Transcripts For WETA Worldfocus 20091211 : vimarsana.com

toght on worldfocus. five young aricans held in pakist. the they intento fight agast the united stas in afghistan? urope agrees t contribute billionso help poor countries deal with climate ange. the united states raises its commitments. japan getseady f its nual whale hunt nar antarctica, envinmental scientis head there as we and australiathreatens legal showdown. and the mystery over a spectacur light show over norw now solved. major sport has been provided by roger walter and the tersson p per foundation. addrsing key economic challenges facing america s fure. mutual of americ designing customized iividual and group retirement products. that s why we your retirement company.com. and ditional funding is provided by the following supporters. god evening. for mu of this week, the mysterious storyf fiveoung amerans has been unfolding in pack and in this country. five muslim men who livedn the washington, d.c. aa. and who allegedly wanted to fight again america in afanistan. a few toy s ago, th were detained by ahorities in kistan and detailsf their alleged tivities and aims started coming out. their use of social networking sites like facebook to try to connect with pakistani extremists. their travel t pakistan to engage in jad as the pakisni police put it. their purportedeetings with al qaed linked grps that ultimate turned them away. they have yet to b arged, and today local police said they would probably be deportedo the united states. intonight slead focus, what we ow aboutthe men and their motivation starding with this report from al jazeera englis reporter: the five young americans, aged between 19 and 25 were arsted at this house. the town is 2 kom soh of theapital lamabad on the main road to the pakistanfghanistan region. pakistan tevision on fday showed fe photosf menthey said were t detain young americans. they allegedl wanted to join one litant groups in pakistan s tribal area and sme ports said they wanted to fight in afghanistan. but a neighbor described their comes and goings as rmal. generly i observed they were very innocent peoe. i neversaw any nrmal actity in thihouse. normally, occasionally, they would visit but they dn t le here, i don t think. reporte pakistan authories though believe the men s inteions were far from innocent. anit is believed they have been questioned in jl by fbi agents it is still unclear whathey did wrongnd wh they might be charged with, though as american citizens, it i likely they wl fa deportion. the men s parentsin alexandria, virginia, outde washingt, d.c., beme alarmed when they went msing last week. one family found a video their n left behind featuring war footage in which he quoted versus from eoran and talked about clashes. thfamily contacted the leaders urged emo go tthe fbi. from the cocil on ameran relations watched the video an caed itdisturbing i waed away th the feeling when i saw the video that something b iseing plned and going to ke place. reporter: one of e men, rany zamm is a dentistry studen his brother said he is a normal student who makes good grades. the arrests come after sever her cases. icago residentnd u.s. citizen davi headilyadeis first appearce in court when he pl not guilty helping pl the mobile neroom buy tacks last year. an afgn national was charged in september in alleged bomb mott. the u.s. media has seized on the supposed threat. in islamic holy war again the west. reporter: aew york university sdy found tha federal authoritipublicly sociated 693 peopleith rrorism since2001. but of these, only 9 wer convicted. he says theuslim communicate is in adifficult posion, wanting to cooperateith authorities and prevent crimes but wary about selfurveillance orsuppressing civil rights. we suld let people speak up their mds. we believe in fre speecho criticize e government when people feel the government is a they think but theres no justificatn to any person to use violence or pla for violen. reporr: president barack obama not the comment directly on the arrests b praisedwhat he called fierce allegianceo america. al jazeera. as you jus heard in th report, many mlims feel caught in a dimma. theyant to coopate with authorities to prevent acts of teorism inteed, musm leaders had a hand in the arrest. but they fear promoting stereo types about the muslim cmunity form more all this, we re join by a professor at new rk university and the author the trouble with islam toy. she herself a muslim. thank you so much for jning us. you write tha modera muslims are in a particur bind that they need toe more aggressive in heing to combat trorism committein the name o islam. why and how so a they a bind? irst in thisountry we trip over ourselves toake the difference bween extremists and morate. what i thi is mo important is the difrence between moderates. the problems that they still de theole or potential role thatreligion plays in the very violence tt is committed in its na. the next tme a bombin or beheading occurs, the fit thing that wll come out of a moderate s mouth is, please don t misunderstand,slam has nothing to do with that. not oly is that dishonest