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democracynow.org
Stories:
It has been nearly two-and-a-half years since American journalist Austin Tice disappeared while covering the war in Syria. At the time of his disappearance, Austin was one of the few foreign journalists who had continued reporting in Syria as the conflict intensified. He traveled extensively throughout the country filing in-depth dispatches from the frontlines. Tice is the last known U.S. reporter held in Syria, after two others — James Foley and Steven Sotloff — were beheaded by militants from the self-described Islamic State last year. Syria is said to be the world’s most dangerous country for journalists, with nearly 130 news and information providers killed since the conflict began in March 2011. Austin’s parents, Debra and Marc Tice, join us to discuss the ongoing effort to win their son’s release. We also speak to Delphine Halgand, U.S. director of Reporters Without Borders, which has has launched a public awareness campaign for Austin’s release.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to the case of an American journalist who went missing in Syria over two years ago.
JEFF GLOR: In Syria alone, at least 23 members of the press were killed, and 30 are currently missing. That includes Austin Tice, who went missing 500 days ago.
WOLF BLITZER: Grainy video that surfaced online purportedly showing an American freelance journalist who’s been missing for weeks. In it, the former U.S. marine appears blindfolded and distressed, surrounded by men armed with machine guns.
JEFF GLOR: The native of Houston, a former captain in the Marine Corps, Tice was supposed to travel from the outskirts of Damascus to Beirut, Lebanon, when he went missing on August 13, 2012. Tice was a 31-year-old Georgetown Law School student when he traveled overseas to cover the conflict in Syria.
CHRISTINA HARTMAN: Video of American journalist Austin Tice surfaced online Monday, showing the 31-year-old former marine blindfolded and dragged through a desert by a group of masked men.
AUSTIN TICE: You know, you’re just talking street fighting, you know, Molotov cocktails, any weapon you can basically imagine.
JEFF GLOR: The Committee to Protect Journalists include Tice on their imprisoned list, but the family does not know who holds him. And the Assad regime has denied having him in custody.
AUSTIN TICE: Oh, Jesus! Oh, Jesus!
AMY GOODMAN: When we come back from break, we will talk about the case of Austin Tice, missing for almost two-and-a-half years in Syria. Who’s holding him? What is the U.S. government doing about it? We’ll be joined by his parents. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a minute.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Eight hundred and eighty-four days ago, nearly two-and-a-half years ago, journalist Austin Tice disappeared while covering the war in Syria. The date was August 13, 2012, just two days after he turned 31 years old. A former U.S. marine from Texas who later attended Georgetown University Law School, Tice has freelanced for The Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, CBS and other media outlets. He grew up in Houston, was the oldest of seven children. He’s the last known U.S. reporter held in Syria. Last year, two other U.S. journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, were beheaded by militants from the self-described Islamic State.
AMY GOODMAN: At the time of his disappearance, Austin Tice was one of only a few foreign journalists who continued reporting in Syria as the conflict intensified. He traveled extensively throughout the country, filing in-depth dispatches from the frontline. In late July 2012, Austin Tice posted this report from Al Tal, Syria, on his Facebook page.
AUSTIN TICE: Between the shells, it’s been a quiet day today here in the town of Al Tal, just north of the Damascus capital, as civilians have fled the town and Free Syrian Army rebel fighters have prepared for an anticipated government counterattack. Though the attack has yet to materialize, some fighters say that they think that last night’s shelling was just a warning and that tonight should be even worse. From Al Tal, Syria, for CBS, I’m Austin Tice.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Austin Tice posted that video on July 25th, 2012. His Facebook page hasn’t been updated since. Less than three weeks later, he disappeared. He was reportedly preparing to travel from Darayya, near Damascus, to Beirut, Lebanon, when he went missing. On the second anniversary of his disappearance, The Washington Post’s executive director, Martin Baron, said, quote, "Each month that passes without news of Austin deepens our concern for his well-being. His family has endured unimaginable pain as a result of his captivity. They have our support in their determined efforts to gain his release."
AMY GOODMAN: Well, for more, we are joined by Austin Tice’s parents, Debra and Marc Tice, here in New York City. And we’re joined by Delphine Halgand, U.S. director of Reporters Without Borders. Her group has launched a public awareness campaign for Austin’s release. According to Reporters Without Borders, Syria is the world’s most dangerous country for journalists. Nearly 130 news and information providers have been killed since the conflict began in March 2011.
We welcome you all to Democracy Now!
MARC TICE: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Marc Tice, let’s begin with you. Talk about Austin, why he went to Syria, what he was doing there as a journalist, and now where you think he is.
MARC TICE: Well, Austin is, you know, our oldest son, our firstborn. He’s a big man. He has big passions. He is committed to things. And when he gets committed, he takes action. So, one of the things that troubled him about the Syrian conflict was the lack of credible, verifiable information about what was going on there. And Austin had spent some time in the region, had an affinity for the people there. And he decided that, you know, he had the abilities and the skills to go to Syria, to see what was happening and communicate that to people in the U.S., in the Western world, so that we would know what’s happening.
AMY GOODMAN: So he freelanced for various papers and networks.
MARC TICE: He freelanced for various papers. He did a lot of work for the McClatchy news organization, which has been incredibly supportive of us and Austin since he’s gone missing. And as he moved south in the country, he was able to deliver information and reports to a number of different organizations.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Debra Tice, what’s it been like since his disappearance, first the—when you got the news that he had disappeared, and what you’ve been able to get from the U.S. government in terms of his whereabouts and his situation?
