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Investigative reporter Eric Lichtblau’s new book unveils the secret history of how the United States became a safe haven for thousands of Nazi war criminals. Many of them were brought here after World War II by the CIA and got support from then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Lichtblau first broke the story in 2010, based on newly declassified documents. Now, after interviews with dozens of agents for the first time, he has published his new book, "The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler’s Men."
Click here to watch part 2 of this interview.
Image Credit: flickr.com/pingnews
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We end today’s show with investigative reporter Eric Lichtblau, author of a new book that unveils the secret history of how America became a safe haven for thousands of Nazi war criminals. Many of them were brought here after World War II by the CIA and got support from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Lichtblau first broke the story in 2010, based on newly declassified documents.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, after interviews with dozens of agents for the first time, he has published his new book. It’s called The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler’s Men. You can read the prologue on our website. Eric Lichtblau was last on Democracy Now! in 2008, after he and fellow reporter James Risen won the Pulitzer Prize for exposing the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping, despite White House pressure to kill the story. He joins us now from the New York Times D.C. bureau.
Welcome back, Eric, to Democracy Now! This is—it is a fascinating book. You open the book by telling us the story of a man in New Jersey. Why don’t you tell us about him?
ERIC LICHTBLAU: Sure. His name was Tom Soobzokov. He was a guy who had many bosses over the years. He worked for the FBI. He worked for the CIA. And before that, he worked for the Nazi SS. And that opening scene that you’re talking about takes place in the mid-1970s, when people at the Justice Department were starting to first become aware that there were ex-Nazis in the United States. And Soobzokov was one of the people who had come under investigation. He had been living in the United States for 20 years at that point. And he went back to his old handlers at the CIA, somewhat frantically, because the heat was really being put on him over his past and these accusations that he was in fact a Nazi, which he vehemently denied. And in the declassified documents that I looked at from the CIA, there’s memo after memo where the CIA is recounting these frantic phone calls and conversations with Soobzokov, where he’s saying, you know, "What am I going to do?" And the CIA is almost as frantically then meeting amongst themselves to say, "We’ve got a little problem on our hands here, and it’s going to get worse."
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Eric, talk about the CIA head, Allen Dulles, brother of John Foster Dulles, the secretary of state under Eisenhower, and his role in shaping this policy.
ERIC LICHTBLAU: Right, right, yeah, Dulles was one of the intelligence titans of the 1950s, one of the original cold warriors. And he was someone who believed that there were, quote-unquote, "moderate Nazis," his words, who the U.S. could use to its advantage in the Cold War. And he actively recruited them himself and, in a number of cases, intervened on their behalf when they were facing accusations about their past, about their involvement in Nazi war crimes. And he and J. Edgar Hoover were really the two linchpins in this, in developing this strategy of recruiting ex-Nazis as cold warriors, as anti-Soviet assets who, they believe, could gather intelligence for the U.S.
Now, the irony is that a lot of these guys, a lot of these ex-Nazis used as spies by the CIA, by the FBI, really turned out to be bad spies. There are all sorts of files that I examined showing that they—not shockingly in hindsight, that the Nazis were found to be liars and cheats and embezzlers, and in a couple cases they were even found to be Soviet double agents. So, not only do they have the incredible baggage of being Nazis, but they were not even good spies.
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, the story you tell of Allen Dulles meeting with Nazi General Karl Wolff in Switzerland—
ERIC LICHTBLAU: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: He was the number two man, right, for Himmler. Explain the deal that they were making, and then talk about the scientists that were recruited. I just flew back from Austria and sat next to a man who lives in Vienna, who grew up in northern New Jersey, and he said his father was brought from Germany by the CIA to northern New Jersey because he was a scientist, and they wanted him here, not in Russia.
ERIC LICHTBLAU: Right. Well, starting with the scientists, we brought over, under something called Program Paperclip, like 1,600 Nazi scientists. These were engineers, doctors, jet propulsion experts, things like that. The most famous among them was Wernher von Braun, who was one of the guiding hands in getting us to the moon in 1969. And officially, under the policies put in place by Truman and Eisenhower after the war, these were not supposed to be, quote-unquote, "ardent Nazis," whatever that may mean. But, you know, in fact, these were people who were directly involved in, for instance, running slave labor factories, where thousands and thousands of people died in making Hitler’s rockets. These were doctors who were involved in medical atrocities. They then found homes in the United States as American scientists. Many of them became U.S. citizens. Many of them became honored for their work in the United States.
As far as Allen Dulles, who you asked about, yeah, his role in having negotiations and conversations with Nazis began even before the war was over, believe it or not. A few months before the war [ended], there was a meeting that I talk about in the book where he met at a safe house in Zurich with Himmler’s ex-chief of staff, who was trying to save his own skin. He realized the war was about to be over in a few months, and he was understandably afraid of being charged in all sorts of war crimes. This was Himmler’s chief of staff. He was involved in setting up the train network that led millions of Jews and others to their deaths. And Dulles thought that this general, General Karl Wolff, could help end the war earlier. As it turned out, they ended the war maybe two weeks earlier in the region in Italy that Wolff controlled. But as part of these negotiations, they were sipping Scotch over a lovely fireside in Zurich. For months and months after the war, even for the first couple of years, Dulles really effectively protected General Wolff, Himmler’s ex-chief of staff, from war crimes charges. And Wolff went from being a chief defendant, one of the top Nazi defendants at Nuremberg, to being merely a witness, and served virtually no time in prison. In fact, even when he was nominally a prisoner as a POW, he was allowed to wear a gun. He went boating on the weekends in Austria. He led sort of a charmed life after the war, thanks to the help of Allen Dulles, who went on to become the first director of the CIA.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Eric, one of the heroes of your stories is—of your book is a reporter named Chuck Allen—
ERIC LICHTBLAU: Yeah.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: —who first began exposing this underground railroad of evildoers into the United States, but who was, at first, for many years, ignored. Could you talk about him?
