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Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s Idaho Hometown Cancels "Welcome Home" Celebration as Backlash Grows
The backlash over the prisoner swap involving U.S. soldier Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and five members of the Taliban continues to grow. In Bergdahl’s hometown of Hailey, Idaho, community members have a canceled a celebration of his release over public safety concerns. In recent days, angry phone calls and emails poured into Hailey city hall and local organizations over the town’s support for the soldier. Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban in 2009 shortly after he left his military outpost in Afghanistan. Some of Bergdahl’s fellow soldiers have described him as a deserter. They have also said at least six soldiers died while searching for him, a claim the Pentagon rejects. We discuss the Bergdahl controversy and its local impact in Idaho with Larry Schoen, a county commissioner in Blaine County.TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The backlash continues to grow over the prisoner swap involving U.S. soldier Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl and five members of the Taliban. In Bergdahl’s hometown of Hailey, Idaho, community members have canceled a celebration of his release over public safety concerns. In recent days, angry phone calls and e-mails poured into Hailey City Hall and local organizations over the town support for the soldier. Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban in 2009 shortly after he left his military outpost in Afghanistan. He was held by the Taliban or five years. Some of Bergdahl’s fellow soldiers have described him as a deserter. They’ve also claimed at least six soldiers died while searching for him. On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel rejected that claim.
CHUCK HAGEL: On Sergeant Bergdahl, I do not know of specific circumstances or details of U.S. soldiers dying as a result of efforts to find and rescue Sergeant Bergdahl. I am not aware of those specific details or any facts regarding that issue.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: On Capitol Hill, four top intelligence and military officials held an unusual closed-door briefing for the entire Senate on Wednesday to discuss why the White House decided to move ahead with the prisoner swap without notifying Congress. Senators were shown a recent video of Bowe Bergdahl depicting him in declining health. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina warned that Republican lawmakers would call for Obama’s impeachment if you release more prisoners from Guantánamo Bay without congressional approval.
AMY GOODMAN: In another development, The Wall Street Journal reports that during the prisoner exchange negotiations, the Taliban warned that U.S. drone strikes had come close on several occasions to killing Sergeant Bergdahl while he was in captivity. To talk more about the story, we first go to Idaho where we’re joined by Larry Schoen, he’s the County Commissioner for Blaine County, Idaho. Hailey is one of the five cities in Blaine County. Welcome to Democracy Now! Can you talk first about, first, Larry, the decision to cancel the celebrations upon the return of Bowe Bergdahl, though we don’t know when that will be?
LARRY SCHOEN: Well, first thing, good morning, and thank you for having me. And I speak very mindful of all of those who have given so much in service of the best intentions of the mission in Afghanistan. I was not in on the decision-making to cancel the event. But I think there were concerns about — that the event would become too large for local officials to manage. I think some people have felt the temperature rising here as disagreements about what may have happened have come to the floor on the national stage. Really, I think nobody here wants to channel some of the nastiness that is out there. People are rushing to judgment, and I think that is inappropriate. And I think in light of circumstances today, the decision was made to cancel the event several weeks ahead of it to tamp that down.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And Larry Schoen, can you tell us something about your corner of the country where Bowe Bergdahl grew up?
LARRY SCHOEN: Well, this is a beautiful part of the country. Idaho is a state with more wilderness than any state in the lower 48. People come here to recreate and be part of the great outdoors. Our community is small. It is about 22,000, but made up of people who have come to live here and visit here from all over the world. It is home to the Sun Valley resort, which was America’s first ski resort founded back in the 1930’s. And so it is a very close-knit community, well-educated community. People support one another in tough times. And I think that was the nature of this event, is to show support for the Bergdahl family and Sergeant Bergdahl who has been held by the Taliban for five years.
AMY GOODMAN: Larry Schoen, yours is in an usual community in that you have the great wealth of the celebrities like Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, their home there — though they are divorced, but what they have there. And then you have got working-class people. You’ve got for example, you the Bergdahls who moved from California, Calvinist, homeschooled their kids both Bowe and his older sister Skye. He worked at the Zany’s coffee shop. Can you tell us a little bit about that as a community center? And actually was was well-known for his ballet performances, Bowe Bergdahl was.
LARRY SCHOEN: Right, well, people focus on the celebrity aspects of this community because people have been coming here from Southern California since the 1930’s. In fact, that was part of the marketing of this resort when it first opened. But this is a working-class community. The Zaney’s is a coffee shop owned by an old friend of mine who opened it because that’s what — she loves being with people. She loves serving people. It is a place where Bowe worked and therefore has become kind of the Mecca in town. Our county is bigger than the state of Delaware with only 22,000 people. People tend to congregate in the towns, but the Bergdahls, like I, live out in the rural parts of the county. That has been a gathering place. I think that is appropriate. I think people have tried to show their support over the course of these five years. Needed a place to do that, and Zaney’s was a good place. The job that he held there was one of the many things this young man has done in his short life.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And how has the uproar in Washington and across the media, now nationwide, over whether Bowe Bergdahl was a deserter and should have been rescued — how has that affected the town and its support for the family?
LARRY SCHOEN: I think it has, I think it’s shaking the town because I think, first and foremost and certainly I as an elected official here, think about the family and the family and their son, our native son, and what they need to get through this ordeal. The whole five years of captivity and now this ordeal in the national press, the global press. So, we are thinking first about them. And this is — from our perspective, this is not, first and foremost, about national and military policy and U.S. foreign policy, but certainly, the issues surrounding his release — this is a very complex story. There are ties to U.S. foreign policy coming out of this really hometown story about this young man. So, I think people are shaken by that. I think people are trying to not rush to judgment here locally. I think everybody knows what is right and what is wrong, and many of the different actions that have occurred. So, we have many different components to the story. There is the question of what was his state of mind when he left his base and went missing, was it appropriate for the U.S. government to release these five Taliban under the circumstances? There are many different parts of that story. We are feeling the effects of the global story, but trying to focus, I think, on the health and welfare of the Bergdahl family.