DEBRA TICE: Well, as far as his whereabouts, the government doesn’t feel free to share that information with us. When he went missing, every day we thought, you know, he’ll be back tomorrow, next week. So, going on two-and-a-half years, we still have that kind of expectation, so our lives have pretty much been suspended, in that "tomorrow, tomorrow" kind of living, where the main thing that Marc and I do is whatever we can think of to try to get Austin home.
AMY GOODMAN: Who do you believe is holding him?
DEBRA TICE: We know who is not holding him. We know that he’s not being held by ISIS or the terrorists of any kind. The Syrian government denies holding him. So that leaves us wondering who is holding him.
AMY GOODMAN: What does the U.S. government tell you, Marc?
MARC TICE: Well, the U.S. government doesn’t have, as far as we know, definitive information about exactly who’s holding him or where he is. We do believe that there is information that they have been unable to share with us, just because of security reasons and national security clearances and so forth.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you think the Syrian government is holding him?
MARC TICE: This is—this is what we do believe. Our son is missing in Syria. And it’s more than natural that we would appeal to the Syrian government, who is the sovereign entity over the state of Syria, to find him. They have the best resources. They have access to their own country. So, we’ve appealed to them, in many ways, many times, to help us find Austin and bring him safely home.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I want to turn to Austin Tice in his own words, explaining why he made the decision to go to Syria. In a Facebook post on July 25th, 2012, Austin wrote, quote, "We kill ourselves every day with McDonald’s and alcohol and a thousand other drugs, but we’ve lost the sense that there actually are things out there worth dying for. We’ve given away our freedoms piecemeal to robber barons, but we’re too complacent to do much but criticize those few who try to point out the obvious." He goes on to say, quote, "So that’s why I came here to Syria, and it’s why I like being here now, right now, right in the middle of a brutal and still uncertain civil war. Every person in this country fighting for their freedom wakes up every day and goes to sleep every night with the knowledge that death could visit them at any moment. They accept that reality as the price of freedom." That’s your son in his own words.
MARC TICE: Yes.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And do you feel that our government is doing enough to locate him and get him out?
MARC TICE: We feel like there’s always more that could be done. And, you know, you mentioned, Amy, Reporters Without Borders in the intro. They’ve been helping us tremendously throughout this whole process and now are helping us raise awareness of Austin’s situation.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we are joined by Delphine Halgand. In fact, she was on Democracy Now! yesterday. She’s U.S. director of Reporters Without Borders, which is based in Paris, France, with the second-in-command at Reporters Without Borders who was one of the first to get to the massacre site in Paris. But today, Delphine, we have you on for another reason, though you addressed the Austin Tice case yesterday. You’re in Boston today. Talk about your work in Washington and what you’re learning about what’s happening with Austin, what you feel needs to be done, what the U.S. government is doing or not doing.
DELPHINE HALGAND: So, I’ve been working with the Tices since September 2012, trying to help them as much as possible, because it’s Reporters Without Borders’ work to do so, to help the families of kidnapped journalists. So, we have helped them to get in touch with former hostages, tried to help them to get some contacts with Arab-speaking media. And when they asked Reporters Without Borders to help them to raise awareness about Austin’s case in the U.S., of course we say, "OK, of course, we’re in."
And then we convinced an ad agency in New York to prepare a campaign that we will launch very, very soon, in the next week. And right now we are calling for major media all around the U.S. to join this campaign, to be partners of the campaign, and to accept to publish on their websites, for free, banners: "Free Austin Tice." We have been working on the ideas of the blindfold. When a journalist is missing, when Austin Tice is missing, in a sense, we are all blindfolded, because we are deprived of information. So, that’s really the main mission now, and because public awareness, public pressure will make a difference to help us to bring Austin back home. We know that it’s not a ransom issue. It’s really a political issue, and that’s why public pressure will help in that case.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But, Delphine, in previous kidnapping cases, the government has attempted to dissuade families from going public and sought to use back channels, basically, to find a way to free kidnapped foreigners in the Middle East. Have you got any pushback from the government on this campaign?
DELPHINE HALGAND: So, we have seen the tragic results of many hostage case recently, and I don’t want to bring back this barbarity again. And I guess the administration realized that their policy was not exactly successful, and that’s why the White House launched this policy review to try to see how they can better secure the release of their hostage. And we are, of course, with the families, like Debra and Marc, but also Diane Foley and other families of American hostage or former hostage, pushing for a better cooperation between the administration and the family, a better share of information, and also to try to review this policy to—of no negotiation. There is a difference between refusing paying a ransom and only considering a military option. And we are so welcoming this review, which was so much needed, because a lot needs to be improved.
AMY GOODMAN: The families of all four Americans kidnapped by ISIS in Syria were told they could face prosecution if they paid money to free their loved ones, ransom. Diane Foley, the mother of slain journalist James Foley, spoke to ABC News last year.
DIANE FOLEY: We had to beg. We had to—
JOHN FOLEY: The higher we went, the more difficult the [inaudible].
