Issues related to meat and poultry is closed. In japan, radiation levels in seawater around a damaged reactor at the Fukushima DaiichiNuclear Plant have hit their highest level in two years. The Plant Operator said contaminated soil was displaced by pressure as workers pumped chemicals into the ground in an attempt to harden it and prevent water from leaking into the ocean. On wednesday, the operator said six workers were doused with radioactive water after an employee mistakenly detached the pipe connected to a Water Treatment system. In france, the Constitutional Court has upheld a ban on fracking, the gastrointestinal, saying the measure legitimately protects the environment from the damaging effects of blasting water and chemicals deep into the earth. France first band fracking in 2011 despite pressure from the gas industry. Thanrth dakota, more 20,000 barrels of crude oil have leaked into a week field from a pipeline and owned by the company tesoro. The leak covered about seven acres of land, the size of seven football fields. It was roughly four times the size of the exxonmobil Pipeline Leak in mayflower, arkansas in march. A farmer found the leak on september 29, but north dakota governor said he was only told about it wednesday night because its eyes had been underestimated. He said the state is reviewing its procedures for reporting spills. Egypt, canadian doctor and film maker have been cleared to leave the country after being imprisoned there for nearly two months. Don greyson and dr. Tariq loubani were freed on sunday, but barred from returning home under a travel ban it was lifted thursday. They were arrested in august after rushing to the scene of a mass shooting by state forces of supporters of ousted president mohamed morsi. A group of u. S. Whistleblower advocates has met with Edward Snowden in russia to present him with an award for his revelations about nsa spying. On wednesday, snowden met with attorney jessleyn radack and her Client NationalSecurity Agency whistleblower thomas drake, as well as former cia analyst ray mcgovern and former fbi agent coleen rowley. They gave snowden an award from the Sam Adams Associates for integrity and intelligence, a group of former cia officials. Jessleyn radack describe the impact of snowdens disclosures in an interview with rt. It is a dangerous time for whistleblowers in the United States, but the effect the snowden effect has been the opposite. We have more and more whistleblowers coming to the government account ability project than we have had before. I think if the u. S. Is trying to clamp down and send a message by making an example, courage is contagious. I really think he has had a wonderful effect for the u. S. And for the world. Edward snowdens father has also met with his son after arriving in moscow on thursday. Russian state tv said details about the meeting are being kept secret for security reasons. Snowden addressed reporters at the same airport were his son was stranded for more than a month to summer before receiving temporary asylum. Ask i want to learn more about my son situation and im thankful, extremely thankful, to the russian people. President vladimir putin. The New York Times report said snowden was hired as a contractor for the National Security agency, despite earlier suspicions among his supervisors that he tried to break into classified computers without robert authorization. Unnamed official said the cia sent snowden home due to the suspicions. A supervisor enclosed a report in his personnel file but also described changes in snowdens behavior. I was in 2009, four years before snowden began leaking classified documents he obtained as in nsa contractor. A republican congressmember who coauthored the patriot act is poised to introduce a new bill to curb spying by the national. Ecurity Agency Commerce member Jim Sensenbrenner helped expand the spying powers of u. S. Intelligence agencies under president george w. Bush. But he now says the programs have gone too far and that its time to put their Metadata Program out of business ergo the guardian reports among other measures, his bill would limit the collection of phone records to terrorism suspects and allow companies to say how many government requests for user data they receive. Highesttagon second ranking official has announced he will step down in december. The view defense secretary Ashton Carter was seen as a possible contender for defense secretary before obama chose chuck hagel for the post. A new survey shows most americans to attended to sign up attempted to sign up for help insurance exchanges through the new Affordable Care act werent able to do so last week as the websites were beset with technical issues. The poll released found 73 of enrollwho attempted to and exchanges experienced problems, 65 were unable to sign up. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons has been awarded thebased in the organization was established to enforce the 19 97 chemical Weapons Convention. It recently sent inspectors to carry out the dismantling of syrias stockpile of chemical weapons. This the region about Committee Chairman praised the opcw. In world war i, chemical weapons were used to considerable degree. The Geneva Convention of 1925 prohibited the use, but not the production or storage of chemical weapons. During world war ii, chemical weapons were employed in hitlers mass exterminations. To michael weapons have subsequently been put to use chemical weapons have subsequently been put to use by both states and terrorist. 