AMY GOODMAN: And Larry Schoen, you know Bowe’s parents Bob and Jani Bergdahl. Can you tell us a little about them?
LARRY SCHOEN: They are wonderful people. It is a loving family. They are loving people. I am sure they instilled in their son the best values that America has to offer. And I support them 100% through all of this.
AMY GOODMAN: Bob Bergdahl worked at, what, UPS for some — well, close to three decades.
LARRY SCHOEN: Yeah, I don’t really know how long he work for UPS, but he is well-known in town. He’s been criticized for having spoken local Afghanistan language, the Pashtun. And now he’s been criticized for a number of different things because people are just searching for things to criticize in this event. But really, Bob is a very thoughtful man. I think he — and he expressed publicly any times that his goals and intentions were to stand in solidarity with his son, and to try as best he could and as best they could to appreciate and understand his circumstances and the circumstances of his comrades in Afghanistan. I think the Bergdahls have acted with only the best intentions toward their son and this country.
AMY GOODMAN: Larry Schoen, I want to thank you for being with us, County Commissioner for Blaine County, Idaho. Hailey is one of the five cities in Blaine County. The Bergdahls live just outside Hailey b and Bowe grew up just outside Hailey and worked at this well known watering hole, Zaney’s coffee shop, which is why he was very well known in the community. This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we’re going to speak to a soldier who served years in the military. He was in Afghanistan at the same time as Bowe Bergdahl. And when he came back to the United States, he applied for conscientious objector status. Stay with us.
Veteran: Politicians Using Freed POW Bowe Bergdahl as "Chess Piece to Win Political Matches"
The Obama administration is seeking to contain a congressional backlash over a prisoner exchange that saw the release of American soldier Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders. On Wednesday, top intelligence and military officials held a closed-door briefing for the entire Senate showing them a recent video of Bergdahl in declining health. The administration says the video helped spur action to win his release over fears his life was in danger. Opponents of the deal say the White House failed to give Congress proper notice, and may have endangered American lives by encouraging the capture of U.S. soldiers. The criticism has exploded as news spread through right-wing media that Bergdahl may have left his base after turning against the war. We are joined by Brock McIntosh, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War who served in Afghanistan from November 2008 to August 2009. McIntosh applied for conscientious objector status and was discharged last month.TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: As this controversy brews, it’s on so many different levels. You’ve got the controversial prisoner swap and the whole issue of is this leading to the closing of Guantánamo, and then you’ve got Bowe Bergdahl leaving the base, not really fully understood at this point because we have not talked to Bowe Bergdahl. And once he left the base, he was not spoken to again except through Taliban videos of him. The question is being raised, did he desert? The question is being raised and he’s being condemned in the mainstream media for his antiwar views.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, we’re going to talk more about the Bowe Bergdahl story. We go now to Brock McIntosh in Washington, D.C. He fought with Army National Guard in Afghanistan from November 2008 to August 2009. And was based near where Bergdahl was captured. McIntosh had later applied for conscientious objector status and joined Iraq veterans against the war. Brock McIntosh, welcome back to Democracy Now!
BROCK MCINTOSH: Thanks for having me.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Your initial reaction to the uproar in Congress and around the country over the prisoner swap with Bowe Bergdahl?
BROCK MCINTOSH: You just played a song called "Masters of War" and there’s a lyric where it talks about you to hide behind walls, you that hide behind desks, I just wanted to know I can see through your masks. And I think that that is a perfect description of what we’re seeing in Congress right now. These people who hide behind walls and hide behind desks, and are using a POW as a chess piece to win political matches. And that last week, used a wounded veteran with nearly 40 years of military service, General Shinseki, as a political chess piece. And so, I think it is outrageous we know nothing about the actual circumstances of why exactly Sergeant Bergdahl left. We don’t know what his intentions were. It is all speculation at this point. All we know for sure is that he was a POW and he should have been welcomed home.
AMY GOODMAN: And Brock, tell us where you were in Afghanistan in relation to Bowe Bergdahl. You served at the same time, though didn’t know each other.
BROCK MCINTOSH: Sure Amy. I served in Paktika Province initially for six months. That’s where Bowe Bergdahl went missing for six months. Spent the last three months in Khost Province. Those last three months were when Bowe Bergdahl went missing. He went missing in June 30, and I left Afghanistan in August 2009.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And in terms of this whole — the allegations that in the search for Bergdahl, all of these soldiers, several American soldiers were lost or killed. The — only The New York Times, among the commercial media, has really raised the issue that many of these soldiers are being brought out by Republican political operative and made available to the various media. Your — what you understand about these other soldiers who were killed around the same time while Bergdahl was in captivity?
BROCK MCINTOSH: Right, so I think the story that is being told in the media makes it seem as though there was a unit that received — that was briefed about some rescue mission and they went out on this rescue mission to locate and extract Sergeant Bergdahl and six people died in the process. That is really not the case. Bergdahl went missing on June 30. Those six soldiers that died died two months later in four separate missions. And it is not clear to what extent those missions had anything to do with searching for Bergdahl. They certainly were not rescue missions. I mean one of them — one of those deaths involved an American soldier being killed supporting an Afghan national security force mission. That is not a rescue mission. We don’t know why exactly the six soldiers died. There’s all sorts of things that could explain it. Let’s not forget that summer season is fighting season in Afghanistan. It could have been that they died in late August and early September because it was late in the summer, and it was right before the winter, and attacks always ramp up at that time of year. It could also be explained by the fact that in 2009, the Obama administration initiated this protracted insurgency campaign and a surge in Afghanistan. So, there are all sorts of things that could explain why the soldiers died. And I think it is unfair to assert that Bergdahl went missing and therefore these soldiers died. And another thing also, in Bergdahl’s unit, they had gone a few months without any fatalities. The first fatality was five days before Bergdahl went missing. So, it could have just been that he happened to have gone missing at a time when there were increased attacks and people were being killed. What’s unfortunate is that he is being used, again, as a political chess piece in a political game and conservatives are using the allegations of soldiers in his unit to imply that this man wasn’t a hero and therefore, President Obama is not a hero for bringing this soldier home.
