Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Monday, November 9, 2015

Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Monday, November 9, 2015
democracynow.org
Stories:

A Carbon Bomb Defused: Obama Rejects Keystone XL in Historic Win for Environmental Activism
The environmental movement is celebrating one of its biggest victories to date: President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. After years of review and one of the most vocal grassroots campaigns this country has seen in decades, Obama announced Friday he will not allow Keystone on his watch. The pipeline would have sent 830,000 barrels of crude every day from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The fight to block the pipeline saw activists chaining themselves to construction machinery along the pipeline’s route, hundreds getting arrested in acts of civil disobedience outside the White House, and hundreds of thousands taking part in the largest climate change march in history, the People’s Climate March, just over a year ago. We are joined by two guests deeply involved in the victorious fight to stop the Keystone XL: Clayton Thomas-Muller, a leading organizer and writer on environmental justice and indigenous rights in Canada, and Jane Kleeb, executive director of Bold Nebraska, a political advocacy group that emerged as one of Keystone XL’s chief opponents.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The environmental movement is celebrating one of its biggest victories to date: President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. After years of review and one of the most vocal grassroots campaigns this country has seen in decades, Obama announced Friday he will not allow Keystone on his watch. The pipeline would have sent 830,000 barrels of crude every day from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Defenders called it a boost to the economy and a gateway to cheaper gas prices, while opponents warned of a devastating impact on the climate and the residents along its route.
In his remarks, President Obama initially appeared to cast himself in the middle of the argument, saying the issue has played a, quote, "overinflated role in our political discourse." He rejected supporters’ view that Keystone XL would help the economy, but also opponents’ view that it would be a, quote, "express lane to climate disaster." But then Obama showed which argument he is siding with. Challenging the claims of Keystone backers, Obama said Keystone would not bring economic growth, lower gas prices or increase energy security. Meanwhile, he did not directly refute opponents’ warnings Keystone would mean dangerous carbon emissions from the extraction of tar sands oil. And near the end of his remarks, Obama acknowledged approving Keystone would undermine the global effort to stop climate change.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change. And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership. And that’s the biggest risk we face: not acting. Today we’re continuing to lead by example, because, ultimately, if we’re going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes, we’re going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground, rather than burn them and release more dangerous pollution into the sky.
As long as I’m president of the United States, America is going to hold ourselves to the same high standards to which we hold the rest of the world. And three weeks from now, I look forward to joining my fellow world leaders in Paris, where we’ve got to come together around an ambitious framework to protect the one planet that we’ve got while we still can. If we want to prevent the worst effects of climate change before it’s too late, the time to act is now—not later, not some day; right here, right now.
AMY GOODMAN: Keystone backers have denounced Obama’s decision. In a statement, TransCanada, the company behind Keystone, said, quote, "Misplaced symbolism was chosen over merit and science." Republican senator and presidential hopeful Marco Rubio said Obama, quote, "continues to prioritize the demands of radical environmentalists over America’s energy security."
But the broad coalition that opposed the Keystone XL, including environmentalists, indigenous groups, farmers, ranchers, are hailing the culmination of a tireless seven-year campaign. The fight to block the pipeline saw activists chaining themselves to construction machinery along the pipeline’s route, hundreds getting arrested in acts of civil disobedience outside the White House, and hundreds of thousands taking part in the largest climate change march in history, the People’s Climate March here in New York just over a year ago.
For more, we’re joined by two guests deeply involved in the victorious fight to stop the Keystone XL. Clayton Thomas-Muller is a leading organizer and writer on environmental justice and indigenous rights in Canada. He’s the "Stop It at the Source" campaigner at 350.org and a member of the Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba, Canada. And Jane Kleeb is with us, executive director of Bold Nebraska, a political advocacy group that emerged as one of Keystone XL’s chief opponents.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Jane, let’s begin with you on this side of the border. Explain how Bold Nebraska, since Nebraska, in the end, was a linchpin of why, for people to follow this, TransCanada asked to suspend their request for approval in the last days, because they were still trying to resolve where the pipeline would go through Nebraska—how Nebraska played this key final role in the rejection of Keystone XL?
JANE KLEEB: Well, you know, Nebraska, literally from day one, has been TransCanada’s Achilles’ heel. We have mounted not only a grassroots campaign of citizens concerned about the climate and water pollution, we mounted a very legal and specific challenge with landowners. And we were in the courts as well as fighting TransCanada on the ground. And so, this most specific—you know, this most latest move by TransCanada essentially was they wanted to avoid this very strong lawsuit that we’re currently in court with them, and still in court with them, even though the rejection happened. They wanted to avoid that court system and go through what’s called the Public Service Commission in our state to try to get their route somehow approved, which would have then paused the State Department’s report. So, we knew that that was a Hail Mary pass. They actually couldn’t even legally go through the Public Service Commission, so we knew it was just a PR political ploy. But in the end, President Obama really stood with citizens. We made our case directly to the president, and he actually listened. And that is not only a symbol of the strength of the grassroots movement, but it’s also the strength of President Obama.
AMY GOODMAN: And if you could talk about how you got involved, how the Nebraskans brought together ranchers, farmers, environmentalists—many people who might not have worked together in the past—over these last years?
