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 The militant group Islamic State has released a video which appears to show the second beheading of a U.S. journalist in as many weeks. Steven Sotloff is seen wearing an orange jumpsuit similar to those worn by foreign prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. He kneels in the same position as ISIS’s previous victim, James Foley. As a masked person stands over him with a knife, Sotloff speaks directly to the camera and recites what appears to be a coerced statement about "paying the price" for U.S. airstrikes against the group. Sotloff was kidnapped about a year ago in Syria while working as a freelance journalist. To discuss the beheadings and the danger journalists face while reporting in Syria, we are joined by Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria released a video on Tuesday which appears to show the second beheading of a U.S. journalist in two weeks. In the video, Steven Sotloff is seen wearing an orange jumpsuit, like the prisoners at Guantánamo. He is kneeling in the same position as ISIS’s previous victim, journalist James Foley. As a masked person stands over him with a knife, Sotloff speaks directly to the camera, says he is, quote, "paying the price" for U.S. airstrikes against the group. Sotloff was kidnapped about a year ago in Syria while working as a freelance journalist. President Obama addressed the killing of Steven Sotloff earlier today during his trip to Estonia.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Like Jim Foley before him, Steve’s life stood in sharp contrast to those who murdered him so brutally. They make the absurd claim that they kill in the name of religion, but it was Steven, his friends say, who deeply loved the Islamic world. His killers try to claim that they defend the oppressed, but it was Steven who traveled across the Middle East risking his life to tell the story of Muslim men and women demanding justice and dignity. Whatever these murderers think they’ll achieve by killing innocent Americans like Steven, they have already failed. They’ve failed because, like people around the world, Americans are repulsed by their barbarism. We will not be intimidated. Their horrific acts only unite us as a country and stiffen our resolve to take the fight against these terrorists.
AMY GOODMAN: Joining us now is Robert Mahoney. He’s deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. We’re also joined by Mohammed al Dulaimy, an Iraqi journalist who reports for McClatchy Newspapers, reported from Iraq for years, is now seeking asylum in the United States out of fear for his safety if he returned. He has just recently come on television to talk about the situation in Iraq. I wanted to go first to Robert Mahoney. Can you talk about Steven Sotloff?
ROBERT MAHONEY: Yes. First of all, you know, we are horrified by the fact that this is the second journalist in just over two weeks to be butchered in this way in front of a camera. Steven is one of those journalists who had a passion for the Middle East. He learned Arabic. He lived in Yemen. And he went there in full knowledge of the great risks that he was taking in order to bear witness for us and bring us reports. And he’s been brutally murdered. He is one of about 71 journalists that we have documented at the Committee to Protect Journalists who have died as a result of reporting on the Syrian conflict over the last three years. That’s a very heavy toll. And he’s one of those 80 who have been taken hostage, journalists. There are around 20, we believe, left, and the majority of those are Syrians.
AMY GOODMAN: Twenty. Where are they being held?
ROBERT MAHONEY: We don’t know precisely, but they were taken in Syria. The problem is that when journalists cross from Turkey into Syria, they can be captured, and then they could be passed on by the many groups that have been taking journalists in Syria over the last three years. So, they could be anywhere. And the video looks like any part of northeast Syria or parts of Iraq. There’s no way for us to tell where that is. Though it may be for experts [inaudible].
AMY GOODMAN: Now, can you tell us, at the end of the video, there is another journalist, just like we saw Steven Sotloff in the video for James Foley when he was executed and they said Sotloff would be next. Talk about the next journalist. He’s British, is that right?
ROBERT MAHONEY: Yeah. My understanding is that he’s a humanitarian worker and not a journalist. And he’s British. The British government has asked the British press not to name him, and they haven’t. He has been named in the American press. But he is not, to my knowledge, a journalist.
AMY GOODMAN: And what does this mean now?
