Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Wednesday, February 12, 2014
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U.S. Plunges in Global Press Freedom Rankings as Obama Wages "War on Whistleblowers"
A new survey of press freedom around the world finds the United States has plunged 13 spots, now ranking just 46th among 180 countries. The annual survey by Reporters Without Borders also says Syria is the most dangerous country for journalists, showing a correlation between conflict zones and a low level of press freedom. Other countries that fell lower than in the previous year’s survey include the civil-war-torn Central African Republic, down 43 spots to 109, and Guatemala, where four journalists were killed last year alone. This comes as the United Nations General Assembly recently adopted its first resolution on the safety of journalists. The group has now called on the United Nations to monitor how member states meet their obligations to protect reporters. We are joined by Delphine Halgand of Reporters Without Borders.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: We end today’s show with a new survey of press freedom around the world that finds the United States plunged 13 spots and now ranks just 46th among 180 countries. The annual survey by Reporters Without Borders says Syria is the most dangerous country for journalists, showing a correlation between conflict zones and a low level of press freedom. Other countries that fell lower than in the previous year’s survey include the civil-war-torn Central African Republic, down 43 spots to 109, and Guatemala, where four journalists were killed last year alone.
AMY GOODMAN: This comes as the United Nations General Assembly recently adopted its first resolution on the safety of journalists. The group has now called on the U.N. to monitor how member states meet their obligations to protect reporters.
For more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we’re joined by Delphine Halgand, U.S. director for Reporters Without Borders.
Welcome to Democracy Now! Talk about who’s on the list and also the United States dropping so far to 46. Why?
DELPHINE HALGAND: So, in our annual ranking, we rank the level of press freedom in 180 countries. We publish this ranking every year since 2002. But as you highlighted, the decline of the U.S. this year is one of the significant decline of the year. So there is actually many reason to explain this decline.
So, first, if you want to give a title of 2013 for the U.S., we could say that the whistleblower is the enemy. Just to remind you, you know that since Obama took office in 2009, eight whistleblowers have been charged under the Espionage Act, which is the highest number under any administration combined. So, really, this is a strategy. It’s not a coincidence. And you just have to remember that leaks are the lifeblood of investigative journalists. And mostly in a country where every information related to national security is classified and considered secrets, without leaks there is no other explanation of what is happening except the official version.
So, with the idea that now it’s clear that whistleblowers are the enemy of the administration, 2013 will remain as the year of the AP scandal, when the Department of Justice acknowledged that they seized the news agency’s foreign records. But also 2013 will be remembered as the year where the whistleblower Manning was condemned to 35 years in prison. Another whistleblower was imprisoned in 2013, John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent who was condemned to 30 months in prison. But on the top of that, 2013 will be remembered as the year of Edward Snowden’s revelation on the NSA mass surveillance methods, which has also for journalists very concerning consequences for the protection—for the possibility to even protect your sources, if you contact them by email or phone. So, all these reasons explain this very significative decline for the U.S. this year.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Delphine Halgand, could you also speak about Syria, Syria being the most dangerous country in the world for journalists, and how the situation there in 2013 compared to the year before?
DELPHINE HALGAND: Yes. So, since the conflict started in March 2011, Syria is the deadliest and most dangerous country for journalists. And it’s—even if the situation has been dramatic for years, we can observe that every day the situation is declining and declining, getting worst and worst. Just to give you numbers, but then I want to tell you some stories to get some perspective on what is happening, so since the conflict started in 2011, more than 130 news providers were killed in Syria, including 45 last year.
Another dramatic number is that at least 16 foreign reporters are currently missing, detained or kidnapped in Syria. Among them are two American reporters, a amazing human being, a great journalist, James Foley, and Austin Tice. James Foley is a very experienced journalist who has been already reported in Libya, and he was kidnapped there. He’s an amazing human being, always thinking to his colleagues. Austin Tice is a young independent journalist who was reporting for McClatchy or The Washington Post, and we are waiting to hear news from them.
But as I say, the situation continues to decline. Because the situation is becoming more and more complex, now reporters are attacked by all sides. On one hand, they are still targeted by Bashar al-Assad’s regular army, who is still try to silence all the news provider who wants to document the conflict. And on the other end, reporters are now targeted very violently by a Islamist group, who are supposed to have liberated the north. So the consequences are dramatic, actually—
AMY GOODMAN: The—
DELPHINE HALGAND: —because so many—yes, sorry.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to move from Syria to Mexico before we end, because we only have a minute.
DELPHINE HALGAND: OK.
AMY GOODMAN: Tuesday night, people in Mexico City joined a nationwide call to protest the murder of journalist Gregorio Jiménez in the state of Veracruz. His wife told police masked gunmen broke into their home last Wednesday, dragged him away. His body was later discovered. Jiménez had recently published a story about a wave of kidnappings of migrants. This is the protest organizer, Gisela Martínez.
GISELA MARTÍNEZ: [translated] The authorities can’t even guarantee minimal protection to journalists. We have seen how, little by little, freedom of expression has been undermined all over, from the repression against protesters struggling for their rights, something we ourselves have experienced, but we’ve also seen how this has been happening for a while. And in various states, there’s an imposition of silence because journalists are scared to speak. This is converted into not even a gag, but an outright slaughterhouse, where speaking the truth carries with it a death sentence. We’re appalled and enraged and sad, because there is no justice.
