We had a good and constructive discussion. The foreign minister joined the meeting later this week, which i will be chairing, in order to have a short discussion. We have agreed that he and i will meet with our teams in geneva in october. Click the white house has said its open to a meeting between the iranian president Hassan Rouhani and president obama, both of whom are addressing the u n Assembly Meeting today. Banned all court has activities at the Muslim Brotherhood and its spinoff groups and ordered its assets to be seized. The group has 10 days to appeal the ban. It comes as part of the crackdown on supporters of ousted president morsi by the military backed government that is in some 1000 killed in 2000 people arrested, including many of the brotherhood leaders. The core issue the injunction after lawyers for the leftist party accused the Muslim Brotherhood of terrorism. The group the brotherhood has been banned for most of its 85 your history. U. S. Military says it will stop reporting the number of prisoners on Hunger Strike at Guantanamo Bay after its official tally has dropped to just 19 prisoners. 18 of the prisoners are listed for forcefeeding with nasal tubes. The Hunger Strike against indefinite detention began in february. At its peak, the military counted 106 participants, while christer lawyer said the number was higher, with nearly all 166 prisoners taking part. The strike forced president obama to publicly address his failure to deliver in a promise to close guantanamo. Two prisoners were moved to algeria the first transfer out of guantanamo nearly a year, last month. Chiquita companies asking a federal Appeals Court to dismiss lawsuits brought against it by thousands of colombians who hold the Company Responsible for the murders of their loved ones at the hands of their militaries. Chiquita pleaded guilty in 2000 72 giving funds to the United States offense forces of colombia, known as the auc, a right Wing Military alliance supported by top leaders and blamed for giving tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians, beginning in the light 1990s. The Supreme Court limiting the ability of people outside the u. S. To sue corporations for human rights abuses in u. S. Courts. He was attorney general eric holder is the former general counsel of chiquita. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, he represented the company and lawsuits related to chiquitas dealings in columbia. A member of the russian feminist punk group pussy riot has launched a Hunger Strike to protest harsh conditions and a more jovian penal colony where she is serving a twoyear sentence for protesting russian leader Vladimir Putin and said a moscow cathedral. In an open letter, not jack describes slavery like conditions including beatings carried out with the approval of prison officials and sewing work shifts that last 17 hours. Not he is husband said she has also faced death threats. In the last several weeks, she tried to change it from inside the prison but obviously, she understood this was impossible and it led to [indiscernible] nadia is one of two members of pussy riot now im penal colonies further protest in 2011 when they danced to get putin out. The second member staged an 11 day Hunger Strike earlier this year. In germany, Angela Merkel is moving to form a new Coalition Government after winning a third term as chancellor. She is been criticized for pushing harsh austerity policies that have sparked mass protests in countries across europe, including greece, spain, and ireland. In the u. S. , the Internal RevenueService Official who became the focus of the scandal over the targeting of political groups has resigned. Lois lerner was reportedly set to be ousted by an internal review board. She came under fire from republicans earlier this year for heading a division they give extra scrutiny to put political groups, particularly those tied to rightwing causes. The family of a 28yearold African College student shot dead by new York City Police last year has filed a federal law rights lawsuit seeking changes in how Police Responded people with Mental Health issues. According to the lawsuit, mohamed bah was shot at least eight times in his own home in harlem after his mother called 911 seeking an ambulance to bring her son to the hospital because he seemed depressed. While mohamed bah assisted he was fine and asked police to leave, they allegedly yelled at him over a. Of hours, taunted him, kicked his door, and eventually force the door open. , fired a thebah back and then fatally shot him. Police later accused mohamed bah a stabbing to officers. The lawsuit seeks a shift in nypd policies after long series of wrongful death incidents involving people with emotional disturbances. The suit was filed by the same lawyers who represent the family kenneththat chamberlain who was shot dead in his own home by police in his home after accidentally activating his medical alert pendant. You can go to democracynow. Org to see our extensive coverage of the chamberlain case. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Leaders, including president obama, are gathering this week here in new york for the United NationsGeneral Assembly. On monday, i had a chance to sit down with ecuadors foreign at ther Ricardo PatinoUnited Nations. Ecuador has been at the center of several Major International stories in recent years. Granted ecuador wikileaks founder Julian Assange asylum. He has spent more than merely Ecuadorian Embassy in london. Over the summer, ecuador played a role in the drama surrounding National Security agency leaker Edward Snowden and his attempt to secure political asylum. The center ofo at a closely watched environmental legal battle. Between 1964 1990, texaco drilled for oil in the ecuadorian amazon and dumped as much as 18. 5 billion gallons of highly toxic waste sludge into the rain forest. The waste contaminated the streams and rivers used by local people for drinking, bathing, and fishing. Past two decades, theres been a legal battle over the cleanup. In 2011, and a gregorian court order the oil giant chevron, which acquired texaco in 2011, to pay 19 billion to indigenous and rule ecuadorians. The chevron has refused to pay. Last week, chevron was dealt a partial victory with an International Arbitration panel based at the hague delivered an interim ruling questioning the validity of the 2011 verdict. The Arbitration Panel claimed the lawsuit against chevron lack a legitimate Legal Foundation because ecuador had released texaco of all potential liability back in the 1990s, they said. Ecuador has rejected the findings saying indigenous plaintiffs should not be precluded from suing chevron. Yesterday, i sat down with ecuadorian foreign minister and i began by asking him to explain this latest twist in the chevron saga. Has issued some decisions. Thatf those decisions is ecuador, of course, never sued , butt and we chevrontexaco could be sued by individuals for the impact on those individuals, and not for impacts on collectives. That has toomething be looked at further, but the government of ecuador considers that the court of arbitration lacks jurisdiction. And that this bilateral investment treatment is not available retroactively. So just to conclude the issue of chevrontexaco, it is important to note that chevron has been millions of dollars on a campaign to discredit the ecuadorian government, arguing there were problems with the legal process. If that is the case, then they need to address those as such in the ecuadorian legal system. But one of the things they argue they cleaned up after devastating the amazon and they. Idnt leave anything amiss chevrontexaco argues that any that is still fail is visible wasnt their fault and corresponds to the ecuadorian government to address. Agoident correa a few days when to an area where chevrontexaco was operating in the president put his hand in the toxic waste pit that chevrontexaco left, and raised his oilstained hand up to show the world how chevrontexaco has destroyed the ecuadorian amazon, and did not use the cleanup methodology that were available mitigate or even avoid environmental damages. So chevrontexaco didnt care at all about the destruction of the environment that it caused, and that is why we are now inviting the world to come to the ecuadorian amazon and see for themselves the destruction that caused. Exaco has even though texaco left the country in 1992, these damages. Re still very much evident we have no interest in taking weal action in this regard, simply want to show the world they are lying. Ecuadoran foreign minister Ricardo Patino. After the break, we talk about ecuadors new plan to drill for oil in the amazon rain forest. What ecuador would think, with the president would think of a public referendum. We also talked about Edward Snowden, Julian Assanges asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in london, and more. Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We continue our conversation with ecuadors foreign minister Ricardo Patino. I interviewed him monday at the Permanent Mission of ecuador to the United Nations. We discussed the United Nations general simply meeting and why ecuadorian president correa isnt attending, as well as the plight of wikileaks founder Julian Assange who has spent more than 450 days in the Ecuadorian Embassy in london. We also talked about the health of cubas revolutionary leader fidel castro in the legacy of venezuelan president hugo chavez. First, i asked the foreign minister why ecuador recently dropped a plan to preserve large areas of the amazon rain forest from oil drilling by having wealthy countries pay them not to drill. President correa said the plan to say parts of the yes in the National Park and not attracted sufficient funding. Unesco has said it is a World Biosphere Reserve because it contains 100,000 species of animals, many of which are not found anywhere else in the world. ,nvironmentalists Vandana Shiva naomi klein, james hansen and others recently wrote an open letter to correa president forea, asking him to not sake the initiative. The letter read in part that is what the letter to president correa read. I asked Ricardo Patino to respond to the letter. First of all, it is important to say that it was the ecuadorian government that presented the initiative and we have been working on it for six years. Say,does the initiative basically . It says, well, we would like to preserve the extraordinary biodiversity on the surface of yasuni and that we want to exploit the oil in the subsurface, that is to say, underground, and that we also to