ROBERT MAHONEY: Well, first of all, it shows that the journalists and other hostages are being used as political pawns. I don’t know whether the Islamic State jihadists had any intention of ever ransoming or releasing the people that they’ve taken, because they are killing them. Journalists have been taken hostage for many years in the Middle East, going back to Lebanon, but they were kept alive. The idea was that they would be used for some criminal or political purpose. But the Islamic State have taken this to a new level of barbarity, as far as we’re concerned, because the demands we heard that were made in terms of money for James Foley were so outrageous, over $130 million, that they were never even taken seriously. So I don’t think that there’s any real chance of negotiating with these captors.
AMY GOODMAN: The Committee to Protect Journalists recently talked about the 20 people who were held hostage. You made a decision to make that public. Can you talk about how you found out who they were?
ROBERT MAHONEY: Through research with Syrian groups on the ground, Syrian journalists, talking to families, employers. When there is a request by a news organization not to talk about its employees that have been taken, we follow that. We respect the families’ wishes or the employers’ wishes. But most of these journalists that have been taken are Syrians, and there’s very few people to stand up and advocate for them. So we’ve made a point of documenting their cases and putting their names out there, too.
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 Ukraine has retracted an earlier claim to have reached a ceasefire with Russia. The office of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko initially said he agreed with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on steps toward a ceasefire with pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. But the Kremlin then denied a ceasefire agreement, saying it is in no position to make a deal because it is not a party to the fighting. Ukraine has accused Russia of direct involvement in the violence amidst a recent escalation. The confusion comes as President Obama visits the former Soviet republic of Estonia ahead of a major NATO summit in Wales. On Tuesday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest outlined NATO’s plans to expand its presence in eastern Europe. Ukraine and NATO have accused Russia of sending armored columns of troops into Ukraine, but Russia has denied its troops are involved in fighting on the ground. We are joined by Jack Matlock, U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to the crisis in Ukraine, where more than 2,600 people have been killed since April. Earlier today, Ukraine said its president had agreed with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on steps towards a ceasefire with pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, but the Kremlin denied any actual truce deal had been formalized. Initially, the Ukrainian presidential website had claimed a permanent ceasefire had been reached, but then the statement was retracted.
The confusion comes as President Obama visits the former Soviet republic of Estonia ahead of a major NATO summit in Wales. On Tuesday, White House spokesperson Josh Earnest outlined NATO’s plans to expand its presence in eastern Europe.
PRESS SECRETARY JOSH EARNEST: The United States, in cooperation with our allies, plans to significantly increase the readiness of a NATO response force to ensure that the alliance is prepared to respond to threats in a timely fashion. This will involved training, exercises and discussions about what kinds of infrastructure will be required in the Baltics, in Poland, in Romania and other states on the eastern frontier to deal with the world in which they face new concerns about Russian intentions.
AMY GOODMAN: Ukraine and NATO have accused Russia of sending armored columns of troops into Ukraine, but Russia has denied its troops are involved in fighting on the ground. Over the past week, the Russian-backed rebels have made a number of advances in eastern Ukraine. On Monday, rebels took control of the airport in the city of Luhansk. Now they’re storming the airport in Donetsk, the biggest city under their control. On Tuesday, an Italian newspaper reported Putin had told outgoing European Commission President José Manuel Barroso that he could take Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, within two weeks, if he wanted to. The Kremlin said the remark was taken out of context.
Joining us now is Jack Matlock, served as U.S. ambassador to the former Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991, author of several books, including Superpower Illusions: How Myths and False Ideologies Led America Astray—And How to Return to Reality, as well as Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended.
Ambassador Matlock, we welcome you to Democracy Now! What do you think is most important to understand what’s happening in Ukraine today?
JACK MATLOCK: Well, I think one of the most important things to understand is that, practically speaking, the Ukrainians and the Russians have to agree on what would be an acceptable way to proceed within Ukraine. That is the fact of the matter. And one can, you know, talk all one wishes about how impermissible it is for Russia to intervene, but the fact is they are going to intervene until they are certain that there is no prospect of Ukraine becoming a member of NATO. And all of the threats by NATO and so on to sort of increase defenses elsewhere is simply provocative to the Russians. Now, I’m not saying that’s right, but I am saying that’s the way Russia is going to react. And frankly, this is all predictable. And those of us who helped negotiate the end of the Cold War almost unanimously said in the 1990s, "Do not expand NATO eastward. Find a different way to protect eastern Europe, a way that includes Russia. Otherwise, eventually there’s going to be a confrontation, because there is a red line, as far as any Russian government is concerned, when it comes to Ukraine and Georgia and other former republics of the Soviet Union."
