Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Democracy Now! Daily Digest - A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Democracy Now! Daily Digest - A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Wednesday, 29 January 2014
STORIES:
"A Silent Coup": Jeremy Scahill & Bob Herbert on Corporate, Military Interests Shaping Obama's SOTU
On issues from domestic inequality to foreign policy, President Obama delivered his fifth State of the Union with a vow to take action on his own should Congress stonewall progress on his agenda. But will Obama’s policies go far enough? We host a roundtable with three guests: Jeremy Scahill, producer and writer of the Oscar-nominated documentary "Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield" and senior investigative reporter at First Look Media, which will launch in the coming months; Bob Herbert, distinguished senior fellow with Demos; and Lorella Praeli, director of advocacy and policy at the United We Dream coalition.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Our guests are Jeremy Scahill—his film, Dirty Wars, has just been nominated for an Oscar; Bob Herbert with us, former New York Times columnist, now with Demos; and Lorella Praeli with the United We Dream coalition. Nermeen?
NERMEEN SHAIKH: We’re continuing our coverage of President Obama’s State of the Union address. During Tuesday’s speech, he announced an executive action to raise the minimum wage for some federal contract workers from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: In the coming weeks, I will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour, because if you cook our troops’ meals or wash their dishes, you should not have to live in poverty.
Of course, to reach millions more, Congress does need to get on board. Today, the federal minimum wage is worth about 20 percent less than it was when Ronald Reagan first stood here. And Tom Harkin and George Miller have a bill to fix that by lifting the minimum wage to $10.10. It’s easy to remember, 10-10. This will help families. It will give businesses customers with more money to spend. It does not involve any new bureaucratic program. So join the rest of the country. Say yes. Give America a raise.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Bob Herbert, can you respond to that, the significance of this raise for some federal workers?
BOB HERBERT: Sure. I think it’s symbolically significant. So, it’s not going to take effect until new contracts come up, so federal contract workers will have to be paid at least a minimum of $10.10 an hour. The reason I think it’s symbolically significant is because it keeps a spotlight on the issue of the minimum wage, on the issue of employment going forward.
You know, to Jeremy’s point about the State of the Union essentially being a propaganda speech, which is absolutely true, what you didn’t hear there was really what the state of the economy is for ordinary Americans, for working people in this country. You didn’t hear anything about poverty, for example. So, for years now, the American people have made it clear, in poll after poll and in other ways, that employment is their top priority. I mean, people need jobs. But neither party, presidents from either party and Congress, whether it’s in the control of the Republicans or the Democrats, have had a sustained, effective job creation program in this country. And the United States is never going to get out of its morass until it’s able to put people back to work.
We now have nearly 50 million people who are officially poor in the United States, according to federal guidelines. Another 50 million people are just a notch or two above the official poverty rate. That’s nearly a third of the entire population that’s poor or near poor. One out of every three black children in the United States is poor. If you just walk a few blocks from this studio, every day you will see enormous lines wrapped around the corner for soup kitchens and that sort of thing. And that’s the case in places across this country. None of that was addressed. And none of the initiatives that the president has offered, and nothing that the Republicans have offered in years, would begin to address this state of distress among American working people and among the poor.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Just to give us an idea, Bob Herbert, how many employees does the federal government have through contractors?
BOB HERBERT: Well, it’s interesting. It was actually Demos that—it was a Demos initiative that put the spotlight on this $10.10 initiative, because Demos was the first organization to point out that the federal government, through its contractors, employs nearly two million low-wage workers, which is more than Wal-Mart and McDonald’s combined. So, if you could get this initiative expanded to cover all of the workers who are contracted to work for the federal government, then you would help an enormous number of people.
AMY GOODMAN: Mention of unions? I saw Richard Trumka in the audience.
BOB HERBERT: You know, get me started on unions. One of the reasons American workers are in such a deep state of distress is because they have no clout in the workplace. They are not organized, and they are not represented, so they cannot fight for their own interests. Corporations are organized every which way from sundown, and they have tremendous amounts of money. They have a lot a political clout and that sort of thing.
Workers go to work. You know, it’s just one man or one woman, you know, against an employer in a terrible job market. So you’re afraid to even ask for a raise, even if you deserve a raise, because you think the employer is going to say to you, "Take a hike." And then you go out there in this terrible job market, and there’s no jobs to be had. If workers were organized, then they would be able to have clout. You’d be able to bring pressure not just on employers, not just on corporations, but also on the federal government to get legislation passed that would be beneficial to workers.
And one of the most important things you could do is to just enforce the laws that are on the books that have to do with labor organizing. I mean, so, if you’re in an organization, a corporation, a plant, that sort of thing, where workers are not organized, do not belong to a labor union, they want to organize—the majority of the workers want to organize—the corporations fight you every step of the way. And they use a tremendous number—amount of unfair tactics. That’s illegal, but the federal government has not enforced the laws.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s talk about international trade policy and how that relates. In his State of the Union, President Obama also sought fast-track authority to give lawmakers an up-or-down vote on the trade deals such as TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: When 98 percent of our exporters are small businesses, new trade partnerships with Europe and the Asia-Pacific will help them create even more jobs. We need to work together on tools like bipartisan trade promotion authority to protect our workers, protect our environment, and open new markets to new goods stamped "Made in the U.S.A." Listen, China and Europe aren’t standing on the sidelines. And neither should we.
AMY GOODMAN: That was President Obama in his fifth State of the Union address. We just returned from Japan, Bob Herbert. There, there’s a huge discussion about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Here, most people, if you asked them, they wouldn’t even know what it is.