since ny of them cite scripture. it is also dangerous because in their silence, in their denial, modete muslims then abdicate the responsibity for reinterpretation tthose with malignant intenons. reforminded muslims say, hey, just likeiberal chriians and liberalews have gun the vient passage in their scriptures, we he to resbrerp rhett our own. and not onlyhat but the kon itself contains ree time as many pasges calling on us muslims to think and analyze and reflect instead of versus that only tell ushat is write or wrong. what was your reaction to th arrestof the young americans in pistan? i m not surprised. i m not jumping to any concsions. at ts point they m very wl be ci operatives assuming ty are not, you ow, radicalizati is on theise in many partsf the st. it used to resicted. more or le to euope. now it is haening in canada and the uned states as well what iind so padoxical, and troubling, is that this is happening unde the predency of barack obama. not because of him but the point is that used to be convenient to say if only we ad a presidt other than george w. bush, then this wouldn t be so many aggrieved young muslims. clearly that was a pat answer and that needs to be thwn out thewindow now. even thoughhis week there is a study out that says st of the victim of al qaeda are muslims. that study actually come from west point litary academy. co-authored by two muslims and somebody else. and theywent to arabic sources, not to western sources, but to arab lanage sourcesn order to tea arve th data and tey und that in the last two years alone, an astoundin 98%f the victims. al qaeda s violee are indeed fellow mlims why. is this iortant to this important story of e muslim americans arrested in pakisn? beuse reports say that one left bhind a video owing the carnage of muslimodies and then sayg that we need to defend fellow musls. if they re goi to pakist to join the kill a indicated iven jihadthere, they re not defending th at all. kely they reilling felw muims. all right professor,hank you so mucfor being with us. thks. we would also like to hear what youthink. ouruestion toght, are u surprise tt had some americans are trying to joinhe efforts by insurges? pakian and afghastan? you can give us your opinioby ing to the w you see it section of our website. that s atorldfocus.org. incomb in copenhen, more arrests. about 200 peopl marched near a building where corrate chief executives were meeting to discuss the role of siness in ghtinglobal warning. some shouted, mindour siness. this is r clima. about 40 pele were detained by police. meanwhil the broad outlines of a ptential agreement o ctting carb emissions emeed toy. araft tex called for rich countrieto cut their emissions by 25 to 40% over the next decade from 1990 levels. with all countries redung emissions by at least 50% by 2050. beyond that, the european union took the lead financial had i today inelping poorer cotries deal with cmate change. as we hear in this report. eporter: the chancellor waited until the last nute to announce the amount her country will contrite. germany s plee of 1.2 billion brings the total amount promised for the next tee years to 7.2 billion. ware very please and satisfied with the fact that we made contributions from al member countries, and that w so now show leadership in king that share othe money that know are iortant t t the global agreement in place. rorter: the french president earlier urged europe to also cut carbo emissions by 30%, compad to 1990 levels, rather than just 20% however, the leadersay they will do this ly if the u.s. and developingountries agree to more concessions. we re prepared to consir reducing emissions b 30% if we se thatther big players in conhagen have changedheir position. reporter: the chanceor and the other eueaders hope today decisionsill help giv momeum to the copenhagen suit. anothernvironmental battle to tell b tonight. th one in the southern ocean near antarctica. japais going ahead with its annual whale hunt which begins in the next week. and stralia is threatening to take international legal actions to stop the kling. recca barrett reported for the late line program a in auralia on the growing threat of a showdown. the japanese whali fet is onts way to antatic waters. in hot pursuit is the sea ship and conservation society. they have three days into its voyage. a second bot, a high speed futuristic boa will was plagued communication problems. a showdown i the southern ocean seems ceain with japan s new foreigminister saying there will be no chang to his country s whaling policy. we did n thinkhere was a need for a licy review at is time. reporter: it was food not science, tha the foreign minister usedto defend the policy. wave tration her in japan where we have been eating ale meat. it would be tf if they we endaered specs on th edge of exting reporter:he argunt dngs go down well wh the prime minister. our policy is clear cut. we don t accept their pmise in terms of scientifiwhaling. rorter: the federal government is still hping to resolve the matr diplomatically, bu if if it can t we will use this to dploy international gal action. reporter: they e