AMY GOODMAN: Special thanks to Andalusia Knoll for that clip. At least a dozen journalists have been slain or gone missing there [in Veracruz] since 2010. Mexico ranked 152nd out of 180 countries in this year’s index. Delphine, we just have 30 seconds, if you can wrap that into the overall findings?
DELPHINE HALGAND: So, the situation in Mexico remains very concerning, but I just want to highlight that in the last year we observed a decrease of violence. The number of journalists killed has a little bit decreased, so it’s a hope, I hope. But now, as your report pointed out, impunity stay a major concern. Almost all journalists who were killed stay completely unsolved, and nobody has been jailed for and be taken responsible.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we’re going to link to the index. We thank you so much, Delphine Halgand, the U.S. director of Reporters Without Borders.
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Karim Khan, Anti-Drone Activist Who Lost Family Members to U.S. Strike, Goes Missing in Pakistan
An anti-drone activist and journalist has gone missing in Pakistan just days before he was due to travel to Europe to speak with Parliament members about the impact of the U.S. drone wars. The legal charity Reprieve says Karim Khan was seized in the early hours of February 5 by up to 20 men, some wearing police uniforms. He has not been seen since. Khan’s brother and son were both killed in a drone strike. In addition to public activism, Khan was also engaged in legal proceedings against the Pakistani government for their failure to investigate the killings of his loved ones. We are joined by filmmaker Madiha Tahir, who interviewed Khan for her documentary, "Wounds of Waziristan."
"These are people seeking peaceful, legal routes for restitution for a great harm that been done to them," Tahir says. Of drone victim’s families’ difficulty gaining legal traction, she says, "It speaks to the secretive nature of the American state."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: We begin today’s show in Pakistan, where an anti-drone activist and journalist has gone missing just days before he was due to travel to Europe to speak with Parliament members about the impact of the U.S. drone wars. The legal charity Reprieve says Karim Khan was seized in the early hours of February 5th by up to 20 men, some wearing police uniforms. He has not been seen since. Karim Khan’s brother and son were both killed in a drone strike. He told his story in the recent documentary Wounds of Waziristan.
KARIM KHAN: [translated] In 2009, my home was attacked by a drone. My brother and son were martyred. My son’s name was Hafiz Zaenullah. My brother’s name was Asif Iqbal. There was a third person who was a stone mason. He was a Pakistani. His name was Khaliq Dad.
Their coffins were lying next to each other in the house. Their bodies were covered with wounds. Later, I found some of their fingers in the rubble.
As you know, my son had memorized the Qur’an. He was a security guard at the girls’ school, and he was studying for grade 10. My brother had a master’s degree in English. He was a government employee. He loved to debate, but he was so short, he didn’t reach the dais, so they wouldn’t give him many chances to make speeches.
AMY GOODMAN: Karim Khan speaking in the film Wounds of Waziristan. Since his son and brother were killed in 2009, Karim became a prominent anti-drone activist. He’s been missing since last week. The executive director of Reprieve, Clare Algar, said in a statement, quote, "We are very worried about Mr Khan’s safety. He is a crucial witness to the dangers of the CIA’s covert drone programme, and has simply sought justice for the death of his son and brother through peaceful, legal routes," she said.
Well, for more, we’re joined by Madiha Tahir. She made the film Wounds of Waziristan. She is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Vice, BBC, PRI’s The World, Global Post and other outlets, co-editor of the anthology Dispatches from Pakistan.
Madiha Tahir, thanks so much for being here. We broadcast Wounds of Waziristan and got tremendous response to it. Now one of the key figures who you interview in it, Karim Khan, is gone, at least for the moment. Explain who he is, his significance.
MADIHA TAHIR: Karim Khan is actually one of the first people to bring a case in the Pakistani courts on—about drone attacks. So he’s the one who started to bring cases forward, and he has been working with a lawyer, Shahzad Akbar, who has been fighting on behalf of drone survivors and families of the dead. And Karim was working with Shahzad to help, you know, not only in his own case, but also to help and assist in other cases that were being brought forward in Pakistani courts to demand restitution and demand transparency for—you know, for these attacks.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Madiha, can you give us a sense of how many such cases have been filed and whether other anti-drone activists in Pakistan have been targeted in any way or in fact picked up in the way that he was, Karim Khan?
MADIHA TAHIR: So, Karim is the first, that I know of, that has been picked up who is an anti-drone activist, but disappearances in Pakistan are very common. It’s a common state tactic. It has been happening in Balochistan, where there is a separatist movement, for a long time now. And, in fact, three are families protesting. There were mass graves found in Balochistan of missing people quite recently, only a few weeks ago. So this is a very common tactic by the state, and now, clearly, the Pakistani establishment, which is to say the intelligence agencies and the Pakistani army, want to send a message to the anti-drone movement to tell us to—you know, to tell the movement to shut up, basically.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to go back to your film, Wounds of Waziristan. In this clip, Karim speaks to you, Madiha Tahir.
KARIM KHAN: [translated] You asked me a question about terrorism. Can I ask you one? What is the definition of "terrorism" or "terrorist"?
MADIHA TAHIR: [translated] I don’t know. What do you think it is?
KARIM KHAN: [translated] I think there is no bigger terrorist than Obama or Bush, those who have weaponry like drones, who drop bombs on us while we are in our homes. There are no greater terrorists than them.
AMY GOODMAN: There again, Karim Khan, who went missing last week. And the people who took him, how many people saw this go down?