BOB HERBERT: Well, one of the things that’s a problem in this country is because the economic situation has been so stagnant for most people for so long and because the government has been—the government in Washington has been so dysfunctional, that Americans have really tuned out. And also, I don’t think that the press has done a good job at all on trade agreements, if you go all the way back to NAFTA in the 1990s. So people essentially don’t even understand these agreements. But what they do understand is that they have not been helpful to the vast majority of workers over all these years. So...
JEREMY SCAHILL: Can I just make a comment?
AMY GOODMAN: Jeremy Scahill.
JEREMY SCAHILL: I mean, you know, what Obama was doing there—in his last major address that he gave, he—at the United Nations General Assembly, he laid out this sort of forceful defense of American empire, and even went so far as to say that the U.S. will use its military might to continue to secure energy resources. In this speech, it was a pretty forceful defense of a neoliberal economic agenda. And, you know, what Bob is saying about corporations resonates on a foreign policy level, as well.
What is widely being considered to be the most moving part of last night was when this U.S. Army Ranger was addressed in the crowd and who was severely wounded and had done 10 tours. Think about that for a moment—10 tours in these war zones. You know, this young American spent his entire adult life in these combat zones. And, you know, the issue of how veterans are treated in this country is one thing, but at the end of the day, did he benefit from these wars? Does the average American benefit from the continuation of these wars? No. Who benefits? That’s the most important question we all have to ask. It’s corporations.
BOB HERBERT: Exactly.
JEREMY SCAHILL: War corporations, the Halliburtons of the world, the Boeings. John Kerry, yesterday it was announced, is giving these awards for corporate excellence around the world. He’s giving them to Citibank, to Apache, to Boeing, to Coca-Cola. And so you have this neoliberal economic agenda, which is sort of the hidden hand, in many ways, of the U.S. empire, and then you have this iron fist of U.S. militarism that is being sold to the American public, and increasingly to the world, as national security policy.
And so, you know, when I see that Army Ranger who’s wounded like that, the first thing that just occurs to me is: Who has benefited from all of this? When corporations control our political process in this country through a legalized form of corruption that’s called campaign finance, what does that say about the state of our democracy? In a way, there already has been a coup in this country, but it’s been a silent coup. And it reminds me of that famous line from the great movie The Usual Suspects. At the end of it, Kevin Spacey’s character says the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. In many ways, a coup has happened, and the brilliance of it is that it’s not sparking major uprisings because we’ve been pacified and taught to just accept this as how things work. We have two parties in this country, the minimum wage is going to be the minimum wage, and corporations are in control, and these wars are fought in our name, but without our consent.
BOB HERBERT: And the flipside of who benefits is the suffering that is so tremendous out there among the warriors who have been sent over to fight these wars since late 2001. And so, you just have hundreds of thousands of people who have—men and women, who have come back from the combat zones, who have terrible, disabling injuries, who are going to have to be cared for—we have an obligation to care for them—in many cases, for the rest of their lives. We have to pay, as a society, to care for these folks. You know, it’s probably—Joe Stiglitz has estimated that now these wars are probably going cost cumulatively $4 trillion or more. None of this has been really explored clearly or properly explained to the American public.
JEREMY SCAHILL: You know, just a small sort of side point on this, you know, when we talk about the U.S. withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan, the conventional military, a story that very seldom gets attention is the connection between a paramilitarization of law enforcement inside of the United States and increasing use of what they call counterterrorism tactics on SWAT-style operations in the U.S. The military is donating a lot of its equipment to local police agencies and other so-called law enforcement agencies, and the communities that are most at risk here are communities of color and poor communities. Everything is about war—the war on drugs, the war on crime.
BOB HERBERT: Right.
JEREMY SCAHILL: And war requires some kind of a militarized response. And that’s what we’re seeing. This is deeply connected to the wars abroad, the wars at home, as well.
BOB HERBERT: And this is actually going into our public schools, where you have that type of militarized behavior going on actually in public schools. That’s how you get the school-to-prison pipeline that people are talking about.
AMY GOODMAN: On Afghanistan, President Obama said, "If the Afghan government signs a security agreement that we have negotiated, a small force of Americans could remain in Afghanistan with NATO allies." But the latest news says the Pentagon has proposed up to 10,000 troops remaining behind, Jeremy.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Yeah, and if you look at what sort of various senior anonymous military officials have been saying for several years now, they’ve known that the withdrawal is not really going to be a withdrawal. Yes, we’re going to see the Marines pull out. We’re going to have this thing where journalists can ride on the tanks, like they did out of Iraq. But at the end of the day, this is an Afghanization of a U.S. policy. So, what’s going to happen is that you’re going to have these advise-and-assist squads of highly trained U.S. special ops and CIA personnel accompanying Afghan units, and they’re going to try to have the Afghans do the fighting and dying and killing on behalf of U.S. policy. But what I think should be of greater concern to the American public is that you are going to have these strike forces in place. It’s taken as conventional wisdom now that the U.S. is out of Iraq. Actually, the U.S. has a massive paramilitary presence inside of Iraq and is going to continue to have one inside of Afghanistan. So, these wars are going to continue on for at least another generation, albeit on a sort of covert, hidden-hand manner of doing it.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: But what’s the justification, Jeremy, for keeping troops in Afghanistan?