DIANE FOLEY: Right. And we were an annoyance, it felt, at some levels, that, you know, they really didn’t have time for us. We were told very clearly, three times, that it was illegal for us to try to ransom our son out and that we had possibility of being prosecuted. I was surprised that there was so little compassion.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Diane Foley, the mother of James Foley, who was beheaded last year. This has shown a rift between the families and the government. You’re saying that yours is not an issue of ransom. But are you feeling the same? The other issues they have raised now, as families come together, is the lack of information they get from the government. Marc, what are your thoughts on what the government is doing? Is Austin part of this, the case of your son, Austin Tice, part of this review that President Obama has called for?
MARC TICE: Well, yes, it is. And we have been given the opportunity to participate in the review. You know, we’re very gratified that President Obama recognized that there are problems with the way that hostage situations and the families of hostages are dealt with. So—and, yes, we’ve felt that. Clearly, there are issues around sharing information with the families, and I already mentioned that. There are issues internally in the government, among agencies and departments, in how effectively and efficiently information is shared there. We—
AMY GOODMAN: Were you ever threatened the way Diane Foley says she was threatened with prosecution if she dared to raise money?
MARC TICE: We heard the same advice, yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Meaning the State Department gave you the same advice?
MARC TICE: Well, we heard the same advice.
AMY GOODMAN: Or the U.S. government?
MARC TICE: However, you know, I just want to say that, again, we haven’t had to deal directly with the issue of ransom or concessions. You know, we still haven’t had anyone acknowledge or claim responsibility for Austin’s captivity. So, you know, it’s really not our place to speak of that, about that issue. However, there are a number of other issues—like I said, information sharing, both externally and internally, also just the idea of protecting the hostage themselves. One of the things that we had a very steep learning curve on, and the other families have, as well, is, you know, when an adult child goes missing, they have their whole life that they’ve left here, and a lot of our time goes to trying to protect and manage Austin’s identity and his assets so that when he comes back he has a life to come back to. We believe that, you know, there are things that the government could do to help facilitate those processes and those efforts by the families.
AMY GOODMAN: Like what?
MARC TICE: Well, for instance, financial obligations or issues around access to their social media—Facebook, Twitter—which, you know, as an adult, Austin was no longer sharing all his passwords with us. I mean, he was a grown man, 30 years old when he left. But it’s extremely difficult, because of privacy regulations and rules, for us to be able to get access to the things that we need to to protect those communication feeds and social media identity. We think that there are things that the government could put in place to simplify that for the families.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Debra, has there been any indication from the government that they believe he is still in captivity somewhere?
MARC TICE: Yes, yes, we have had information from our government assuring us that Austin is hanging in there. And so, you know, we’re still working toward getting him home. You were asking about our government. And what has happened is, Austin is suspended between two governments. And, you know, trying to take possession of him has become a part—another part of his captivity. And keeping information from us sort of keeps us from inserting ourselves into that picture. And so that’s where our frustration lies.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain further? And have you appealed directly to the Syrian government?
MARC TICE: We have been able to appeal directly to the Syrian government, and they have assured us that they will do everything they can to find Austin, to help us, to help us bring him home safely. And what we’re more interested in is we would like to feel more a part of the team of our government that’s getting information, that they would share information with us, so that we can use that information with our channels and our connections to reach in for our son.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And to your knowledge, the area where he disappeared from, was it in government-controlled areas, or was it in rebel-controlled areas?
MARC TICE: Well, that area at that time was very fluid. And so, it’s really hard to say who had control at the moment that Austin went missing. That’s part of the problem.
AMY GOODMAN: Would you like to make a direct statement to whoever is holding your son?
MARC TICE: Yes, absolutely.
AMY GOODMAN: Right into that camera.
MARC TICE: You know, we’d like to say, first of all, please, take care of Austin, keep him well, keep him safe. We don’t believe that anyone is benefiting from Austin continuing to be held and not allowed to come home. We would appeal to you to treat him well, keep him safe and return him to us as soon as you can. And, Austin, if you can hear this, we love you. We’re doing everything we can to bring you home as soon as possible.
AMY GOODMAN: And Debra? You could look right into that camera.
DEBRA TICE: I would just like to say that everyone has a mother, and I’m Austin’s mother. And I appeal to you, in the same way that your mother would appeal for you, that you let my son be released, keep him safe and give him back to our family. He has two brother-in-laws to meet. He has siblings to congratulate on life accomplishment. And we are so ready to have him home.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, Delphine Halgand, you working at a kind of policy level and having worked in these kind of cases around the world, what you think is most important to happen right now?
DELPHINE HALGAND: Again, I think, after more than two years of looking for information, trusting the U.S. government to bring Austin safe back home, it’s time for public awareness and public pressure, because that’s really one thing we can help to bring Austin back home. And that’s why I really want to thank you to help us in this mission. And again, I look forward to work with all the media and major media in the U.S. who already expressed interest to be part of this campaign.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you all for being with us, Delphine Halgand, U.S. director of Reporters Without Borders, actually speaking to us from Providence, Rhode Island, and Debra and Marc Tice. Thanks so much for being with us. I know these are very difficult times for you, as they have been for the past almost two-and-a-half years now, parents of Austin Tice, the American journalist abducted in Syria in August of 2012. Of course, we will continue to follow his case.
This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a minute with an exclusive story. Stay with us.