ERIC LICHTBLAU: Right, right. I had never heard of Chuck Allen when I started my research, but he became sort of a hero of mine as I was writing this book. He was a left-wing journalist in the early 1960s, writing for obscure Jewish publications, sometimes communist-leaning publications. And he started writing exhaustively in the early 1960s about the fact, which was really unknown at the time, that there were Nazis and Nazi collaborators living openly in the United States. He wrote in 1963 an exhaustive, 40-page piece for a magazine called Jewish Currents, which was affiliated with the Communist Party. And in it, he documented the role of, for instance, a bishop in Chicago and a State Department analyst who had clear ties to the Nazis in atrocities.
And he was not only ignored, as you say, sort of written off as some left-wing kook, but at the FBI, they started paying attention, to the point that J. Edgar Hoover ordered him to be wiretapped for a number of years. And you had FBI agents trailing him as he would try and gather evidence on Nazi atrocities by people inside the United States. So he was seen as a subversive, as a communist plant, and was either ignored or shunned or actually retaliated against for writing these things in the 1960s. And this was a time when really no one else noticed or cared that there were, at that point, hundreds, thousands of Nazis living openly in the United states.
AMY GOODMAN: So he was being—while he may have been ignored by the public, he was being harassed by the FBI—
ERIC LICHTBLAU: Absolutely.
AMY GOODMAN: —at the same time that the FBI and the CIA were protecting these Nazis. Another amazing part of the story is how so many of those in the concentration camps afterwards, the Allies were running these concentration camps—
ERIC LICHTBLAU: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: —and the Jews were there. And often, the Nazi POWs in these camps would be put in charge of them—by the United States.
ERIC LICHTBLAU: Right, right. No, I’m glad you asked about that. I mean, that was probably the single most striking thing to me in my research. There were a lot of alarming things that I came across that I didn’t know when I started writing this book. But I think the most repugnant of all the repugnant things was the treatment of the survivors, not just Jews, but communists, gays, Roma and others who survived the Holocaust, but for months, and in some cases a couple of years, after the end of the war were still kept inside the concentration camps themselves, under—behind barbed wire, under armed guard, sometimes under the supervision of other Nazi POWs.
And it was—I learned it was General Patton, a war hero, "Old Blood and Guts," they called him, who oversaw the camps. He was the supreme Allied commander after the war. And he—I looked at his journals. He was a virulent anti-Semite. And there was a scathing report to Truman by an emissary of Truman’s from the University of Pennsylvania, Earl Harrison, that compared the camps that the United States was running after the war to the Nazi concentration camps. Harrison wrote that the only difference is that we’re not exterminating the Jews, which, you know, think of that in hindsight. Patton—
AMY GOODMAN: Eric—
ERIC LICHTBLAU: Yes?
AMY GOODMAN: Eric Lichtblau, we have to end the show, but we want to—
ERIC LICHTBLAU: Sure.
AMY GOODMAN: —ask if you can stay, and we’ll put part two online at democracynow.org. The Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times, his new book, published this week, The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler’s Men. You can read the prologue at democracynow.org.
I’ll be in Oslo, Norway, at Norway Social Forum, speaking Saturday, November 1st. Check our website at democracynow.org.
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Public Health vs. Civil Liberties: Debate over Ebola Quarantines Harkens Back to AIDS Panic in 1980s
Kaci Hickox, the nurse who was quarantined in New Jersey after returning from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, openly defied the state of Maine by leaving her home and taking a bike ride with her boyfriend on Thursday. Maine Gov. Paul LePage vowed to use “the full extent of his authority allowable by law” to keep her in her home. Juan González talks about his most recent column in the New York Daily News and his interview with Norman Siegel, an attorney for Hickox.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Juan, before we move on to our first segment, you wrote an interesting piece in the New York Daily News, "Quarantined Nurse Kaci Hickox Is Bravely Fighting Policy Not Based in Science."
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes, well, I interviewed yesterday Norm Siegel, the attorney for Kaci Hickox, one of the two attorneys, and he told me the story, basically, how she suddenly contacted him on Saturday afternoon, when she was in that—in isolation, a forced isolation in Newark hospital, after reading a comment that he had made on a post on the New York Times website. And first her boyfriend called her, then she called him and asked for his help in trying to get out of the forced isolation that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had put her in. And, you know, Norm Siegel is a longtime civil rights attorney here in New York City, and he remembers precisely the same kind of panic that occurred back in the mid-1980s when he took over the New York Civil Liberties Union, and then, it was over AIDS and over the demands of many Americans that AIDS patients be quarantined. So he’s very familiar with this kind of hysteria or panic. And he immediately offered to go out there to New Jersey and threatened the state of New Jersey with a lawsuit.
Of course, Chris Christie then backed down, released Kaci Hickox so she could go home to Maine, and New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, then backed off a little bit on his own quarantine, saying that people—returning health workers from West Africa could be quarantined at home. But the reality is that these two governors are still insisting that even though you may not have symptoms, you can be quarantined under their powers in New York state and New Jersey. And now, of course, the governor in Maine, the tea party candidate who’s facing a tough re-election on Tuesday, has also insisted that she be quarantined. And she is continuing to defy the quarantine, and basically welcoming a lawsuit, which Siegel feels she’s got a very good chance, if there is a lawsuit filed to get her to maintain a stay in quarantine, that he believes he can win.
