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.
-------
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.
-------
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."
-------
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."
-------
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."
-------
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."
-------
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.
-------
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."
-------
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."
-------
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.
-------
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.
-------
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.
-------
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.
-------
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."
-------
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.
-------
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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