followed intense israeli criticism of the u. S. For refusing to veto a u. N. Security Council Resolution earlier this week. The measure condemns israels expansion of settlements a flagrant violation of international law. John kerry insisted the u. S. Had not abandoned its longtime ally, but said israeli democracy will not survive under a single state. Realityis a fundamental. If the choice is one state, israel can either be jewish or democratic. It cannot be both. And it wont ever really be at peace. Amy in the west bank, palestinian president abas said he was willing to talk in exchange for settlement construction. This is the chief negotiator erekat. He has the choice. Settlements or peace. He cant have both. Settlements are illegal under international law. Settlements are the antidote for the two state solution. Amy bitumen netanyahus reaction to the speech was swift and harsh. Now i must express id disappointment with the speech today of john kerry. A speech that was almost as unbalanced as the antiisrael resolution passed at the u. N. Last week. Israel looks forward to working with president elect trump and with the american congress, democrats and republicans alike, to mitigate the damage that this resolution has done anand ultimately to repeal it. Amy donald trump took to twitter to blast john kerrys speech, writing in a pair of tweets on capitol hill, lawmakers in both parties blasted john kerrys address. Lindsey graham called it delusional, while new York Democratic senator Chuck Schumer said john kerry had embolden extremists on both sides. Donald trumps Transition Team said wednesday it was considering whether to begin privatizing the veterans a administration. The socalled Public Private option would allow veterans to skip treatment at va hospitals, giviving them funds to visit private private sectoror hospitals and clinics instead. Veteran groups say they will oppose any efforts to privatize the v v. A. In washington, d. C. , the Obama Administration is expected to announce new sanctions against russia today over its alllleged role in hacking u. S. Institutions, including the emails of Hillary Clintons campaign manager. Lawmakerss and u. S. Intelligence officials have repeatedly said russian hackerers helped Donald Trumps campaign defeat hillary clinton, but have not provided specific evidence. In iraq, u. S. Warplanes launched airstrikes on mosul today as the iraqi army fought to reclaim the city from isis. Hundreds of residents poured out of the citys eastern neighborhohoods to escape the violence. W we fled the neighborhood to escape the mortars, mortars that would consnstantly fall on us. The situation was difficult. Everything is expensive. We were starving. Amy Iraqi Security forces aree screening the displaced residents and busing them to camps east of mosul. For many residents say cold and wet weather has made conditions so miserable, theyre desperate to leave. As many as one Million People remain trapped inside mosul with limited access to food and. Rinking water ful in colombia, lawmakers hahave approved a law granting amnesty to some members of the farc guerrilla group. This is fernando cristo, colombias interior minister. It means the path is clear to guarantee that the mobilization of disarmament of farc members in the First Quarter of next year. It is no more and no less than the end of a 52 year conflict with the farc. Of armss abandonment is down hands of the united nations, so the entire situation can begin. Amy the law will not protect farc members who committed war crimes or human rights violations. It follows a historic peace accord that foformally ended a civil war that left a quartermillion colombians dead. In new jersey, an eightyearold boy is fighting to rejoin his cub scout pack after he wasas kickeded out becausese he was ba gigirl. The case of jojoe maldano ofof seacaucus appears to be the first t to challenge a ban on transgender r boys joining boy scout trtroops. The case follows y years of resistance by the boy y scoutstf america to allow gay and lesbian adult leaders, before the organization finally dropped a blanket ban in july of 2015. In a statement, a spokesperson for the boy scouts said no youth may be removed from any of our programs on the basis of his or her sexual orientation. Gender identity isnt related to sexual orientation. In texas, a Fort Worth Police Department Faces new charges of racism and excessive force, afteter the release of a video showing an officer shooting a black man in the back. 33yearold d david collllie was left paralyzed after the encocounter in july. Cocollies lawyer, nate washington, released a copy ofoa dashcam video on wednesday, showing a Fort Worth Police officer and a local sheriffs deputy opening fire mere seconds after leleaving their car. Thiss s nate wasashington. We know that the officers indicated that they were telling mr. Collie to come to them, two walks to them. They were telling him to take your hands out of your pockets, things of that sort. As he attempted to comply, raised his hands as they told him to, they shot him. Amy collie spent 61 days in a hospital handcuffed to his bed and was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Washington said the officers were off duty at thehe time of e