JANE KLEEB: You know, I personally have never worked on an environmental issue before Keystone XL. I’m a mom of three girls and did a lot of political work on the youth vote and eating disorders, but environmental work was never on my radar. My husband’s family homestead is in the Sandhills, which is a really sacred part of our state, where this pipeline was threatening to go. We don’t have any pipelines in the Sandhills. It’s very fragile land out there and very fragile soil. And the Ogallala Aquifer is essentially directly on the surface in the Sandhills. And so, some environmental friends of mine actually called me and said, "Have you heard about this?" And I went to one of the first State Department hearings, before any group in Nebraska was advocating on behalf of farmers and ranchers or tribal nations. And the farmers and the ranchers already knew about tar sands. They knew about how risky it was for First Nations communities. They knew about the risks for water supply. And so I turned to one of my buddies and said, "We’ve got to organize this." And I just started turning my political campaign skills onto now an environmental issue.
And obviously, I’ve always believed in climate change. I think a lot of farmers and ranchers, they see climate change right up and personal. But this Keystone XL became a very deeply personal issue for us. We were not only fighting to protect people’s property rights and their water, but we were also part of a much larger international campaign to not only protect land, you know, folks’ land and water across the border, but also to actually have an impact on climate change, one of the biggest issues facing our generation. And so, you know, this was a very proud moment, to have Nebraska matter, when everybody always calls us a flyover country, "You’re a red state," all these other kind of adjectives they put on us. We proved them wrong. We actually proved that an unlikely alliance can stop these risky projects.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Clayton Thomas-Muller, we’re speaking to you in Ottawa, Canada. Talk about the role of First Nations in fighting Keystone XL, how long you’ve been doing this, how you organized.
CLAYTON THOMAS-MULLER: Absolutely. Well, first of all, you know, big shout out to President Obama for rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline and demonstrating true climate leadership. You know, the issue of the Keystone XL pipeline, and of course it being the fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet, the controversial Canadian tar sands, this issue of tar sands expansion, you know, has been an issue for decades here for front-line First Nations communities living with this huge development in the midst of their traditional territories. It has been a fundamental treaty rights issue, it has been a fundamental human rights issue, because of the direct impacts that people have been facing.
The Keystone XL campaign, of course, became the lightning rod of the U.S. environmental movement, due in large part to the organizing efforts of First Nations leadership, who traveled along the proposed right-of-way of the Keystone XL, talking to landowners, talking to Native American leadership, talking to municipalities all the way from Hardisty, Alberta, down to the Gulf Coast of Texas, and essentially, you know, building their case that we need to stop this pipeline because of the huge impacts that are taking place in Alberta in relationship to human rights, in relationship to water, and especially in relationship to climate change. And so, you know, this issue has been tremendous for local communities here in Canada, for communities all around the world being affected by climate change, especially indigenous communities. And so, for us, you know, this is a huge victory, and definitely a huge signal to our new prime minister here in Canada that, you know, real climate leadership means not building tar sands pipelines and not supporting the expansion of the Alberta tar sands.
AMY GOODMAN: Last month in Alberta, oil giant Shell abandons its plans for a massive tar sands mine, citing concerns there aren’t enough pipelines to transport the crude oil. This comes after Shell also canceled its plans to drill in the Arctic. The construction of major pipelines, like Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline and TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline, that would help move Alberta tar sands, have been allayed by massive resistance, especially by First Nations. In Ontario, Anishinaabe women disrupted one of TransCanada’s town hall meetings over the proposed pipeline in 2014.
PROTESTER 1: You guys are not welcome on Anishinaabe territory.
PROTESTER 2: That’s coming from the women.
PROTESTER 3: You’re not welcome here.
TRANSCANADA REPRESENTATIVE: OK, thank you. Listen, if we’re not going to be able to present information in a—
PROTESTER 4: Your information is lies.
TRANSCANADA REPRESENTATIVE: OK.
PROTESTER 4: Your information is lies. You’re raping Mother Earth. You’re poisoning our water. You’re not listening to the women. We’re talking about our grandchildren and future generations. What are you going to tell your grandchildren? And what are your grandchildren going to tell their children when there’s no water?
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Anishinaabe women challenging TransCanada at a town hall meeting. Last month, Shell reported a loss of $7.4 billion for the third quarter of this year. That’s compared with a profit of $4.5 billion in the same quarter a year earlier. Can you talk, Clayton, about the significance of these actions?
CLAYTON THOMAS-MULLER: Absolutely. You know, I think that what this victory represents to the climate justice movement, to the indigenous rights movement, is it represents the incredible power of social movements here in North America, social movements that are rooted in a strong anticolonial narrative, that are intersectional in design. You know, I think that, for us, the fact that the people have moved the most powerful government in the United States to say no to Big Oil is a huge victory that sends a very clear message to our newly elected prime minister, Trudeau, here in Canada, that on the eve of the world’s biggest summit on climate change in Paris, that real climate leaders do not support investment into dirty energy sources like the Alberta tar sands. You know, so, for us, I think that oil companies like Shell that are operating in the tar sands, you know, are trying to use every resource available to them to try and get tar sands accessible to international markets. And social movements, including the Keystone XL movement, have been able to keep that resource landlocked in a way that has, like I said, contributed to defusing one of the largest carbon bombs on the planet that needs to stay in the ground.
AMY GOODMAN: Clayton—
CLAYTON THOMAS-MULLER: And so, for us here in Canada, you know, this victory is immense. There are other tar sands pipeline—
AMY GOODMAN: Clayton, now let me ask you something. President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL comes as activists have staged a major climate action in Canada, the pipeline’s source. Last week, demonstrators greeted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a sit-in at his new Ottawa residence just after he was sworn in, the protest demanding action on stopping emissions and reversing the legacy of Trudeau’s predecessor.