calling for th opposition. they mu set a deline for japan to cease whalingr carry througtheir promise. t ratchets up even further the tenon. if the iention is to t to bring japato the table, so to speak, in term of scussions, i think it probably is not helpful. reporter: japan is calling for cm and less etion. rebecca barrett, late li. north korea hasome positive commentsoday of a they have today s talks with the special americanenvoy, stev bogsworth. they sainorth korea understas the ne to resume the six-tion talkson its nuclear prograwhich walked away from before conducting a second nucar test last year. the mistry said bth sides continued to cooperate in the future to narrow wh it cled remainingifferences. yond the hadlines we tur to africa wre there is chaotic situation. a report from guea. yoll recall there was a massre in that country in september. soldiers killed ateast157 people and raped dozens of women duri a pro democracy denstration. and la last ek, a renegade soldier tried to assassinate the head of the miliry government. that has le to se brutal reprisals by t army. as hear in this report from al jazeera english. reporter: thi exclusive otage shows membersf inea s presidential guard surrounding colleagues w they alleged aid the attempted assassination of the guinea president. is female officer is stripped naked. the fear and sense of humiliation is palpable. thwoman and t comnions were alleged had i cught by the guinean military trying to oss e bored order monday. theresidential guard has been on the hunt forhose they believe wereart of last thursday assassination aempt on the president. on the ground they said all three peopleincluding the woman are now dead. taken into milary barracks and ot. theris a dangerous power vaum in guea where the president recoveng from a guhot wound in a moroccan spital, the miliry gentry is holding on to power. political oppents and human rights gros say e killing of soldie is aimed at protecting the president from charg linking him to the massacre of 150 people at plut rally in september. they say the president issued the shoo to community order and now the military is silencing witnesses. theyre facing two international investigatns into the september 28 massacre. one by the united tions. the juntgovernment have not commented on t allegatns that some ithe military are being lled. guinea is entering grave peod of uncerinty. the presidential ards seem to be out of ontrol. the miliry are deeply divide asked the president is absent. calls by the international communityor aush to citizen rule and fresh elections ve been ignored, heeding to fears among ordinaryeople that there may be more killing by the security orces. al jazeera, nairobi, kya. time for our fray roundtab discussion of some of the week s top stories. aar time president receives th nobel peace prize as the confct in afghanistan escalates. at times he said war is not only necessary but moral stified. continng security problems in iraq where more an 100 people were killed this week. still, he was th secretary robert gates has plans to draw down u.s forces hav not changed. and we assess the prospects of a climate agreement in cophagen. will th united stat an other developecountries rise the occasion and hel developing countriedeal wh climate change? joining us tonight, carla robins, deputy editorial of the new york times and th maging editor of foreign affrs magazine. thks to both of u foreing with u carla, i ll start with ladies first. there he was, o presint, condting notne butwo wars. accepting the nobel peacprize this week. your thoughts? it was a pretty extrrdinary stag extraordiny because he went right to the irony an he said thprofound nature of the controversy, he fingered more thannything else, he is th commander of chief of a military nation in the midst oftwo wars as he put it. he also made wh i ought was a far mor compelling argument for his decision to escalate in afghanisn than he did even last week. i found that speech very rong last week. he made a compelling tellectual arrestingbumt. ther he was, there was the reason he gave it tohim in the first place. this is a man who bann torture,ommitted to muilateral ac, all that. he sai as much as i follow and respect gandy and martin luther benning and wouldn t there b if it weren t forng, there are times you have to fight a war. in accepting the peace prize he made a case for war. a certain kind of just war in rtain time and places. i would go rther. had me at hellon the first ace. but the speech was, i think th is the best speech i ve heard or seen fromhim since he electi, ankly. and it was really incredibl not justtirring emotionally because rhetoric can do that. but intellectually serious and molly serious. is was the defense of the united states and throle it can play inhe world that really suld command partisan suppor it is rational and mal, serious witht being reckless and irresponsible. i thought it was a gre speech and actually what i m hearing from the people hig trust on the inside, he actually wrote and rewrote many of the key sections himself whichs even more impressive,frankly. i tnk he probably wrote