AMY GOODMAN: And if anyone thinks politics has nothing to do with it, Kaci Hickox went back to Maine, and Chris Christie also went to Maine that same day to campaign for LePage.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: But there are many health workers who have just gone home in the United States.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: And she has tested negative for Ebola.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, not only that, but Governor Cuomo admitted in an interview with the Daily News editorial board this week that as many as 30 to 50 people are entering JFK—health workers from West Africa—every day, but the governor refuses to say how many of those he has also insisted be put on home quarantine. So it’s basically politicians who know nothing about health, public health, interfering in what the CDC, Doctors Without Borders and even The New England Journal of Medicine has said should be the proper policy.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go to Kaci Hickox for a moment, just wrapping this segment, when she made headlines Thursday as she took a bike ride with her boyfriend in Maine. Several journalists attempted to interview her while she rode.
REPORTER 1: It’s pretty bold of you to go out on a bike ride while the state police are here.
REPORTER 2: Kaci, what’s—
KACI HICKOX: There is no legal action against me, so I’m free to go on a bike ride in my hometown.
REPORTER 2: What is the status of the court order, Kaci?
KACI HICKOX: I don’t know. When you find out, you tell me.
REPORTER 1: How did it feel to be out on the road?
KACI HICKOX: It feels amazing.
REPORTER 1: Do you plan to go out again later today? Are you staying in this house?
KACI HICKOX: We’ll see.
REPORTER 2: Did you talk about taking this step last night? Did you guys consider it?
KACI HICKOX: No, I didn’t. You know, this morning, Ted and I just said we want to go for a bike ride. So, here we are.
REPORTER 2: You woke up, and you wanted to ride. Is this something that you guys do often?
KACI HICKOX: We do, yeah. Thank you, guys. I have to go speak with the health department now.
AMY GOODMAN: These reporters were following as she rode the bike back. They say the troopers, the federal authorities, are also there. Not clear—well, they didn’t tackle her when she went out here.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, and the amazing thing is not only her bravery going into West Africa to treat Ebola patients, but now also standing up eloquently to the bullying of some of these politicians.
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The oil giant Chevron is being accused of attempting to buy the city government of Richmond, California. The company has spent more than $3 million to back a slate of pro-Chevron candidates for mayor and city council ahead of Tuesday’s election. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, Chevron has paid for TV attack ads, purchased space on virtually every billboard in town, funded a flood of mailers and financed a fake “news” website run by a Chevron employee. The move comes two years after a massive fire at Chevron’s oil refinery in Richmond sent 15,000 residents to the hospital. It was the third refinery fire since 1989 in the city. The city of Richmond responded to the latest fire by suing Chevron, accusing officials of placing profits and executive pay over public safety. We speak to one of the politicians being targeted, outgoing Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. She was elected mayor of Richmond in 2006, becoming the first Green Party official to represent a city of more than 100,000. Due to mayoral term limits, McLaughlin is now running for Richmond City Council.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We turn now to Richmond, California, where the oil giant Chevron is being accused of attempting to buy the city government. The company has spent more than $3 million to back a slate of pro-Chevron candidates for mayor and city council ahead of Tuesday’s election. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, Chevron has paid for TV attack ads, purchased space on virtually every billboard in town, funded a flood of mailers, and financed a fake news website run by a Chevron employee.
The move comes two years after a massive fire at Chevron’s oil refinery in Richmond sent 15,000 residents to the hospital. It was the third refinery fire since 1989 in that city. The city of Richmond responded to the latest fire by suing Chevron, accusing officials of placing profits and executive pay over public safety. Now Chevron is attempting to defeat some of its critics in city government. Here is one recent political ad paid for by Chevron.
CHEVRON’S MOVING FORWARD AD: It seems like whenever Richmond faces a tough problem, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin packs her suitcase and flies away. When Richmond needed someone to fight crime, Gayle flew away to Ecuador. When Richmond needed someone to fix crumbling public housing, Gayle flew away to Cuba. When Richmond needed someone to attract new businesses and jobs, Gayle flew away to D.C. to try to free convicted foreign spies. Mayor Gayle McLaughlin ran away when we needed her the most. Why would we elect her to City Council?
AMY GOODMAN: An ad by Chevron’s campaign committee, Moving Forward, targeting Gayle McLaughlin. In 2006, she was elected mayor of Richmond, becoming the first Green Party official to represent a city of more than 100,000. She is now running for City Council. She was not allowed to run for a third term as mayor due to term limits. Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin now joins us from San Francisco.
Welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you please explain this for a global audience that might not understand what is going on in Richmond right now, the extent to which Chevron is a player in your municipal elections?
MAYOR GAYLE McLAUGHLIN: Thank you, Amy. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Yes, what’s happening in Richmond now is that we have made remarkable—a remarkable transformation over the past 10 years since I’ve been in office, with other progressive electives and a progressive community. Previous to that, over the past hundred years, we were known as a company town, with Chevron having control of the City Council, having the City Council bought out, in their pockets. We had among the highest rates in the nation of violence. We were known for widespread corruption. You know, Richmond had the refinery, with a situation of allowing it to continue to pollute, without the refinery paying its fair share of taxes, without hiring locally, without upgrading the refinery in a responsible way in terms of having safety for our residents. In fact, they have thousands of clamps holding corroded pipes together. And that’s what led to the fire of 2012.
But at a certain point, in 2003—
AMY GOODMAN: And the fire and the extent of the damage caused by the fire?
MAYOR GAYLE McLAUGHLIN: —we formed a progressive alliance, and that RPA, Richmond Progressive Alliance, ran people for elected office. We won five local elections, including my mayoral seat. And we set about making the people’s priorities the focus of our work as elected officials.