MADIHA TAHIR: His family was at home. His wife and his children were at home when it happened, so they saw it, and there are other eyewitnesses who saw it. He was picked up by 15 to 20 people. It seems to be people who were dressed in plainclothes, as well as police officers, who picked him up and disappeared him. His whereabouts are unknown. His family has not been able to find out where he’s being kept. Shahzad Akbar, the lawyer, did file something on his behalf in the Lahore court, and the court has ordered the intelligence agencies now to produce him by February 20th before the court. So we have to wait for that date and see what happens. But the best scenario would be that he is released before then.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And Karim Khan moved from Waziristan to Rawalpindi. Can you talk about the significance of the area from which he was picked up and whether it’s significant that—or whether it ’ widely believed that the people who were responsible for picking him up were the ISI, the intelligence services, or the military, or a combination?
MADIHA TAHIR: I mean, I think it is significant. It speaks to the nature of—again, it speaks to the nature of state violence in Pakistan. I think the news media both in the United States and in Pakistan has been—and, you know, rightly so—discussing the attacks by militants that have happened in Pakistan, and those acts, you know, have been reprehensible. Just two days ago, there was a bomb blast in a Peshawar cinema that killed anywhere between 11 to 13 people. But it’s important to realize that that violence happens in a context, and that context is state violence, which has been brutal, in the sense of it’s very quiet, there are disappearances like this. In this case, it’s a high-profile activist, but there are many people who we don’t even know have been picked up and disappeared by the state. So it is—you know, there’s a cyclical pattern between state violence and the non-state violence that is happening in Pakistan.
AMY GOODMAN: Madiha, talk about what he would say if he did get out. Where was he going in Europe? Who was he going to be addressing?
MADIHA TAHIR: Karim Khan was actually slated to speak to several European parliaments next week, and he was going to talk about the drone attack that killed his son and his brother on New Year’s Eve in 2009. And he would have talked about the cost of these attacks on the people in the tribal areas in Pakistan, who are some of the most marginalized communities in Pakistan. For simply for wanting to speak out about what happened to him and what is happening and continues to happen in that area, he has been disappeared by the Pakistani state. And certainly, I think, you know, we shouldn’t forget that the United States has backed and funded the Pakistani military, and this is happening, so, in conjunction with these states working together, both Pakistan and the United States.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Madiha, you also spoke about the increasing cycle of violence in Pakistan, both state violence and anti-state violence. Could you draw the links between what you think is the correlation, or if there is any, between the increasing number of drone strikes and really the unprecedented number of suicide bombs that occur now in Pakistan, a place which never knew suicide bombs 10 years—you know, 10 years ago?
MADIHA TAHIR: Yes. I mean, I think it’s—we have to be wary of drawing simple causes. So it’s not that, you know, suicide bombings are happening because. You know, it’s not a straightforward cause; however, there is a linkage. And you’re right, there is a correlation. The suicide attacks have increased in the last decade as Pakistan has been attacked by drones and has participated in the war on terror. The violence in Pakistan has gotten so much worse, not just suicide bombings, but all sorts of blasts happening. So, certainly, the war on terror, if it was meant to protect Pakistanis, is not working at all. It has actually had an adverse effect. By some estimates, you know, anywhere—you know, something like 30,000 Pakistanis have been killed in attacks by non-state actors. So, the war on terror is something that is something that the U.S. and the Pakistani government have been sort of working on together, but it’s certainly not had—it’s certainly not been to the—on behalf of Pakistanis.
AMY GOODMAN: Madiha, I want to go back to your film, Wounds of Waziristan, where you speak with Karim Khan’s lawyer, the man you just mentioned, Shahzad Akbar.
MADIHA TAHIR: This is Shahzad Akbar. He’s Karim’s lawyer. They’ve filed a case against drone attacks in Pakistani courts. He told me why it’s difficult to narrate his clients’ lives for the court and the media.
SHAHZAD AKBAR: For example, you know, when I have a client and we want—OK, this was a person who was killed, so we’d like to construct his life on photographs. You know, you have family photos and—of when he was young, when he was in school, when he was in teens and when he grew up—in all those photos. They’re missing. They’re not there, because, you know, you don’t have the culture of taking pictures for that matter.
AMY GOODMAN: In 2012, Democracy Now! spoke to Shahzad Akbar, the co-founder of the Foundation for Fundamental Rights, an organization that represents victims of drone strikes in Pakistani courts. Again, he is Karim Khan’s lawyer. And Akbar explained why he decided to visit the United States at that time.
SHAHZAD AKBAR: I, on behalf of the victims in Pakistan, wanted to reach out to Americans so that they can make an informed judgment on drones. Their opinion matter, and it’s going to matter in next elections, as well. So they need to know what drones are doing to humans in Pakistan, many of them who are civilians. And it has been said by independent groups and journalists, as well, a bigger—higher number of civilian victims. And that has to be reported to the American public so they can make an informed judgment on drones, that if American government should let be killing people overseas in their names.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, this is Shahzad Akbar, who you’ve just watched and listened to. He was in the United States in 2012. But this past year, when some of his clients came to the United States, drone victims—the Rafiq Rehman family, little girl, little boy, both injured when their grandmother was blown up in a drone strike—he was not granted a visa to come to the United States. The significance of this, Madiha Tahir? Of course, it made it much more difficult. They didn’t speak English. He would have been as much their navigator and their comfort. They were in a strange land, in fact a land where the drone came from that killed their grandmother.