AMY GOODMAN: On Sunday—
JACK MATLOCK: I would say, with the exception of the three Baltic states. They were a special case.
AMY GOODMAN: On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for immediate negotiations on the statehood of southern and eastern Ukraine. On Monday, Putin blamed Kiev’s leadership for declining to participate in direct political talks with the separatists. This is what he said.
PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: [translated] What is the essence of the tragedy that is happening in Ukraine right now? I think the main reason for that is that the current Kiev leadership does not want to carry out a substantive political dialogue with the east of its country. And so, right now, in my opinion, a very important process, a process of direct talks, starts. We have been working on it for a long time, and we agreed upon that with President Poroshenko in Minsk. We start to have—or renew, to be precise—this sort of contact.
AMY GOODMAN: Ambassador Matlock, the significance of what President Putin is saying?
JACK MATLOCK: Well, it does seem to me that, practically speaking, there needs to be an understanding between Russia and the Ukrainians as to how to solve this problem. It is not going to be solved militarily. So the idea that we should be giving more help to the Ukrainian government in a military sense simply exacerbates the problem. And the basic problem is Ukraine is a deeply divided country. And as long as one side tries to impose its will on the other—and that is what has happened since February, the Ukrainian nationalists in the west have been trying to impose their will on the east, and the Russians aren’t going to permit that. And that is the fact of the matter. So, yes, there simply needs to be an agreement.
And most of the—I would say, the influence of the West in trying to help the Ukrainians by, I would say, defending them against the Russians tends to be provocative, because—you know, Putin is right: If he decided, he could take Kiev. Russia is a nuclear power. And Russia feels that we have ignored that, that we have insulted them time and time again, and that we are out to turn Ukraine into an American puppet that surrounds them. And, you know, with that sort of psychology, by resisting that, in Russian eyes, he has gained unprecedented popularity. So, it seems to me that we have to understand that, like it or not, the Ukrainians are going to have to make an agreement that’s acceptable to them, if they keep their unity.
AMY GOODMAN: Speaking to reporters Thursday, President Obama said the U.S. will collaborate with its NATO allies in dealing with the Ukraine crisis, but he ruled out military action against Russia.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We will continue to stand firm with our allies and partners that what is happening is wrong, that there is a solution that allows Ukraine and Russia to live peacefully. But it is not in the cards for us to see a military confrontation between Russia and the United States in this region. Keep in mind, however, that I’m about to go to a NATO conference. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but a number of those states that are close by are. And we take our Article 5 commitments to defend each other very seriously.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s President Obama. Ambassador Jack Matlock, you say, you know, Russia is very threatened by the possibility Ukraine would join NATO. Most people in the United States, I don’t think, understand the politics of NATO. It’s not on people’s radar. Why is NATO such a threat? And what was the agreement that was originally worked out around NATO, with Ukraine and also in the Baltics, in Lithuania and Latvia and Estonia—Estonia, where President Obama is right now?
JACK MATLOCK: Well, they are members of NATO. They will be defended. Russia is not threatening them militarily. Of course we will defend them, because they are members of NATO. Ukraine is not a member of NATO. And why we react as if it is and has any claim on our cooperation in defending them from Russia, this is simply not the case. These are different cases. And, you know, by saying we have to increase our military presence in the Baltic states, this just reinforced the Russian perception that they must, and at all costs, keep Ukraine from that happening, or else they’ll have American bases in Ukraine, they’ll have American naval bases on the Black Sea. This is the fear. And it seems to me that it is not necessary to protect the Baltics, which are not being threatened by Russia, and it is apt to make the Russians even more demanding toward the Ukrainians when it comes to Ukraine. However, you know, we’re on that course, clearly. The Estonians and others feel that they could be threatened. But I think there is no question that as members of NATO, they would be defended by the United States, and Russia is not going to present a military challenge to them. But they are going to do whatever they consider necessary to make sure this doesn’t happen in Ukraine.