shooting. Police initiallyly accused colle of pointining a box cucutter ate officersrs, but the e video doet appear to back up the claim. A grand jury declined to indict collllie on aggravateded assault charges. A Fort Worth Police spokesperson says an investigation remains ongoing and a case against the officer has not yet been presented to a separate grand jury. The release of the video came less than a week after a viral video showed an African American mother and her teenage daughters being violently arrested by a white fort worth officer after the woman herself had dialed 911 to report an assault on her sevenyearold son. In florida activists opposing , construction of the sabal trail natural gas pipeline are holdining a series of protests across the state today. Environmentalists say the 3 billion, 500mile pipeline threatens the florida aquifer, which supplies Drinking Water to about 10 Million People. Water protectors have set up four camps along the pipelines route from which theyre organizing resistance to the project. Meanwhile, in west texas, activists say theyre preparing to establish a protetest camp in ththe path of the e transpecos pipeline, which would carry natural gas under the Rio Grande River on the u. S. Mexico border. It is being built by Energy Transfer partners, the company constructing the Dakota Access pipeline, which has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock sioux tribe and over 200 indigenous nations from across the americas. President barack obama wednesday created a new National Monument in the southwest. The order will preserve some 1. 3 million acres in utah that are home to native american sacred sites. In a first, the monument will be comanaged by the federal government and five tribes. Obama also set aside 300,000 acres of desert in nevada. The land abuts the ranch of cliven bundy, who led an armed standoff against u. S. Agents in 2014 after he allegedly allowed his cattle to graze on federallymanaged land without paying grazing fees. And famed hollywood Actress Debbie Reynolds died wednesday of a stroke, just one day after the death of her daughter actress carrie fisher. Reynolds was 84 4 years old. In 1952, Debbie Reynolds had her breakout role in the musical comedy, singin in the rain. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in 1964s the unsinkable molly brown. Reynoldss son todd fisher said his mother was heartbroken over sister carrie fishers death on tuesday. He reported reynoldss last words as, i miss her so much, i want to be with carrie. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Nermeen and im nermeen shaikh. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. In just over three weeks, donald trump will be sworn in as the next president. According to the sierra club, trump will be the only world theer who still denies Science Behind Climate Change. During the president ial campaign, the sierra club prproduced this ad highlighting some of trumps comments. Mr. Trumump all of this with te Global Warming. A lot of it is a hoax. It is a moneymaking industry, ok . They said you calllled climae change a hoax. Is that true . Mr. Ttrump well, i might t hav. I believe that Climate Change is not manmade. We are going to cancel the paris climatate agreement. Ouour president is worrieded abt Global Warming. What a ridiculous situation. Nermeen donald trump has nominated a number of Climate Change deniers for top post. Including exxon Ceo Rex Tillerson secretary of state, Oklahoma Attorney general scott pruitt to head the environmental section agency, former Texas Governor rick terry to head the energy department, and congressman ryans inky to become interior secretary. Now scientists have a federal agencies are expressing growing concern the new Administration May attempt to destroy or bury decades of scientific studies on client change. Bob walker has already proposed stripping funding of nasa, research, describing it t as politically correct environmental monitoring. Amy in a scramble to protect data, protecting data of , research, a guerrilla archiving event was just held at the university of toronto in an attempt to save the climate studies on servers outside the United States. Organizers in the u. S. Are planning additional events in the coming weeks to archive vulnerable government websites and databases that conontain Climate Research. This comes as the end of term web archive, a project administered by the internet archive, gets underway. The project captures and saves u. S. Government websites at risk of changing or disappearing altogether at the end of president ial administrations. In the wake of trumps election, the internet archive has announced it will be moving a copy of its archive to canada. For more were joined by two , guests. Laurie allen is assistant director for digital scholarship at the university of pennsylvania libraries and a member of the data refuge project to rescue climate and envivironmental data. And Brewster Kahle is a computer engineer, internet entrepreneur, activist, and digital librarian. He is the founder r of the internet archive. We welcome you both to democracy now laurie allen, why dont you start out by explaining what you are doing to preserve Climate Change research and why