MADIHA TAHIR: I mean, these are people that are seeking peaceful, legal routes for restitution for something—for a great harm that has been done to them and for a loss they will suffer for the rest of their lives. And so, to not allow their lawyer is to say that the U.S. doesn’t care about legal—about the rule of law and about the legal process at all, to not allow their representatives to come to the United States and to speak, you know, to stand by his clients and to speak alongside them. I think it’s highly problematic, but I think it speaks to the secretive nature of the American state.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Madiha, can you give us a sense of how many victims or families of victims of drone strikes have attempted to bring their cases to the courts, either in Pakistan or indeed in the U.S.?
MADIHA TAHIR: I’m not sure exactly what the figures are at this point, because the cases are at different levels. Some of them are still—they’re—Shahzad and others are actually still in the process of gathering information in order to, you know, get the cases out there. So the most significant cases right now are—you know, there’s been the Karim Khan’s case and also Noor Khan, who is the son of the tribal—the mullah who was killed on March 17th in a drone attack on a jirga, a gathering, that killed upwards of 40, 50 people.
AMY GOODMAN: The Obama administration is facing criticism over reports it’s debating whether to kill a U.S. citizen living in Pakistan who’s allegedly plotting terror attacks. On Monday, I spoke with journalist Glenn Greenwald, who recently launched TheIntercept.org with Jimmy Scahill and Laura Poitras. I asked Glenn about the initial Associated Press article that broke the story. And folks can go to our website at democracynow.org to hear what Glenn responded. I think, actually, we have it for you right now.
GLENN GREENWALD: The very idea that the U.S. government suspects an American citizen, not of having already engaged in crimes, but of planning to do so, as Jeremy said, it’s like a pre-crime framework, where the U.S. government tries to guess at who will engage in crimes in the future and then treat them as a criminal—but then, not just treat them as a criminal, but declare them guilty in secret proceedings, not involving any court, but by the decree of the president of the United States to literally, A, declare the person guilty, B, impose the death penalty, and then, C, go out and carry out the execution—just like they did with Anwar Awlaki and Samir Khan. And now they are obviously viewing it as a regular practice. I mean, no American, no matter your political affiliation or ideology, should accept the idea that the president of the United States has the power to order American citizens killed, not on a battlefield or anywhere else that is in a war zone, but simply on the suspicion that they intend to engage in future criminal behavior. To describe that power is to describe the most extremist and out-of-control government you can get.
AMY GOODMAN: That is Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept. Mahiha?
MADIHA TAHIR: Yes, I mean, I agree with Glenn Greenwald. It is—you know, it is a kind of pre-crime for which this American citizen is now going to be possibly attacked for by the United States. I think it’s important to remember that most of the people who are being attacked in exactly a similar way are not Americans, they are Pakistanis, Yemenis, Somali, etc. In Pakistan, as you know, there has been the tactic of what are called signature strikes, which are strikes that aren’t actually targeting a specific, named, high-value target or anything of that nature, but rather people whose behavioral patterns, for one reason or another, appear to trigger a suspicion in the U.S. intelligence apparatus that they may or may not be militants. We don’t actually know. But simply on that basis, on very faulty intelligence, much of which is happening through cellphone—unreliable cellphone data, you know, a lot of these attacks are carried out, and why we have the figures that we have of the numbers of people killed.
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Drone on Your iPhone: Apple Drops Objections to App Tracking U.S. Strikes Overseas
A new iPhone app has been released that tracks every reported U.S. drone strike overseas. Over the course of two years, Apple rejected different versions no less than five times. Now, for the first time, the app is finally available under the name of Metadata+, created by New York University graduate student Josh Begley. Madiha Tahir, a filmmaker whose documentary "Wounds of Waziristan" looks at the drone war, says Apple stalled the app’s approval for political reasons before Begley found a workaround.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: And speaking of cellphone data, I want to turn to this new iPhone app that tracks every reported U.S. drone strike over the course of two years. Apple rejected different versions of the app no less than five times. Now, for the first time, the app is finally available, and it’s called Metadata+, created by Josh Begley. In his graduate thesis presentation at New York University, Begley explained why he created the app in the first place.
JOSH BEGLEY: The first thing that I did was make an iPhone app. You know, it was called Drones+. And the idea for it was really simple: It would send you a push notification or just ping your phone every time there was a U.S. drone strike. Right? So, even if we have access to the data about drone strikes, do we really want to be interrupted by it, right? Do we really want to be as connected to our foreign policy as we are to our smartphones? Our phones, which are these increasingly intimate devices, right, the places that we share pictures of our loved ones and communicate with our friends, the things that we pull out of our pocket when we’re lost, which automagically put us at the center of the map and tell us where we’re going—do we really want these things to also be the site of how we experience remote war? Right? In an age when it’s possible to sit in an air-conditioned room in New Mexico and control an airplane as it hovers over a village in what used to be India, is there a way to close that feedback loop a little bit and actually feel something, even if it’s just my pocket vibrating when the missile hits the ceiling? Luckily, Apple helped answer the question for me. They loved the app, right? They loved it so much that they rejected it three times just to make sure more people would hear about it. Right? They said that it was excessively crude or objectionable content.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Josh Begley talking about Metadata+. He referred to it as Drones+, but when it was sent to Apple as Drones+, it was rejected. Madiha Tahir, the significance of this? I mean, people who just listened, their jaws must drop.