And that has led to many, many gains. We won a $114 million tax settlement with Chevron. We’ve renovated our parks, many, many urban renewal projects. And we’ve reduced our crime dramatically, a 70 percent reduction in homicides. We are continuing to put forward sustainable projects—number one in the Bay Area for solar installed per capita. So, we’re spiraling up and reversing that downward spiral. And Chevron feels very threatened by that. They want to stop us as progressives. They want to continue and get and regain the City Council in their pockets. And so, we’re standing tall and making it clear that we’re a community that defines its own destiny and will continue to do so.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Mayor McLaughlin, I want to read from a statement Chevron made to MSNBC in response to reports of it spending $3 million in local elections this year. Quote, "The amount of money we spend to inform voters must be viewed in the context of the more than $500 million in local taxes, social investment and spending on local vendors from Chevron over the past five years, and our $90 million social and environmental commitment to the city that will follow once our $1 billion refinery modernization is allowed to proceed." Your response?
MAYOR GAYLE McLAUGHLIN: Yes, you know, yeah, sure, Chevron does some good things in the city of Richmond, but it comes at a price. First and foremost, they require all the money that they give to nonprofits to come with this requirement that these nonprofits utilize Chevron’s logo in their press releases, and they have press conferences where Chevron gets to do its PR campaign. So it comes at a price. Yes, we think those are good projects that they have contributed to, but it is no excuse for one domineering company to try and buy a city’s election.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what about the fire that led to your council and your government seeking redress from Chevron? Could you talk about the impact on your community?
MAYOR GAYLE McLAUGHLIN: Yes, the 2012 horrific fire caused great damage to our community. It was a situation where 15,000 people went to local hospitals for respiratory ailments. We had damages to our local economy in terms of our property values were lowered, and there was a slowdown in attraction of new businesses to Richmond. So we feel that there was, you know, a huge trauma and a huge impact on the health and the economic future of Richmond.
So we are taking them to court. We have a lawsuit. It’s the first-ever lawsuit that the city of Richmond has waged against Chevron. And we think we deserve a City Council that will stand strong and not drop this lawsuit. If Chevron-friendly candidates get into the City Council, we fear that’s exactly what will happen, the lawsuit will be dropped, or a very weak settlement will come about. We want to stand strong and get the kind of compensation that the community deserves. And we want to make it clear that Chevron’s corporate culture must change, that they must put the health and well-being of our community before their corporate profits.
AMY GOODMAN: Mayor, can you talk about the Richmond Standard website, which describes itself as a home of, quote, "community-driven news," but it is actually funded entirely by Chevron?
MAYOR GAYLE McLAUGHLIN: Yes, the Richmond Standard website tries to promote itself as a news website, but in fact it’s a public relations—Chevron public relations website. All the articles in there are Chevron-friendly articles. They’re articles that promote Chevron’s agenda. It is not anywhere near even a mainstream news service that pretends to be somewhat neutral. It is clearly a Chevron PR website.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much for being with us. One of the tabs says "Chevron Speaks" on that website. Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, mayor of Richmond, the Green mayor of the—she is the mayor of the largest—it’s the largest city, Richmond, to have a Green mayor. Her term is ending. She’s term-limited out, and she’s now running for the Richmond City Council. We’re going to continue with Green Party politics in a moment here in New York. Stay with us.
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In New York state, the Green Party hopes to make major gains in the race for governor. Its candidate, Howie Hawkins, is taking on incumbent Democrat Andrew Cuomo, Republican Rob Astorino and Libertarian Michael McDermott. Hawkins is one of more than 200 Green candidates running for office across the country on Tuesday. Hawkins is calling for a "Green New Deal" that includes public jobs for the unemployed, single-payer healthcare, a ban on fracking and a 100 percent clean-energy future. Last week, he participated in four-way gubernatorial debate where Democracy Now! co-host Juan González questioned Cuomo about his record of dealing with corruption.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: As we continue our election coverage, we’re joined by another Green Party candidate, Howie Hawkins, who is running for New York governor against Democrat Andrew Cuomo, Republican Rob Astorino and the Libertarian candidate, Michael McDermott. Hawkins is one of a number of Green candidates running for office across the country on Tuesday.
AMY GOODMAN: We welcome you to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us. Talk about your platform. We were just speaking with the Green Party mayor of Richmond, California. There are Green Party candidates around the country.
HOWIE HAWKINS: Well, we call it a Green New Deal for New York. It involves five basic economic human rights that have been on the table since the mid-1930s—the Committee for Economic Security with Frances Perkins as chair, Roosevelt’s 1944 State of the Union address calling for a second economic bill of rights. The civil rights movement brought it up again between the March on Washington, in 1963, for Jobs and Freedom and the Poor People’s Campaign. And these are the rights to a useful job, a living wage, affordable housing, healthcare and a good education.
And then we call it the Green New Deal because the centerpiece of our program is to fight climate change by banning fracking and committing to 100 percent clean energy by 2030. And we think that addresses the problems we face in this state. We’re the most—we have the state with the most unequal distribution of income of any state in the United States. We have the most segregation by both race and class in housing and schools. And none of the two major-party candidates are addressing these issues, and we think we have a program that does.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn, Juan, back to the debate, the only, I think it was, televised debate in the state. It took place last week, and our very own Juan González, who is a reporter and columnist also with the New York Daily News, asked the opening question, and that went to incumbent Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo about the Moreland Commission.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: You appointed a special panel, the Moreland Commission, to root out corruption in Albany. But you suddenly abolish your own panel, less than a year ago. And press—less than a year later. And press accounts say your aides pressured its members to squash certain investigations. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is now probing what happened. How do you respond to those who call this the "darkest stain" of your first term? And can you assure us tonight that your office never sought to interfere with the Moreland Commission or any attorney general investigations prompted by it, or even the current federal probe?