AMY GOODMAN: Looking at Buzzfeed describing who Juan was just talking about, this former Bush administration official, hired then resigned, Mitt Romney foreign policy spokesperson, played a key role in publicizing critics of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. The involvement of Richard Grenell who once served as a key aide to Bush, to — rather to the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. ,John Bolton, later worked on Romney’s campaign. I wanted to go back, though, to 2009, to the soldiers who Bowe Bergdahl worked with in that tiny outpost that they built in Afghanistan. We had Sean Smith on a few days ago, a Guardian videographer and photographer who produced a film back in 2009 as well as one when he went to Idaho and met Bowe’s father, Bob Bergdahl, which we also played and I encourage people to go to democracynow.org to see all of that. Sean Smith spent a month embedded with Bowe Bergdahl’s unit in Afghanistan. In this clip, we hear from some of the soldiers stationed with Bowe.
SOLDIER ONE: These people just want to be left alone.
SOLDIER TWO: Yeah, they got dicked with from the Russians for 17 years and then now we’re here.
SOLDIER ONE: Same thing in Iraq when I was there. These people just want to be left alone. Have their crops, weddings, stuff like that, that’s it man.
SOLDIER TWO: I’m glad they leave them alone.
SEAN SMITH: A few weeks later, Bowe Bergdahl, pictured in this photo, disappeared. The circumstances are unclear.
AMY GOODMAN: That is from the 2009 video for The Guardian produced by Sean Smith. Michael Hastings would further right about that, the late reporter for Rolling Stone. Brock McIntosh, can you talk about your feelings when you were in Afghanistan, what was happening there? We have seen the e-mails that Michael Hastings wrote about in Rolling Stone of Bowe to his parents, talking about his disillusionment with the war. What were your thoughts and the thoughts of other soldiers? Sean Smith, a reporter for The Guardian, said it was not unusual, more so among Americans and British soldiers in Afghanistan, to be highly critical of what was happening.
BROCK MCINTOSH: It is really hard — it was really hard to hear that clip, Amy, because it reminded me so much of the conversations that I had while I was in Afghanistan. There was so much talk about — within my unit about these Afghan people and how they just want to be left alone. And we were all aware of the role the U.S. played during the Cold War. Using the Afghan people as a proxy to get back at the Soviet Union, using the lives of Afghans as political chess pieces and gamesmanship? And so to then be in Afghanistan to help people, to help the Afghan people felt very disingenuous. We never had any clear sense exactly why we were there, what it was that we were supposed to be doing, why these people are shooting at us, who was shooting at us. Who are we shooting at? Why are we shooting at them? And it really eats away at you and it becomes a situation where all you want to do is you just want to come home and want your buddies on your left and your right to come home. And it’s — what are you supposed to do in a situation where you find yourself — you find yourself in a conflict that you don’t agree with, where people are dying on both sides? What are you supposed to do? What recourse do you have? I did not know that the conscientious objector process existed. That’s one recourse you can take. But I didn’t know that that existed. There’s an overwhelming lack of awareness that there’s a formal process where you, when you have a conscientious shift, you can actually leave the military.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And even your commanders at times are not aware of these options. Could you talk about that confronting your own commander — or your sense that you wanted to go into conscientious objector status?
BROCK MCINTOSH: Right. When I initially applied, it through my commander off guard. I actually applied on the very first day in my new unit, and so my commander was thrown off guard both because it was my first day meeting him and also because he didn’t think that that process was possible. You can’t just leave because you morally disagree with war. But it turns out you can. And to his credit, he read about the regulations and he actually drafted a document that we signed together saying I did not have to study, use or bear arms.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, what did that mean? Where were you, Brock?
BROCK MCINTOSH: Well, I had applied actually after about a year or so after I had come home. And I transferred from an Illinois National Guard unit to a D.C. state unit, and that is when I applied.
AMY GOODMAN: And what was that process you went through? You started serving in, what, November 2008, you were in Afghanistan ’til August 2009.
BROCK MCINTOSH: I started serving in November, August 2008. Like so many soldiers, I wanted nothing more but to just make this war work and to help the Afghan people. And again, it became increasingly frustrated when you did not know why you were there and you didn’t why these people were shooting at you or who you were supposed to be — or why you were shooting and who you were shooting. I wanted to make the war work. And so, in that process of trying to make the war work, I started reading about the history and culture of Afghanistan, just like Bowe’s father did. And like Bowe, it became really discomforting to learn about the relationship that the U.S. has had with that country for the past 30 years and all the problems it has created for the past 30 years. And there were certain first-hand experience I had — experiences I had that were unnerving, like seeing a 16-year-old bomb maker get blown up. He came to our base to be treated. And we took turns babysitting his body in one hour shifts. And when I was alone with him in this room, thinking how crazy it is that me as a 20 world and the 16-year-old are being sent to kill each other by these adult for these ideologies that we don’t quite understand. It’s just a sad situation.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: According to Rolling Stone magazine Bergdahl sent a final e-mail to his parents on June 27, three days before he was captured. He wrote, "The future is too good to waste on lies... And life is way to short to care for the damnation of others as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I’ve seen their ideas and I’m ashamed to even be American. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. Is is all revolting. I am sorry for everything here... These people need help, yet what they get is the conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live. The horror that is America is disgusting." In that email, he also referred to seeing an Afghan child run over by U.S. military vehicle. Your reaction to some of those words?