MADIHA TAHIR: Well, the—as you heard, the exceptionally crude or objectionable material in that app was simply the database of the drone attacks that the U.S. is conducting in various countries. So, it was rejected five times on that basis. The last time that Josh actually submitted the app, Metadata+, he did it as an empty app, and then it was accepted. And after it was accepted, he filled it with the data. So, clearly, the reason for the prior rejections was political. It had nothing to do with technical reasons or standard review, you know, guidelines.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Madiha Tahir, very quickly, before we conclude, could you say a little about the area where the vast majority of these U.S. drone strikes occur in Waziristan? You were nearby, in Bannu. Waziristan and the tribal areas, in general, are said to be under virtual military occupation by the Pakistani military?
MADIHA TAHIR: Yes, they are. North Waziristan, where the majority of the attacks happen, is—you know, you can’t go there independently. You can only go there with the military, and I have not done that, because I don’t think it would be very useful to do that, to go and walk in with the military. The military has used collective punishment in North Waziristan, but in the tribal areas, more generally. And, you know, there’s been intense repression.
So, very recently, actually, in December, there was a military operation in North Waziristan carried out by the Pakistani military in which scores of civilians were killed—indiscriminate, you know, open fire. Before that, earlier in the year, some Pakistani soldiers were attacked, and they instituted a 24-hour curfew that went on for months. Before that, after the—Osama bin Laden was killed and polio was used as a ruse to kill him, polio vaccinations, the militants in North Waziristan put a ban on any kind of polio vaccinations happening, and the response by the Pakistani state, by the political agent in that area, was to say to the population, "Look, if you actually comply with the militants’ ban, you cannot get any government papers—no deeds, no national ID cards, things like that."
So, basically, the population in North Waziristan is essentially caught between the Pakistani state, the military and these militants. And the Pakistani state does not treat these people as full-fledged Pakistani citizens.
AMY GOODMAN: And now, a three-year-old girl, for the first time since 2001, has polio in Kabul, Afghanistan.
MADIHA TAHIR: Yes, the—yes, the numbers are actually going up. You know, yeah, it’s tragic.
AMY GOODMAN: Madiha Tahir, I want to thank you for being with us, freelance journalist, director of this remarkable documentary, Wounds of Waziristan. Her work has appeared in many different publications. And if you want to watch the documentary, Democracy Now! broadcast it. You can go to democracynow.org, and we will link to her documentary. We will continue to follow the case of Karim Khan, who’s featured in the documentary, who disappeared last week. At least 20 men in uniform and not uniform came to his house and took him away just before he was going to Europe to testify about the CIA drone wars. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a moment.
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From Jail to Law School: Jim Crow-Era Law Bars Florida Man from Voting, Taking Bar, Serving on Jury
Branding them "unnecessary and unjust," Attorney General Eric Holder is urging the repeal of state laws that prohibit formerly incarcerated people from voting, a move that would restore the right to vote to nearly six million people. Holder’s call is largely symbolic since the federal government cannot force states to change their voting laws. But civil rights groups and advocates are praising Holder for advancing a critical step in reforming the criminal justice system. We are joined by Desmond Meade, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. Meade is one of more than 1.3 million citizens in Florida who have lost their right to vote due to prior felony convictions. After overcoming homelessness and addiction, Meade is now finishing up a law degree — but like the right to vote, Florida statutes also stand to prohibit him from taking the bar and being able to practice law.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday called on states to repeal laws that prohibit formerly incarcerated people from voting, a move that would restore the right to vote to nearly six million people. African Americans have been disproportionately impacted by the laws. In Florida, Kentucky and Virginia, more than one in five [African Americans] have lost the right to vote. During his speech at the Georgetown University Law Center, Holder called the laws, quote, "unnecessary and unjust."
ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER: After Reconstruction, many Southern states enacted disenfranchisement schemes to specifically target African Americans and to diminish the electoral strength of newly freed populations. The resulting system of unequal enforcement and discriminatory application of the law led to a situation in 1890 where 90 percent—90 percent—of the Southern prison population was black. And those swept up in this system too often had their rights rescinded, their dignity diminished, and the full measure of their citizenship revoked for the rest of their lives. They could not vote.
In the years since, thanks to the hard work and the many sacrifices of millions throughout our history, we’ve outlawed legal discrimination. We’ve ended "separate but equal" and confronted the evils of slavery and segregation. And particularly during the last half-century, we’ve brought about really historic advances in the cause of civil rights. And we secured critical protections like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Yet despite this remarkable, once almost unimaginable progress, the vestiges and the direct effects of outdated practices remain all too real. In many states, felony disenfranchisement laws are still on the books. And the current scope of these policies is not only too significant to ignore, it is also to unjust to tolerate.
Across this country today, an estimated 5.8 million Americans, 5.8 million of our fellow citizens, are prohibited from voting because of current or previous felony convictions. Now, that’s more than the individual populations of 31 united states, 31 of our states. And although well over a century has passed since post-Reconstruction states used these measures to strip African Americans of their most fundamental rights, the impact of felony disenfranchisement on modern communities of color remains both disproportionate and unacceptable. Throughout America, 2.2 million black citizens, or nearly one in 13 African-American adults, are banned from voting because of these laws. In three states—Florida, Kentucky and Virginia—the ratio climbs to one in five.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Attorney General Eric Holder speaking on Tuesday, calling on states to repeal laws that prohibit ex-felons from voting. His call was largely symbolic since the federal government does not have the authority to force states to change their voting laws. But Holder’s call was praised by civil rights groups and advocates for reforming the criminal justice system.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now by Desmond Meade, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. He’s one of over 1.3 million citizens in Florida who have lost their right to vote due to prior felony convictions. In Florida, Kentucky and Virginia, more than one in five African Americans have lost their right to vote. Desmond joins us from Tallahassee.