youre so concerned it might be you raised from gogovernment websit. Thank you. So what we are doing is a really large collaborative effort, including the internet archive, and as you mention, the folks in toronto as well as researchers, scholars, librarians, citizens, scientists from many different places basically creating safe channels for data that is currently stored and made accessible through federal websites and through the federal government to move to new locations so it can so began continue to ensure access to these facts for research. It is also to raise awareness of the value of this data and have preserveda is today. Were holding events, one in philadelphia chen were 13 and january 14 where we will use protocols that are appropriate to the data that we are trying to save. So as much as possible, we will move to the internet archive. For other kinds of data, we will move to trusted repositories here in the u. S. And around the we continueuesure to provide access to them. Nermeen laurie allen, could you say more about the kind of data youre looking to archive . The main concern is not documents, but rather the Analytic Software that may become obsolete with disuse. Could you explain the significance of such software to Climate Research . Absolutely. As we have talked to scientists and researchers who rely on federal climate data, so many of them use a variety of sources. Challenges is in figuring out ways to preserve continue to provide access to the data themselves, but also the software used to analyze the data. Scientists rely on data multiple forms, so we are we are identifying protocols that we hope will be appropriate to each of a you know, whether it is the software used to create derivatives versions of the data that are more useful for other purposes, or if possible, to save the software themselves or it is ae itself really sticky problem. To the extent, i think, we can work with the internet archive, we are. But as you mentioned, there are data that just cannot be scraped, they cannot be copied using web archiving. For those, it is basically going up to be a casebycase basis, which is why so many of the events are engaging with developers and Software Engineers in collaboration with scientists and librarians and archivists to identify those materials that are most vulnerable, valuable, and take those one at a time and figure out how we can continue to provide access to them. Amy i want to bring Brewster Kahle into this conversation, founder of the internet archive, which is such an important public resource. Everything to the way back machine, where you can find a previous iterations of websites. Every president ial term that is over have been running the end of term archive to archive and the information of a president ial administration is preserved when it changes over, like we see from obama to trump. But what about obama to trump . Do you see a special threat now when it t comes to preservrving information . This administration or Upcoming Administration has promised radical change, even potentially canceling old apartmenents. The services holold apartmen. The services that the depapartments have traditionally served are now online and could be deleted, changed, modified in ways that we really dont know what is coming up. Where we have e always gone and preserved paper records, which is providing some level o of preservation, is a new aspect. Previousuch beyond speaker does said, beyond just recording webpages. We need the whole databases and the struructures that science nw dependnds on. But it is now within an administration we are not really sure what is coming up. Nermeen Brewster Kahle, could you explain what exactly happens when there is a change in admiministratition . Your end of term archive keeps all of the information that was previously in a particular administrations website, but what exactly changes . Is everything from dotgove sites removed . Whihitehouse. Gov disappears. Anybody accessing any of ththe press rereleases or any of the information that usesed to be on that will get broken links. Some of the browser manufacturers are starting to point to the way back machine, which wewe e encourage, to be ae to continue to find information that used to be on those sites. It is now beyoyond just that. It is also social media feeds that can be manipulated and changed retroactivively, which s done all the time noww by a very mediasavvy upcoming admiministrationon. I think we will see more control of the message, especicially through the digital channnnels, and that makes archives, libraries, permanent access even more important. Amy y explain what the e waybak machine is. It operates by crawling the World Wide Web and with many, many partners, crawling the World Wide Web and adding those into the internet archives collectioons. Those collections become somethining that from archive. O, you can type in a url or search to find a webebsite to be able o see the e web as it wasasnd surf the webeb as it was. You cacan see president ntelect 2008 and 2012 electioion websites or Hillary Clintons old senate websites. These websites are now available again as they were. But they are jusust pictures of webpages. Ththre n not the databases that climate scientist need that