BROCK MCINTOSH: I want to react to one thing — to one aspect of that statement, and that was about lies. We were lied — we as veterans were lied to about the Iraq war. We were lied to by the Bush administration and with the endorsement of Congress, we went into Iraq. Nearly 5000 American soldiers were killed, well over 100,000 Iraqi civilians were killed, based on that line. There has been a lot of talk over the last few months about a lie that was told that the Phoenix VA Hospital about these secret waiting lists. I find it really ironic that Congress is so obsessed about figuring out who lied at the Phoenix VA Hospital and the circumstances of that lie that are connected to the deaths of 40 veterans, when a lie that they told killed nearly 5000 American soldiers and over 100,000 Iraqi civilians. And what they’re doing is they’re trying to defer blame from themselves. Congress is the reason that we have waiting lists. ’Congress is the reason that we deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and deployed over 2 million veterans and have this influx of veterans that are fighting to get V.A. health care.
AMY GOODMAN: You know, it is interesting you raise this, Brock, because last week at this time, everyone nonstop across all of the media was talking about whether General Shinseki would resign and about the horror of the V.A., the waits that people have when they come home from war, one to two years. And within two days, then that is all wiped off of the face of the media and this is the controversy that takes its place. But you see these as connected.
BROCK MCINTOSH: Well, I’m not sure if they’re connected. It could be that this happened at a time when the Obama administration anticipated General Shinseki stepping down. I don’t know, but I see a connection in Congress’ willingness to exploit other people’s service for political gamesmanship. Last week, they scapegoated General Shinseki, a wounded veteran who served for nearly 40 years, they scapegoated him to defer blame from themselves and the role that they played in creating these wait lists and failing to prepare for the cost of veterans coming home. When we went to Iraq and we went to Afghanistan, they did not set aside the necessary funds that would be required to care for our veterans to come home and to make the systematic changes that would need to be made. So the Congress played a huge role in creating those wait lists and the problems that the V.A. is facing and they scapegoated a veteran last week. And this week, they’re now taking advantage of a POW and using him for political games and it is pretty sick and pretty disgusting and it’s pretty shameful.
AMY GOODMAN: Brock, finally, did you ever get conscientious objector status?
BROCK MCINTOSH: I did not get conscientious objector status. You know, the process for reserve soldiers, it’s supposed to take about six months, three months for active soldiers. But, the process is always — there are always obstacles and barriers in the process. You always have to butt has with officers. They lose your paperwork. You really need to have legal assistance in order to get c.o. status because the process is so difficult. If more veterans were aware, more soldiers were where aware that c.o. process exists and if there were reforms made to the c.o. process, we may not have had a situation where a soldier had a conscientious change of heart and left his post because he didn’t realize that there were formal recourses of actions that he could have taken. Not saying that that’s the reason why Sergeant Bergdahl left, we don’t know. But, the point is, I think we could avoid potential situations like this if we reform the c.o. process and if more soldiers are made aware that that process exists.
AMY GOODMAN: Brock McIntosh we want to thank you so much for being with us. A soldier served in Afghanistan in 2008 and 2009, applied for conscientious objector status and was discharged in May of 2014. He’s a member of Iraq Veterans Against the war. When we come back, we will be joined by the first Socialist City Council member of Seattle, Washington, who pushed for and ultimately got past the $15 an hour minimum wage in Seattle. Stay with us.
Seattle’s Socialist City Council Member Kshama Sawant Hails Historic Vote For $15/Hour Minimum Wage
Seattle made history this week by passing the $15-an-hour minimum wage — the highest rate in the country for a major city, and more than twice the federal minimum. The raise will be phased in over time. Seattle businesses will have three to seven years to implement it, depending on their size. The plan also includes several loopholes for businesses, which were fought until the last minute by Seattle City Council Member Kshama Sawant, the first socialist to be elected to the council in a century. Sawant ran for City Council last year on a platform of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. She join us from Seattle.TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The $15 in our minimum wage, once a far-off dream, could soon spread across the United States with debates underway from San Francisco to Chicago to New York City. All are watching Seattle, which made history this week by passing the $15 an hour minimum wage. It is the highest rate in the country for a major city, and more than twice the federal minimum.
AMY GOODMAN: The raise will be phased in over time. Seattle businesses will have three to seven years to implement it, depending on their size. The plan also includes several loopholes for businesses, which were fought until the last minute by Seattle City Council Member Kshama Sawant, the first socialist to join the Council in a century. This was the scene Monday as workers and allies packed the City Council chamber to watch the minimum wage hike has unanimously.
CROWD: We are unstoppable, [Indiscernible] possible.
CITY COUNCIL MEMBER: Thank you.
CROWD: We are unstoppable, [Indiscernible] possible.
CITY COUNCIL MEMBER: The bill passes and the chair signed it. Now on agenda item number two, Resolution 31524. All in favor of adopting the resolution, indicate by saying aye.
CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS: Aye.
CITY COUNCIL MEMBER: Opposed?
CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS: Nay.
CITY COUNCIL MEMBER: The amendment — or the resolution is adopted unanimously.
CROWD: Kshama! Kshama! Kshama!
AMY GOODMAN: Workers and activists chanting Kshama Sawant’s name after the City Council passed the $15 hour minimum wage. She ran for City Council last year on a platform of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. To talk more about the campaign, she is here with us. The Socialist City Council member of Seattle, Kshama Sawant. Joining us from Seattle. Welcome to Democracy Now! Talk about the significance of this moment in Seattle.