We just lost Clayton Thomas-Muller, but we will continue to follow that protest, as well as going to Paris for the two-week U.N. climate summit. Democracy Now! will be broadcasting from there. I want to thank both our guests. Clayton Thomas-Muller, a leading organizer and writer on environmental issues, working with 350.org, he’s the "Stop It at the Source" campaigner there. He’s a member of the Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba, Canada. And thanks so much to Jane Kleeb with Bold Nebraska, speaking to us from her home state of Nebraska.
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we go past another border, or we go to another border. We’re going to San Diego, California. Stay with us. ... Read More →

Rejecting U.S. Claims, MSF Details Horrific Bombing of Afghan Hospital & Demands War Crimes Probe
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) continues to demand an independent war crimes probe of the U.S. bombing of its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, after releasing its own preliminary investigation. The U.S. airstrike on October 3 killed at least 30 people, including 13 staff members, 10 patients and seven unrecognizable victims yet to be identified. In a new report based on interviews with dozens of witnesses, MSF describes patients burning in their beds, medical staff who were decapitated and lost limbs, and staff members shot from the air while they fled the burning building. Doctors and other medical staff were shot while running to reach safety in a different part of the compound. MSF says it provided the GPS coordinates to U.S. and Afghan officials weeks before and that the strikes continued for half an hour after U.S. and Afghan authorities were told the hospital was being bombed. We are joined by Jason Cone, executive director of Doctors Without Borders USA.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Doctors Without Borders continues to demand an independent war crimes probe of the U.S. bombing of its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, after releasing its own preliminary investigation. The U.S. airstrike on October 3rd killed at least 30 people, including 13 medical staff, 10 patients and seven unrecognizable victims yet to be identified. In a new report, Doctors Without Borders describes patients burning in their beds, medical staff who were decapitated and lost limbs, and staff members shot from the air while they fled the burning building. The report describes doctors and other medical staff being shot while running to reach safety in a different part of the compound. Doctors Without Borders says it provided the GPS coordinates to U.S. and Afghan officials weeks before and that the strikes continued for half an hour after U.S. and Afghan authorities were told the hospital was being bombed. The group’s president, Meinie Nicolai, described the attack.
MEINIE NICOLAI: So there have been several rounds of very targeted and very precise bombing of that hospital. The hospital went in flames. Patients that couldn’t move burned in their beds. The shrapnel bombs that they used amputated the legs of doctors and nurses, and even one of our staff was decapitated. And on top of that, what we’ve heard from our staff is that from the plane, people who were fleeing the building were shot at.
AMY GOODMAN: U.S. officials have said they bombed the hospital in part because they thought it was under Taliban control. Doctors Without Borders General Director Christopher Stokes rejected that claim, saying there were no armed combatants on hospital grounds. Wounded combatants from both sides of the Afghan conflict were being treated inside.
CHRISTOPHER STOKES: Let me be clear: We were absolutely treating wounded combatants, and we were treating wounded combatants that were both government and opposition. And a patient is a patient. We don’t choose our patients. If they’re presented to hospital, they’ll be treated. And treating wounded combatants is not a crime. Being a doctor in a war zone cannot be punishable by airstrike.
AMY GOODMAN: For more on Doctors Without Borders’ internal report and its demand for an independent probe, we’re joined by Jason Cone, executive director of Doctors Without Borders here in the United States.
Welcome to Democracy Now! Our condolences on this catastrophe that has taken place at your hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Can you tell us about this report and what you found?
JASON CONE: Yes, so this report is really based on about 60 interviews with our staff who were in the hospital at the time of the attack. We wanted to convey as transparently as possible everything we knew about what happened inside the hospital in the days leading up to the attack, during it and the immediate hours afterwards. And so, that’s what this report really covers, covers our communication with the various armed groups, including the U.S. government, and the days before the attack. And I think as the report illustrates, we did everything that we possibly thought we could to make clear that this was a civilian hospital treating wounded from all sides, which is the main focus of any medical facility in a war zone. And that’s what we do around the world. And we really wanted to share what we knew at this point, a little over 30 days after the bombing. And we shared this document with the U.S. government, with NATO and Afghan officials a day before the public release. It’s part of our efforts to cooperate with the investigation, but we still remain feeling that there needs to be an independent and impartial investigation conducted into the bombing.
AMY GOODMAN: So tell us what you understand took place on October 3rd.
JASON CONE: Well, our review essentially confirms what we said even in the first few days after the attack, which was—which is that the hospital always was under our control, that we were treating people from all sides of the conflict, that at no time—in fact, that night was very—the night of the attack and those early hours in the morning of Saturday, October 3rd, was really the first calm day that we had experienced that week. We had treated about 376 wounded during the week. That Friday night, in fact, the medical team had planned surgeries they had not been able to do and were in the midst of actually putting people under anesthesia when the attack unfolded. And so, in spite of the unnamed sources that have said otherwise, the hospital, from our perspective, remained in our control, and it was still in the same location, obviously, that the GPS coordiates we had shared days before at the same time.
AMY GOODMAN: So, explain what you understand happened in this attack.
JASON CONE: Well, what we know is that around between 2:00 a.m. and 2:10 a.m. on Saturday, October 3rd, our hospital, while patients were being treated, was struck from the air. It continued to be hit from the air—from what we know, it was an AC-130 gunship—repeatedly. When our staff tried to flee the hospital, they were also, from what our witnesses can tell, were shot with machine gun fire, we believe from the plane.
AMY GOODMAN: From the U.S. military plane.
JASON CONE: That’s what we understand. That’s the only sort of information that we have. We only really know what happened inside the hospital. And we know the people we lost, the incredible injuries, as your report sort of outlines, the fact that we had patients killed in our intensive care unit, which was the first part of the hospital that was struck from the—during the bombing. You know, it’s the worst attack that we’ve experienced in a single incident, clearly.