and wrote many of the sections in last week speech as ll. he is a lawr and he had that legal ief. i think he felt la week, having comeut of this incredible debate, towed explain all the different steps. this speech was t sort ringing argument. he even used the word, he said the was evil in the wod. that s one those george bushl word the committee che him because he is not george w. bu and didn t s away fromit. he made apology. one analysis i read sd of all the thoughts on ahanistan ths one may or may notd but the others, ther pulling out immediately or maintaing thestatus quo would have been omed to fail. i think th one he s chosen is part y kickhe ca down the road option. you can make case for i the troopurge is wat is happening now. e pledge to maybe rethink about considering withdrawing a couple years down the roads still emional at this point. bull it ishe leastad option i agree,iven many optionsn e table. no better example of that than in iraq this beg. is was such a bloody week in iraq. even if they wereall for election give us yo thoughts about that. i think things are getting tter, albeit slowly and gradually. umsfeld ed to use the image of a bicle and us holdg the bicycle and the questionwas, if ty start to wobb, do you let them rid it out? because they have toide it or do you stepin to stabilizit? the bush ainistration for a long time tri very hard to l e bicycle go. and it wouldn t. it was about to fall. until we finally stepped in and stabized it wouflz the sge and forth. w we are doing in iraq what obama said wwill eventually do in afghanistan. trying to let them have reonsibility, withdrawing gradually after havingevolved authorit andhere are going to be probms. the bicycle ll wobble. the question is will it wobb so mh that they fundamental had i fl over? and i don t thk that will happen i think the question related to the elections is that i think mostiraqis are just tired o the war. on the other hand, they have been up for grabs for a lg time. if there is progress, if there arelecons,nd we are seeing mpromises. we re eing how msy the whole thing is. if wean get tthat int. it is moving forward but this is five simultaneous, the insurgency is stl there but i have alws felt there is not a milita solution. you had to use the mitary to give political space. ulmate had i they have to take responsibility f themselves. gates says they wi remain o schele to pull out. i think he said thatnot because of t bombing. i think he said itbecause they armoving forward with the ection. the realy is they can teep those troopsnd not do a draw-tow both mital and milarily. i think th re geing outf iraq. on the subject of moving forward. at are the prospec of a agreemt, a climate change agreement comg out of conhagen? it depends howyou define reement. agreemenwith fixed targets, commitmentsor developing countries, wealthy nions. i n t know. this has been a week of throat clearing. i thineveryone is betting there will be me sort of interim agreemt that has a commitment to help the developingations doing t. it i aspirational. it is still ry far down the road. i think it good that the head of state wi be the, obama is goin if he is reporting right now that they toave thisdraft, that s going arou forn intem agreement with. has some moneyttached to buno number attached to it. i woulpredict they would me out with an agreementut there will be so manyblanks that it will really, to use your phrase, kick thean down t road emissions draw-down is even more vaporoushan the afghan withdrawal deadline. it was supposed to say, the lo ke me chaste but tyet. that s the type of approach we eryone will get around thedea that we should indeed do things but then ve noactual plan or commitnt for doin them so this can wl be kied down the roadith potentially deadly conquences but we lsee. thank you for joining us to talk about t ek s events. thank you. thanks. finally two stories that caught our aention about, well,nidentified flying objects. we learned that after 50 years, britain s miniry of fense hashut down ahotline that took reports of ufos. well, nomore. britain decided the money for the ufo effortbout, $73,000 a year,ould beetter spent in afanistan. andbeside it said, none o the thousands ufo sightings reported ov the years, have ever pvided substantiated proof of the existence of extraterrestrials. but just when you thought i was safe, there was this. a strange iraling light observed thiseek or norway. amateur images of it were widely circulated on the internet. ufo spotters werebuzzing. was it a flying saucer? ll, it apprs to have been something more down toearth. the failure o new long-rae russian missile during a test firing. or was it? that is worldfocus for this friday eveng. a reminder, if y ve mised any of our progms this week, you can watch them on the web at worldfocus.org. thank you for joininus. have a good ekend. the peterson peter fndation decated to perot mog fiscal responsibili and key challees facing america. mutual of amrica. designing customized individual and group retirement produc. that why we re your retirement company.com. and tigsal fuing is provided the following supports.