MODERATOR: Mr. Cuomo, you have one minute.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO: Yes, I can. And I thank you for bringing up—bringing it up, because there’s been a lot of misinformation, and this is an opportunity to clear it up. Two basic points. Number one, we appointed a commission, and I said to the chairman of the commission, who happens to be the pre-eminent district attorney in the state of New York, in my opinion, happens to be a Republican, Chairman Fitzpatrick, "You make all the decisions." Yes, people gave him advice. He had public hearings. My staff talked to him. Everyone’s staff talked to him. But he has repeatedly said he made all the decisions independently. He’s been saying that for months in numerous mediums.
Second, there was no abrupt stopping. I wanted the commission to get a law passed. That’s why I empaneled it. I said to the Legislature, "When you pass the law, the commission will go away." They passed the law. The law has an independent enforcement agent, redefined "bribery," was applauded by all the DAs. And that’s what we needed, was a new law so the DAs could actually prosecute. And that’s what we produced.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Governor Cuomo in the statewide debate that was held, Juan González questioning him, throwing out that first question on the Moreland Commission. Juan?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, it was interesting, the governor’s response. Howie Hawkins, you also and the other candidates responded. But then also, on the fracking question that came, as well, you raised a similar problem to what is being alleged in the Moreland Commission cover-up, which is the governor’s office’s attempt to squash some findings of a U.S. Geological Survey report on fracking. Could you expand on that and also what the governor said about the Moreland Commission?
HOWIE HAWKINS: Governor Cuomo is Nixonian in the way he covers up and dissembles. There was the Commission on Public Corruption, which there he was saying was independent, but when he shut it down, he said, "It’s mine. I created it. I can shut it down." Then the next week he’s saying it’s independent. You know, which is it? There was the earlier Moreland Commission on Public Utilities. That was written up in The New York Times yesterday. He tried to get that changed. He didn’t like the results of this study which said fracking could pollute the water through various infrastructure. So, you know, I think that signals what he’s going to do, because he also said in the debate—
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, he not only didn’t like it, but according to the report in Capital New York website, his people directed them to change or pressured the federal scientists to change their findings.
HOWIE HAWKINS: Right, and that blows up his whole argument that he’s waiting for the science to decide on fracking. And then, on Common Core, on another thing, you know, he said, "Who? Me? Common Core, I have nothing to do with it," when in fact, you know, he signed things with the National Governors Association putting New York into that program and appointed John King, who’s been a very—the state education commissioner, who’s been a very forceful advocate for that. So, you can’t trust what he says.
AMY GOODMAN: What is it like to run for statewide office as a Green Party candidate, for people who are watching this around the country, and for people outside this country, where more parties are involved in electoral politics in other countries?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And for you, who is a UPS driver in your regular life?
HOWIE HAWKINS: Well, frankly, it’s a lot of fun, and we get to talk to a lot of people. I mean, I’m running with a group of people. We’re a rainbow ticket. My running mate is African-American teacher, union activist, Brian Jones. Our candidate for attorney general, Ramón Jiménez, has been a people’s lawyer in the South Bronx for 40 years. Our candidate for comptroller, Theresa Portelli, has been a union member working with juvenile justice issues with CSEA for 40 years.
And, you know, it’s like running for local election, because we can’t afford all the broadcast advertising that Cuomo’s got. Cuomo had 331 people give him $22 million. You know, that’s not the 1 percent; that’s a tiny fraction of the 1 percent. Our average donation is 1/100th of his, which is kind of a good metaphor: I’m Candidate 99 Percent, he’s Governor 1 Percent. And so, we talk to people. We get a really good reception. Of course, doing a grassroot campaign in a state with 19 million people is a real task. So, we’re stronger in some areas than other areas, but we’re growing and getting stronger and—
AMY GOODMAN: How did you get on the ballot?
HOWIE HAWKINS: We’re on the ballot because I ran four years ago, I got over 50,000 votes. That gave us an automatic ballot slot. So we just had a convention and nominated our slate. And then we were able to start campaigning back in the spring, instead of doing a big petition over the summer, which we had to do before. So—
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, four years ago, you got about 1 percent of the vote, but now some of the polls are showing you close to 10 percent of support among registered voters. How do you explain this surge of support for your candidacy?
HOWIE HAWKINS: Well, partly, we’re better organized as a party. But mainly, I think Andrew Cuomo has been my best campaign worker. He has pushed people away from him. On the schools, the teachers are angry, because he’s underfunding and he’s imposing these high-stakes tests and the evaluations of teacher based on that. The public workers are upset with him. The parents are upset with this Common Core high-stakes testing regime across the board. Schools are underfunded. My city has lost a quarter of its teaching staff, and Cuomo is about to go into his fifth consecutive austerity budget. His budget director said, "Don’t expect any increases," to all the agency directors when they submit their budgets. And then the fracking issue is huge. I think after the election, he’s going to go with fracking. I think that’s what all the signals say. And I’m the only candidate that’s calling for a ban on fracking and a commitment to clean energy. So, all those things is pushing people our way.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Cuomo even created a new party, or helped support the creation of a new party, the Women’s Equality Party. And many people believe he’s trying to do a counterweight to the Working Families Party, which, ironically, endorsed him, but he’s really not seeking their support. Could you talk about the Women’s Equality Party?