AMY GOODMAN: What about NATO officials saying they plan to approve a NATO rapid reaction force that would, what, be a 4,000-member force that could be rapidly deployed to eastern Europe in response to what they called Russia’s aggressive behavior?
JACK MATLOCK: Well, I’m not aware of what that aggressive behavior in regard to the Baltic states is. And again, I think that’s unnecessary, and it tends to make the Russians even more demanding when it comes to Ukraine.
AMY GOODMAN: And talk about the original understanding of NATO and Russia. Go back a ways to understand what the deal was worked out between Russia and NATO allies.
JACK MATLOCK: Well, when the Berlin Wall came down, when eastern Europe began to try to free itself from the Communist rule, the first President Bush, George Herbert Walker Bush, met with Gorbachev in Malta, and they made a very important statement. One was we were no longer enemies. The second was the Soviet Union would not intervene in eastern Europe to keep Communist rule there. And in response, the United States would not take advantage of that.
Now, this was a—you might say, a gentlemen’s agreement between Gorbachev and President Bush. It was one which was echoed by the other Western leaders—the British prime minister, the German chancellor, the French president. As we negotiated German unity, there the question was: Could a united Germany stay in NATO? At first, Gorbachev said, "No, if they unite, they have to leave NATO." And we said, "Look, let them unite. Let them stay in NATO. But we will not extend NATO to the territory of East Germany." Well, it turned out that legally you couldn’t do it that way, so in the final agreement it was that all of Germany would stay in NATO, but that the territory of East Germany would be special, in that there would be no foreign troops—that is, no non-German troops—and no nuclear weapons. Now, later—at that time, the Warsaw Pact was still in place. We weren’t talking about eastern Europe. But the statements made were very general. At one point, Secretary Baker told Gorbachev NATO jurisdiction would not move one inch to the east. Well, he had the GDR in mind, but that’s not what he said specifically.
So, yes, if I had been asked when I was ambassador of the United States in Moscow in 1991, "Is there an understanding that NATO won’t move to the east?" I would have said, "Yes, there is." However, it was not a legal commitment, and one could say that once the Soviet Union collapsed, any agreement then maybe didn’t hold, except that when you think about it, if there was no reason to expand NATO when the Soviet Union existed, there was even less reason when the Soviet Union collapsed and you were talking about Russia. And the reason many of us—myself, George Kennan, many of us—argued against NATO expansion in the '90s was precisely to avoid the sort of situation we have today. It was totally predictable. If we start expanding NATO, as we get closer to the Russian border, they are going to consider this a hostile act. And at some point, they will draw a line, and they will do anything within their power to keep it from going any further. That's what we’re seeing today.
AMY GOODMAN: Jack Matlock, we’re going to ask you to stay with us. Jack Matlock served as U.S. ambassador to Moscow from 1987 to 1991. We’ll continue this discussion, and then we’ll talk about the beheading of Steven Sotloff, the freelance journalist, by ISIS and the U.S. response in Iraq. Stay with us.
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 We continue our coverage of Ukraine by looking at the humanitarian crisis on the ground. According to the United Nations, more than one million people have been displaced by the fighting. Some 800,000 Ukrainians have fled to Russia, another 260,000 are displaced inside Ukraine. We speak to Ole Solvang, senior emergency researcher for Human Rights Watch. He returned recently returned from eastern Ukraine and is the lead author of the new HRW report, "Ukraine: Rising Civilian Toll in Luhansk." The report details how both Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels are contributing to the rising death toll in the besieged city where many residents have not had electricity, gas and running water for weeks. Food and fuel are running low.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We continue our coverage of Ukraine by looking at the humanitarian crisis on the ground. According to the United Nations, more than a million people have been displaced by the fighting. Over 800,000 Ukrainians have fled to Russia; another 260,000 are displaced inside Ukraine.