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In a Democracy Now! exclusive, we speak to environmental activist Eric McDavid, who has just been released from prison 10 years early after federal prosecutors acknowledged withholding key evidence about how he may have been entrapped by an FBI informant with whom he had fallen in love. In 2008, McDavid was sentenced to 19 years in prison for conspiring to bomb sites in California including the Nimbus Dam. Defense attorneys say he was entrapped by a teenage informant who went by the name "Anna" and supplied him with food, housing and bomb-making instructions, and pressured him into illegal activity. As part of a settlement reached in the case on Thursday, federal prosecutors acknowledged withholding key evidence, including an FBI request for the informant to undergo a lie-detector test. This damning detail about the government’s star witness was found in thousands of documents released after his trial, when his supporters filed a Freedom of Information Act request. In his first interview since his release, McDavid joins us from Sacramento along with his partner Jenny Esquivel, a member of the group Sacramento Prisoner Support. We are also joined by McDavid’s lawyer, Ben Rosenfeld, a civil rights attorney who specializes in cases dealing with police and FBI misconduct.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Just a week ago, our next guest was a federal prisoner, serving a 19-year sentence for "eco-terrorism" in what his supporters say was a case of FBI entrapment. Today, he’s a free man. In 2007, Eric McDavid was convicted of conspiring to bomb sites in California including the Nimbus Dam. But his attorneys say he was entrapped by a teenage informant who went by the name "Anna" and supplied him with food, housing and bomb-making instructions, and pressured him into illegal activity. Two others arrested in the plot testified against McDavid in a deal that led to lighter sentences.
AMY GOODMAN: For them. Well, as part of a settlement reached in the case on Thursday, federal prosecutors acknowledged withholding evidence in McDavid’s case, including an FBI request for the informant to undergo a lie-detector test. This damning detail about the government’s star witness was found in thousands of documents released after his trial, when his supporters filed a Freedom of Information Act request. During a hearing, federal judge Morrison England demanded to know how the prosecution failed to give potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense, saying, quote, "This is huge. This is something that needs to be dealt with," the judge said. McDavid pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge with a maximum five-year sentence. He had already served nine years in prison, and he was released.
Eric McDavid now joins us from Sacramento for his first interview since his release. With him, his partner Jenny Esquivel, a member of the group Sacramento Prisoner Support. And in San Francisco, we’re joined by Ben Rosenfeld, McDavid’s lawyer. He is a civil rights attorney who specializes in cases dealing with police and FBI misconduct. He’s also an advisory board member of the Civil Liberties Defense Center.
We welcome you all to Democracy Now! Eric, let’s begin with you. How does it feel to be free?
ERIC McDAVID: There is no definition to that. There’s no way to express that with, I don’t think, any language, definitely not the English language.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain what it is—
ERIC McDAVID: But it’s definitely beautiful to be with my family.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain what—how critical the information was that had you released.
ERIC McDAVID: I think that’s pretty obvious. And to tell you the truth, I think Ben could address that with a lot more clarity.
AMY GOODMAN: OK, Ben Rosenfeld in San Francisco, can you talk about what has taken place in this case? I mean, here you have Eric McDavid, who was supposed to serve 19 years in prison. He’s being released a decade early. Why?
BEN ROSENFELD: Eleven years early, actually. And this was about as egregious a case of entrapment as I’ve seen in my entire legal career. And I should point out, too, that what they’ve done to Eric, they visit a thousandfold on Muslims in this country, so it’s very important that we raise public awareness about this.
But in Eric’s case, in particular, a number of FOIA documents were turned over after the case was long concluded. And supporters started going through those documents, and they went, "Aha, this is stuff that should have been turned over to the defense that would have been absolutely critical to his defense." It included evidence that the government had called urgently for a lie-detector examination of their informant and then inexplicably canceled it. There are indications that letters of a romantic nature that they had withheld from the defense were included in their files. But even the FOIA was the tip of the iceberg, because it pointed to or hinted at some of those documents, but didn’t include them. And we—as his lawyers, we incorporated that into his habeas claim, and the court showed interest in that. And ultimately, that set the table for his release, when the government was forced to admit that they had in fact withheld documents that should have been turned over to the defense.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Ben Rosenfeld, the informant in this case is a critical part of what happened here. In 2008, Elle magazine featured an article about how the FBI paid a young woman, known as "Anna," to befriend activists and pressure them into illegal activity. It describes in detail her relationship with Eric McDavid and her role in the case against him. In an interview for the piece, Anna says when the group planned to blow up the Nimbus Dam, her role was to track down bomb recipes. She said, quote, "I go to the FBI with this and they said, Well, of course we’re not going to give you bomb recipes that actually work. So they gave me about half a dozen recipes that were all missing components." Could you talk about the role of Anna? Because she supposedly was involved in gathering evidence as an informant against many activists in the environmental movement.
BEN ROSENFELD: Well, thank you. I want to point out first, there was never any plan to blow up the Nimbus Dam. There was actually never any plan to do anything. There was a lot of talk. And whatever plans there were, were 100 percent the FBI’s and Anna’s. I mean, this is a clear-cut case of entrapment. It’s a case of the government creating and then solving its own so-called conspiracy. The Nimbus Dam, if there was any agreement among the co-defendants in this case, it was specifically not to blow up the Nimbus Dam.
But, yes, Anna entrapped them by literally herding them together from around the country, by plying them with the matériel they needed, by sheltering them and providing them food and transportation, and literally gathering them back together and trying to keep them interested in her plans and her schemes. And each of them, for their own reasons, was trying to please and placate her. It was a lot of talk. It was no action. Nothing was ever done. Nothing was ever agreed upon. Certainly, nothing was ever blown up.