This hospital was a place that had been open for four years. In fact, that night even, it was the—probably the most well-lit structure in the entire city of Kunduz, which has about 300,000 people in it, because we were running generators that night. And so it was well lit, easily visible from the sky. And it was one of the most well-known facilities in the area.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you believe that people were running out of the hospital, and they were shot by—with automatic weapons from the plane as they were fleeing?
JASON CONE: Yeah. Some of—
AMY GOODMAN: And then—go ahead.
JASON CONE: Yeah, that’s correct. Yeah, some of our staff were shot. Others were killed by shrapnel from the blasts, from the shelling that came from the plane.
AMY GOODMAN: And there were others killed as they were seeking safety in another part of the compound?
JASON CONE: That’s correct, yes. And we had two of our unarmed guards who were also killed, unfortunately, by shrapnel in the post that they were manning at the time.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, the casualty list, as you understand it now, can you talk about the number of doctors, nurses, patients, children who were killed?
JASON CONE: Well, we know that at least 13 of our staff were killed. There’s an additional 10 patients that we’ve definitely confirmed. As you mentioned, there are seven unidentified, as yet, bodies. There may be more. These weapons do incredible damage, so there are still remains that we are trying to identify through DNA analysis. That may take some additional time. We’re not sure how long it will take.
So, I mean, this report is really to share what we know up until this point. It’s really based on a comprehensive review of all the information we could have from those debriefings of our staff, as well as some of the patients that we were able to talk to. And it’s—for us, it’s a comprehensive timeline from what happened inside the hospital in the five days before and during and after the attack.
What remains to be seen is what the U.S. government and others will report happened and led to essentially them deciding to target which was a well-functioning, well-known hospital, full of patients and staff—up to 200 patients and staff at the time of our attack. And our main question is: How is it that so clearly a civilian structure like that could lose, at least potentially in the eyes of combatants, its status as a protected facility?
AMY GOODMAN: At a press briefing on Thursday, White House spokesperson Josh Earnest was asked about the latest regarding the investigation into the bombing of the Médecins Sans Frontières, the Doctors Without Borders, hospital in Kunduz.
PRESS SECRETARY JOSH EARNEST: I don’t have an update at this point on the timing of when that investigation will be completed, but the commander-in-chief has indicated that he expects a full accounting of what exactly occurred, and he’s got a high degree of confidence that that’s what he’ll receive. The other thing that the Department of Defense has made clear about this investigation is that it will consider a series of potential human errors, failures of process and technical malfunctions that may have contributed to the mistaken strike. And I think that’s an indication from the Department of Defense that they take very seriously their responsibility to conduct this thorough investigation. And so, while we certainly are eager to understand all of the facts, I also don’t want to be in a position of rushing the investigators who are taking their jobs very seriously.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s White House spokesperson Josh Earnest. Are you satisfied with the U.S. response, Jason Cone?
JASON CONE: Well, they’re supposed to conduct this investigation. This is standard protocol any time civilians are killed in a war zone like Afghanistan. So, they’re doing everything we would expect them to do. And I think what we’d like is for an independent and impartial group—in this case, we called for the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to do this work—to conduct an investigation. We want to look at this through the lens of international humanitarian law. As a humanitarian organization, we work in places like Afghanistan and Syria and Yemen and other places with the understanding that the facilities that we run should be protected places, as long as we hold up our end of the bargain, which is treating everyone who comes and making sure that weapons are left at the door of our hospitals. And that’s what we do consistently—it’s what we did in Kunduz—and what we expect. And we asked—that’s why we’re looking for the U.S. government to essentially accept another investigation into this and to be recognized that the laws of war are important, they should be respected, and no one is above them.
AMY GOODMAN: And who are you demanding should investigate?
JASON CONE: So what we’ve asked, originally, several days after the bombing, was this International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission. It’s based in Bern, Switzerland. It was created out of additional protocols to the Geneva Conventions. It’s existed for about 24 years. Unfortunately, it has not—has not been used yet. Its main role is to—and it’s been empowered under the Geneva Conventions—to look at breaches of international humanitarian law. That’s why we went to this body. We felt that it was the most appropriate at the time. We’ve asked all 76 countries that are signatories to that convention to sponsor our—to sponsor our call for this investigation. We’ve also had about nearly half a million people who have signed petitions supporting that same call around the world. So, we feel like there’s a strong reason for this commission to be allowed to do its work. Now it really rests on the consent of the U.S. and the Afghan officials to allow that to happen.
AMY GOODMAN: Jason Cone, do you believe the U.S. military attack on the—your hospital, the MSF hospital in Kunduz, is a war crime?
JASON CONE: It’s going to be a war crime if it—you know, knowing that our hospital was a civilian structure. It should have never lost that status. We were always communicating its location. It’s a responsibility of the warring parties to be able to distinguish between civilian and military targets. From our perspective, they failed to do so. We were given no warning before the attack—that’s also a precondition. This isn’t about intent. There’s been a lot of discussion about whether or not this was a mistake. This is not necessarily the threshold that has to be crossed for this to constitute a grave breach of international humanitarian law. If the military fails to distinguish between military and civilian targets, as is in this case, from our standpoint, from everything we know, then they’re guilty of breaching IHL, humanitarian law. And that’s something that needs to be looked at and needs to be questioned by an international independent commission.
AMY GOODMAN: Who did your group, Doctors Without Borders, give the GPS coordinates to? And how often did they give those coordinates?