JEREMY SCAHILL: I mean, there is no counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan anymore. I mean, no one wants to talk about this, because you’re going to be accused of being sympathetic to the Taliban. The Taliban is not a terrorist organization with global aspirations. The Taliban has a constituency, has a greater constituency than the U.S., arguably than Hamid Karzai, who the U.S. recognizes as the president. And I think the Taliban is a morally reprehensible group of individuals, but they do have indigenous support. And the reason that they’re fighting right now is because the U.S. and NATO are in their country. And so, to sort of imply that what we’re doing there is countering terrorists, when in the first months of the Obama administration his own national security adviser said there are less than a hundred al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan, we should be asking that question that John Kerry asked in 1971: Who wants to be the last to die for this failed war? What do they tell the families of the soldiers who die from here until they pull out the conventional military?
AMY GOODMAN: Now, the significance of that, for people who don’t remember, John Kerry, who is the secretary of state and formerly senator, was—fought in Vietnam, and when he came home, he was strongly opposed to the war in Vietnam, and he testified before Congress asking that question.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Yeah, I’d love to see 1971 John Kerry questioning, you know, 2014 John Kerry at a hearing about all these policies that he’s having to sell as secretary of state around the world.
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In SOTU, Obama Tells Divided Congress to Expect Executive Action in Face of Continued Obstruction
In his fifth State of the Union address, President Obama vowed to bypass a divided Congress and take action on his own using his executive power. Obama announced a wage hike for federal contract workers, the creation of a "starter savings account" to help millions of people save for retirement, and plans to establish new fuel efficiency standards for trucks. On foreign policy, President Obama pledged to veto new sanctions on Iran while the interim nuclear deal is in effect and renewed his call for the closure of Guantánamo Bay. On Afghanistan, President Obama said this year would see the end of the U.S. war, but he acknowledged some U.S. forces would remain in the country to train Afghan troops and carry out counterterrorism attacks. We get reaction to Obama’s speech from three guests: "Dirty Wars" film producer and writer Jeremy Scahill; former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert of Demos; and Lorella Praeli of the United We Dream coalition. "The State of the Union address, historically, is sort of propaganda," Scahill says. "On the issue of foreign policy, there is a radical disconnect between what the president was publicly projecting with his remarks and what his policies actually amount to on the ground."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: In his fifth State of the Union address, President Obama vowed on Tuesday to bypass a divided Congress and take action on his own using his executive power. Obama announced a wage hike for federal contractors, the creation of a "starter savings account" to help millions of people save for retirement, and plans to establish new fuel efficiencystandards for trucks.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Let’s make this a year of action. That’s what most Americans want, for all of us in this chamber to focus on their lives, their hopes, their aspirations. And what I believe unites the people of this nation, regardless of race or region or party, young or old, rich or poor, is the simple, profound belief in opportunity for all, the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead in America.
Let’s face it: That belief has suffered some serious blows. Over more than three decades, even before the Great Recession hit, massive shifts in technology and global competition had eliminated a lot of good, middle-class jobs and weakened the economic foundations that families depend on.
Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by, let alone to get ahead. And too many still aren’t working at all.
So, our job is to reverse these trends. It won’t happen right away, and we won’t agree on everything. But what I offer tonight is a set of concrete, practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class, and build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class. Some require congressional action, and I’m eager to work with all of you. But America does not stand still, and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: President Obama also pledged to veto new sanctions on Iran while the interim nuclear deal is in effect, and renewed his call for the closure of Guantánamo Bay. On Afghanistan, President Obama said this year would see the end of the U.S. war, but he acknowledged some U.S. forces would remain in the country to train Afghan troops and carry out counterterrorism attacks.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: When I took office, nearly 180,000 Americans were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, all our troops are out of Iraq. More than 60,000 of our troops have already come home from Afghanistan. With Afghan forces now in the lead for their own security, our troops have moved to a support role. Together with our allies, we will complete our mission there by the end of this year, and America’s longest war will finally be over.
After 2014, we will support a unified Afghanistan as it takes responsibility for its own future. If the Afghan government signs a security agreement that we have negotiated, a small force of Americans could remain in Afghanistan with NATO allies to carry out two narrow missions: training and assisting Afghan forces, and counterterrorism operations to pursue any remnants of al-Qaeda. For while our relationship with Afghanistan will change, one thing will not: our resolve that terrorists do not launch attacks against our country.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now by three guests.
Jeremy Scahill is producer and writer of the documentary Dirty Wars, which has been nominated for an Academy Award. He is also author of the book by the same name. He is a senior investigative reporter at First Look Media, which will launch in the coming months.
Bob Herbert is a distinguished senior fellow with Demos. From 1993 to 2011, he was an op-ed columnist for The New York Times.
And Lorella Praeli is with us, director of advocacy and policy at the United We Dream coalition. She attended President Obama’s State of the Union address at the invitation of Democratic Congressmember Zoe Lofgren of California.
We welcome you all to Democracy Now! to get reaction to the State of the Union address. We’ll be playing excerpts of President Obama’s speech. Bob Herbert, though, just to begin, from each of you, let’s get an overall reaction to the address.
BOB HERBERT: Well, you know, I thought the president had been dealt a tough hand, in part because of Republican obstructionism, in part because of some missteps on his own—excuse me. And I think he played that hand about as well as you could have expected last night. It was a pretty good speech, maybe a little too long. I think they’re all too long. But it was a pretty good speech. He highlighted a lot of things. He defended the Affordable Care Act in a way that the Democrats had not done for quite a while. And, you know, I give him pretty good marks on the speech. It was a—it was a tough task that he had.
AMY GOODMAN: Lorella Praeli?