AMY GOODMAN: So, if you could talk about the case, Jenny, why you got involved, with Sacramento Prisoner Support, Jenny Esquivel, and how you applied for this information under the Freedom of Information Act?
JENNY ESQUIVEL: Sure. I came to Sacramento immediately after Eric was arrested. He and I were partners right before he got arrested. And so, I came here just to be closer to him and do support work for him, and that’s how I originally got involved in Sacramento Prisoner Support.
As far as the FOIA goes, you know, Mark Reichel, Eric’s original attorney for trial, filed a FOIA request before Eric’s trial in 2007. And at the time, the FBI responded, saying that they had no records responsive to our request, which was interesting. Also, clearly, it was a lie, as at that time we had thousands of pages of discovery that the government had turned over to us for trial. So, we were pretty busy, obviously, at that point in time with trial, also trying to support Eric while he was on hunger strike, trying to get vegan food at the Sacramento County Main Jail. And so, we just didn’t really have time to follow through on that or pursue it, even though we knew that they clearly did have records responsive to our request. So, after Eric was convicted and sentenced in 2008, we filed another Freedom of Information Act request, and about a year and a half later, we started finally receiving records that were responsive to that request. And at that time, we received three or four different packages of documents equaling about 2,500 pages. One other interesting thing about that, though, is that the government admitted to not handing over almost 900 more pages of information. And we still haven’t seen those documents. We still don’t know what’s in those documents, and perhaps, unfortunately, never will.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Eric McDavid, can you talk about your reaction when you discovered that this Anna, the informant, was an informant and had been taping conversations, the very person who was trying to instigate activity among you and other activists? And your reaction to her testimony in court?
ERIC McDAVID: Well, initially, to your first question, it was as I was sitting on the back of the car and I heard the locks click all the way around on the automatic lock of the vehicle that she was sitting in, while she was talking on the phone, as about eight—I don’t know, eight to 10 different vehicles pulled screeching up in front of me with JTTF hopping out, AR-15s, everybody all ready to roll. So, I mean, that’s—that was the first when it clicked. So it wasn’t—I had a whole bunch on my mind at the time, so it wasn’t really a predominant or a huge thought.
During trial, that part, after—because I had read a whole bunch of the discovery, and we’d gone over transcripts and everything. And it was difficult to see, definitely, but—I don’t know. It was definitely hard to see. I mean, that part was definitely one of the more harder rides of the whole trial.
AMY GOODMAN: This is an excerpt—
ERIC McDAVID: After—
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to an excerpt of an exchange between, well, the woman who calls herself Anna—and for folks who are listening on the radio, we’re also showing pictures of her; she was featured, as we said, in Elle magazine—the exchange between Anna and Eric McDavid and another activist, Lauren Weiner, when they were in the cabin allegedly planning to bomb the Nimbus Dam. Anna says, "Tomorrow, what are we planning on doing tomorrow? Are we still planning on doing anything tomorrow? Or should I just stop talking about plans?" Eric McDavid says, "Hmmm." Weiner says, "I would love it if you stopped talking." Anna says, "I would love it if you guys followed a plan! How about that!" Ben Rosenfeld, what is the significance of this back-and-forth?
BEN ROSENFELD: The significance of that back-and-forth is that it really illustrates 100 percent a case of egregious and grotesque entrapment by the government. Anna literally called them names and threw fits when they didn’t show enough enthusiasm for her plans. And I think that excerpt illustrates that perfectly.
You know, for—and—and I would also point out that right now the government wants to skate away on the claim that this was purely a mistake or inadvertent, on the back of a press office statement. And whether it was a mistake or it was malfeasance or it was malevolence to withhold these documents, they really owe it to Eric, and they owe it to the public, to come up with a much more detailed explanation about how this could have happened. I mean, you know, the deck is completely stacked in their favor. I mean, the job of the defense, in essence, is to go fishing in their deck to ask, "Do you have anything?" And if you’re told they don’t have anything, you’re stuck with that answer, and sometimes for a long time and sometimes forever—in Eric’s case, for nine years of wrongful incarceration.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But, Ben, in this situation where prosecutors clearly, deliberately withhold evidence, possibly exculpatory evidence—I’ve seen so many of these cases over the years—isn’t it the responsibility, to some degree, of the judge to insist that an investigation be conducted, because the trial itself was so tainted as a result of these actions of the prosecutors?
BEN ROSENFELD: We’d certainly like to see the judge do that. We’d like to see the judiciary take that up. And there’s some indications by Ninth Circuit judges that they are very concerned about a potential epidemic of Brady violations. Brady is the Supreme Court case that speaks to the withholding of documents. I would point out, too, that from a legal standpoint it doesn’t matter whether it was inadvertent or deliberate. If they withheld documents which were helpful to the defense—in this case, documents showing that there was a romantic interest by Eric, a correspondence between Eric and Anna that the prosecutors held back, and a reciprocation by Anna—that’s good enough to satisfy that constitutional standard and to win release. It should be, but it’s very rare that it happens. And you can see that it takes years and years and years to correct a mistake which should have been corrected a long time ago. And there are a lot of people behind bars who may never get that chance.
