Little known group called donors trust, backed by the koch and others, it has also built a vast network of rightwing online Media Outlets in socalled free market think tanks. Then, brave miss world. Miss world 1998 is one of these girls. And miss world 1998 is ms. Israel. Little did anyone know that miss world had just been raped in italy. Today she is become a global advocate for victims of sexual abuse. Rape is so isolating because even if you tell people what happened, friends are free to mention it. We will speak with the director of great miss world, cecillia peck, daughter of the legendary actor gregory peck. All of that and more coming up. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. United nations investigators are calling for syrian leaders suspected of murder and torture in the countrys bloody crisis to face charges at the International Criminal court. The latest findings by investigators probing the conflict accuse both sides of war crimes over sixmonth time frame ending last month. Seven massacres or identified during that time five of them by Government Forces and two by rebels seeking the ouster of president Bashar Alassad. U. N. Investigator Carla Del Ponte spoke at a News Conference monday in geneva. We were able to identify high level perpetrators [indiscernible] what we need is a tribunal conducting formal investigations and be able to show an indictment against the perpetrators. The United Nations has more than 70,000 people have been killed since the uprising against the sun began in march 2011. On monday, european leaders agreed to step up aid to the Syrian Rebels rejected the possibility of providing them with weapons. British foreign secretary William Hague called the measure a compromise, saying britain would have gone further toward easing the embargo. This is an important change. It shows we can change the arms embargo. It will be reviewed again in three months establishing an important precedent, an important step in itself. It will allow us to supply a greater range of equipment to help protect civilian life in syria, and will enable us to give assistance and advice we had been restricted in giving before. The New York Times is reporting the Obama Administration may revisit the possibility of arming Syrian Rebels after obama initially rejected the idea last fall. Syrian refugees fleeing conflict are continuing to flood into neighboring countries at a rate of thousands per day. A jordanian border official said monday nearly 90,000 syrians have crossed into jordan since the beginning of the year. One of those refugees decried the conditions in her home country. Our homes are all destroyed. We have nothing. If Bashar Alassad once our country, let him have it. We came here after running between homes, trying to avoid the fire that rained down on us. If it were not for the Free Syrian Army protecting us, we would have died. God help us. In the u. S. , georgia is set to put a man did that tonight despite consensus among medical specialists is mentally disabled. Warren hill was sentenced to die 1991 for killing a fellow prisoner. All three doctors who originally said hill did not be the Legal Definition of mental retarded have since reversed their opinion, saying their original evaluation was extremely and unusually rushed and did not allow for an accurate assessment of his condition. His lawyers say his men to capacity peaked at a sixth grade level. While the Supreme Court bans the execution of mentally disabled people, it allows states leeway to decide who qualifies. Georgia is the only state requires a defendant to prove such disabilities beyond a reasonable doubt. It would be the first georgia prisoner to be executed since the killing of Troy Anthony Davis prompted global outrage in 2011. Davis was killed despite major doubts about his guilt after seven of the nine nonpolice witnesses in his case recanted their testimony. Colorado lawmakers have passed a series of strict guncontrol measures in a state that suffered some of the most worst Mass Shootings in recent history. The package would ban ammunition magazines with more than 15 rounds, require background checks on all gun purchases, and allow colleges to ban concealed weapons on campus. Not a single republican supported the bills, which now head before the democratically controlled senate. The New York Times is reporting a growing body of evidence has implicated the Chinese Military in a large percentage of cyberattacks against u. S. Companies and Government Agencies. Software companies and newspapers including the New York Times have reported breaches of their systems believed to have originated in china. But a new report now links members of the us sophisticated Chinese Hacking Group known as common crude to an area on the outskirts of shanghai that houses a Chinese Military unit. Researchers say one target of the groups hacks has been a company with Remote Access to more than 60 of north americas oil and gas pipelines. Under a new directive signed by obama, the United States is cracking down on such attacks by sharing information about hacking groups with u. S. Internet providers. Pakistani Authorities Say they have arrested the mastermind of a sectarian bombing that killed 89 people on saturday. In total, officials said they killed four people and rounded up seven others accused of killing Shiite Muslims during an operation on the citys outskirts