LORELLA PRAELI: Good morning. I think that he could have done a lot better on immigration. I think that the president started and used really the framework of this is a year of action; whether or not Congress acts, I can and will do more. And I think he recognized many struggles, but didn’t really recognize the pain that his deportation policies continue to cause in our community. We’re about to hit two million deportations. And so, there could have been a greater acknowledgment of the pain and the reality in America that is the result of inaction in Congress, but also of a president that has chosen to lead with a deportation-first policy. And so, we think that he could have done more. We think that he should have said that "I will also use my pen to take action until Congress decides to act on immigration."
AMY GOODMAN: And Jeremy Scahill?
JEREMY SCAHILL: You know, I think that there—you know, the State of the Union address, historically, is sort of propaganda. And I think that there was, on the issue of foreign policy, a radical disconnect between what the president was publicly projecting with his remarks and what his policies actually amount to on the ground. You know, it was significant, I think. Obama, I believe, is the first president in history to use the word "drone" during a State of the Union speech, and he said that he has restricted the use of drones to cases only when it’s prudent. And yet, a month ago, a drone strike in Yemen on December 12th wiped out a wedding party and massacred people in Yemen. Now, it’s being investigated by the U.S. government, but why did that strike happen? What kind of an intelligence failure or breakdown led to the killing of these civilians? A few days ago, the U.S. bombed Somalia. The U.S. is increasingly involved in covert operations in Mali. In Iraq, the CIA is ramping up its paramilitary activity. In Afghanistan, when the president says we’re going to draw down and we’re going to focus on the counterterrorism mission, what they really mean is these hunt-kill squads that come from the military’s Joint Special Operations Command and the CIA’s paramilitary division.
What I thought was significant also is what wasn’t mentioned in the speech—Egypt, where the U.S. is backing a dictator in General Sisi and supported a coup by not labeling it a coup when General Sisi went on television and said the democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, is no longer president, and the U.S. refused to label it a coup because then it would have been required to cut off military assistance to Egypt, which is of strategic importance to not only this White House, but to the U.S. government writ large. So, Central African Republic was not mentioned, where there is a horrifying situation playing out with massacres left and right inside of that country. And Pakistan wasn’t mentioned, a place where the U.S. continues to engage in a covert war with very, very high stakes. So, I think while the president is saying he doesn’t want the U.S. to be on a permanent war footing, everything his administration has done on a counterterrorism or national security level, especially with the assassination czar, John Brennan, has been to ensure that the U.S. is going to continue to embrace assassination, covert operations as a central component of its national security policy.
And finally, President Obama addressed the issue of the National Security Agency and tried to reassure the public, "Hey, we’re not spying on you." And yet, he has done nothing to hold James Clapper accountable for the perjury that he committed in front of the United States Congress, and at the same time is jailing and prosecuting whistleblowers. The fact of the matter is, if you read the stories that have come out via Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras and others documenting the abuses of the National Security Agency against Americans and non-Americans alike, this is a major scandal, and we would not be debating it if it wasn’t for Edward Snowden. And I think it’s telling that the heads of the CIA’s torture programs and people like Donald Rumsfeld, who is a war criminal, are on a book tour, while Edward Snowden is in exile, and Thomas Drake, former NSA official, had his career ruined, and John Kiriakou, former CIA operative, was sent to federal prison after he had blown the whistle on aspects of the waterboarding program.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to go to break and get more reaction to the details of President Obama’s State of the Union address. Our guests, Bob Herbert of Demos; Lorella Praeli, United We Dream coalition; Jeremy Scahill, producer of the Oscar-nominated film Dirty Wars. Back in a minute.
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Dirty Wars Filmmaker Jeremy Scahill on the "Drone President" & Obama's Whitewashing of NSA Spying
In his State of the Union address, President Obama called on the United States to "move off a permanent war footing," citing his recent limits on the use of drones, his withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and his effort to close the military prison at Guantánamo Bay. Obama also vowed to reform National Security Agency surveillance programs to ensure that "the privacy of ordinary people is not being violated." Jeremy Scahill, whose Oscar-nominated film "Dirty Wars" tackles the U.S. drone war and targeted killings abroad, says Obama has been a "drone president" whose operations have killed large numbers of civilians. On NSA reform, Scahill says "the parameters of the debate in Washington are: Should we figure out a way to streamline this and sell it to the American people, or should we do more surveillance?"
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Let’s go back to President Obama’s State of the Union. Here he talks about his counterterrorism strategy.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: So, even as we aggressively pursue terrorist networks, through more targeted efforts and by building the capacity of our foreign partners, America must move off a permanent war footing. That’s why I’ve imposed prudent limits on the use of drones, for we will not be safer if people abroad believe we strike within their countries without regard for the consequence. That’s why, working with this Congress, I will reform our surveillance programs, because the vital work of our intelligence community depends on public confidence, here and abroad, that privacy of ordinary people is not being violated. And with the Afghan War ending, this needs to be the year Congress lifts the remaining restrictions on detainee transfers and we close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, because we counter terrorism not just through intelligence and military actions, but by remaining true to our constitutional ideals and setting an example for the rest of the world.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Jeremy Scahill, your response?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, on this issue of Obama and Guantánamo, you know, he gets hit a lot from the left in the United States for the failure to close Guantánamo. And part of it is, I think, a little bit disingenuous. On the one hand, I think Obama has not fought hard enough to close Guantánamo. He hasn’t used his political capital in any prioritized way to make that happen, and there are ways that he could have done it. But the Republicans and some Democrats have long been blocking the funding. But the fact is that we had several dozen prisoners who had been cleared for release from Guantánamo on a hunger strike, and the president basically stood idly by while these individuals were being very brutally force-fed. I mean, you can go online and see the hip-hop artist Mos Def doing—being force-fed. He couldn’t take more than a few seconds of the tube going through his nose. And I think if you—you know, I encourage people to watch that to get a sense of what it means when we’re talking about the force-feeding of prisoners at Guantánamo. So, you know, on the one hand, Obama has failed to close it; on the other hand, the Republicans have really obstructed it. And I think, at the end of the day, it’s a combination of those two factors that lead to that.