Joining us from Paris, France, is Ole Solvang, a senior emergency researcher for Human Rights Watch. He just returned recently from eastern Ukraine, is the lead author of the new report, "Ukraine: Rising Civilian Toll in Luhansk." The report details how both Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels are contributing to the rising death toll in the besieged city, where many residents have not had electricity, gas and running water for weeks. Also still with us, Jack Matlock, who served as U.S. ambassador to the former Soviet Union from ’87 to ’91.
Ole Solvang, talk about the situation on the ground right now, and describe the map of Ukraine for us, where the crisis is.
OLE SOLVANG: Well, Luhansk is a city that has been under siege by the Ukrainian army for several weeks now. It’s held by the separatist forces. So, it is a place that’s difficult to get into. All communications are cut. And so, we know less about what’s going on in Luhansk than in other places, and that’s part of the reason why we felt that it was so important to get there.
An interesting thing was that when you arrived in Luhansk in the afternoon, it was—it seemed completely empty. It seemed like a ghost town. There was nobody in the street. But then, in the morning, very early on, from around 6:00 in the morning, you would see dozens, hundreds of people lining up in the street at water and food distribution points. The city has not had running water—most of the residents have not had running water for weeks and no electricity. And so, the humanitarian situation there is quite difficult. They’re running out of food, they’re running out of fuel.
But perhaps the most—the biggest challenge for people living there, as they told us, was the ongoing bombardment, the ongoing shelling. Nearly daily, there are strikes in the city, including in the city center, but particularly on the outskirt. And we saw that ourselves. And we looked into these—some of these strikes, and they appear to be indiscriminate. They are killing and injuring civilians. A morgue doctor there said that about 300 civilians had died in Luhansk city alone since the military operations started there in May.
AMY GOODMAN: And if you could describe for us just where Luhansk and Donetsk is in relation to Russia, draw a word map for us.
OLE SOLVANG: Sure. So, both Donetsk and Luhansk are in eastern Ukraine. Donetsk is the bigger of the cities. Normally, it has about one million inhabitants. Luhansk is about half that size. But Luhansk is much closer to the Russian border. It’s fairly close there. And right now, when I was there, at least, the Ukrainian army had surrounded the city Luhansk, and they were fighting, very intensive fighting, on the outskirts. Now, in the recent—as we heard on the news in recent days, the separatists have launched counteroffensives and taken back the airport, for example. But the situation there is still very difficult.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the number of deaths and who is responsible for these deaths in the area?
OLE SOLVANG: Well, it’s difficult to establish with certainty how many civilians have suffered, how many civilians have been killed. And it’s even more difficult to establish how many soldiers and fighter separatists have been killed, but our focus is on the civilians. So, in Luhansk, the first thing we did was go to the morgue in Luhansk city, and the head of the morgue told us that they had registered more than 300 civilians who had been killed. And he said that all of them had been killed—almost all of them, there were a few exceptions, had been killed by shrapnel injuries from artillery and rocket shelling. The morgue also was having difficulties operating without electricity. When we got there, there were 17 bodies lying outside on the lawn, and the morgue was hoping to get generators starting again to get the fridges starting again.
Who is responsible? In many cases, it’s difficult to determine with certainty. I think there is, logically, if you look at the situation—the separatists are holding the city, the Ukrainian army is trying to retake the city, so, logically, I think that there is an assumption that rockets, artillery shells that fall within the city come from the Ukrainian army. The Ukrainian government is claiming that these are rebels firing into their own areas. There might be cases of that, but in most of the cases we looked at, the evidence pointed to the Ukrainian army. For example, we know that the central market in Luhansk was hit by a shell that burned down half of the market and killed four people. Right next to the central market is the headquarters of the separatists, which is a strong indication that that might have been the target of the Ukrainian army, and in this particular attack, they just missed and hit the central market instead.
AMY GOODMAN: And the vast numbers of refugees, internal and those leaving Ukraine, Ole?