AMY GOODMAN: The 2008 Elle article about the Eric McDavid case quotes a juror named Diane Bennett, who was tracked down by the reporter after the trial. Bennett said, quote, "I’ve been bothered by this ever since that day. ... [T]he FBI was an embarrassment. ... I hope he gets a new trial. I’m not happy with the one he got." Diane Bennett added, the foreman had "teared up" when he delivered the guilty verdict. She said the judge’s instructions were confusing, but, quote, "People were tired. ... We wanted to go home." Can you talk about the significance of this, Ben Rosenfeld?
BEN ROSENFELD: Well, and she said that so long ago, and it just goes to show how long you can live in this Kafkaesque nightmare, where the government has engaged in total misconduct and the court, perhaps, has abdicated a responsibility to oversee this or maybe is hoodwinked along with the defense because of the overly trusting role and excessive trust that it places sometimes in the government and the prosecutor. I mean, in court on January 8th, the day that Eric walked free, I’ve never seen so many fireworks. And the judge really grilled the prosecutors, and he showed a lot of—a lot of personal pique and interest in getting to the bottom of this. And I really hope that he or somebody does follow up.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you—could you explain the deal that was struck at the end, though?
BEN ROSENFELD: Yeah. You know, Eric had to plead to a simple or general conspiracy count with a maximum penalty of five years. The judge vacated the original conviction and sentence of 20 years on a different charge. So the government extracts its pound of flesh. That’s probably as much justice as you’re going to get out of the Department of Just—Injustice in a case like this. Eric had to waive all civil claims, going forward.
But he’s here now, and we’re extremely grateful for that and for everybody that made that possible and, I will say, too, the team of U.S. attorneys at the end of the case, who behaved extremely honorably and professionally in taking a fresh look at this and enabling that to happen, too. But it took a collaboration of a lot of people to end this nightmare. And there are a lot of people left in prison who are the victims of this kind of government malfeasance also, and there needs to be an inquiry.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Eric, could you talk, in the about a minute and a half we have left, of your time in prison? Did you expect at some point to be able to get out and to have this nightmare behind you?
ERIC McDAVID: I had a buddy at the medium-security prison where I was first held who always challenged me in keeping my mind open and keeping my heart open and making sure that I was ready for anything. And given the intensity of that environment, it definitely helped me to adapt to that whole situation. But he was always—every other week or every other day, he’d hit me up: "You ready to go home? You ready to go home?" I’m like, "Yes, I’m ready to go home." And he’s like, "All right, so here’s the situation how you’re going to go home. Tell me how you’re going to do it." And so, that part was always kept alive. And the amount of support that I got from folks has just—it’s blown my heart open every day and every moment that I’ve been—that I was away from my friends and family and my loved ones.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Eric, did you meet other people behind bars who you felt were entrapped like you were?
ERIC McDAVID: There is so many people that either are entrapped in the same way or pressured into taking a sentence because they’re threatened with 60, 70 years of prison, and they have to do the 15, or they have to do the 17, or even 20, because otherwise they’re going to spend the rest of their life back there. That was time and time again.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Eric McDavid, we want to thank you for being with us. Congratulations on your release. He was released from prison Thursday, less than a week after federal prosecutors [acknowledged withholding] key evidence in the 2008 trial that led to his conviction on eco-terrorism charges. Jenny Esquivel, member of the Sacramento Prisoner Support, also Eric McDavid’s partner. And thanks to Ben Rosenfeld, joining us from San Francisco, the civil rights attorney who specializes in cases dealing with police and FBI misconduct, the attorney for Eric McDavid.
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After leading a controversial campaign against Mayor Bill de Blasio, the head of New York City’s largest police union, Patrick Lynch, is facing an internal challenge of his own. Lynch, who accused de Blasio of having "blood on his hands" for a gunman’s murder of two officers and later spearheaded the two-week arrest and summons slowdown by New York City Police Department officers, will be challenged by dissident cops in the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association’s next election in June. Democracy Now! co-host and New York Daily News columnist Juan González discusses the revolt, which he attributes in part to a changing NYPD demographic that in recent years has seen officers of color become the majority on the force.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Juan, before we go to our first segment, you did a very interesting column in the New York Daily News on the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the union of police officers in New York, and its leader, Pat Lynch.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, well, I’ve been following, as many people have around the country, the ongoing standoff between Mayor de Blasio and the policemen’s union, Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, which has been going on now for more than a month with—and it’s been marked by incredible allegations by the head of the police union, Patrick Lynch, that—for instance, that the two officers who were assassinated on December 20th, on December 20th, were—that their blood was on the mayor’s hands; and then by hundreds of policemen, at the funerals of the officers, turning their back on the mayor; and now, for over two weeks, a complete slowdown by New York City police officers refusing to write summonses or do misdemeanor arrests. There’s been about a huge drop in the number of arrests and tickets issued in New York City. Now, that’s begun to change now, finally, and those summonses and arrests are going back up. But there’s clearly been an attempt by the policemen’s union very much to almost—I don’t want to call it a coup, but it is an attempt to try to tell the mayor, a progressive mayor of New York, "You can’t run this city without us."
But now it turns out there is a huge dissension within the ranks of the police department itself. There was a—Pat Lynch had issued a letter asking cops to disinvite the mayor and the City Council speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, from any funeral in case they were killed in the line of duty. Only 4 percent of the cops have signed on to the letter. Yesterday there was a meeting of the union of the police delegates, and there was an open fight that broke out between several of the pro-Lynch people and the anti-Lynch people saying, "We don’t care about an apology from the mayor. What we want is for you to handle our grievances and our problems that we have as police officers," because the police have been without a labor contract for five years. And now I’m reporting in today’s Daily News that there is an entire slate of people that is preparing to run against Lynch in union elections that are being held in June. And he hasn’t had a challenge since 2003. He’s been the president of the union for 15 years. So, there’s a major convulsion going on within the police union.