today. Thousands of shiites had protested across pakistan on monday, calling for Government Protection as families of the bombing victims refused to bury their dead until authorities took action against those responsible. Members of the pakistani Interfaith League rallied in the capital islamabad. Today were not gathered on the basis of religion, but on the basis of humanity because we believe were all human beings and we are muslims, christians, hindus. Today we have christians, bishops, pastors, muslims, hindus and s ikhs as a symbol of our unity, assemble people of pakistan belonged to one family. In his release soldier has ignited controversy after posting a photograph to a social networking site that appears to show a palestinian boy in the cross hairs of a sniper rifle. Mor ostrovski, a sniper in the military of israel, posted the photo to his instagram site. It shows a palestinian boy facing away from the camera with a gun cross hairs focused on the side of his head. The Israeli Military says it is investigating. In britain, journalists with the bbc walked off the job monday in a 24hour strike against job cuts, temporarily canceling many of the broadcasters shows. Protesting workers launched picket lines outside bbc studios across the country. The National Union of journalists says some 2000 jobs are at stake. Another labor action is underway in spain where workers at the Airline Iberia have launched a fiveday strike against plans to fire a fit of the companys work force. Hundreds of flights were cancelled as striking workers clashed with riot police of the airport in madrid. Spains Unemployment Rate stands at 26 . A woman walked into a bank branch in the eastern part of the country and set herself on fire monday. She was reportedly taken to hospital for treatment. European leaders agreed monday to deepen sanctions against north korea following its test of a Nuclear Device last week. The new measures will further restrict north korean trade and Financial Capabilities after it faced International Condemnation for its Third Nuclear test since 2006. Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu meanwhile cited the move by north korea monday in a bid to drum up further support for issuing a credible military threat against iran over its nuclear program. The sanctions themselves, even tougher sanctions will not stop it. Case in point, north korea. Tough sanctions stop north korea . No. And the fact that they produced a Nuclear Explosion reverberates everywhere in the middle east, especially in iran, they said, where is the tough response . European regulators have announced plans to crack down on internet search firm google in the coming months over its controversial privacy policy. Google gathers user data across its services, including youtube and jean now, and bars users from opting out. Regulators see it as a potential threat to individual privacy. The Supreme Court is expected to her arguments today in a legal battle between agricultural giant monsanto and a 75yearold indiana farmer. Monsanto accused Vernon Hugh Bowman of infringing on their seed patents after he planted soybeans purchase from a local Grain Elevator that contained a monsanto gene. In fact, more than 90 of soybeans in indiana reportedly contain the gene, which allows them to survive when sprayed with the companys roundup weed killer. Bowman is appealing his case after he was ordered to pay monsanto 84,000. Critics have accused monsanto of using their patents to try to monopolize the supply of certain crops. The case could potentially impact patents across multiple industries. Funeral services were held in south africa today for reeva steenkamp, the 29yearold model allegedly shot dead by her boyfriend, Paralympic Champion oscar pistorius. Earlier in court, prosecutors accused pistorius of premeditated murder, saying he fired at steenkamp four times through a door after she locked herself in the bathroom. Pistorius, known as the blade runner because of the shape of his prosthetics, became a global icon as the first paralympic sprinter to run in the olympics. Outside the court, protesters with the Womens League of countrys Ruling African NationalCongress Called for him to be held without bail. Please, when someone has been charged with such a serious case, that person should remain in custody until proven innocent. I am not saying he is guilty, we are just saying there is nobody to stand here and tell reevas story. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with aaron mate. Welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. When it comes to the wealthy funders of rightwing causes, the big names are well known. Billionaires like the industrialist Koch Brothers and the casino magnate sheldon adelson. Super pacs like americans for prosperity and karl roves crossroads gps. Through them, hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into rightwing causes and candidates. It turns out this web of dark money donations is even more secretive than previously thought. That is because the operations of a largely unknown group have come to light a group called donors trust. It is a Nonprofit Charity based in virginia. Since 1999, donors trust is handed out nearly 400 million in private donations to more than 1000 rightwing and libertarian groups. The fact donors trust has been it to quietly do so appears to explain why it exists wealthy donors can back the rightwing