On this issue of the drones and the permanent war footing, I mean, Obama has been the drone president. And his line with liberals is sort of "Trust me. I know what I’m doing. I’m monitoring this. I’m doing everything I can to make sure that civilians aren’t killed." But time and time again, we see incidents where large numbers of civilians are being killed, and there seems to be no public accounting for how this happened. They say that they investigate when civilians are killed, and yet we are now two years, almost, removed from the killing of this 16-year-old kid, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who appears to have been killed because of who his father was, was killed in a drone strike while having dinner with his teenage cousin and some other young people from their tribe while they were sitting down for dinner, killed in a drone strike.
AMY GOODMAN: Two weeks after—
JEREMY SCAHILL: Two weeks after his father had been killed. His father is a separate issue. And I think it was extraordinary that Obama sentenced an American citizen to death without even charging him with a crime related to terrorism, and served as the prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner, but that’s a separate issue from this kid. What was his crime that he committed, other than sitting there having dinner with his cousin and other teenagers? The White House told me that when—that they review all cases when civilians are killed. Where is that review? I’ve asked for it, and the White House said they won’t confirm or deny that there has been a review of that case. So, there are a lot of unanswered questions here.
And on the NSA issue, I mean, the panel that was empowered to investigate this was a setup from the beginning. It was largely made up of intelligence industry people, part of the, you know, intelligence- or spying-industrial complex. And the end results of it are going to be largely a whitewashing of these operations. And, you know, the Republicans want Obama to go further than the NSA is already going. So the parameters of the debate in Washington are: Should we figure out a way to streamline this and sell it to the American people, or should we do more surveillance, which is what a lot of the Republicans want?
AMY GOODMAN: On the issue of the NSA, on this issue that’s being debated even within the White House, the attorney general, Eric Holder, this question of whether Edward Snowden should be pardoned, talk more about what’s happening inside, and then what he’s demanding.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Right. I mean, first of all, Representative Mike Rogers, who is the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, made a public allegation that Edward Snowden is an agent for the Russian government and that the Russian intelligence services, the FSB, may have been involved with Snowden prior to Snowden taking the documents and giving them to Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. My understanding—and, of course, I work with Glenn and Laura—is that Edward Snowden did not take a single document with him to Moscow and that he is not cooperating at all with any aspects of the Russian intelligence apparatus. So, these are scurrilous, unfounded, unproven allegations being made by the head of the most important committee in the U.S. Congress when it comes to these matters.
Edward Snowden’s lawyer, one of his lawyers, legal advisers, Jesselyn Radack, was on Meet the Press, you know, with David Gregory, and David Gregory was basically saying, you know, "How is Snowden suffering?" I mean, this is a guy that gave up, probably forever, life in the free world. I wouldn’t want to be stuck in Moscow if I were him. But here’s my question for David Gregory. "Mr. Glenn Greenwald, don’t you think you should be prosecuted for this?" I mean, that’s what Gregory said when Glenn Greenwald was on Meet the Press_. NBC News—you should go to their website—just did a major exposénews/2014/01/27/22469304-snowden-docs-reveal-british-spies-snooped-on-youtube-and-facebook with Glenn Greenwald on the British intelligence services tapping into pipelines and monitoring social media sites and YouTube and other things. David Gregory should have on the NBC journalists. Richard Esposito, the head of the investigations division, should have to sit in front of David Gregory on Meet the Press and be asked, "Richard Esposito, don’t you think you should be going to prison for having done this story?" I mean, let’s be fair here with the Meet the Press release. They should actually have to ask tough questions of their own people.
AMY GOODMAN: Jeremy, before we win—on Dirty Wars, your film—it’s astounding, it’s been nominated for an Oscar—what would an Oscar win mean?
JEREMY SCAHILL: You know, when it was announced, I mean, I was the only person from our team with the stomach to watch the actual ceremony on CNN. I had to rewind it, because I was shocked. But the first thing I thought of is what this could possibly mean to this family in Afghanistan, where two pregnant women were killed in a botched U.S. night raid, and then they watched, the survivors watched, as the bullets were dug out of their pregnant bodies by U.S. soldiers, or the families of the drone strike victims that you see in our film, or the people who were in Yemen in this village of al-Majalah—
AMY GOODMAN: Ten seconds.
JEREMY SCAHILL: —where 14 women and 21 children were killed. A win would mean that their stories would be told, and it would send a message that we actually do care in this society about what happens on the other side of our missiles and bombs.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you all for being with us. Jeremy Scahill is starting a new news organization. It will be launching in the next weeks. And his film, Dirty Wars, has been nominated for an Oscar. Bob Herbert has been with us, distinguished senior fellow with Demos, former New York Times columnist. And I want to thank Lorella Praeli with the United We Dream coalition.