are currently being used. Noaa, nasas s data sets that he services on them. We would love to go and make it so not taking snapshshots, bt whole web services get archived such that they can be used as they were in 2016. So we are calling out the federal website masters, webmasters, to go and work with as to archive the whole working systems themselves in snapshot form. Amy in this whole issue of Climate Change and the Trump Administration, donald trump a Climate Change denier, what in particular are you doing . And if you can talk about moving well, not moving, but moehring internet archives in canada, what youre doing that . Theheir groupups collecting e web ftp s sites. Theyre going to go in and trying to download all of the different data records that are in these databases. There are groups in toronto, there will be a hackathon on january 7 to try to help tour through the important parts of the federal record that we can then make a record outside of the government to make sure it is permanently available. Beyond that, we need to move it to other countries. The ministry of libraries is one of law. Usually libraries are burned, like in ancient times, and they are burned by government. The new guys do not want the old stuff around. Ththey are often s sorry about t tens or hundreds of years later, but if you do not make a copy, then it is just gone. So the idea of having multltiple copies keeps stuff safe. Nermeen laurie allen, during the last Climate Change denying administration, that of george bush, has some of the changes that occurred are that the state department removed Climate Change from its list of global issues and the epas pages on Global Warming and Climate Change research stopped being updated. Now, do you anticipate worst happening under the Trump Administration . I will also point out the Bush Administration did also close or attempted to close some epa libraries all over the country. I think we know that people are concerned. There is good reason to be tremendously concerned. Havertners in this project been talking to so many scientists who are deeply concerned. I think the important point is better to be safe than sorry. As brewster just said, lots of copies keep stuff safe. It is a good rule. It is the role of all of us to make sure this material continues to be available. Yes, we are concerned, but more than that, it is just wise to take steps to make sure that whatever happens, these important facts remain available for future researchers. Amy Brewster Kahle, if you could go back to nearing your website, why you have chosen to go there canada has Just Announced access to highspeed. Nternet is a a fundamental rigt and also, how do you stop euro databases now, your own servers from being hacked . S so how do we stop things fm getting hacked. I think it is copies, really, anand putting them on other sids of fault lines, whether it is earthquakes or hard drives failing or institutional failure of law c changes, regime c chan. To digitalarm libraries in many ways that the United States is becoming potentially less so. So the idea of h having multitie lelegs to the stools. We looked at the Television Archives to find out what the Trump Campaign promises had been. Things like closing part of the internet up or threatening freedom of the press actively saying, hating journalists all of these are things that libraries are built on. Did you have having ongoing access to information, Historical Information these are what makes libraries work. Lets j just plan for whatever mightt happen. Whwho knows . S . Maybe it is going to be just a dry run and we never neneeded to dodo it, but it is a a good i in any y case. Nermeen thanks to the wayback machine, we can still read the mike pence for Congress Site from 2001 which is available via the public web. In one section, it reads Brewster Kahle, could you talk about that and other comparable sites that would no longer r be availablee if this resource were not there . Certainly. The campaign promimises that hae been made inin the past were policies a and the like can be changed pain one who controls the current w websites. So those who control the prerest contntrol the past. As orwell warned, they control the future. We really need to make sure there is a record of these things. Pence has made those go away. There have been trump within a day of gettingng control of dotgov, thehey put up websites trumpeting trump propeperties tt were taken away very quickly. Isactively managaging what it people can see on the World Wide Web. Archive. Org is a freree r resoue for bebeing able to see what was on those websites before. We have seen press releases change. George w. Bush announced from an aiairaft carrier in the headline that conflict hads ceased. And days later a change. A couple of yeyears afterr that, even dururing the still some administration, the removed the press release altogether. Im not sure what is more orwellian, n not tellili you a changed d or making it go away altogether. If we do not have librarys, we would not know any of that happened. And go shortly after Michael Flynn was nominated to be security adviser, he deleted a tweet he posted referring to false allegations about hillary clinton. However, between from november 2 was