JASON CONE: We’ve frequently shared them. And keep in mind, this hospital has not moved its position in four years. As a precondition of opening the hospital, we negotiated with both the U.S., Afghan, NATO, as well as opposition forces, with the Taliban. We received the support of all of those groups to operate this hospital. And part of that was sharing our GPS coordinates with the various parties. We shared them as recently as September 29th. That was to reinforce the fact that we knew that things were happening. There were additional bombings that were starting to take place, and we were told that that was the best way to ensure the protection of our facility. We reaffirmed to U.S. officials both in Washington and in Kabul that we were continuing to operate, that we were continuing—we did not—we had nothing to hide. We were treating people on all sides, including women and children, not just combatants. And that’s what we’re supposed to do. We kept up our end of the bargain, and we were very transparent about what we were doing there in Kunduz.
AMY GOODMAN: The Afghan government’s responsibility here, you feel?
JASON CONE: Of course. They’re—this is their country. They have to be responsible, as well. And we’ve had a dialogue with them. When we released—when we shared the report beforehand, we shared it also with the Afghan government. We had—my colleague, Christopher Stokes, he had meetings with the Afghan president, as well as other officials, explaining what’s the content of the report. We shared it openly with them. We expect that they would hope to continue to do that with us, as well. Their key will—we hope to be in Afghanistan for a long time. We still operate a number of hospitals in other very contentious parts of the country. And how they react to this report and how they share their own findings is really key to us to be able to stay in the country.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you feel that this hospital was deliberately targeted by the U.S. government?
JASON CONE: We’re having a hard time believing in this point that it was—that it was just a mistake. It’s very difficult for us, but we want to be confronted with facts that would tell us otherwise. We’ve done—we’ve shared everything we can to know up to the point of when the bombs started to fall.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you think could be their reason?
JASON CONE: Honestly, we have no idea. I mean, it’s very difficult to anticipate how they could justify bombing a structure that had 200 people inside of it, many patients. Two of the children who burned to death were in our ICU. They were being treated. It’s just an egregious attack. We want answers. We’re still asking for them. We’re still hoping that the Obama administration will allow an independent probe, because we think it’s key to the credibility of the U.S. government in these matters.
AMY GOODMAN: Have you spoken to President Obama?
JASON CONE: President Obama did apologize directly to our international president, Dr. Joanne Liu. Other than that, we have had very little dialogue or response to our official letters. The day before we called for this commission, we sent a letter informing the U.S. government we were going to do so. We haven’t had an official response. All we continue to hear are statements like you showed from the press secretary. We had a meeting with General Campbell, who’s in charge of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan. My colleague Christopher met with him the day before the report, our initial review, was released, and we had dialogue. And we’re waiting to see what happens in terms of what’s shared with us.
AMY GOODMAN: Three weeks after the U.S. bombed the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan, another one of the group’s hospitals was attacked October 26, this time in Yemen by the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition. Doctors Without Borders, Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF, said hospital staff and two patients managed to escape as the hospital was hit multiple times over a two-hour period Monday night. The hospital’s roof was marked with the Doctors Without Borders logo, and the GPS coordinates had been shared multiple times with the Saudi-led coalition, most recently just two weeks ago. Doctors Without Borders’ Meguerditch Terzian described the damage.
DR. MEGUERDITCH TERZIAN: Since the beginning of the last conflict, only coalition forces’ planes are capable to organize strikes, military strikes, in the country. The other belligerents, they don’t have planes circulating in Yemen. So we have no doubt that the coalition forces bombed Heedan district, and they bombed, as well, our hospital.
AMY GOODMAN: So, this is three weeks later, another country, Yemen. Talk about what happened to this hospital and where in Yemen it happened.
JASON CONE: Well, it happened in Heedan, which is in Saada area. It’s like many hospitals. We’ve treated about 15,000 wounded in Yemen since the start of fighting, heavy fighting, back in March. Some of the difference between what happened in Kunduz and what happened in Heedan is the fact that really there’s been no limits on the war in Yemen. Schools have been bombed, gas stations. You know, everything has really been within the remit of the coalition bombing. Some of that has essentially been rubber-stamped because of a U.N. security resolution that was passed a number of months ago, which really gave sort of carte blanche for the coalition to do as they will. There’s the problem of the bombing, but there’s also the blockade that’s happening, which is preventing enough goods from getting into the country. The country is very dependent on imports for everything from food, even just the gas to pump the—run the wells that are needed to get the water. So, what happened, obviously, it’s a very different situation in the sense of—in the sense that the loss of life, obviously, there was—we didn’t have the same level of casualties like we had in Afghanistan. This was certainly in an area where really nothing is off-limits in terms of from an aerial bombing campaign.
That said, it certainly is a breach of humanitarian law, and we have been in direct dialogue with the Saudi officials in regards to that. They’ve unfortunately changed their story several times, as we saw, actually, in the case of Kunduz the very first few days after the bombing. For us, this is about just reinforcing the fact that there are the Geneva Conventions that govern the laws of war. We are not naive. We know the risks of working in war zones. We’ve been working in them for 40-plus years. That said, we need to understand that governments still respect these rules, because it’s the rules that allow us to send people into these war zones and treat the victims of them.
AMY GOODMAN: Jason Cone, back on Afghanistan, the longest war in U.S. history, MSF prides itself on not just talking about medical needs in a nation, but also political issues. Do you think this war should continue?