And, of course, it’s against the backdrop that the New York City Police Department now has a majority of minority officers, African-American, Latino and Asian officers. It’s not the same police department that existed 15 years ago when Lynch was first elected. And many of those officers are equally angry over the past practices of racial profiling, of stop-and-frisk arrests, and they, too, are demanding some kind of change. So, we’re going to have to see what happens, but clearly there’s not the kind of unity among the police against the mayor that has been portrayed so far in the press.
AMY GOODMAN: We’ll link to your column at democracynow.org. I also encourage people to go to our website to look at our interviews with the New York police officer Adhyl Polanco, as well as retired detective Graham Weatherspoon, all talking about who actually represents the police in New York. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org.
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Victims of Paris Attacks Laid to Rest in France, Israel
Funerals were held Tuesday for seven victims of last week’s violence in Paris that began with the massacre at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Three police officers killed in the attacks were laid to rest in France, while four Jews slain in the siege of a kosher supermarket were buried in Israel.
French Parliament Extends ISIS Bombing Campaign with 488-to-1 Vote
The French Parliament paid tribute to the victims with a moment of silence that spontaneously turned into a singing of France’s national anthem. French lawmakers also overwhelmingly backed an extension of their government’s role in the U.S.-led bombing of the Islamic State. The vote was 488 to 1.
AQAP Claims Responsibility for Charlie Hebdo Massacre
The Yemen-based group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has issued a new statement claiming responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo massacre. In a video posted online, a top AQAP commander, Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, said the organization financed and planned the attack.
Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi: "As for the blessed battle of Paris, we, in the organization of Qa’idatul Jihad in the Arabian Peninsula, claim responsibility for this operation as vengeance for the messenger of Allah. We clarify to the ummah that the one who chose the target, laid the plan, financed the operation and appointed its amir is the leadership of the organization."
New Video Shows Charlie Hebdo Gunmen Firing on Police
French authorities say they continue to search for any of the gunmen’s associates and potential accomplices. This comes as new video was released of the pair, Chérif and Said Kouachi, in a shootout with police right after the Charlie Hebdo attack. One of them says they avenged the Prophet Muhammad, and shouts the name of al-Qaeda in Yemen. The gunmen fire on a police car, get into their vehicle, and then open fire again as they drive way. The Kouachi brothers died in a shootout with police two days later.
Charlie Hebdo Publishes 1st Issue Since Attack with Prophet Muhammad on Cover
Charlie Hebdo has just published its first issue since the attacks. The cover features the Prophet Muhammad holding a sign that reads, "Je Suis Charlie," or "I am Charlie," with the headline, "All is forgiven." At an emotional news conference on Tuesday, the cartoonist who drew the cover, Rénald Luzier, known as Luz, explained its creation.
Rénald Luzier: "Then there was nothing else but that, this idea of drawing Muhammad, I am Charlie. And I looked at him. He was crying. And over it, I wrote, 'All is forgiven.' I cried. And it was the front page. We had found the front page. We had at last found this damned front page. And it was our front page, not the one the world wanted us to do, but the one that we wanted to do. It wasn’t the front page that the terrorists wanted us to do, because there isn’t a terrorist in there. There’s just a man crying, a character crying. It’s Muhammad. I’m sorry, we drew him again, but the Muhammad we drew is a man crying, above all."
North Korea Offers Direct Talks After U.S. Rejects Suspension of Military Drills
North Korea has offered direct talks with the United States to resolve an impasse over the regime’s nuclear tests and American military drills on its border. The Obama administration has dismissed a North Korean offer to freeze nuclear testing if annual U.S. military drills with South Korea were also suspended. Speaking at the United Nations, North Korea’s deputy ambassador, An Myong Hun, urged the United States to take its offer seriously.
An Myong Hun: "This year we proposed to the United States that United States should at least this year temporarily suspend military exercises. But the United States administration responded by saying that military exercises are different, a separate issue from the nuclear test issue. In other words, they do not want to accept our proposal."
North Korea has been hit with international sanctions for three nuclear tests since 2006. The United States says it is open to talks in general, but won’t link its annual South Korea war games to North Korea’s nuclear tests. The news of North Korea’s offer came hours after U.S. officials warned of new sanctions in retaliation for the cyber-attack on Sony, which the Obama administration blames on the North Korean regime. North Korea has denied involvement, asked the United States to provide proof, and offered a joint inquiry, which the U.S. rejected.
Obama Sees Common Ground with GOP on Cybersecurity, Trade
President Obama hosted top Republican leaders, including House Speaker John Boehner and new Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, at the White House on Tuesday for a meeting aimed at finding common ground. Obama said he expects to work with Republicans on issues including cybersecurity and trade.
President Obama: "I think we agree that this is an area where we can work hard together, get some legislation done, and make sure that we are much more effective in protecting the American people from these kinds of cyber-attacks. I think that there is going to be opportunities for us to work together on trade. There is going to be opportunities for us to work together on simplifying the tax system and making sure everybody is paying their fair share. There are going to be opportunities for us to streamline government so it’s more responsive."