preserved on the internet archive and reads amy you decide. Nypd blows whistle on the. Intons emails explain how this is a new area for you. Archivingey have e been tweets, youtube, different platforms. Facebook, makes it very difficult, unfnfortunately to record what i is that t has ben said. And now pontialllly later deleted. All of these things are deleted at some point. Companies go under or whatever. Going and keeping g a recordrd f thesee pronoununcementnts, there now 10,000 o official g governmt twitter channels. We a archive t those. But we also do the ones from the campaigns and surrogateses and e like to be able to make rich dataets in makaking those available. Resesearchers, so we can know what it is that was promised, tetelevision, for instancece, is very difficululto access. But on another free resource, you can search based on what people said, including democracy now , and retrieve clips and put into your blogs and be able to think critically about what has happened. If you cannot quote, compare, and contrast, then it just flows over. You say, i thihink i remember, t you dont really r remember. The key thining is to be able to quote, compmpare, and contrast. Libraries provide p permanent to things that are often ephemeral. , to use ther kahle an existential threat, unique threat to the information on the internet today . And to your o own internet archchive, which is really ereryons . S . T the internet is an amazing experience experiment ensuring mutuaual trust. People are putting theirir ideas out there in t the very public form. Unless we go and ensure that trust is warranted, if we donot see true much spying soo peoplee will run away from it thinking theyre going to get in t troube for it,t, these are very importt things that made t the world wie web possible in the first plala. It may be hard to remember, but hes to be very d difficult to t this typee it used to be very difficult to get this type of informatation. Intonment records michael the National Archives after an administrationon change, and thn you do have to wait sisi months, 12 months, to even make a request for one document at a time. But now we have the opportunity of being able to see what has changed, w what the developments ar butut ao enjoy the benefits of enormous taxpayers funding toward building databases around climate chanange, about the weather data, much more available than it ever was before. Lets keep that going. Lets continue to build on the trust that has been the hallmark of the World Wide Web. We just need librarieses and archives, academics, people working in federal websittes tht may be displaced as changes in the administration happen to Work Together to make permanent what it is the taxpayers have paid for. Amy we want to thank you very much for being with us, Brewster Kahle, founder of the internet archive. Allen. Rie up next, we look at donald trump and the bomb. Is he starting a new Nuclear Arms Race . Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Nermeen a leading arms control organization is calling for president obama to take u. S. Nuclear missiles off high alert before president elect donald trump assumes office. The Ploughshares Fund has circulated a public petition urging president obama to place restraints on the incoming president s ability to launch a nuclear attack. Last week, president elect trump alarmed Nuclear Weapons experts s when he raised the prospect of a new global arms race on twitter saying he would increase the size of the u. S. Nuclear arsenal. Trumps tweet read the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its Nuclear Capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes. The United States and russia account for 93 of the worlds nuclear arsenal. Following trumps tweet, his Spokesman Sean Spicer tried to clarify trumps position in an interview with cnn. He was speaking to alisyn camerota. He is going to do what it takes to protect this country. If another country or countries want to threaten our safety or sovereignty, hes going to do what is safe. But he is not waiting until another country threatens us but he is making it very clear that other countries and other companies youve seen with others, he is when a make it clear that he will be an active president that will get things done. Meaning he will use Nuclear Weapons if need be. He will not take anything off the table. Amy trumps Spokesman Sean Spicer speaking last week. Well, to talk more about trumps comments, we go to washington, d. C. , to speak to joe cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, which has circulated the petition urging president obama to take u. S. Nuclear missiles off high alert. Jo, welcome to democracy now what do you mean that president obama, before he leaves office, should take Nuclear Weapons off high alert . What does this mean and can trump reverses immediately on the first day . Donald trump a policy can million. With the exception of a few issues, you really dont know what he thinks. When he tweets he wants to expand u. S. Nuclear capability, when he tells a network correspondent, let it be an arms race, you have to worry that he means what he says. You have to worry that a man of this temperament, of this character might be more willing to use