KSHAMA SAWANT: This is an absolutely historic moment not only for Seattle, but for working people all over the nation, and even globally. What we won here is the possibility for 100,000 workers, low-wage workers in Seattle, to be lifted out of poverty over the next 10 years. And it signifies a transfer of income of $3 billion from the richest in the city to the bottom-most workers, the workers who make the city run. I would urge everybody to see what a reversal of fortune this is because for the last several decades, it has been a systematic gushing out of income and wealth from the bottom to the top. And this is one of the first really big fight back against the status quo of income inequality and a race to the bottom for ordinary working people. It is also significant in the speed with which we achieved it. I took office as a Socialist, as a voice for the working class only on January 6. A week later, we had launched the 15 Now grassroots campaign, which has been part of the back own of the mass movement in Seattle that won this. It is also historically significant, and I think this is the most important thing people should take away from Seattle, is that the establishment, the politicians and the businesses, they are not going to be on your side. Working people have to build our own power, our own strength from below. And the reason we won this in Seattle is not because the establishment, politicians, or the Mayor were pushing for this. What happened was they were pressured to the point that they could not ignore it, and 15 became the top of the agenda. But, really, the push for this, the real life blood of this movement has been workers, the labor movement, Socialist alternative, 15 Now, and having a real fighting voice in City Hall.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Kshama Sawant, when — last month when Seattle’s Mayor Ed Murray unveiled his plan to phase in a $15 in our minimum wage, you criticized it as flawed. I want to play your comments on Huffington Post Live.
KSHAMA SAWANT: It has several components that actually are on the big business wish list. A four-year phase and for big business? Why does McDonald’s need for years to bring their workers out of poverty? Let the CEO of Starbucks, let the CEO of McDonald’s come to City Council and justify why they need to keep their workers one day longer in poverty. There’s an 11 year phase in for other businesses? Every year of phase-in is another year that a worker has to live in poverty.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Can you talk to us about how you came to support the current plan, the form that it finally took?
KSHAMA SAWANT: Yes, absolutely. I think It is very important to clarify that as a Socialist, as a fighter for the interests of the working class, I will fight every inch of the way. We should be doing that. We should be fighting until the last hour. But every gain that we can get has to be wrested, wrenched from the hands of the ruling elite, from the corporate politicians, and the businesses that they represent. And so, even a small raise in a standard of living is something worth fighting for and we should grab it as much as we can. And at the end of the day, the lesson that this shows — the fact that corporations were able to get their loopholes passed shows that we need to build an even more powerful mass movement everywhere around the nation so that we are strong enough to fight against corporate loopholes. The outcomes of social struggle are a function of the balance of forces. So, the moral of the story is not that, well, we can’t win. The moral of the story is we want a huge victory for the working class. But, if we want to fight against corporations, then the only way to do it is to build mass movements.
I just wanted to give you an example of what this means, what it means to build a mass movement and why is that necessary. The City Council, full of Democratic Party politicians, passed unanimously $15 an hour, which is fantastic and a huge step forward, but less than 24 hours later, the Council has been voting, and I’m holding up this headline from the Seattle Times this morning, which talks about how the highest-paid city employed executive who is the head of the publicly owned electricity company, who already is paid $245,000, according to a vote yesterday, is on his way to get more than $350,000. And it shows you that the fundamental shift that is happening is happening from the ground, from the Occupy Movement, from workers and from activists themselves rejecting income inequality, rejecting the corporate agenda of capitalism. And we have to keep doing this in a bigger way because the moment we take our eye off the ball, the same body — elected body — that passed 15 is brazenly going forward and talking about a huge pay increase for the person who is already the highest-paid executive. So, what we have to learn from this is that we cannot rely on the establishment. And we have to set our sights higher. How did Seattle win this? An important component was having a fighting voice for ourselves in City Hall through Socialist Alternative.
I think that this needs to be done in many other cities. The Chicago Teachers Union should run their own independent left candidate as a defiant challenge, as an insurgent, audacious challenge to Rahm Emanuel’s Democratic Party establishment in Chicago. We need to do more of these things. And I would urge anybody who is inspired by watching this, by what we have done in Seattle, please, go to 15now.org. First, make a financial contribution, because grassroots efforts need grassroots support,and then try to get involved. Maybe there is a 15 Now chapter that is being — that has sprung up in your city. See if there is a left organization that can build on our success. And ultimately, I think we need to raise our sights even higher, start talking about what the working class needs in terms of an independent political representation, an independent political party to represent our interests for the working class. We cannot rely on the Democrats and Republicans. The discussion that you had in the previous segment about war and what it is doing to our veterans is a really great example of how completely dysfunctional and rotten this two-party system is and why we need a break from it.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Kshama Sawant, we want to thank you very much for being with us, the first city-wide Socialist elected member of the City Council. I think you have to go back to 1916 a the Socialist head of the — a Socialist member of the City of Seattle School Board. She is a member of the Socialist Alternative, a teacher, an economist and a union activist. We are going to end this segment with the words of a worker from target who spoke ahead of Monday’s Seattle City Council meeting, among those who went on strike May 15 on the global day of protest for low-wage workers.
RIHANNA MARTINSON: Hi, I’m Rihanna Martinson. I am a worker at Target. I make about $9.61 an hour right now, and I work very, very hard for it. What 15 means is that workers like me are able to afford basic necessities. I mean, rising housing costs are only part of the problem. Things like health care, things like being able to afford new shoes before our shoes fall apart, able to go to the dentist if we get a cavity without worrying about it completely destroying our lives. I’m worried that my mother right now is getting old and she is going to work until the day she dies. And I want to be able to take care of her. And I don’t want to work until I die either. I would really like to be able to save money for retirement or even for something, if something happens to me so that I don’t end up on the street.