New Cybersecurity Rules Would Increase Information Sharing Between Companies, Gov’t
On Tuesday, President Obama unveiled new cybersecurity rules in the wake of the hack on Sony Pictures and the compromising of the Pentagon’s Twitter account. The proposals would allow for increased information sharing between corporations and agencies, including the National Security Agency, in part to give firms legal immunity for providing their data to the government. The White House says the sharing would not include personal information.
Obama Admin to Unveil Proposed Methane Emission Cuts
The Obama administration is set to announce new regulations to cut emissions of methane gas. The plan will reportedly seek a 45 percent cut in 2012 methane levels by the year 2025. The Environmental Protection Agency will formally propose the rules this summer, followed by final regulations next year.
Protesters Rally Across U.S. Against GOP Push on Keystone XL
Rallies have been held across the United States to oppose a new Republican push for the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The Republican-controlled Senate is expected to vote for Keystone’s construction this week following House passage on Friday. On Tuesday, activists gathered in cities across the country to urge President Obama to follow through on his threat to veto the Republican bill and to reject the pipeline for good.
Georgia Executes Vietnam Vet; Oklahoma to Attempt 1st Lethal Injection Since Botched Killing
Georgia has carried out the nation’s first execution of 2015. On Tuesday, 66-year-old Army veteran Andrew Brannan was killed by lethal injection for the 1998 murder of a sheriff’s deputy. Defense attorneys had unsuccessfully sought clemency by arguing Brannan’s jury was never fully informed of his severe physical and mental damage from serving in the Vietnam War, including post-traumatic stress disorder. Oklahoma is set to be the next state to carry out an execution on Thursday. It will be the first time Oklahoma attempts to kill a prisoner since botching a lethal injection in April.
NYC Board of Correction Bans Solitary for Young Prisoners at Rikers
The New York City Board of Correction has voted to ban solitary confinement for prisoners between the ages of 18 to 21 at Rikers Island. The decision follows scrutiny of the prison’s treatment of young inmates. Calling the rules a "step forward," the New York Civil Liberties Union said: "An institution as profoundly broken as Rikers Island will require wholesale reform to transform into a humane environment that emphasizes treatment and rehabilitation over punishment and isolation."
Video Shows Montana Cop Weeping After Fatal Shooting
Newly released video shows a police officer breaking down in tears after fatally shooting an unarmed man in Montana. Last week, a coroner’s jury found Billings Police Officer Grant Morrison was justified in shooting Richard Ramirez during a traffic stop last April. Video from the aftermath of the shooting shows Morrison collapsing over the hood of a police cruiser and weeping as his colleagues try to console him. Morrison can be heard saying, "I thought he was going to pull a gun on me. Maybe he was. Maybe he was. (Weeping)."
Civil Rights Groups Challenge Rejection of Lawsuit Against NYPD’s Muslim Surveillance
A federal appeals court has heard from civil rights groups seeking to reinstate a lawsuit against the New York City Police Department over its secret surveillance of Muslims and Arabs in the neighboring state of New Jersey. District Judge William Martini dismissed the lawsuit in February, saying the program’s main harm came not from the anti-Muslim surveillance itself, but from the Associated Press’ exposure of it. Speaking outside the appellate court in Philadelphia, attorney Baher Azmy of the Center for Constitutional Rights said the surveillance was unconstitutional because it focused on religion, nationality and race.
Baher Azmy: "The police have tools to deal with law enforcement problems, but they can’t rely on race or religion or — or to assume that people who are more religious are more dangerous, which is what undergirds the entirety of the NYPD’s program. Religious profiling is just as illegal as racial profiling. And at the Center for Constitutional Rights, we fought against racial profiling and challenged and defeated the city’s unconstitutional stop-and-frisk practices, and we aim to do the same here with respect to the city’s unconstitutional Muslim spying practices."
Ohio Bartender Accused of Plot to Kill House Speaker Boehner
A bartender at an Ohio country club has been indicted for an alleged plot to kill House Speaker John Boehner. Michael Robert Hoyt has reportedly served drinks to Boehner at the Wetherington Country Club over the course of five years. Hoyt appears to suffer from mental issues, having blamed Boehner for his recent firing and accusing him of being responsible for the spread of Ebola. Police found weapons and ammunition in his home.
Jeremy Scahill to CNN: Network "Terrorism Experts" are "Largely Frauds"
In a follow-up to coverage on Democracy Now! over the past few days, the news network CNN has been given some direct, on-air criticism of its use of so-called terrorism "experts" for discussion of violent attacks like the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Speaking to CNN, The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill was asked about his comments during a Democracy Now! interview on Monday in which he criticized corporate media coverage of the attack’s aftermath. Scahill called out CNN and other networks for using pundits he said have no right to call themselves "terrorism experts."
Jeremy Scahill: "CNN and MSNBC and Fox are engaging in the terrorism expert-industrial complex, where you have people on as paid analysts that are largely frauds who have made a lot of money off of portraying themselves as terror experts and have no actual on-the-ground experience. … Some of your paid analysts, that you have on this network or other networks, basically are just making money off of the claim that they’re experts on terrorism and really don’t have the scholarly background or on-the-ground experience to justify being on your network or any other network."
Click here to watch our interview with Jeremy Scahill from Monday’s broadcast and our follow-up interview with The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald from Tuesday on so-called terrorism experts.
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