Nuclear Weapons than any previous president. So there is something that president obama can do about this to buy us some time. He can end the cold war practice of keeping our Nuclear Missiles on high alert ready to launch with a few minutes notice. This is something he pledged to do when he was campaigning, said he would do when he took office. Never did it. Yes 22 days to try and correct that mistake. Yes, president mr. Trump then come in and reverse it, but that is much harder to do. It would be difficult for President Trump to put Nuclear Missiles on high alert. Why you doing that . What is the justification . This is one of those policies that has survived because people have not looked at it, not questioned it. Why does anyone have the ability to launch Nuclear Weapons so quickly . In 22 days, donald trump will be able to launch Nuclear Missiles as quickly as he now tweets. Four minutes after he gives the order, those missiles will fly. No one can stop them. No one can reverse those launches. Nermeen i want to go back to comments trump made earlier this year on the risk of nuclear proliferation. During the republican president ial town hall in milwaukee, trump talked about the possibility of other countries acquiring Nuclear Weapons. He was questioned by moderator, cnns anderson cooper. Mrmr. Trump at some point we he to say, you know whahat . Were betetter of if japanan protect itselflf against this maniac in nortrth korea. Werere better offff if south ka isis going to start to protect ititself saudi arabibia . Mr. Trumump absolutelely. N Nuclear Weapons . ,r. Trumpmp not nunuclear w wes weapons, but at the pay is. Japapan, that the pay as or r ty have to protect themselves. Youou say japanan and sououth korea, ok. Mr. Trump it is going to happen anyway. It is only a question of time. Amy that was president elect trump speaking earlier this year. Joe cirincione, can you respond to that, not only the question of high alert taking u. S. Nuclear missiles off high alert, but also trumps position on other countries acquiring nucleaear weapons . He is wrong on so many levels. But take it apart. First of all, it is not inevitable. Theres nothing inevitable about nuclear clear for rations. For the last 40 years, democrat and republicans have had a concerted policy to reduce Nuclear Weapons in the world. Guess what . It has worked. There are far fewer Nuclear Weapons in the world than at the height of the cold war. We have cut the arsenals by 80 . More countries have given up Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Programs over the last 30 years that have tried to acquire them. Were down to one rogue state, socalled rogue state, north korea. That is it. There is nothing inevitable about this. Number two, the idea that he would encourage other countries to get Nuclear Weapons, flies in the face of 70 years of u. S. Policy. No u. S. President has ever encouraged any country to get a Nuclear Weapon. Not the united kingdom, france, not israel. We did not want our allies to get Nuclear Weapons. It is insane. It is starting an arms race. Can you start an arms race with a tweet, with this unclear rambling kind of discourse he has . Yes, you can. President trump will be able to do this with the stroke of apen , with a side comment, with another tweet. That is what worries so many people about his adding control of the most capable, the most destructive death machine on the planet the u. S. Nuclear arsenal. Nermeen the u. S. And russia between them have 93 of the worlds nuclear arsenal. So if he does accelerate the arms race, what are the prospects for other Nuclear Weapon states china, india, pakistan who in relative terms, have virtually none . When you do bar graphs, you see the u. S. Column the way high, russias call him the way high, the other countries with 100 or so Nuclear Weapons barely register. It when the big guys Start Talking about building new weapons and the u. S. Is are ready on a path to spend 1 trillion on new Nuclear Weapons over the next 25 years, and then expand those arsenals, they are basically telling the other countries, start your engines. What is china going to do . They have about 200 Nuclear Weapons now. Wont they feel pressure to expand . India and pakistan . You can see the Chain Reaction this sets off. That is why reversing this three decades long u. S. Policy of reducing Nuclear Weapons is so dangerous. You should not be making new care policy on twitter. It is not a responsible way for any president or any individual to behave. Amy i want to turn tto comets president obobama made when he s the democratic president ial nominee in september 2008. The Arms Control Association asked him about his nuclear policy. Among other issueses, obama addressed spececifically the ris involved in the u. S. Being able to so swiftly launch a nuclear attack. He responded keeping Nuclear Weapons ready to launch on a moments notice is a dangerous relic of the cold war. Such policies increase the risk of catastrophic accidents or miscalculation. I believe that we must address this dangerous situation something that president bush promised to do when he campaigned for president back in 2000, but did not do once in office. That is what the candidate obama said. The president obama do