HOWIE HAWKINS: Well, it’s a new wrapper for the old package. You open that wrapper, and it’s the same old Cuomo inside the box. In terms of women’s equality, he’s said nothing about childcare or paid family leave or raising the minimum wage. Most minimum-wage workers are women. So his women’s equality agenda doesn’t address the problems, particularly of working-class women. And then, you know, he’s got other packages. He’s on the Independence line, but he’s not independent of those 331 people that gave him $22 million. And the Working Families Party, just because he’s got that wrapper, doesn’t make him a champion of the working class. His whole term in office has been an attack on working people.
AMY GOODMAN: How do you get covered by the media? How much coverage do you get? And what advice do you give to other not only Green Party candidates, but third-party candidates around the country? You have run, what, almost 20 times now, but you haven’t won.
HOWIE HAWKINS: I got 48 percent for a city council race a couple years ago. We’ve come close. And, well, my advice is, develop relationships with your local media, keep feeding them information—media, journalists—help them do their job. They like getting information. And just keep plugging away. I think we’ve done well, and I think it’s the strongest part of our campaign—earn media, particularly upstate in the smaller markets. We’re covered. When we show up, they want to cover us. I think we’re interesting to them, and we’re serious. We’ve got—we made breakthroughs in the city of New York. You know, New York Times, Daily News, Post have covered us, haven’t in the past, Newsday. When I ran four years ago, my name wasn’t mentioned in those journals. So, we’re still working more on the network broadcast media. But I think we’re doing good. The problem is, we can’t compete with Cuomo’s advertising, which, you know, just swamps the airwaves. And, you know, there’s a big—the big parties got big organization. We’re still building ours at the grassroots. But we’re growing.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you one last thing about charter schools. I asked that question in the debate. You and the Libertarian candidate answered it, but the Republican and Democratic candidates, Astorino and Cuomo, basically avoided it and talked about other things rather than the question I had asked.
HOWIE HAWKINS: Well, yeah, I did answer it, and I actually was thinking of articles you had written a long time ago about—well, four years ago, 2010, about how the hedge fund investors in the charter schools are making money using tax credits, lending money to the schools, and you used Albany as an example. And I wished I had done what they’d done when we got the question on, "Are you going to serve four years." I basically said yes and didn’t use my whole minute. What I should have done is then turn to our platform for civil rights and racial justice, because Cuomo was pointing the finger at Astorino for not complying with a court order on fair housing in Westchester, but Cuomo doesn’t have a positive program. We do. We want a Cabinet-level civil rights department to deal with the massive segregation we’ve got in New York state. We want a new public housing program that can begin to desegregate, with mixed-income, scattered-site housing. And then we’ve got to address the criminal justice system. I mean, this governor has been very hard-hearted, very few clemencies, three for people already out of prison. We have tens of thousands of prisoners in for nonviolent drug offenses, and we need to get them out of prison and expunge their records so they can have access to jobs, housing and employment. And, you know, the disparities in the criminal justice system are the worst segregation we’ve got.
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you very much for joining us, Howie Hawkins. Howie Hawkins is the Green Party candidate for New York governor, running against a Libertarian, a Republican, as well as the incumbent, Governor Cuomo.
This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Speaking of elections, on Tuesday, Democracy Now! will be doing a five-hour broadcast, midterm election night. We’ll be beginning at 7:00 Eastern Standard Time. There are many stations that will be running it. You can also go to our website at democracynow.org. We’ll be covering the ballots. We’ll be covering the close races and the not-so-close races. We’ll be covering midterm elections 2014.
This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. When we come back, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The New York Times, Eric Lichtblau, on his new book. It’s called The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler’s Men. You can read the prologue on our website. It’s a fascinating book that looks at how, even after World War II, Jews and others in the concentration camps were held in these camps as displaced persons. And as they were held, so many of them turned away from the United States, a number of some of Hitler’s top men were allowed in, among them the top scientists, recruited by the CIA and the FBI. That’s what Eric Lichtblau will be talking about in just a moment. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a moment.
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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, as we turn right now to the—a problem we’ve just heard is we have a problem with the audio line to the New York Times studios in Washington, D.C., so we’re going to save that interview for next week and turn to the second part of the interview that we have done this week on GMOs, on genetically modified organisms. Juan?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes, well, Colorado and Oregon could soon become the first states in the nation to pass ballot initiatives mandating the labeling of food products containing genetically modified organisms. Earlier this year, Vermont became the first state to approve GMO labeling through the legislative process, but the decision is now being challenged in the courts. Numerous items are already sold in grocery stores containing genetically modified corn and soy, but companies are currently not required to inform consumers. Advocates of Proposition 105 in Colorado and Measure 92 in Oregon say GMO foods can be harmful to human health due to pesticide residues and the altered crop genetics.
AMY GOODMAN: Earlier this week, we spoke to Tufst University professor Sheldon Krimsky, editor of The GMO Deception: What You Need to Know about the Food, Corporations, and Government Agencies Putting Our Families and Our Environment at Risk.
SHELDON KRIMSKY: The Europeans operate on the precautionary principle. They say, if you introduce a new product on the market, you should evaluate it before the consumers get a chance to purchase it. In America, we made a decision that genetically modified foods are safe before you even have to test it. So the government never required tests for GMOs in the United States.
AMY GOODMAN: Who made that decision?
SHELDON KRIMSKY: Well, that decision was made by a commission, first of all, in the United States headed by Dan Quayle, and then it was—
AMY GOODMAN: The vice president under President Bush.
SHELDON KRIMSKY: Yes, yes, that’s correct. And by the 1990s, the decision was made how to divide the regulatory authority over genetically modified organisms—plants, animals, etc. And there were three agencies. The EPA would deal with environmental effects. USDA would be dealing with how it affects agriculture. And the FDA would be addressing the questions of human health.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, why are you concerned?