OLE SOLVANG: Well, there are vast numbers, and what we’re seeing, more and more are coming out. And, you know, we’ve spoken to many of them. They do cite the difficult humanitarian situation in Luhansk, in particular. But most of them said that the determining factor for them, the trigger point, if you will, was the increased shelling in their neighborhoods. Many of the people we spoke to could cite several examples in their neighborhoods or in their streets where shells had fallen, hit houses, burned down houses or killed civilians. So this is really, you know, one of the main driving factors that are driving people out of these cities and into Ukraine or into Russia.
AMY GOODMAN: Ambassador Matlock, what do you think should be the approach? President Obama will be giving a major speech today where he is, in Estonia. The NATO summit is taking place in Wales. What do you think should happen? What do you think would solve this crisis in Ukraine?
JACK MATLOCK: Well, I hope that the diplomatic efforts, the quiet diplomatic efforts, are going to start bearing some fruit. It does seem to me that a lot of the public rhetoric doesn’t help, and the accusations back and forth, no matter how accurate. I think President Obama recently has been much more restrained than some of the other spokespersons. So I don’t want to be focusing entirely on that, except that we have to understand the Russian attitude, which is that what they’re doing is defending from Western interference, therefore anything that seems to challenge that simply stimulates, you might say, the opposite reaction from Russia. It is a tragic situation, particularly for the people directly involved. No question about that. And it’s only going to be solved, I think, by negotiations where both the Russians and the Ukrainian government is reasonable in what they demand of the other and what they agree upon. There is going to have to be a settlement there between the two. That’s where it has to be. And I think outsiders need to be a little careful that they don’t seem to stimulate one side or the other to be more rigid than they should be. But I can’t predict what’s going to happen.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you think Russia wants, Ambassador Matlock?
JACK MATLOCK: But if it is solved, it will be solved by a quiet compromise between Russia and the Ukrainian leaders.
AMY GOODMAN: What does Russia want, Ambassador Matlock?
JACK MATLOCK: I’m sorry?
AMY GOODMAN: What does Russia want?
JACK MATLOCK: What does Russia want?
AMY GOODMAN: Yes.
JACK MATLOCK: They want a Ukraine that is not a threat to them, a friendly Ukraine. That’s what they want. And the people who seized power in Kiev in February are openly and vehemently anti-Russian. Now, they may have a good reason for that, but that view is not shared by the people in the east, who don’t necessarily want to be part of Russia, but they also don’t want a country which deprives them of free contact with Russia. And this is, in essence, a family fight. That’s something we have to understand, we outsiders. Ukraine is a very complex country, which has been put together rather artificially, to be frank, and without any real consultation of the Ukrainians as to where the borders were and so on. And to treat it as if it’s some primordial unified state is simply incorrect. So, you know, Ukraine is basically a house which since independence has been divided against itself. That is the basic problem. And outsiders taking one side or the other doesn’t help. It is inevitable that Russia is going to take a side, because it is part of their backyard. Many Russians would say part of their own heritage. So, we’re dealing with highly emotional issues, when we outsiders get involved. And when we start talking about military action and military alliances, we cause very irrational and very damaging reactions.
AMY GOODMAN: Ambassador Jack Matlock, I want to thank you for being with us, a former ambassador to the former Soviet Union from ’87 to ’91.
JACK MATLOCK: Glad to be with you. Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Great to have you with us. Among the books that he has written, Autopsy of an Empire: The American Ambassador’s Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Ole Solvang, while we still have you on satellite in Paris, France, I wanted to quickly switch gears to talk about what you have been working on for the past three to four years, though you haven’t been back recently because of the danger, and that’s Syria. If you could summarize for us what you understand is happening on the ground in Syria, what Human Rights Watch has found?
OLE SOLVANG: Well, what we’re finding, unfortunately, is that violations by the Syrian government continues, that indiscriminate shelling continues. We have received a lot of information about continued torture and deaths in custody. And, of course, recently, we have been focused very much on the threat that the Islamic State is posting and the violations that they’re committed. Just today, we released new findings about mass executions. We have now documented five sites in Tikrit with an estimated number of bodies anywhere from 500 up to almost 800 bodies in these mass graves who have been executed by—apparently executed by the Islamic State. So these are very, very serious violations.