AMY GOODMAN: Target employee, Rihanna Martinson speaking ahead of the Seattle City Council vote.EPA Moves to Cut Coal Pollution, But Critics Say Plan Falls Short on Real Emissions Reduction
New environmental regulations unveiled this week are being described as the U.S. government’s most sweeping effort to date in curbing the emissions that cause global warming. The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking a 30-percent reduction of carbon emissions from 2005 levels at coal-fired power plants by the year 2030. But many environmentalists are urging the United States to take greater action on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The Guardian reports some of the most coal-heavy states, including West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio, will be allowed to maintain, or even increase, their emissions under the EPA plan. Meanwhile, the European Union said the United States must "do even more" to help keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius. We are joined by Janet Redman, director of the Climate Policy Program at the Institute for Policy Studies.TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The Environmental Protection Agency announced earlier this week new regulations seeking a 30% reduction of carbon emissions at coal-fired power plants by the year 2030. The regulations have been described as the U.S. government’s most sweeping effort aimed at curbing the emissions that cause global warming.
AMY GOODMAN: However, The Guardian reports some of the most coal heavy states, including West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio will be allowed to maintain or even increase their emissions under the EPA plan. Meanwhile, the European Union and the United States must "do even more to help keep global temperatures from rising more than two degrees Celsius." For more we go to Washington, D.C. where we are joined by Janet Redman, Director of the Climate Policy Program at the Institute for Policy Studies. She recently co-released a statement with Wenonah Hauter called, "EPA’s Carbon Rule Falls Short of Real Emissions Reduction." Janet Redman, welcome to Democracy Now! Talk about what President Obama announced, with the EPA announced last weekend and what it means.
JANET REDMAN: Sure. I think what is important to keep in mind is there are kind of three pieces to this. This is an exciting and important announcement, but it falls short of real leadership on climate change, and there are a lot of devils in the details that we still need to figure out next year. So, first and foremost, this is an incredibly important announcement. This is a first time that the White House — that the U.S. is looking at reducing greenhouse gas pollution from power plants. That’s based on a finding from 2009 that when the EPA determined that greenhouse gas emissions do threaten the well-being of Americans because they lead to climate change, which has negative impacts on families and on our environment. So, this is an incredibly important announcement. And it is important in particular because climate change is really an environmental justice issue.
The impacts of climate change and the impacts of pollution that come from power plants hurt people who are living in communities of color and low-income communities first and worst. So that is an incredibly important win. The problem, however, is that those reductions are not enough to make the U.S. a leader either here at home or on the global stage. So, let’s look at the numbers a little bit. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the body of hundreds of scientists from around the world who study climate change, who read thousands of reports and put out their own global assessment every few years, has said that developed countries like the U.S. need to reduce their economy wide emissions between 25% to 40% from 1990 levels by 2020.
Now, we look at Obama and EPA’s plan, they’re talking about reducing emissions from only the power-generating sector, so that is only about 40% of our economy. And they’re talking about reducing those emissions from the year 2005. Our emissions were much higher in 2005 than in 1990 levels, so we are already creating a false baseline in measuring our objections differently than other folks in other countries are measuring them. So, 30% reduction in on only a relatively — an important but small part of our economy wide emissions from a higher baseline and by a later year means that we are not meeting the kinds of — we are not making the kinds of emission reductions we need to to stay below two degrees of warming from preindustrial levels to avoid catastrophic climate change.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And Janet Redman, on the environmental justice aspect of this, there’s also this issue of the allowance of cap and trade as a means of perhaps where some communities will not be able to benefit from these reductions. Could you talk about that?
JANET REDMAN: Sure, this is where kind of the devil in the detail piece comes in. What the EPA’s plan does, instead of saying, listen, we’re going to have an emission reduction plan that is the same for every single state, this EPA plan says, the states — we will set targets for each state and the targets are different for every state. As you mentioned, some of the most polluting states have actually lower targets or, in fact, may not have to reduce their missions at all. But, there are many different ways states can meet their emission reductions if they have them. Things like renewable energy portfolio standards, demand-side energy efficiency. California, for example, has fuel emission standards. But, there is also a mechanism called cap and trade where a cap is placed on greenhouse gas emissions. But, polluters are allowed to trade emission permits or pollution permits that allow them to meet the regulatory obligations in the cheapest way possible. That is a problem because while the atmosphere may not care were greenhouse gas emissions come from, the people who live in the shadow of the most polluting and dirtiest industries, the ones where it would be most expensive to clean up and are most likely to use cheaper mechanisms like buying credits, will still be breathing in the toxic emissions of those power plants.
But, even more importantly, I think this is where we are really concerned about what happens over the next year while states are writing their plans and the EPA reviewing those plans from states, there’s a problem called offsetting. In the EPA’s plan, it says it will not accept offsets from outside of the power sector. So, for example, it won’t say if you protect forests over here, that’s going to count the same as lowering your missions for power plants. However, the state plans do accept out of sector offsets so it will be on the states themselves to say to the EPA, hey, we have got these out of sector emissions reductions, so we’re paying farmers to reduce their emissions from, say, methane from manure and counting those as our own while our own power plants continue to emit or emit more. We are going to figure out a way to have those not count when we report to you at the federal level. I think even the EPA knows that is going to be incredibly complicated. So, the plans over the next year are incredibly important. The problem is, that once the plans are approved by the EPA, it is a hands-off approach. So, we will have to wait about a decade to see if in fact states were able to take apart the various offsets inside their cap and trade program to make sure that in fact power plants in the states like California are really in fact reducing their emissions.
AMY GOODMAN: Republican House Speaker John Boehner has criticized Obama’s plan saying it would "cause a surge in electricity bills, shut down plants and potentially put an average of 224,000 more people out of work every year." He also said he is not qualified really to talk about climate change. He says, "I’m not qualified to debate the science over climate change." Your thoughts on this?