causes they want without attracting public scrutiny. The owners trust is classified as a Donor Advised Fund under u. S. Tax law, meaning its funders do not have direct say in where the money goes. That in turn allows them to remain largely anonymous. But the most detailed accounting to date shows donors trust funds a wish list of rightwing causes, prompng mother jones magazine to label it the dark money atm of the right. Donors trust recipients include the American Legislative Exchange council, or alec, of mechanism for corporate interests to help write state laws but also the Franklin Center for government and public integrity, a media outlet that unabashedly promotes rightwing causes. A number of rightwing think tanks that push socalled free market policies. The major focus appears to be funding the denial of Global Warming. More than onethird of donors trust donations, at least 146 million, has gone the think tanks and other groups that challenge the science of Climate Change. Late we will take a look at that funding of Climate Change denial. First, we turn to an overview of donors trust a look at why it has been able to evade public scrutiny until now. Joining us from washington, d. C. , is john dunbar. His politics editor at the center for public integrity. Donorstrust declined our request to join us. They are essentially a pass through. What they do is they act as a middleman between what are very large wellknown private foundations created by mostly by corporate executives, like the kochs for example. They direct the money of those contributions to a very Large Network of right winning free market think tanks across the country, including those you named. By running into the middle man is essentially obscures the identity of the original donors of the folks who have provided the funds themselves. The organization itself makes that clear on its own website, essentially saying people who give money to the organization avoid being identified or connected with potentially controversial issues. John dunbar, the figure is 400 million since 1999. Why is it that this is all now coming to light . We stumbled onto it, to be honest. We were looking at activities at the state level and were noticing a certain continuity to what was going on in various states on these issues. We have been looking at the American Legislative Exchange council for quite some time. We were looking for how these organizations were funded. This donors trust organization kept popping up and seemed to be such amorphous renamed organization with cannot figure out what it was for it was started thinking, who is finding donors trust question of the way back that up and started looking at more of the better known rightwing free market foundations, particularly those run by the Koch Brothers and the bradley foundation, very well known rightleaning foundations, and found enormous amount of funds that came into donors trust came from those organizations. In your report you speak with the donors trust president and ceo whitney ball. She says much of the groups focus is on the state level because of gridlock of the federal level of government means donors see a better opportunity to make a difference in the states. All also sits on the board of this a policy network. Can you talk about this focus on activity at the state level . . I dont think anyone would argue with her point. It is hard to get anything done in washington these days. They have been a lot more successful at the state level. I think in washington we have a tendency to sort of get tunnel vision and dont think anything that happens outside of washington really matters, when in fact the laws that are passed in the states are extremely important. Some of the focus of the donors trust recipients have been on specific state issues that affect all of us. Some of the favorite issues are the right to work laws in the states, climate issues, Renewable Energy as you will hear from suzanne. As well as tax issues, etc. People tend to look at states and what is happening in a particular state in isolation. They do not look around and see that things seem to be happening in other states. That this is clearly a coordinated effort. There are 51 have funded all across the country to push legislative issues, then they created their own media empire to support the ideas behind those issues. If you could follow up on the media group, the Franklin Center for government and public integrity, they received 95 of their funding from the donors trust . Right. And that was kind of shocking, actually. That is a foundation financed reporting organization. I have to say we do not get 95 of our funding for any one donor. Franklin does. The difficulty with that is, first of all, you have to wonder whether the reporting is going to be influenced by the single donor. Secondly, they are a c3, which means stonemasons to them are tax deductible which means donations to them are tax deductible and they do not pay taxes. Theyre not publicly financed nonprofit, or they will lose their nonprofit status by getting most of their money through donors trust theyre able to maintain their c3 status as a publicly financed charity. If all that money came from one person, for example, they will lose that exemption or would be part or they would have to be absorbed by whatever foundation. In 2009, republicans, bloggers and conservative think tanks began to cite a r