1993, prohibiting the production and storage of such weapons. 1997. E in force in has sought thew implementation of the convention. To talk more about the Nobel Peace Prize in the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons, were joined by two guests. Us fromker is with washington, d. C. , Program Director of the Environmental Security and Sustainability Program at green cross international. He has just won the 2013 right livelihood award for his work on chemical weapons. Also with us is Stephen Zunes come a professor of politics and International Studies at the university of san francisco, where he chairs the program in middle eastern studies. Lets begin with paul walker. First, congratulations on your own on getting the right livelihood award which will be awarded in the Swedish Parliament in december. But your comments on the opcw, the announcement today they are receiving the nobel prize . Good morning, amy. I am delighted to see the opcw has won the Nobel Peace Prize. It is a wonderful occasion, a wonderful award for them, well deserved. They have been working day and night for the last 16, 17, 18 years to free the world from a whole class of weapons of mass distraction, chemical weapons. It is very well deserved and a pleasure to talk about that. Do. Alk about what they the opcw was established under the chemical Weapons Convention, which was open for signature in 1993. It is the limiting agency. It has about 500 people working from all over the world. Agency. Multilateral with the cereplast a session, it has 198 countries with syria, it is now 198 countries. They inspect 24 7 aroundthe clock the destruction of those weapons, which is required under the treaty. They also inspect chemical industry. We have over 5000 to michael plants all over the world which can produce chemicals. They are the International Multilateral watchdog to illuminate a whole class of chemical weapons and make sure they never reappear somewhere in the world. Professor Stephen Zunes, can you talk about its history . Thehe opcw has overseen destruction or close to 80 of the world chemical arsenals. Thes quite effective given technical complexity of it. They have had to do so amidst occasional hostility, particularly from the United States. For example, the director in 1997 whonning oversaw the greatest expansion of the treaty, the largest amount of destruction of weapons were under his leadership. Yet in part because he was so effective, he was forced out by the Bush Administration because he insisted the United States chemical weapons stockpile should be inspected just like everybody else. And he was close to making a deal with allowing iraq to become a signatory so inspectors could come in and prove that in fact iraq had eliminated their arsenal, contrary to the claims of washington. I think theects, awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the opcw is a means of saying, hey, look, great powers dismiss ando discredit the opcw, but multilateral actions based on treaties are a far better means of controlling the spread of these Deadly Weapons than unilateral military action. Paul walker, can you talk about that pressure that was brought to bear on the first head of the opcw, right before the iraq war, that could have averted the u. S. Attack on iraq . One of the major catchwords to the opcw and all multilateral organizations is, you want every country in the world to join these regimes. We have been working very hard for the last 15 to 20 years on trying to universalize the chemical Weapons Convention. From brazil was the first director general of what we call the dg, and he was outreaching to a wide range of countries to join the treaty. I think by the year 2000, 3 years after entering the force, we maybe had 125 members, 130 members of the treaty. There are 196 countries in the world. Of outreacheries was to iraq. We knew iraq had chemical weapons, had used them in the 1980s in fact, brutally murdered kurds in 1988. His outrage in the early 2000s, i think was very appropriate. The u. S. And the Bush Administration took umbrage at that, however, and eventually made a Public Campaign to oust pose a bustani and he was ousted prior essentially fired by the Opcw Executive Council in 2002. Subsequently, he went to the thernational labor court, Labor Organization and sued the opcw and won the suit in violation that he was fired in violation of his contract. He became the brazilian abbasid or to britain. He went to london. A second director general came on board. He was from argentina oh. He turned out to be very good. Now the current rector general, a turkish ambassador, is likewise very good. The whole pose a boost on the jose bustani affair was embarrassing. That they would preclude iraq from joining the treaty before shock and awe, which happened in march 2003. It was a very sad time. I think frustrating for everybody. The United States has moved on from that and so as the opcw. Who has and has not signed onto the chemical weapons treaty . What does that mean . Still five countries remaining outside the treaty. It is a strange mix. Now that syria has joined, you have israel, which has not ratified the treaty yet. You have egypt, which has neither signed nor ratified. You have angola, which is thinking about joining. Burma, and then you have the african countries, south sudan, brandnew, very difficult to get them to join guess it isand i actually