I think what is also important to keep in mind, though, as the world is very much focused on these violations, is that we should not allow these—we should not allow these violations to make us turn a blind eye to the violations committed by the Syrian government and by the Iraqi government and Shia militias. And there is an argument to be made that violations by these two governments contributed to the rise of Islamic State by antagonizing the Sunni population. So what Human Rights Watch is calling for is really to be principled in terms of condemning all human rights violations, no matter who is doing them, even in the face of the very horrific violations that we’re seeing from the Islamic State.
AMY GOODMAN: Ole Solvang, I want to thank you for being with us, senior emergency researcher for Human Rights Watch, returned recently from Ukraine, is the lead author of the report on Ukraine called "Ukraine: Rising Civilian Toll in Luhansk," who also has spent the last years looking at the situation in Syria. This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we stay in Iraq and Syria and on the Islamic State. We’ll be joined by an Iraqi journalist, as well as a spokesperson for the Committee to Protect Journalists. Stay with us.
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 The videotaped beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff have heightened global concern about the militant group Islamic State and fueled talks of an international response to their advances in Syria and Iraq. We discuss ISIS with Mohammed al Dulaimy, an Iraqi journalist with McClatchy Newspapers. Dulaimy reported from Iraq for years and is now seeking asylum in the United States out of fear for his safety if he were to return.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Mohammed al Dulaimy, you are a journalist, as well, an Iraqi journalist. You’ve come here seeking political asylum. Your response to the beheading of Steven Sotloff and, before that, to James Foley?
MOHAMMED AL DULAIMY: First of all, I would like to pass my condolences to their families. It’s really an act of barbarism, as President Obama described it. And it’s clearly an indication that ISIS has felt the pain of the U.S. air raids that targeted them and made them taste the first defeat after all the, say, victories that they have achieved during the past two months.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the effect of the Islamic State on your country, on Iraq, right now? Who is supporting it? Who isn’t?
MOHAMMED AL DULAIMY: The Islamic State is something that not only Iraq, but the religion of Islam itself didn’t witness something like that, like this, in 1,400 years. And I would dare to say they have their own differences with many other radical movements that the region have witnessed. They are a very different group than anything else that we see, we saw or we read about in the history. The abnormal situation in the region and the sectarian tensions add to it, that the globalization add to it. The Internet, social media, the capability to reach people—all of that gave them a way to communicate and spread their radical thoughts. What’s it doing to my country? It’s killing my country. And for Islam, it’s also giving an image of Islam that cannot be accepted by any Muslim. Just a few days ago in Saudi Arabia and other countries, Sunni imams and muftis gave fatwas saying that the Islamic State is the enemy number one of Islam itself, and fighting it is a duty upon all Muslims. This is just to tell you how the majority of people are repelled by their actions.
AMY GOODMAN: Speaking at the White House last Thursday, President Obama said he’s asked the Pentagon to draw up a range of military options to build a regional coalition against the Islamic State.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I’ve asked Secretary Kerry to travel to the region to continue to build the coalition that’s needed to meet this threat. As I’ve said, rooting out a cancer like ISIL will not be quick or easy, but I’m confident that we can and we will, working closely with our allies and our partners. For our part, I’ve directed Secretary Hagel and our Joint Chiefs of Staff to prepare a range of options. I’ll be meeting with my National Security Council again this evening as we continue to develop that strategy.
AMY GOODMAN: Mohammed al Dulaimy, I’d like to ask your response to what President Obama says and what you think the United States should be doing? Should it be in Iraq right now?
MOHAMMED AL DULAIMY: I will tell you what I know as a fact. I know as a fact that IS can be defeated. I know as a fact, from all our sources on the ground, from all these long years of reporting and knowing the area very well, that their numbers are not that much. They were building on anger against the government, a government that is a proxy government working for Iran. And it started recruiting for civilians, and that complicated situation in Iraq gave a window for ISIS, now Islamic State, to seize on that.