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Five Years of the "Same Rhetoric": Immigration Activist Faults Obama's SOTU, Deportation Policy
At last night’s State of the Union, a DREAM activist was among the guests invited by first lady Michelle Obama. Twenty-three-year-old Cristian Ávila of Arizona fasted for 22 days to push for immigration reform as part of the "Fast for Families" campaign, which took place on the National Mall. But Obama made no reference to Ávila and limited his remarks on immigration to a short passage. "This has been the same rhetoric that we’ve been hearing for the last five years," says Lorella Praeli, director of advocacy and policy at the United We Dream coalition. "For us, we don’t need to give any room to the president on deportations, and we don’t need to give any more room to Republicans on immigration either. We have been waiting and fighting to get something done. The president’s remarks could have gone in deeper and set some legislative markers as well."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: On the issue of immigration, at last night’s State of the Union a DREAM activist was among the guests invited by first lady Michelle Obama. And that was 23-year-old Cristian Ávila of Arizona, fasted for 22 days to push for immigration reform as part of the Fast for Families campaign, which took place on the National Mall. But Obama made no reference to Ávila and limited his remarks on immigration to this short passage.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: If we’re serious about economic growth, it is time to heed the call of business leaders, labor leaders, faith leaders, law enforcement, and fix our broken immigration system. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have acted. And I know that members of both parties in the House want to do the same. Independent economists say immigration reform will grow our economy and shrink our deficits by almost $1 trillion in the next two decades. And for good reason: When people come here to fulfill their dreams—to study, invent, contribute to our culture—they make our country a more attractive place for businesses to locate and create jobs for everybody. So let’s get immigration reform done this year.
AMY GOODMAN: Lorella Praeli, your response to President Obama addressing immigration last night?
LORELLA PRAELI: So, this has been the same rhetoric that we’ve been hearing for the last five years—President Obama getting up and saying, "It’s time for immigration reform. I’m committed to making it happen." And I think some people interpret last night’s 121 words, or one paragraph, on immigration by the president as his positioning to be a little bit more cautious, given that the Republican Party is about to release their principles on immigration reform and the way forward. But frankly, for us, we don’t need to give any room to the president on deportations, and we don’t need to give any more room to Republicans on immigration, either, because we have been waiting and we have been fighting to get something done. So I think that the president’s remarks could have—could have really gone in deeper into the details and set some legislative markers, as well. He spent quite a bit of time in his speech talking about the meaning of citizenship. He spoke a lot about American values. And I think he could have connected the current struggle and the current conversation happening in America, about what does it mean to be an American, what does it mean when we talk about citizenship, and how do we treat and deal and integrate the 11 million people who are undocumented. So I think he didn’t do enough in this year’s State of the Union, especially given that he says immigration reform is his top domestic priority.
AMY GOODMAN: Lorella, we want to talk about what it was like there last night—you were an invited guest—and also go more into detail about what is holding up any kind of vote on immigration reform, and also talk about your own story. Lorella Praeli is with the United We Dream coalition. Jeremy Scahill has an Oscar-nominated film this year; it is called Dirty Wars. And Bob Herbert is with us, former New York Times columnist with Demos. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: "Dear Mr. President," Pete Seeger and The Almanac Singers. Pete died at the age of 94 on Monday here in New York at Columbia Presbyterian. President Obama did issue a statement from the White House yesterday before the State of the Union address about Pete Seeger, saying, "Once called ’America’s tuning fork,’ Pete Seeger believed deeply in the power of song. But more importantly, he believed in the power of community—to stand up for what’s right, speak out against what’s wrong and move this country closer to the America he knew we could be." He said, "Over the years, Pete used his voice—and his hammer—to strike blows for workers’ rights and civil rights, world peace and environmental conservation."
This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: In the Republican reaction to Obama’s State of the Union address, Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington said securing our borders is a key part of immigration reform.
REP. CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS: Yes, it’s time to honor our history of legal immigration. We’re working on a step-by-step solution to immigration reform, by first securing our borders and making sure America will always attract the best, brightest and hardest-working from around the world. And with too many Americans living paycheck to paycheck, we have solutions to help you take home more of your pay, through lower taxes, cheaper energy costs and affordable healthcare.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Lorella Praeli, your response to what she said, and also if you could say a little bit more about what you think is preventing President Obama from taking further action on immigration?
LORELLA PRAELI: Sure. I mean, we’re waiting for—you know, to the Republican Party and to members of the Republican conference, we say, "Show us your bills." Right? So, they’re about to go into—they are now in their three-day retreat in Maryland, and they’re going to talk about and shop around their Republican principles. And I think it’s great that they’re making progress, but I really do think that it’s not enough. We’ve been fighting for this. We’ve been having a conversation about immigration for over a decade in this country. The Senate was able to produce a bill by last June 2013, and since then, House Republicans have been really trying to figure out how to move this issue forward, how to deal with it in their conference. So, you know, they can continue to say it’s a step-by-step approach. They can continue to use the talking points of "we need to secure our borders first." The real question today is: Show us your plan, show us your bills, so that we can begin to actually have a conversation about what the ultimate solution is going to be.
AMY GOODMAN: Lorella—
LORELLA PRAELI: And I think—
AMY GOODMAN: President Obama talked about executive action on, for example, increasing the minimum wage for workers who work for federal contractors. What about on the issue of immigration? He continually says his hands are tied. What could he do as president?
LORELLA PRAELI: There’s a lot more he can do. He can start by enforcing and implementing his own priority policies, right? So he is saying that "I’m only removing serious criminals from the United States," and the truth is that that is actually factually inaccurate. The president is going after families. The president’s policies are separating families. We lost one of—we lost the father of two U.S. citizen kids last month. He was held in detention for over a year—his name is Ardani—all because of a minor traffic violation. He missed the birth of his second child and was then deported. He doesn’t need any priority. The administration’s policies made him deportable, and that’s what ended up happening.