this and what do you think should happen right now . He did not, but he still has time. He is been making significant policy changes up until this morning. Either statements, for example, on israel or executive actions to put Arctic Drilling sites offlimits for new exploration. He can do this. If he is protecting part of the environment, take a step to protect the entire planet. That is why we put this petition up on change. Org as one small step, people can go and sign and build public pressure. Were trying to communicate to take this step. This relic of the cold war is so totally unnecessary. There is no reason for the president of the United States to be able to push or to give in order there isnt actually a button to give an order and four minutes later, the Nuclear Weapons will fly. This was done we were afraid of a bolt out of the blue attack from the soviet union. Hundreds of warheads streaking over the polls, an extremely unlikely scenario. There is no reason to have this policy now. Even if that were to happen, we have our sufferings, bombers that could retaliate. You do not need this for any reason. Having this kind of policy greatly exacerbates the risk of an accident. My friend and colleague Eric Schlosser has a brilliant essay this week in the new yorker about all of the accidents we have had. How so often we came very close to accidentally launching our missiles because of a computer glitch, a misunderstanding, a misreading. There is no reason to put the worlrld in this kind of apparel. Amy joe cirincione, thank you for being with us, president of Ploughshares Fund, a Global Security foundation. Author of Nuclear Nightmares securing the world before it is too late, and bomb scare the history and future of Nuclear Weapons. We will link to your Huffington Post article keep Donald Trumps finger off the nuclear buttonon. When w we come back, a cold war story and a request for a pardon of outgoing president obama. We will talk about the rosenbergs. Stay with us. [music break] amy lewis allen was the name the actual name of able meeropol , the adopted father of our next guest. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Nermeen two brothers are making a lastditch appeal to president obama to clear their mothers name. Michael and Robert Meeropol are calling on obama to posthumously exonerate their mother e Ethel Rosenberg. She, along with their father, julius rosenberg, was charged with sharing Nuclear Secrets with the soviet union andd executed on june 19, 1953. At the time,bi director j edgar over acced theouple ofommittinthe cre of the ntury. This is a clip a newscast after the rosenbergs execution. Summit have passed ameriicas atomic bomb secrets to russia. The federal vernment h had laid the crime of the doorstep of two native new yorkekers. Toto the end, theyey both arared or innocenence. The federaral court o of jududgd the e pair guilty as chargeded d sesentenced them to death in t e electric chair to pay for the crime of treason. Amy the government alleged the couple along with Morton Sobell helped the soviet union acquire the secret of the atomic bomb. But supporters say theres no evidence that Ethel Rosenberg took part in espionage. A new report by the Seton Hall School of law suggests ethel was used as upon for leverage in its attempt to build a case against her husband julius. S. Meeropol, now, r robert six years old at the time of their execution. He is author of the autobiography an execution in the family one sons journey. He is also the founder and executive director of the Rosenberg Fund for children. Meeropol robert, it is great to have you back on democracy now im sorry, i said that michael was coming in. Her older brother. Im glad you both get along. What exactly are you asking for . Were asking for an exoneration as oppososed to a pardon. First of all, a pardon implies a somebody is guilty. It is a forgiveness for something they did. Kgb f fil i in other plplaces that etethel roseerg ws never giveven a code name, so we know the kgb did not consider her a spy and she wasnt a spy. Were not a asking for r a pard. Instead,d, what we a are sayings the trial,l, the entirire trials a pervrversion off justice. Thee judge and the prosecutor secretly communicated. The prosecution developed this aan to use my mother as hostage, basically, to use her as a lever to covers my father into saying what the government wanted him to say. And then the prosecution encouraged the chief prosecution witnesses, the only people who gave information against my mother at the trial, all oral, to invent a story of my mothher typing up certain notes fromm david, which never happened. So when seton hall took a look and destructive the nsnstrucd this trial in a 26 ge v verpainststing report that we dinonot commission this w i indepdent, butheyey basicallaid, she was used as an aerththout. She s there to coerce cooperation from my father. It i is e onlylyeason they did it. Wh is particarly dgerous out this, t justbout my persal desire to exonerate m mother, to have president obam beforee leaves office essentiay nullifyhe vdict inhat casegainst mmother, but instd to demonstrate that if theovernmen is going to crea evidence and facilitate e convicon of someo in a capil case for politill purposes