Desmond Meade, thanks so much for being with us. Why don’t you start by just telling us your story, how you lost the right to vote, and now what you’re doing about it?
DESMOND MEADE: Well, Amy, thank you for having me on today.
Back in 2005, I found myself standing in front of railroad tracks in South Florida. At the time, I was homeless, unemployed, recently released from prison, addicted to drugs and alcohol, and I see no hope. I didn’t have a future—or so I thought. And I was waiting on the train to come so I can jump in front of it and end my life.
Fortunately, a train did not come, and I crossed those tracks. And I checked myself into a rehabilitation program, treatment program, and after graduating from there, I went to a homeless shelter. And while living at that homeless shelter, I enrolled at one of the local colleges there, Miami Dade College. And I enrolled into the paralegal program. And after successfully completing that program, I continued on, and I received my bachelor’s. And today, I am now three months away from graduating from law school at Florida International University College of Law.
AMY GOODMAN: Congratulations. Will you be able to practice law in Florida?
DESMOND MEADE: That’s a real great question, Amy, because typically when I tell my story, there is a round of applause afterwards. But unfortunately, my story does not have a happy ending, because in spite of the many obstacles that I’ve been able to overcome in life, even making the dean’s list last year, I still would not be able to even sit for the bar once I graduate in May.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Desmond Meade, could you explain what exactly it means to be disenfranchised in Florida? What are all of the different things that you’re prohibited from doing?
DESMOND MEADE: Well, in Florida, when a person is disenfranchised, they’re basically stripped of their citizenship—for life. So, in the—say, for instance, in my case, you know, I am unable to buy a home for my wife and kids anywhere I choose to buy a home. I am restricted in employment opportunities. Of course, I cannot vote. I cannot serve on a jury, which was recently highlighted in the Zimmerman trial, you know, and I’m basically ostracized and forced to wear a scarlet letter of shame for the rest of my life.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Desmond Meade, why are the laws so restrictive in Florida? And what are—what is the process for formerly incarcerated people to reclaim their rights? I mean, is it at all possible? And what does it entail?
DESMOND MEADE: Well, the laws are still restrictive in Florida because our current administration refuses to let go of these Jim Crow laws. There have been positions stated concerning whether or not it’s a political ploy. You know, I think it’s more than just that. You know, I would challenge people to really start investigating what type of connections private prisons have to the people who are making a lot of our criminal justice policies.
So, presently in the state of Florida, an individual would have to wait five or seven years before they’re able to even apply to have their civil rights restored. But even after applying, you know, the processing time for the application takes upwards of six years. So, in reality, an individual will have to wait anywhere between 11 to 13 years just to see if they have a chance, a shot, at getting their rights restored, because in that time frame, just having a traffic ticket is enough to disqualify them.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Desmond Meade, does that apply to all felons or just to violent felons?
DESMOND MEADE: You would think that a policy so restrictive would only apply to violent felons, but in the state of Florida, it applies to everyone, even that individual that may have released hot-air balloons in the air or an individual who may have gotten caught driving with a suspended license or catching a lobster whose tail is too short, or even disturbing nesting eggs, turtle nesting eggs, or burning a tire in public. You know, everyone falls under these policies, and everyone is stripped of that one endearing quality of being an American, and that’s the right to vote, the right to have your voice heard.
AMY GOODMAN: This is extremely significant. I mean, in places like Vermont and Maine, state prisoners can vote from jail. You can never vote for the rest of your life, even out of jail. So what is the significance of Eric Holder’s speech urging states to repeal laws that prohibit felons from voting? Can you talk about what this will mean?
DESMOND MEADE: Well, I think one of the main significance of the attorney general’s speech was really to heighten awareness of the policies that are currently in place that serve no legitimate purpose whatsoever. And I would even go as far as to say that those individuals that are advocating for these type of disenfranchisement policies are acting in an irresponsible manner and contrary to public safety and to the goodwill of the people.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Desmond Meade, why are African Americans so disproportionately impacted? What is the connection, if any, to the war on drugs?
DESMOND MEADE: Well, I think Michelle Alexander, in her book, The New Jim Crow, really laid it out so everyone—it could be clear to everyone about how there is a disproportionate amount of police activity in the African-American community. And as a result of this activity, you find that a great amount of African Americans are being arrested and incarcerated, which gives a skewed vision of drug use in the United States. So while African Americans might really represent a small minority of drug users, they represent the majority of individuals who are incarcerated due to drug use.
AMY GOODMAN: Senator Rand Paul also gave a speech yesterday that he’s calling the Civil Rights Voting Restoration Act, that would apply to federal elections, voting in federal elections, he said during a speech at the law center. Can you talk about the significance of this?
DESMOND MEADE: Well, I think that it would really—having federal legislation that would allow returning citizens to participate in federal elections would pressure some states to change their policies, particularly in Florida, because one of the main reasons is that there will be some kind of a hardship there, because how would they administer elections by allowing a returning citizen to only vote for federal candidates and then restricting them from voting for state candidates? So, I think that that would force them to really revamp their system.