SHELDON KRIMSKY: Well, because we have some evidence that animal studies can produce adverse effects when fed GMOs. There have been many studies. Many of them have said there’s no effects. But a few of them—I found 22 studies.
AMY GOODMAN: Give an example of one of these studies.
SHELDON KRIMSKY: Well, one of these studies was published in one of the most important journals in international journals. It’s called The Lancet. It started publishing—
AMY GOODMAN: That’s the British medical journal.
SHELDON KRIMSKY: The British medical journal. It’s among the most prestigious journals in the world. And that was published in 1999 by a scientist who lived in Britain for 50 years—originally he was born in Hungary—Árpád Pusztai. And he was a researcher at the Rowett Institute. And he published a study which showed that his animals were harmed when fed a genetically modified potato.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Tufts University professor Sheldon Krimsky, editor of The GMO Deception: What You Need to Know about the Food, Corporations, and Government Agencies Putting Our Families and Our Environment at Risk. To see the whole interview, part one and two, you can go to our website at democracynow.org. But it looks like we’ve got the audio fixed to The New York Times in Washington.
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Israel Reopens Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound; Palestinians Protest Killing of Shooting Suspect
Israel has reopened the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City after its closure sparked protests and calls to reopen from countries, including the United States. Muslim men under the age of 50 are still barred from participating in prayers today over supposed security concerns. Israel shut down the compound Thursday for the first time in years following the shooting of far-right activist Yehuda Glick. Hours after Glick was shot and wounded, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian suspected in the shooting, accusing him of opening fire when they sought to arrest him. But the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency reports the suspect, Mutaz Hijazi, was shot and injured, but still alive, when Israeli soldiers confronted him on his rooftop, then killed him by dropping a water tank on him. The Fatah movement in Jerusalem has called for protests today over Hijazi’s death.
Kerry Condemns U.S. Official Who Called Netanyahu a "Chickens—t"
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has publicly blasted the unnamed "senior [Obama] administration official" who recently called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "chickens—t." Speaking to The Atlantic magazine, the official said Netanyahu "won’t do anything to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians or with the Sunni Arab states." Kerry called the remarks "disgraceful."
John Kerry: "I think we need to work quietly and effectively, and we condemn anybody who uses language such as was used in this article. It does not reflect the president. It does not reflect me. It is disgraceful and unacceptable, damaging. And I think neither President Obama nor I — I’ve never heard that word around me in the White House or anywhere. I don’t know who these anonymous people are who keep getting quoted in things, but they make life much more difficult."
ISIS Kills 150 Tribesmen in Iraq; Kurdish Forces Arrive in Kobani
In Iraq, the bodies of 150 members of a Sunni tribe which battled the Islamic State have reportedly been found in mass graves. Officials told Reuters ISIS militants took the men from their villages to the city of Ramadi and executed them. The discovery came as the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, called for the expansion of a U.S. training and advisory mission into Anbar province, but said the Iraqi government would first need to arm the Sunni tribes. Meanwhile in Syria, the first wave of Iraqi Kurdish troops have passed through Turkey to help beat back an advance by ISIS in the city of Kobani.
Syrian Bombings Kill 200 Civilians; Hagel Admits U.S. Strikes May Aid Assad
A monitoring group says bombings by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have killed more than 200 civilians over the past 10 days alone. On Thursday, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel acknowledged U.S. airstrikes in Syria may be aiding the Assad regime.
Chuck Hagel: "As we and the coalition go after ISIL to help the Iraqis secure their government, but also the Middle East, yes, Assad derives some benefit of that, of course. But what we’re talking about is a longer-term strategy that’s effective and doing what we think, and the people of the Middle East, as to what’s required to stabilize and secure that part of the world in effective and inclusive governments."
Report: Foreign Fighters Flock to Iraq, Syria on "Unprecedented Scale"
The United Nations is warning foreign fighters are flocking to militant groups in Iraq and Syria on an "unprecedented scale." A U.N. report obtained by The Guardian finds 15,000 people from more than 80 countries are fighting alongside the Islamic State and similar groups.
Egypt: Mother, Daughter of Imprisoned Activists on Hunger Strike
In Egypt, the mother and daughter of a prominent pro-democracy activist are on hunger strike to demand his release and the release of his imprisoned sister. Laila Soueif and Mona Seif have been on a partial hunger strike since September. They stopped eating and drinking water on Monday when Alaa Abd El-Fattah was detained yet again for breaking an anti-protest law. El-Fattah has been imprisoned multiple times since Egypt’s 2011 revolution, missing the birth of his child and, more recently, the death of his father. His sister Sanaa has been sentenced to three years in prison and has been on hunger strike for more than 60 days.
Nurse Defies Ebola Quarantine in Maine
In the United States, Kaci Hickox, the nurse who was quarantined in New Jersey after returning from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, has violated quarantine rules in her home state of Maine. After Hickox went on a bike ride with her boyfriend, Maine Gov. Paul LePage vowed to use "the full extent of his authority allowable by law" to keep her in her home.
Nigeria: Boko Haram Captures Town of Mubi, Killing Dozens
In Nigeria, the Islamist militant group Boko Haram has captured the northeastern town of Mubi, forcing thousands to flee. Reuters reports the militants burned down the main market and killed dozens of people, including a university lecturer and his entire family.
Burkina Faso: Military Dissolves Gov’t After Protests; President Refuses to Resign
In Burkina Faso, protesters opposed to the president’s 27-year rule have gathered in the capital again, a day after setting parliament ablaze. The protests erupted over a plan by President Blaise Compaoré to extend his rule. The military opened fire on demonstrators, and up to 30 people have been reported killed in the unrest. President Compaoré has agreed not to seek re-election, but he has defied calls to resign immediately. A military spokesperson announced the current government would be dissolved and a curfew imposed overnight on Thursday.