this is a thrt t to civil l ciety. Thiss s the way e judiciary is used in authoritian societies. It isncompatible with the fr and open society. Soso re n just ing thisor ouelves. We a doing ito preserve, woul say, freedom in is couny inin general a the r rht to disse b becau t the crts commites as devasting instments ofepressioas they we duringhe mccary peri andear in t coming years at this uld happ again. Nermee there ia directink betwnthel roseerg an incomingonald ump. Trus lotimeawyer and ment roy cohwas a memb of whoosecutn team prsured etlbrother make aalse testiny aboutis owsister. There s reportly no otr evidce tconvict h. Helso apparently cluded wi the tria jge to edetermi the outce foroth juus and ethel the dea penalty. In 1951,oyohohn wa ininrviewed he o onehing thatndnderstd the outset, theommunist party isot a p pitical p pty. Is a cririnal l copiracycy its objbjt has bebe established by theerdict of a jury, the overthrow the governmtt of the united stas s byorce and violen. In the meaimime, pnsns areeing. The mostst importantnt work is t of espionage on behalf o of the soviet u union, whicich means it infiltrates ourr g government, defense plplan every important place possible in order to steal information from us and give it to the soviet union. Nermeen that was roy cohn speaking in 1951. Robert meeropol, could you talk about the role roy cohn made during your trial and what his role has been in Trumps Administration or Incoming Administration . Im really glad you asked that. There is Actual Television footage i mean, one of the notgs about this, it is just our claims. Wes all of the governments material in order to destroy the governments place. The roy cohn kreis, there e is a Television Interview in which he talks about how he covers David Greenglass and the making of this testimony about my mothers typing. Roy cohn can be said to be one of the principalal architects of my mothers execution. He did represesent both Donald Trumps father and donald trump and donald trump has said this is my mentor. He taught me how to respond to attacks. So it is one of the reasons we are pushing obama in the last days of his a administration because we know once his administration is over that President Trump is not going to admit that hiss mentor executed someone who was not a spy for spying. Connection. We dont think this is our last chance, at least, for the next four or eight years. , youre notmeeropol asking for your father to be exonerated. Talk about this. Codefendant i cant codefendant in 2008 essentially said, hey, julius and i did it, we were engaged, it was of the secret of the atomic bomb, but we were engaged in trying to help the soviet union defeat the notches in world war ii. It was electronics another military information. Wasat the trial, julius accused of spying. We now know he did spy. It is true the trial was just as unfairn n his se. Was exeted fofoa seat stealinghe secreof the atom bomb, sethinge didnt do, t it is a mh more btle claim, much mo difficu situion thanith my mother o, againperhaps e mos powerfululnd simpl evidencis thfact she wat given a ce na. David greenglass had a dede name. Th greenglass had a codeame. Pleaseosenberg had a code me. Ethel rosenberg ha no codename. Wewe knoshe e wa a spy. We knothe kgb d d not nsidider her spy. Y. Anyby y wholaims th she w a spy is esstially saying,e knowetter th thegb who was a kgb sy, which ia lghable aim if iwerent so trac. Nermeen our brotr actuly saidour mother, speaki in an tervie wit60 mites, at youmother eel was llateralamage of carthyism. Nd thats righ he ud familyembers told th htage. It iactuallyhat terrists. As one of fmer secrary state, rogs, was qted as timately sayg, Ethel Rosenberg call o our bff. In other wor, the ole e thg was a bluff. Atat is tragageo. We ct allow e e judici syst to be ud in thi manner i doant to urg one thing i nt to ehasize, are mewher betwe 47,000 ,000f 47,0 people in our online petition urging obama to do this. I would love to get to 50,000. Big numbers are symbolically important. Amy michael moore, even flirt, noam chomsky, michael dukakis, the former p president ial candidate. In some ways, the inspiration for this campaign because it was his proclamation about the italian anarchist who were executed in the 1920s of the commonwealth of massachusetts that could be a model for this president ial proclamation. It is at the rosenbergg fund for children. If you go to their website ,rfc. Org, youre going to go right to the petition. Amy you have raised too much in history, so we have to do part two. Helping children of imprisoned people. Thank you so much in a Robert Meeropol. I am amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. [captioning made possible by democracy now ] 8uxu t the radicalal potential of word mother comes after the m. It is the spacece mother takess in our mouths when we sayay it. We are sometething else. E know it from how fearfully institutions w wield social nor and try to o shut us down. We k know it from how we are transforming the planet with our every messy step toward making life possible. Mamas whoho unlearn d dominatio refusing to dominate their children. Extended family anand friends. Radical child c care collective all of us, breaking cyclcles of