JASON CONE: That’s not for us to decide. That’s really for the parties to figure out and answer that. We’re not a peacemaking organization. We’re here to treat the victims. We’re doing that in a number of countries, in a number of parts of the countries, as are many other humanitarian groups. We know the needs are quite huge. Not that long ago, even before this incident, we had issued a report showing the real lack of access to healthcare, particularly for people who are far away from some of the main provincial capitals, the difficulties that people in day-to-day find to get basic access to healthcare. One of the hospitals we run in Khost is a maternal health program. We deliver dozens of children every day in that hospital. There’s an incredible need for emergency obstetrical care, incredible need for pediatric care. We see just a vast amount of needs in Afghanistan for women and children across the country.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you for being with us. Of course, we’ll continue to follow this story and the investigations—
JASON CONE: Thank you, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: —that are expected to take place. Jason Cone is executive director for Doctors Without Borders USA.
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, Keystone is dead. President Obama has announced that the U.S. has rejected the Keystone XL pipeline. We’ll speak with one of the environmental leaders in Nebraska, and across the border, we’ll go to Ottawa to speak with a First Nations environmental activist, Clayton Thomas-Muller. Stay with us. ... Read More →

"A Devastating Decision": No Charges for Border Guards in Beating, Taser Death of Mexican Immigrant
The Department of Justice has announced no border agents will be prosecuted for their role in the killing of a Mexican immigrant near San Diego even though eyewitness video showed him being beaten and tasered. The incident occurred in May 2010 when 32-year-old Anastasio Hernández-Rojas was caught trying to enter the United States from Mexico. He had previously lived in the United States for 25 years and was the father of five U.S.-born children. The San Diego coroner’s office classified Anastasio Hernández-Rojas’s death as a homicide, concluding he suffered a heart attack as well as "bruising to his chest, stomach, hips, knees, back, lips, head and eyelids; five broken ribs; and a damaged spine." Agents say they confronted Hernández-Rojas because he became hostile and resisted arrest. But eyewitness video raised many questions. We are joined by Andrea Guerrero, co-chair of the Southern Border Communities Coalition and executive director of Alliance San Diego.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The Department of Justice has announced no border agents will be prosecuted for their role in the killing of a Mexican immigrant near San Diego, even though eyewitness video showed him being tased and beaten. The incident occurred in May 2010 when 32-year-old Anastasio Hernández-Rojas was caught trying to enter the United States from Mexico. Hernández-Rojas had previously lived in the United States for 25 years from the age of 15. He was the father of five U.S.-born children. Agents say they confronted Hernández-Rojas because he became hostile and resisted arrest. But eyewitness video raised many questions. The footage was obtained by reporter John Carlos Frey and aired in a 2012 PBS report by correspondent John Larson.
ANASTASIO HERNÁNDEZ-ROJAS: [translated] Please! Señores, help me!
JOHN LARSON: What U.S. border agents did not realize is that eyewitness videos of the incident caught the sounds of Hernández-Rojas screaming and pleading for his life.
ANASTASIO HERNÁNDEZ-ROJAS: [translated] No! Help!
JOHN LARSON: And now, a never-before-seen eyewitness video of the incident raises new disturbing questions. The dark video reveals more than a dozen U.S. border agents standing over Hernández-Rojas. It shows the firing of the Taser. Was Hernández-Rojas, as the police press release suggested, combative when he was killed? Or was he on the ground, handcuffed?
AMY GOODMAN: Video from the PBS program Need to Know. The San Diego coroner’s office classified Anastasio Hernández-Rojas’s death as a homicide, concluding he suffered a heart attack as well as, quote, "bruising to his chest, stomach, hips, knees, back, lips, head and eyelids; five broken ribs; and a damaged spine." Despite these findings, the Department of Justice announced on Friday there was insufficient evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights or other federal charges against the agents.
The killing of Anastasio Hernández-Rojas had spurred calls for border agents to begin wearing body cameras, but the Los Angeles Times reports a new internal review by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials found that staff should not be required to wear body cameras in the field.
Joining us from San Diego is Andrea Guerrero, the co-chair of Southern Border Communities Coalition and executive director of Alliance San Diego.
Can you tell us first, before we go to this decision, one of the largest police bodies in the country, the Border Patrol, not to wear a body cam—let’s talk about this case, let’s talk about Anastasio’s case. What happened on that day? And talk about the exoneration of the men involved with his death.
ANDREA GUERRERO: Yes, thank you. This is a devastating decision for the family of Anastasio. As you mentioned, he had been a longtime resident of San Diego. He was picked up off the streets of San Diego because he was undocumented. He did attempt to return to his family, his children. He has five children here in the United States. He was apprehended, and he was hurt by agents in the apprehension. He sought medical assistance, but instead of providing that, the agents attempted to deport him forcibly without providing the assistance.
It was then that the altercation occurred that was witnessed by passersby at the San Ysidro port of entry. He was electrocuted. He was beaten with a baton. And he was put face-down on the ground, hogtied, handcuffed with his pants taken off of him, with an agent on top of him, which led him to asphyxiate, lose consciousness, end up in the hospital. Shortly thereafter, he died.
AMY GOODMAN: And talk about the significance of the video that was released. And then, what were the grounds that the Justice Department announced the clearing of the officers who killed him?
ANDREA GUERRERO: Fortunately, there was an eyewitness video. There were actually two eyewitness videos, and the first video came forward immediately. The second video came forward two years after the incident. And when it did, it broke a national story about CBP brutality and impunity. Until the second video emerged, CBP had asserted that there were only a few agents involved and that Anastasio had been combative and that the use of force exercised against him was justified. The second video calls all of that into question. There were a dozen agents involved in the incident. And the agents who were there, immediately following the incident, went up on the bridge where the passersby were witnessing what was going on. They took the cellphones of the passersby. They erased the videos—all but one video. One eyewitness saw what was coming, saw the agents coming, and she pocketed the video. She held onto it for two years. She was scared to release it, because she had seen the murder of a man. And she finally did have the courage to come forward. We are very grateful for that. And when she did, it broke a national story. It broke the credibility shield of CBP, who has long enjoyed virtual impunity in this country.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Customs and Border Protection. I want to turn to Anastasio Hernández-Rojas’s widow, María Puga, who spoke after the Justice Department’s decision not to file charges against the agents.