But I’m not relying, and we’re not relying, on this current administration. They appear to have dug in their heels and have refused to even engage in dialogue with our lawmakers or even with our clergy in the state of Florida. So it’s very evident to us that they have no intentions of walking away or moving away from this Jim Crow-type policy.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Desmond Meade, you’ve stressed repeatedly that it’s important that people recognize that this is a bipartisan issue. Could you explain why you think that’s important?
DESMOND MEADE: Well, you know, I think that there is a select few that would profit from these policies being in place in Florida, because it contributes to the recidivism rate. And one of the tactics that they would probably use is saying that, you know—and we’ve heard the attorney general even mention that research has showed that the majority of people who are impacted by these policies tend to vote for the Democratic Party. However, what I can tell you in Florida is that there are Republicans who are disfranchised. And when the policy changes were made in Florida which allowed nonviolent offenders to have their rights restored automatically, it was a Republican—well, it was Governor Charlie Crist, who was a Republican at the time. Virginia, their governor and attorney general were Republican, when they recently made the changes. And we know what’s going on in Kentucky. So, this issue transcends political lines. It’s about humanity. It’s about—it’s an all-American issue. It’s not about Democrat or Republican. It’s about the common decency of letting an individual or helping an individual to reintegrate back into their community so they can become productive citizens and enjoy life.
AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, if you can’t vote, then how are you represented? It goes to the issue of politicians deciding where funds go, deciding policy. When a whole group, when a community does not voting, they’re not represented, Desmond Meade.
DESMOND MEADE: Amy, you are 100 percent correct. As a result of these policies, not only have the African-American and Latino communities’ voice, their political voice, have been weakened on a daily basis, but as you’ve seen in the Zimmerman trial, you know, that it also affects the ability of African Americans and Latinos to be properly represented in a court of law.
AMY GOODMAN: Desmond Meade, we want to thank you very much for being with us, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, ex-offender who was previously homeless, still disenfranchised, but finishing up law school in the next few months. Whether he can practice law in Florida, well, that depends on laws changing. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Back in a minute.
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Headlines:
House GOP Drops Standoff over Debt Ceiling
The House has narrowly passed a new measure to lift the debt ceiling until March 2015. Twenty-eight Republicans joined with Democrats, dropping their party’s long-running tactic of tying the debt limit to cuts on social spending, this time military pensions. The measure faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, where it is unclear if Democrats will have the votes to overcome a filibuster.
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Holder Calls for Restoration of Felons’ Voting Rights
Attorney General Eric Holder has called on states to repeal laws that prohibit formerly incarcerated people from voting, a move that would restore the right to vote to nearly six million people. Holder spoke at the Georgetown University Law Center.
Attorney General Eric Holder: "Formerly incarcerated people continue to face significant obstacles. They are frequently deprived of opportunities that they need to rebuild their lives. And in far too many places, their rights—including the single most basic right of American citizenship, the right to vote—are either abridged or denied. As the Leadership Conference Education Fund articulated very clearly in your recent report, and I quote: 'There is no rational reason to take away someone's voting rights for life just because they’ve committed a crime, especially after they’ve completed their sentence and made amends,’ unquote."
Holder’s call was largely symbolic since the federal government cannot force states to change their voting laws. Click here to watch our segment today about this headline.
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Washington State Freezes Death Penalty
Washington state has become the latest in the U.S. to suspend the death penalty. Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee announced the move.
Gov. Jay Inslee: "A system that does not deter crime, costs citizens millions of dollars more than life imprisonment without parole, is uncertain in its application, and exposes families to multiple decades of uncertainty as to the result of the judicial decision, is not right. You could say it’s not moral, but I can say it’s not right."
Washington state is the 18th state to halt capital punishment, and the sixth in as many years. Nine prisoners will be moved off of death row as a result.
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Websites Stage Global Action Against NSA Surveillance
Thousands of websites took part in a day of protest against mass surveillance by the National Security Agency on Tuesday by displaying banners and encouraging a flood of calls to Congress. Organizers of "The Day We Fight Back Against Mass Surveillance" say lawmakers received phone calls at a rate of 5,000 per hour to back laws that would reform government spying. Click here to watch our coverage of the day of action.
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Appeals Court Rejects Halt to Guantánamo Force-Feeding, Allows Challenges to Prison Conditions
A federal appeals court has rejected a bid by hunger-striking Guantánamo Bay prisoners to stop the government from subjecting them to force-feeding. Human rights groups say the practice amounts to torture, but the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said any injunction against force-feeding could lead to a prisoner’s death. In a defeat for the White House, the judges also ruled federal courts can oversee complaints about prison conditions for Guantánamo prisoners. The decision could lead to new challenges from Guantánamo’s 155 remaining inmates.
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New Spill in West Virginia with Leak from Coal Slurry
West Virginia is facing a new toxic spill following the rupture of a coal slurry. An undisclosed amount of waste has leaked in the eastern part of the state after a slurry line broke open. The leak comes as West Virginia continues to grapple with the aftermath of a massive chemical spill that cut off water supplies for more than 300,000 people last month.
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Environmentalists: N.C. Trying to Avoid Scrutiny of Duke Energy Deal Following Toxic Leak
A coal ash pond owned by Duke Energy leaked in North Carolina last week. Environmental groups are now criticizing state regulators for seeking to delay an agreement with Duke that would shield it from responsibility for cleaning up pollution of waterways. The North Carolina government says it will re-evaluate the agreement in light of the spill, but environmentalists say it is a move to buy time until public outcry subsides. Over the past year, the administration of North Carolina governor and former Duke employee Pat McCrory has shielded the company from a series of potential lawsuits.