avoid drilling and selling and burning this oil and thus avoid polluting the atmosphere. The initiative said the following, the ecuadorian government is willing to of the resources that this oil could generate for ecuador. Resources that we need. Ecuador is not a rich country. Resources for its development. There is still quite a lot of poverty. In the lastanged six years. A lot has been improved, but we need to work quickly to achieve even better conditions and we need these resources. All over the world, Natural Resources are being exploited without a great deal of concern about the impact of that exploitation. Andwe appeal to the world we said we are willing to income that of the could potentially be generated, contributeld has to and we said if the International Community would cover the other 50 , we were willing to ofpletely preserve the area the yasuni and not exploit the oil indefinitely. But the worlds response was negative. We only got a very few million of dollars. We need these resources. Appeals and done appeals and appeals and not seen an echo to our appeal, ecuador decided to exploit the oil. Without affecting the surface of yasuni. This is very important. Will have some impact, but it will be minimal. Criteria that were expressed in that open letter. Itthe people who signed could raise the awareness of the [indiscernible] unfortunately, we did not achieve what we have proposed and maybe there are other issues the world is more concerned about or interested in. The world spends 2 billion in or 2 trillion, and the rich countries and companies did not want to contribute to the fund for yasuni. Even in very rich, wealthy, and countries, itean was the local authorities that contributed to the fund, but not the federal governments and the world has other priorities, but we also need to try and thatnate the miseries people are suffering in ecuador. There are a lot of people who still die from intestinal illness and a lack of drinking water, so we need these resources. What about the call for public referendum in ecuador on yasuni . Ecuador cannment of make the decision through its legislative body, and that is why the president has sent this proposal to the National Assembly to analyze it and make a decision on it. A significant part of the population wants to organize a public referendum, then they can do so and they can collect on signatures to that effect, then we can go and have a public referendum. We dont have any problem in doing that. Nothy is president correa addressing the you in general simply like so many World Leaders are . Doesnt havecorrea thet of expectations about meetings of the General Assembly. He attended one General Assembly , but there were no World Leaders in the room at the time to hear what he had to say. So there is concern about the methodology of how things are organized here. And since he had the experience that he had here in the human in the you and, quite frankly, he was frustrated and he is not really interested in whereipating in an event nobody really seems to be interested in hearing each other. Foreign minister, what about Edward Snowden and what you have learned from the leaks of this nsa contractor, the expose after expose of surveillance inside the United States and outside . Edward snowden open the eyes to an international. Rime the nsas spying on the whole , and that is a violation of international law. Doesnt justre, it violate international law, it violates international trust. Of ones friends and enemies, and that in and of itself is grave. There are countries that are friends and countries that are enemies. Andll deserve respect should be categorized as such. But in the rhetoric of the u. S. Government and that even the u. S. Government socalled friends were respected. They wanted to know absolutely everything that was going on. So what snowden denounced, this is very useful and allows us to correct what is been going on. These issues are not addressed. Agenda of thehe human assembly. And that is unfortunate. President use of a brazil has canceled her state visit to washington because of the information that is come out based on the leaks that she was being spied on that the Ecuadorian EnergyCompany Petrobras was being spied on. Think that ecuador is being spied on . You. Ll, i couldnt tell but when i was visiting Julian Assange a few weeks ago in your embassy in london, and the Ecuadorian Embassy, they found a few days before my visit a hidden microphone in the office of our ambassador. And we still havent been able to ascertain who planted it. But we can imagine who put it there. The information that snowden provides indicates that everyone is spied on. And so one should probably assume that we have been spied on as well. Venezuela has offered Edward Snowden political asylum. Ecuador is ecuador weighing this like you have Julian Assange . Well, lets see. We are a very sovereign country with very from positions. Protected bye is asylum that ecuador has provided him with. When the case of Edward Snowden arose, ecuador was the first country that offered to analyze his request. While many countries immediately rejected the request. That it wouldered be best not to be alone in this ght because it is a very to beult, sticky matter given the Political Landscape of , and we cant ignore that fact. Tha