And so, we think that there’s more that the president can do to stop the pain in the community and to stop the separation. He can use his pen, just like he did on DACA, right? He came out with this policy and said, "DREAMers are not a priority for my administration. We are going to make sure that they stay here, that they have an opportunity to work here, until Congress takes action." Now, Congress has been having a debate on immigration for a long time. And we are, as United We Dream, committed to seeing a legislative, permanent fix to this issue, but we cannot kid ourselves. Since this debate started after the 2012 elections, over 400,000 people have been deported. So we’re coming to the president and saying, "You also ought to use your pen to stop the pain in the community. You’ve got to use the pen to make sure that you’re not deporting people who ought to be in the United States with their families. And there’s more that you can do today and continue to fight for immigration reform."
AMY GOODMAN: You talked about DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Lorella. You, yourself, gained legal status through this, after fighting for this, fasting for this, marching for this, among many other young immigrants. Talk about your own personal experience and last night being there. I mean, what’s interesting about a young immigrant activist like you is you were very much on the outside, risking everything, risking deportation of yourselves and your families, and now you’re being invited to the State of the Union address. Explain the feeling. You have access to at least speak to these people, whether or not they’re passing the legislation you’re pushing for. What was it like to be inside?
LORELLA PRAELI: It was really—it was kind of unreal, to be honest. I think that—I think about my own journey, and I think about the journey of all of the DREAMers who we work with on a regular basis. And I think about the sacrifices that our parents have made for that, for yesterday, to be possible, for me to be at—
AMY GOODMAN: Tell us your own story, quickly, Lorella.
LORELLA PRAELI: So, I came here when I was 11 years old. I had had a car accident, and my right leg was amputated. I had treatment in Shriners Hospital in the United States. And I was undocumented for almost 13 years. And I was actually able to adjust my status and get my green card a year and a half ago. But I spent many years—I spent many years being afraid of living my life, of being who I am, and feeling very ashamed of being undocumented. And it was because I found United We Dream and the immigrant youth movement that I felt empowered, and I came out of the shadows, and I began to talk about what it meant and what it was like to be undocumented, and then worked to pass a tuition equity bill in Connecticut, and then came to advocate for the DREAM Act here.
So it’s been a real evolution for many DREAMers. We have gone from being undocumented and afraid to being undocumented and unafraid and demanding what we think is right, working for a more just society, and really honoring the sacrifices that our parents have made, Amy, because I would not be here today speaking with you, speaking with America and sharing my story, had it not been for all of the sacrifices that my mom made for this to be possible. She pushed me when I wanted to give up. She left her own country, her own comfort zone, and every day risks deportation for my dreams to be true.
So that is what this fight is about. That’s what this conversation in 2014 ought to be about. We know that there are proposals to secure the border. We know that there are—there’s a conversation happening about creating a pathway to legalization and an opportunity for citizenship. But we’ve got to remember who we’re talking about. We’re not talking about criminals. We’re talking about people like Chela Praeli, who raised me in America.
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HEADLINES:
Obama Seeks Guantánamo Closure, Support for Iran Deal in SOTU Address
President Obama delivered the fifth State of the Union of his time in office with a vow to take action on his own should Congress stonewall progress on key issues. Obama pledged to reform NSA surveillance programs and veto new sanctions on Iran while the interim nuclear deal is in effect. He also renewed his call for the closure of the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay.
President Obama: "With the Afghan War ending, this needs to be the year Congress lifts the remaining restrictions on detainee transfers and we close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, because we counter terrorism not just through intelligence and military action, but by remaining true to our constitutional ideals and setting an example for the rest of the world. … The sanctions that we put in place helped make this opportunity possible. But let me be clear: If this Congress sends me a new sanctions bill now that threatens to derail these talks, I will veto it. For the sake of our national security, we must give diplomacy a chance to succeed."
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GOP Suggests Challenge to Minimum Wage Hike for Federal Workers
On the domestic front, President Obama announced an executive order lifting the minimum wage for federal contractors to at least $10.10 an hour. He also called on Congress to lift the minimum wage for all workers to that same amount, and urged CEOs to act voluntarily with the same increase for their employees. Republicans have already hinted at legal action to stop some of Obama’s stated plans to take action on his own. House Speaker John Boehner said he does not think the lifting of the minimum wage will help workers.
House Speaker John Boehner: "Well, I suspect the president has the authority to raise the minimum wage for those dealing with federal contracts. Let’s understand something: This affects not one current contract. It only affects future contracts with the federal government. And so, I think the question is: How many people, Mr. President, will this executive action actually help? I suspect the answer is somewhere close to zero."
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Syria Talks Resume after Assad Regime Cites "Terrorist" Backing
The Syrian peace talks have resumed in Switzerland today after a breakdown in negotiations. The United Nations suspended the sessions on Tuesday after the Syrian government demanded the conference criticize the United States for arming what it called "terrorist" groups in the Syrian opposition. Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said that despite high tensions, the talks will continue.
Lakhdar Brahimi: "These are not easy negotiations. And they haven’t been easy today, they haven’t been easy these past days, and they will probably not be easy in the coming few days. But I’m glad that you have been told by representatives of the two sides that they intend to stay and to continue these discussions until Friday, as originally planned. So nobody is walking out. Nobody is running away."
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Homs Remains Without Aid Despite Gov’t Pledge
The Syrian government claimed earlier this week it is prepared to grant humanitarian access to besieged civilians in the city of Homs. But a U.N. spokesperson said the World Food Programme has yet to receive the needed permission to send in supplies.