JANET REDMAN: Certainly, I think what is important is that reducing emissions and reigning in pollution from coal power plants and augmenting renewable energy and energy efficiency will actually create jobs, it will reduce costs that we spend right now on caring for asthma and caring for days missed when kids have to — when parents have to take kids to the hospital to treat asthma. It is better for our economy, it’s better for our communities to reduce pollution from power plants. We should be doing a better job than we are. We should be doing a better job than the EPA’s plan.
AMY GOODMAN: Janet Redman, we have to leave it there. Janet Redman is with the Institute for Policy Studies.
Headlines:
•Senate Shown Bergdahl Captivity Video; Hometown Cancels "Welcome Home" Event
The Obama administration is seeking to contain a congressional backlash over a prisoner exchange that saw the release of American soldier Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders. On Wednesday, top intelligence and military officials held a closed-door briefing for the entire Senate showing them a recent video of Bergdahl in declining health. The administration says the video helped spur action to win his release over fears his life was in danger. Opponents of the deal say the White House failed to give Congress proper notice, and may have endangered American lives by encouraging the capture of U.S. soldiers. The criticism has exploded following news Bergdahl may have left his base after turning against the war spread through right-wing media. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid defended the prisoner swap.
Sen. Harry Reid: "President Obama, as commander-in-chief, acted honorably in helping an American soldier return home to his family. Sergeant Bergdahl’s release is an answer to many American’s prayers. I can’t imagine how relieved his parents and family must feel. Unfortunately, though, Mr. President, opponents of President Obama have seized upon the release of an American prisoner of war, that’s what he was, using what should be a moment of unity and celebration for our nation, as a chance to play political games."
Sgt. Bergdahl’s hometown of Hailey, Idaho, meanwhile has canceled a celebration for his release, citing public safety concerns. In recent days, angry phone calls and emails poured into Hailey over the town’s support for the soldier. We’ll have more on this story after headlines.
•Family of Western Couple Held by Taliban Pleads for Their Release
In the aftermath of the U.S.-Taliban prisoner exchange, the family of an American woman and her Canadian husband held captive in Afghanistan since late 2012 are calling for renewed efforts to win their release. On Wednesday, relatives shared a video they say came from the Taliban of Caitlin Coleman and Joshua Boyle pleading for their freedom. Coleman was pregnant at the time of their capture and gave birth in captivity.
•Assad Claims Election Victory; U.N. Aid Chief Appeals for Access to Besieged Areas
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has declared a landslide victory in elections dismissed by rivals as a sham. The Syrian government says Assad took more than 88 percent of the vote, which was held mostly in areas under his control. At the United Nations, Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos appealed to Assad for greater access to besieged areas.
Valerie Amos: "If I were able to speak to him right now I would say, 'Put the people of Syria first.' I mean that has been my message from day one. If you put the people of Syria first then I think the rest falls from that in terms of our ability to make sure the people are properly fed, that they have enough water, they have proper sanitation, that they have healthcare, that they’re able to educate their children and crucially, that they have peace, security and stability."
•U.N. Cites Progress on Syrian Chemical Stockpile Despite Missed Deadline
The United Nations has confirmed Assad will fail to meet a deadline later this month for the removal and destruction of his regime’s entire chemical stockpile. But Sigrid Kaag, head of the joint mission overseeing the stockpile’s removal, said major progress has been made.
Sigrid Kaag: "The deadline will not be met. What is important, however, is that all the materials are out of harm’s way, and the destruction can start as soon as possible aboard the U.S. ship, as considerable time has lapsed, and considerable cost and time and investments have been made to get the job done. Equally so, I’d like to underline that significant progress has been obtained over an impossible period of time, nine months."
•Rebel Group Kidnaps Kurdish Students in Northern Syria
In other news from Syria, more than 150 Kurdish students are being held captive following their kidnapping by rebels in a northern province last week. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is said to be holding the students at a prison in the town of Manbij. It is one the worst mass kidnappings in Syria’s three-year civil war.
•Thousands March on World Cup Stadium in São Paulo
Thousands of protesters have marched in the Brazilian city of São Paulo in protest of public spending on the upcoming World Cup. The Homeless Workers’ Movement led Wednesday’s march to São Paulo’s main stadium ahead of the World Cup’s opening a week from today.
Jusue Rocha, Protest Organizer: "Today we want to get the attention of public power, marching to the stadium saying that we want to negotiate and open a channel of dialogue with public power to negotiate our demands. If they do not attend to our needs we already know the way to the stadium — and on the twelfth, we will be there again."
•Appeals Court Overturns Rejection of Citigroup-SEC Settlement
A federal appeals court has overturned a lower court’s rejection of a proposed $285 million settlement between Citigroup and the Securities and Exchange Commission over Citigroup’s sale of toxic mortgage debt. In a major decision three years ago, District Court Judge Jed Rakoff said the proposed settlement was "neither reasonable, nor fair, nor adequate, nor in the public interest" and "pocket change to any entity as large as Citigroup." The SEC had accused Citigroup of selling $1 billion of deceptive mortgage-backed securities in 2007 just as the nation’s housing bubble was about to burst. Citigroup made $160 million in profits on the transaction, while investors lost $700 million. Rakoff’s decision stood to have a major impact on how the SEC settles cases with major banks. But on Wednesday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Rakoff "abused [his] discretion by applying an incorrect legal standard." The overturning of Rakoff’s decision means the settlement will likely be approved.
•Court Upholds BP Liability for Pollution in 2010 Spill
The oil giant BP is facing new fines for its 2010 Gulf oil spill following a new court ruling. On Wednesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2012 decision that BP and the company Anadarko Petroleum should be fined under the Clean Water Act. BP and Anadarko had large stakes in the well that blew out and caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The ruling could lead to billions more in fines.