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1 Missing After Natural Gas Explosion at Pennsylvania Well
An explosion at a natural gas fracking well has sparked a massive fire in Pennsylvania. One person is missing while another has been hospitalized with injuries. The well’s operator, Chevron, was reportedly preparing to begin pumping gas from the well when the blast occurred. The fire is expected to last up to several days.
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U.N. Envoy Calls on Russia, U.S. to Help Salvage Syrian Peace Talks
U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has moved up a meeting with U.S. and Russian diplomats in a bid to overcome an impasse at the Syrian peace talks in Geneva. Brahimi says he hopes the two world powers backing opposite sides in the conflict can help break a deadlock in talks. On Tuesday, Brahimi said the summit is failing to make progress.
Lakhdar Brahimi: "The beginning of this week is as laborious as it was the first week. We are not making much progress. I’m not sure whether I can impose an agenda on people who don’t want. You know, how can you? Put a gun on their heads? You know, it is their country. This is a huge responsibility they have."
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Syrian Forces Interrogate Males Evacuated from Homs
Hundreds of civilians have been evacuated from the besieged city of Homs as part of an agreement to emerge from the Geneva talks. But many Syrian males fleeing the city have been detained for interrogation. The evacuations have resumed following a one-day pause.
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Okinawa Residents Protest U.S. Base During Ambassador’s Visit
Hundreds of protesters are rallying on the Japanese island of Okinawa to mark the first visit by new U.S. ambassador Caroline Kennedy. The trip is seen as a show of support for Okinawa’s governor, who recently agreed to relocate a major U.S. military base from a densely populated urban area to a more remote location. But a decades-long movement of Okinawa residents has opposed the base altogether and pushed for ousting U.S. forces off the island, citing environmental concerns and sexual assaults by U.S. soldiers on local residents. Around 300 people marched in the town of Naha ahead of Kennedy’s arrival, waving signs saying, "No Base."
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Thousands Mark Pro-Democracy Uprising Anniversary in Bahrain
Thousands of people have rallied in Bahrain to mark this week’s third anniversary of a pro-democracy movement. Opposition activists began protesting the U.S.-backed Sunni regime on February 14, 2011, amidst popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. The protests have been crushed by martial law and a U.S.-backed invasion of Saudi Arabian forces. A massive crowded marched in the capital Manama on Tuesday behind a banner reading, "It’s impossible for the Bahraini people to give up on democracy." Bahrain is a key U.S. government ally in the Gulf, hosting the Navy’s 5th Fleet.
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Study Casts Doubt on Effectiveness of Mammograms
New medical research has cast doubt on the value of mammograms, the test used to screen for breast cancer. A wide-ranging study in the British Medical Journal involving nearly 90,000 women has found death rates, both from breast cancer and other causes, were the same regardless of whether a woman underwent mammograms or not. In fact, the study found one-in-five women whose cancers were detected by mammograms in the early 1980s were "over diagnosed" and underwent unnecessary treatment for slow-growing cancers that did not pose a threat to life expectancy.
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Hollande: France, U.S. Have Resolved Spying Row; Obama Warns Firms on Iran Sanctions
President Obama welcomed visiting French President François Hollande on Tuesday with a White House news conference. Hollande said he thinks trust has been restored between the two governments following the news of National Security Agency spying on foreign leaders and citizens that emerged last year. Obama, meanwhile, issued a warning to businesses on flouting U.S. sanctions with Iran during the period of an interim nuclear agreement.
President Obama: "Businesses may be exploring: Are there some possibilities to get in sooner rather than later, if and when there is an actual agreement to be had? But I can tell you that they do so at their own peril right now, because we will come down on them like a ton of bricks, you know, with respect to the sanctions that we control."
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Florida Man Who Killed Unarmed Teen over Music Testifies at Murder Trial
The Florida man who killed an unarmed black teenager in a dispute over loud music has taken the stand at his murder trial. In 2012, Michael David Dunn pulled up next to a car of teenagers to ask them to turn their stereo down. Following an argument, Dunn shot eight or nine times into the vehicle, even after the teens tried to drive away, fatally hitting 17-year-old Jordan Russell Davis. Testifying for the first time on Tuesday, Dunn claimed he feared for his life.
Michael Dunn: "When this 'I should kill that m—————r,' comes through, now I’m paying attention to what they’re saying."
Attorney: "OK, that kind of got you to perk up?"
Michael Dunn: "Yes. And in an even more elevated voice, I hear, 'I should f——-g kill that m—————r!' And now he’s screaming. But he said he was going to f’ing kill me, but after he opened the door, then he looked at me and said, ’You’re dead, bitch!’ I became even more fearful at that point. OK, say over here is my glovebox. I’m looking out the window, and I say, ’You’re not gonna kill me, you son of a bitch!’ And I shot."
Attorney: "OK. And do you even recall how many times you shot?"
Michael Dunn: "I do not."
The young men never got out of their car. No weapons were ever found in the teenagers’ vehicle. Dunn fled the scene instead of calling the police, went to a hotel with his girlfriend and ordered pizza. The shooting has prompted comparisons to the death of Trayvon Martin. Dunn is expected to use the Stand Your Ground defense, which was invoked in the jury instructions during the trial of Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman.
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