Elisabeth Byrs: "The U.N. hub in Homs is preparing for an inter-agency convoy to deliver urgently needed humanitarian assistance to besieged families who have been trapped in the old city of Homs and not receiving humanitarian assistance for almost two years. WFP has trucks on standby to deliver food for trapped families and is also prepared to provide ready-to-eat food rations to women and children who choose to be evacuated from the old city of Homs, if access is granted."
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Egypt Orders Trial for 20 Detained Al Jazeera Journalists
Egypt’s top prosecutor has moved to force 20 journalists with the news network Al Jazeera to stand trial. The group of 16 Egyptians and four foreigners face charges of aiding a terrorist group and "spreading false news." It is the first case of terror-related charges against journalists and foreigners since the government declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization last month.
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U.N. Security Council Approves European Troop Deployment to Central African Republic
The U.N. Security Council has approved a new deployment of European soldiers to the Central African Republic. The move comes amid continued warnings the country’s sectarian conflict between Christian and Muslims could turn into a genocide. French U.N. Ambassador Gérard Araud said European forces will take control of a camp for displaced residents in the capital of Bangui.
Gérard Araud: "We are starting, I think, to stabilize the situation, but it’s still very fragile. So we really do need the arrival of the European forces, because our contingent for the moment has been largely committed to the protection of the 100,000 IDPs who have taken refuge on the airport — 100,000, which is really a city. So the European Union will protect these people, and it will allow the French forces to deploy more strongly to the city of Bangui."
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Latin American, Caribbean Leaders Meet in Cuba
Latin American and Caribbean leaders are in Cuba for the second annual summit of a regional grouping that excludes the United States and Canada. The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States held its first gathering last year as a counterweight to forums that exclude Cuba, such as the Summit of the Americas. The Organization of American States re-admitted Cuba in 2009, but Cuba has refused to join so long as the U.S. embargo continues. On Monday, Cuban President Raúl Castro said Latin American and Caribbean countries are forging greater ties after years of U.S. domination.
Cuban President Raúl Castro: "Independently from our progress, we continue to live in a world regulated by an unfair and selective world order, in which threats to peace and external meddling in the region continue. We can’t forget the long history of intervention in internal affairs, military invasions and bloody coup d’états. The so-called 'centers of power' do not resign to the fact that they have lost control in this rich region, nor will they resign their attempts to change the course of history in our countries in order to recover their lost influence and benefit from its resources."
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Tunisia Approves Landmark Constitution
Tunisia has approved its first constitution since the 2011 uprising that ousted President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. The charter passed the National Assembly by an overwhelming majority following a months-long deadlock. Seen as one of the most progressive constitutions in the region, it designates Islam as the national religion, but guarantees freedom of worship and recognizes gender equality.
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Study: 85 Richest People Hold Wealth Equal to 3.5 Billion Poorest
A new study says the world’s 85 richest people have as much as wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest people — half of the global population. According to Oxfam, the wealth of the world’s richest 1 percent amounts to $110 trillion — 65 times the total for the global bottom half. Seven out of 10 people worldwide live in countries where inequality has grown over the last three decades.
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GOP Rep. Resigns Following Cocaine Arrest
Republican Congressmember Trey Radel of Florida has resigned two months after pleading guilty to misdemeanor possession of cocaine. Radel was arrested in October followed by a stint in rehab. He had voiced his intention to remain in office but came under pressure from fellow Republicans to step down. Radel’s arrest came just weeks after he voted for a provision that would force food stamprecipients to undergo drug testing.
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Postal Workers Rally Against Gov’t Contract with Staples
Dozens of U.S. Postal Service workers rallied in San Francisco on Tuesday in protest of government plans to expand postal services to the office retail giant Staples, despite its use of non-union workers. Postal workers say they intend to hold a number of ongoing rallies against the move.
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College Football Team Seeks Unionization; Player Comes Out as Gay
In sporting news, two historic firsts have come out of the world of college football. Players at Northwestern University have filed papers to become recognized as a union. The players are not seeking a salary from the billions in revenue generated by the NCAA, but want medical protections for concussions and other injuries, as well as guarantees on their academic scholarships. Meanwhile, a member of Oregon’s Willamette University football team has become the first active player to come out as openly gay. Conner Mertens, who is bisexual, says he went public in order to help closeted gays avoid feeling stigmatized. Mertens said: "I made the decision that if I could help anyone else avoid feeling the way I felt, I would."
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Supreme Court Halts Missouri Execution over Disclosure of Lethal Drug
The U.S. Supreme Court has halted the execution of a Missouri prisoner after state officials refused to disclose the source of the drug that was to be used to take his life. Herbert Smulls was due to be executed at midnight Wednesday for a 1991 murder. But his attorneys won a stay after arguing Missouri should be forced to name the compound pharmacy used to produce the lethal drug, which is not subject to federal oversight.
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11 Arrested Protesting Agri-giant Monsanto
At least 11 people were arrested Tuesday in a protest outside the annual shareholders meeting of the agribusiness giant Monsanto. Inside the meeting, activist shareholders presented resolutions calling for the labeling of genetically engineered products and the completion of a report accounting for the environmental and social impacts of GMO production. Both measures were voted down. Outside the meeting, activists were placed in handcuffs after carrying out a sit-in.
Protester: "Monsanto is fighting democratic efforts to label genetically modified food. We’re here at the Monsanto shareholders meeting to let Monsanto know they can’t go around the country fighting Americans’ right to know what they’re eating. We have a right to know. We need to label GMO food."
Monsanto won a key victory earlier this month after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by organic farmers seeking to prevent the company from suing if crops are inadvertently contaminated with its genetically modified seeds. Monsanto has pursued more than 800 patent cases against farmers for allegedly using its seeds without paying.
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