•Walmart Faces Worker Strikes Ahead of Shareholders Meeting
The retail giant Walmart is facing new worker strikes this week in 20 cities nationwide. Employees have walked off the job since last Friday calling for higher wages and protesting alleged worker retaliation. The actions are being held in the lead-up to the company’s annual shareholders meeting on Friday. A new report from the group "Walmart 1 Percent" says Walmart’s four surviving heirs have given less than a tenth of 1 percent of their $140 billion fortune to their family’s own charity.
•Relatives of U.S. Drone Strike Victims Won’t Appeal Court Ruling
The relatives of three Americans killed in U.S. drone strikes in Yemen without trial say they would not appeal the dismissal of their lawsuit against Obama administration officials. The families of Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, his teenage son, Abdulrahman, and of Samir Khan had filed the suit accusing top U.S. officials of unlawful killings. But in April, a federal judge ruled the victims’ constitutional rights were never violated, and said the U.S. officials involved cannot be held liable. In a statement, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union said: "The U.S. government killed three Americans without due process. Getting answers in court should not be too much to ask in a democracy, but our system of checks and balances failed these families."
•California Prisoners Win Class-Action Status for Lawsuit Challenging Solitary Confinement
A federal judge has given class-action status to a lawsuit challenging solitary confinement at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison. The plaintiffs say over a decade in solitary has subjected them to cruel and unusual punishment and violated their right to due process. Thousands of prisoners took part in a state-wide hunger strike against long-term solitary confinement last year. The class-action lawsuit could cover hundreds of prisoners.
•"Reset the Net" Protests Back Online Encryption, Privacy
Activists and tech companies are holding a day of action today to promote greater online privacy. The "Reset the Net" campaign from the group Fight for the Future calls for increased website encryption and privacy tools for users. Today marks the one-year anniversary of the publication of the first Guardian story based on the leaks of National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
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"Bergdahl, Afghanistan and the ‘darkening of the American soul’" by Amy Goodman
When Bowe Bergdahl was reported missing in Afghanistan on the morning of June 30, 2009, a crack formed in the U.S. narrative about the longest war in our nation’s history.
Bergdahl’s release this week, as part of a prisoner-of-war swap with the Taliban, has provoked the partisan pundits to hurl invective at the American POW, his family and at President Barack Obama. Far removed from the din of these professional Beltway hecklers, though, in Hailey, Idaho, Bob Bergdahl, the young prisoner’s father, has been struggling for his son’s release. The ordeal of the son and the disciplined, contemplative activism of the father projects the U.S. war in Afghanistan through a different lens.
We know little yet of what exactly led to Bowe Bergdahl’s disappearance that night in Paktika province. Sean Smith, a filmmaker with The Guardian, met him the month before his disappearance.
“Bowe was a softly spoken, intelligent and thoughtful guy,” Smith wrote. Smith produced two remarkable videos, one with footage shot in Afghanistan, another in Idaho, showing Bob Bergdahl’s personal efforts to not only free his son but to understand the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. Bowe himself is not interviewed in Smith’s films, but two fellow soldiers, in their tightly-knit group of five or six, were:
Soldier one: “These people just want to be left alone.”
Soldier two: “They got dicked with from the Russians for 17 years and now we’re here.”
Soldier one: “Same thing in Iraq when I was there. These people just want to be left alone. Have their crops, weddings, stuff like that, that’s it, man.”
Days later, Bergdahl disappeared. Smith told me, “They weren’t criticizing the chain of command, but they were questioning the war and the concept of it ... a number of American soldiers expressed queries and questions.”
Back in Idaho, Smith trekked into a remote, snow-covered camp with Bowe’s father. Bob Bergdahl had grown a long beard and was studying the Pashto language in order to connect with the people of Afghanistan.
In the film, Bergdahl talks about his son:
“He was not there for national security. He was not there because he lost a personal friend on 9/11. He was there because the way he was raised forced him to have compassion. I know that was Bowe’s motivation, to help these people. That is how the war is shaped in the minds of a lot of Americans, is that we are there as some kind of Peace Corps with guns, and that is just an impossible mission.”
Bob Bergdahl is next shown watching a video of Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his famous “Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam” sermon in 1967. Bergdahl reflected: “How can we teach two generations at least of children in this country that we have zero tolerance for violence but we can occupy two countries in Asia for almost a decade? It is schizophrenic. ... The purpose of war is to destroy things. You can’t use it to govern.”
The chorus of voices calling for Bowe Bergdahl to be court-martialed is receiving much attention. Media Matters, a nonprofit media watchdog group, has documented the Fox News Channel’s unrelenting campaign against Bergdahl, and the demonization of his family. The New York Times challenged the claim, tirelessly repeated by CNN, MSNBC and others, that six to eight soldiers died while searching for Bowe Bergdahl in the weeks and months after he went missing.
Other, perhaps better informed people, who get too little space in the mainstream media, have more nuanced responses to the prisoner-of-war swap. Retired Air Force Col. Morris Davis was the chief military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay until he resigned in 2007. He told me, “I just don’t know how you end a war without talking to the other side.”
In response to the criticism that the five Guantanamo prisoners swapped for Bergdahl were high-level terrorists, Davis said, “[I] wasn’t familiar with any of these names ... we had more than 12 years. If we could have proven that they had done something wrong that we could prosecute them for, I’m confident we would have done it, and we didn’t.”
The late Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings reported on Bowe Bergdahl, quoting emails from Bowe to his parents that were very critical of the U.S. occupation. Bowe wrote, “I am sorry for everything here.” At the end of Sean Smith’s video shot in Idaho, we hear Bob Bergdahl quietly remark about the U.S. war in Afghanistan: “I think this is the darkening of the American soul. It is where the guilt comes from, because you are being told you are helping, but you know on the inside that you are not.”
Amy Goodman is a nationally syndicated columnist. Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
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