Military spokesperson: "The National Assembly is dissolved. The government is dissolved. A transitional body will be set up in consultation with all the forces of the nation in order to prepare for the return to normal constitutional order within a period of 12 months at the latest. A curfew is in place across the country starting today, from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., to preserve the safety of persons and property."
Hungary Backs Down on Internet Usage Tax After Mass Protests
Hungary has canceled plans to tax Internet use after tens of thousands took to the streets in protest. Mass demonstrations began Sunday when protesters flung computer parts at the headquarters of Hungary’s ruling party.
Russia, Ukraine Reach Gas Deal; Separatists to Hold Elections
Russia, Ukraine and the European Union have reached a deal to resume the flow of Russian gas to Ukraine. The $4.6 billion accord ensures gas supplies until March, both for Ukraine and European countries on the receiving end of its pipelines. The gas will be paid for with help from the International Monetary Fund and what the European Commission called "unprecedented levels" of aid from the European Union. The deal comes amidst escalating tensions as pro-Russian separatists plan to hold elections Sunday in eastern Ukraine.
Argentina Passes Bill to Attract Foreign Oil Companies; Mexican Court Rejects Oil Referendum
Lawmakers in Argentina have passed legislation to attract foreign oil and gas companies. Argentina has the third largest deposits of shale oil and natural gas in the world. The measure provides longer contracts and other incentives for multinationals to exploit those reserves. In related news, Mexico’s Supreme Court has rejected a request to hold a national referendum on reforms passed earlier this year that opened Mexico’s oil and gas sector to private multinationals for the first time in 76 years.
3 American Siblings Found Dead in Mexico; Police Questioned
Three American siblings who went missing in the Mexican state Tamaulipas of nearly three weeks ago have been confirmed dead after their bodies were identified. Witnesses reported seeing the victims being abused and then seized by members of a local police unit called Hercules, which provides security to officials in the city of Matamoros.
Probe Finds U.S. Agents Let Smuggler Bring Grenades into Mexico
A new probe finds federal officials severely botched the investigation of a suspected arms smuggler and allowed him to funnel grenade parts into Mexico. The probe by the Justice Department inspector general involved the Phoenix, Arizona, division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — the same unit involved in the botched gun-sting operation Fast and Furious. In this case, federal agents intercepted shipments of grenade parts, but allowed them to be delivered to alleged smuggler Jean Baptiste Kingery. Some of the parts later turned up at a crime scene in Mexico.
Report: FBI Quietly Seeks Broad Expansion of Hacking Powers
The FBI is quietly seeking a broad expansion of its power to hack into, spy on and control computers in the United States and around the world. The Guardian reports the Justice Department is seeking the change before an obscure regulatory body called the Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules. Civil liberties groups say the change, which is being sought without congressional approval or public debate, would effectively give the FBI a green light to hack into computers anywhere in the world.
Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty for Survivalist Captured in Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania, prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against a survivalist who has been on the run for seven weeks after allegedly ambushing state troopers, killing one of them. Eric Frein was captured by police on Thursday.
Sen. Lindsey Graham: "White Men in Male-Only Clubs Are Going to Do Great in My Presidency"
South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is facing controversy over remarks he made at an all-male dinner at a private club. CNN played an audio recording of Graham’s comments, which were made earlier this month.
Senator Lindsey Graham: I’ve tried to help you with your tax status. I’m sorry the government’s so f——ed up. If I get to be president, white men who are in male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency."
Graham’s campaign said the statement about helping white men was a joke that was taken out of context. Graham is seeking re-election to a third term on Tuesday.
Apple CEO Tim Cook: "I’m Proud to Be Gay"
Apple CEO Tim Cook has come out publicly as gay. In an article for Bloomberg Businessweek, Cook wrote: "I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me."
Lobbyist Richard Berman Caught on Tape Urging Oil Execs to Dig Up Dirt on Environmentalists
A top lobbyist has been caught on tape encouraging oil and gas industry executives to dig up embarrassing details about environmentalists and to exploit emotions like fear. An executive gave The New York Times a secret recording of the speech by Richard Berman, a lobbyist who creates nonprofits, then covertly uses them to advance a range of corporate agendas. Berman made the speech in June as he raised millions to fund an ad campaign called Big Green Radicals, which has run pro-fracking ads in Colorado and Pennsylvania.
Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide During Bhopal Disaster, Dead at 92
Warren Anderson, who was CEO of Union Carbide during one of the worst industrial disasters in history, has died at the age of 92. On December 3, 1984, about 40 metric tons of toxic gases leaked from a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. While the official death toll is nearly 4,000, campaigners say it is closer to 25,000, with many still suffering. Anderson never faced trial for the disaster although India tried multiple times to extradite him. In 2012, activists rallied in New York to call for Anderson to face charges in India. Twelve-year-old Akash Viswanath Mehta of the group Kids for a Better Future addressed Anderson directly.
Akash Viswanath Mehta: "I would like today to appeal to Warren Anderson’s conscience, his guilt and his grief, and ask him to stand beside me. If he is truly haunted by the disaster that happened on his watch, which destroyed an entire community, I ask him to come forward and make a moral statement about what the right thing is for Dow and Union Carbide to do."
Anderson died in September at a nursing home in Vero Beach, Florida. His family did not announce his death, and it nearly went undetected until The New York Times saw an obituary in the weekly newspaper in Vero Beach. The headline read: "Warren Anderson dies here in obscurity."
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