MARÍA PUGA: [translated] My name is Maria Puga. Today, I received very bad news about the case involving my husband, Anastasio Hernández, who was killed by the Border Patrol. The prosecutor told me that there wasn’t enough evidence to charge the agents who were involved in the killing of my husband. He said the videos weren’t sufficient proof. I believe that if the agents would have been equipped with body-worn cameras, we would have enough evidence, or perhaps this would never have happened, my husband would still be alive. I ask President Obama to equip the agents with body-worn cameras, so that these incidents—or killings—do not continue to happen. I also ask that he conduct an administrative investigation to punish the agents who were involved in Anastasio Hernández’s case. We ask the community to support this petition, and thank you for your support, for always being with us.
AMY GOODMAN: That is Anastasio Hernández-Rojas’s widow, María Puga, speaking after the Justice Department’s decision not to file charges against the agents who killed her husband. And you can go to democracynow.org to see our interview with María Puga. But I wanted to ask you, Andrea Guerrero, about the decision that’s coming just about the same time after a year investigation of the Customs Border Patrol not to put body video cams on their agents across the border of the United States.
ANDREA GUERRERO: It is an outrageous decision. This is an agency in crisis. You know, in this country, we have a policing crisis. And CBP is at the front of that crisis. It’s the largest law enforcement agency in the country. And as President Obama is calling upon local and state police to adopt 21st century reforms, which include body-worn cameras, we urge him to consider leading by example with his own police force, Customs and Border Protection, and directing them to adopt cameras.
Cameras would have saved the life of Anastasio and may have saved the life of—lives of many others. You know, the reason why the Department of Justice was not able to bring charges is because they couldn’t ascertain whether he had been combative prior to the eyewitness video or not. That is right now just the word of the agents against Anastasio, who is dead. If the agents had had cameras, we would know whether his actions justified what we saw. But right now, we don’t know. All we see is a lot of brutality—in an eyewitness video—that led to the death of Anastasio.
AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you, Andrea—among the reasons that Customs and Border Patrol have given for saying no to these body cams are they may hurt employee morale and may be unsuited to the hot, dusty conditions in which Border Patrol agents often work. Your response?
ANDREA GUERRERO: Police in nearly every county in the southern border, from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, are using body-worn cameras in the same conditions, the same hot, dusty climate. They’re facing the same challenges. And there is no reason why Customs and Border Protection cannot address those same challenges, adopt the best practices. They have lots of local police examples to turn to. There’s absolutely no reason why they can’t adopt these cameras.
As for their morale, these cameras are not about them. These cameras are about the community. These cameras are about protecting us and our families and making sure that what happened to Anastasio doesn’t happen to anyone else. Unfortunately, it has. It’s happened to 40 more people since he was killed. Forty more. We cannot allow this to continue. Body-worn cameras are not a panacea. They won’t solve everything. But they are a critical step for accountability of this agency.
AMY GOODMAN: Andrea Guerrero, I want to thank you for being with us—we’ll continue to follow this story—co-chair of Southern Border Communities Coalition, executive director of Alliance San Diego.
And that does it for our broadcast. Democracy Now! is hiring a development director to lead our fundraising efforts, as well as an on-air graphics operator. And we’re also accepting applications for our internship program. For all of these jobs, find out more at democracynow.org. ... Read More →
Headlines:
Obama Rejects Keystone XL Oil Pipeline
President Obama has rejected the Keystone XL oil pipeline in one of the environmental movement’s biggest victories to date. After years of review and one of the largest grassroots campaigns in decades, Obama announced Friday he will not allow Keystone on his watch.
President Obama: "America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change. And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership. And that’s the biggest risk we face: not acting."
The Keystone pipeline would have sent 830,000 barrels of crude oil every day from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. We’ll have more on the pipeline’s defeat later in the broadcast.
Report: Climate Change Could Force 100 Million into Poverty
The World Bank is warning climate change could force more than 100 million people into extreme poverty by 2030. The new report predicts upheaval from drought, extreme weather and the spread of diseases like malaria.
Second Rare Cyclone Batters Yemen
The warnings about climate change and extreme weather come as Yemen has been battered by a second, extremely rare cyclone. At least one person was killed, and thousands fled. The storm came less than a week after an earlier cyclone killed 11 people and dumped almost a decade’s worth of rain in two days.
Netanyahu to Seek Increased Military Aid at White House Visit
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with President Obama at the White House today, marking the first talks between the two leaders since Netanyahu failed to block the nuclear deal with Iran. Netanyahu is seeking a major increase in U.S. military aid to Israel over the coming decade, beyond the $3 billion annually the U.S. already provides. The meeting comes as Israeli forces shot dead a young Palestinian woman at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, accusing her of drawing a knife.
Bipartisan Lawmakers Seek Vote on U.S. Wars in Iraq, Syria
A group of bipartisan House lawmakers are calling for Congress to vote on the escalating U.S. wars in Iraq and Syria. More than a year after the United States launched airstrikes against the self-proclaimed Islamic State, Congress has yet to vote on authorizing force. The Obama administration has controversially claimed their actions are covered by the 2001 congressional vote authorizing force against al-Qaeda. The open letter calling for a vote was signed by members of both parties, including Democratic Congressmembers Barbara Lee, Jim McGovern and John Lewis, and members of the right-wing Freedom Caucus. The lawmakers said they "do not share the same policy prescriptions" but do share the belief it’s "past time" for a vote on the wars.