six. You have north korea, which of course is the high hanging fruit, the most difficult country of all. But other than those six countries, 190 countries have joined. Haveber of those have to deployed. India,ller possessors or south korea, albania, libya, iraq with the leftover chemical agents and materials that we still dont have a full handle on from the 1991 gulf war on. Hough they did sign ironically, iraq came on board in 2009. They have been a very positive addition to the treaty. They have declared two large bunkers of old chemical agents from the Saddam Hussein pre1991 gulf war era it was sealed up in the mid1990s by the United Nations inspectors, but there were never any additional chemical weapons as the Bush Administration claimed in 2003 when they attacked iran. Professor Stephen Zunes, talk about egypt and israel not being signatories to the chemical weapons treaty. I think the very fact we do have the opcw you getting a process of disarming syrias chemical weapons, where we dont have such activity in israel and egypt, is indicative that even the best International Organizations are limited by what the great powers can say they can or cannot do. The United States blocked an create asyria to weapons of mass destruction freezone throughout the region. Resolution that was tabled because it threatened the United States veto. The iraq disarmament resolution it was only aaid first step in a regionwide disarmament of these kinds of weapons. The United States has shown no interest, interestingly, in bringing this clause forward because, obviously, israel and egypt are close strategic allies of the u. S. It is not just a matter of, well, syria has used them, it should be a priority because egypt used chemical weapons back in the 1960s when they intervened in the civil war in yemen. Theres is no indication the generals in charge of egypt right now made any effort to stop the production or eliminate their weapons or join the treaty. While im certainly glad we are in the process of seeing a disarmament, ia think it raises questions around this very issue of universality. I think the u. S. Has not been so hostile to that concept, 10 or 12 years ago, then we may have weapons may have been eliminated in the recent tragedy that took place in syria and the crisis that nearly led us to war never wouldve happened. Just a correction, israel is a signatory to the chemical Weapons Convention, but they have not ratified the convention. I want to talk but the significance of that and the connection between chemical weapons and Nuclear Weapons. We are speaking with paul walker who has just won the right livelihood award for his work around chemical weapons. He is with green cross international. Fromrofessor Stephen Zunes san francisco. Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Want to go back to the Norwegian Nobel Committee chair, thorbjorn jagland, from earlier today announcing the opcws receiving the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize, particularly talking about their work in syria. The opcw has not been given and foremostrst because of syria. As i said, it is because of its longstanding efforts to eliminate chemical weapons and that we are now about to reach the goal and do away with all category of weapons of mass destruction. That would be a great event in history if we achieve that. That is why we are highlighting this and getting a message to all those that have not ratified the convention, and to those who have not honored their obligations under the convention. Please, ratified. Please, honor your obligation. Then we can reach this honorable goal and do away with a whole category of weapons of mass destruction. Committee the chairs and the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons, opcw cotta is not getting their work first and foremost for their work in syria, but their overall work over these years. That they have been dismantling chemical weapons. Our guests are paul walker of green cross international, who is just won the right livelihood award for his work around chemical weapons, and professor Stephen Zunes at the university of san francisco. How theker, talk about actually does dismantle chemical weapons. ,or example, in syria especially now in the midst of the civil war. Complicated process, amy, but in short, what you have to do is locate the weapons first, do an inventory and see how many you have. You have to investigate what the weapons hold, whether it is mustard agents or nerve agents, and i think in syria, we have both those cases. Then you have a variety of causes as you can use. In the case of syria, because most of the weapons appear to be in precursor chemicals in other words, chemical be mixednts that can just before they are used as a weapon, and because they are stored in bulk containers of some type, most of that material can be fairly easily neutralized. And by that i mean mixed with other reagent chemicals. Mustard, for example, self destructs easily with hot water. We have done that for decades. Then you have to take a secondary process with the toxic liquid waste. In some cases you can burn the weapons. This is the primary role be method the u. S. Has used in the last 20 years. Has the u. S. That its goals and getting rid of chemical weapons . Yes and no. I would say yes and the since the u. S. And russia, too, fully committed to completing the destruction of their stockpiles. Had toa sense they finish their destruction of their stockpiles u