Egypt: Leading Journalist Hossam Bahgat Detained
In Egypt, the leading investigative journalist and human rights activist Hossam Bahgat has been detained by Egyptian military intelligence. Bahgat’s most recent investigation examined the convictions of 26 military officers accused of plotting to topple the government. Bahgat was ordered to spend the night in detention after being interrogated for hours Sunday on charges of publishing false news harmful to national security. Click here to see our past interviews with Hossam Bahgat.
Jordan: Police Officer Kills 2 Americans, South African
In news from Jordan, a Jordanian police officer has killed two American instructors and a South African at a police training center near Amman. Officials said the policeman also wounded six people before he was killed by fellow officers.
Burma: Opposition Party Appears Poised for Sweeping Win
In Burma, the opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi appears poised for a sweeping victory in the first openly contested national elections in 25 years. The National League for Democracy party said it expects to win about 70 percent of seats. Aung San Suu Kyi herself is barred from the presidency under a military-drafted constitution.
Haiti: Protests Erupt over Alleged Election Fraud
In Haiti, meanwhile, protests have erupted over alleged fraud after initial results from last month’s elections pointed toward a presidential runoff.
Black U. of Missouri Football Players Strike over Campus Racism
Update: After our morning broadcast, University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe resigned.
African-American players on the University of Missouri’s football team have gone on strike, refusing to participate in team activities or games until the university president resigns over his handling of racism on the heavily white campus. In a tweet Saturday, the players wrote: "The athletes of color on the University of Missouri football team truly believe 'Injustice Anywhere is a threat to Justice Everywhere.' We will no longer participate in any football related activities until President Tim Wolfe resigns or is removed due to his negligence toward marginalized students’ experience." The move comes amid increasing protest over racial slurs and the appearance of a swastika drawn in feces in a dormitory. For a week, an African-American graduate student, Jonathan Butler, has been on hunger strike, and protesters have been camping out to support his call for Wolfe’s resignation. The coach and athletic department have supported the football players. Coach Gary Pinkel tweeted: "We are united. We are behind our players." Athletic director Mack Rhoades released a statement saying there would be no practice or formal team activities until Butler ends his hunger strike.
Students at Yale University & Berkeley High School Protest Racism
Students across the country are also calling attention to racism on campus. At Berkeley High School in California last Thursday, a racist message on a computer sparked thousands of students to walk out. That same day, hundreds of students at Yale University confronted the college’s first African-American dean over what they say is a pattern of discrimination at Yale.
Ben Carson Under Fire for Inaccuracies in Autobiography
Republican presidential front-runner and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has called for the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico to become the 51st state. His comments come as Carson is under fire after news outlets questioned the accuracy of his autobiography, "Gifted Hands." In the book, Carson describes dining with General William Westmoreland after a Memorial Day parade and later being offered a "full scholarship" to West Point military academy. But after an investigation by Politico, Carson’s campaign acknowledged he never applied to West Point. Since all West Point students attend without cost, there is no such thing as a "full scholarship" to West Point. Speaking on Meet the Press, Carson acknowledged his story about General Westmoreland may not have been entirely accurate.
Ben Carson: "I know he was there in Detroit. And I know it was—there were Congressional Medal of Honor—you know, it may not have been Memorial Day, but it was sometime during the time when I was the city executive officer."
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal has raised questions about Carson’s account of a class he took at Yale called Perceptions 301—it appears there was no such class. And CNN has interviewed a number of Carson’s friends in a bid to verify his claim he tried to stab a friend during what he describes as a violent youth; none of them remembered the incident.
Donald Trump Hosts Saturday Night Live amid Protests
Carson’s rival Donald Trump hosted "Saturday Night Live" amid protests over his comments calling Mexican immigrants rapists. Nearly 150,000 people signed a petition calling on NBC to "dump Trump." Brent Wilkes of the League of United Latin American Citizens was among those protesting outside NBC’s studios Saturday.
Brent Wilkes: "We believe he’s a racist and a bigot. He said some very hurtful words against the Latino community, calling us killers, rapists, criminals and drug dealers. And he’s also called for the mass deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants, building up a wall bigger than China’s Great Wall along the Mexican border and the end of birthright citizenship. We believe that Donald Trump’s opinions of Latinos are hateful and his actions toward Latinos would be extremely harmful to millions of Latino families in this country."
No Charges for Border Agents in Killing of Anastasio Hernández-Rojas
The Department of Justice has announced no border agents will be prosecuted for their role in the killing of a Mexican immigrant near San Diego even though eyewitness video showed agents beating and tasering the man. The incident occurred in May 2010 when 32-year-old Anastasio Hernández-Rojas was caught trying to enter the United States from Mexico. He had previously lived in the United States for 25 years and was the father of five U.S.-born children. We’ll have more on his killing later in the broadcast.
Louisiana: 2 Police Arrested After Fatal Shooting of 6-Year-Old
And in Louisiana, two police officers have been arrested on murder charges after a six-year-old boy was shot to death while sitting in the passenger seat of his father’s car. The officers, Lt. Derrick Stafford and Norris Greenhouse Jr., were working secondary jobs as city marshals. Authorities say the marshals were chasing the father, Chris Few, to serve him a warrant, when Few reached a dead end and allegedly began to back into the marshals’ car. The officers then opened fire, killing first-grader Jeremy Mardis and critically wounding his father.
Donate today:
Follow:
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)