Building a coalition could be done, and I think the United States could build it. But the problem that the U.S. faces now, and I think the policymakers in Washington are facing, is if they supported the Iranian-trained militias in defeating Islamic State, wouldn’t that be handing Iraq and Syria over to Iran? They don’t have a substitute to that. There is—Iraq has disintegrated. The military itself, that the U.S. have helped building, has collapsed. So I think it’s a policy dilemma.
What is going to happen in the country after the Islamic State defeat? And I will tell you an example that might simplify that. Ten days ago, in a town northern of Fallujah, the Islamic State members asked tribal fighters to pay allegiance for their self-proclaimed caliph. And when these fighters refused, they were threatened to be killed all. They were outnumbering IS, and the best estimate that they could have taken IS on, probably within a few days. But the fight wasn’t started, in fear that the surrounding Iraqi army, supported by the militias, will seize their chance and control the town, and probably a massacre will be committed against the town. That is in their estimate. And what they did, they chose to give their arms to Islamic State.
So all I’m saying is, the coalition could be built, but the society itself might not support any action on the ground, in fear of revenge by the pro-government forces. And the Islamic State response yesterday and today, they described it as a crusade against the Islamic State. They are trying to group around them other jihadi groups to pay them allegiance to face this coalition, so they are taking measures, and they are looking like afraid, and they’re trying to bring support by describing it as a crusade.
AMY GOODMAN: How significant is what has happened in Gaza to recruitment for Islamic State? Is that at all a role? Or, of course, the U.S. invasion of Iraq, does that play a role here?
MOHAMMED AL DULAIMY: I don’t see indications of Gaza role, especially in Iraq. But I would say complicated problems would—like, it has also a long list of solutions. And the recruitment with ISIS is a long list of reasons and a buildup of years, of more than a decade, of more than a decade. But I can tell you one thing that I know for sure, that the indiscriminate use of weapons against civilians by the Iraqi government is the number one. And we’ve talked to dozens of people who were so happy that the U.S. is involving, so at least a minimum casualties will happen among civilians, and especially among Sunnis. And that is what ISIS is afraid, that the people now look to the U.S. as a force that will try to bring minimal casualties to civilians. But I can’t see Gaza. I can see the U.S.-led invasion and the series of events that took place afterward. I can see the Iranian intervention—and I’m talking about Sunnis. And the whole regional situation is so complicated, and it all plays a role in this.
AMY GOODMAN: Mohammed, I wanted to end back with Robert Mahoney on the issue of journalists who cover this, to bring the faces, the names of the suffering on the ground to people all over the world. Are freelance journalists more in danger than anyone else? Certainly, Foley and Sotloff were freelancers.
ROBERT MAHONEY: Absolutely. And the majority of the journalists that have been going over into Syria and northern Iraq are freelancers. They don’t have the same deep institutional backing of a large multinational news organization or a big newspaper. What is happening is that they band together, they share information. Organizations like mine provide some basic security tips for them, but they really are on their own. And they are the ones that are the most vulnerable.
AMY GOODMAN: Are people reaching out to the Committee to Protect Journalists to get out of the area now?
ROBERT MAHONEY: We help Syrian journalists who have fled. A lot of them have fled to Turkey. There are very few openly practicing journalism, obviously, in Syria. And we’ve helped bring Syrian journalists to safety from Turkey. But unfortunately, a lot of them have been killed in Syria. And those that are getting out the few images and the few stories that we see from Syria are practicing almost clandestinely, particularly in the Islamic State areas.
AMY GOODMAN: Robert Mahoney, I want to thank you for being with us, deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. And thank you to Mohammed al Dulaimy, an Iraqi journalist who reports for McClatchy Newpapers for years, now seeking asylum in the United States, speaking to us from South Carolina.
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•Ukraine Retracts Ceasefire Claim; U.N. Says Displaced Top 1 Million
Ukraine has retracted an earlier claim to have reached a ceasefire with Russia. The office of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko initially said he agreed with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on steps toward a ceasefire with pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. But the Kremlin then denied a ceasefire agreement, saying it is not in a position to make a deal because it’s not a party to the fighting. Ukraine has accused Russia of direct involvement in the violence amidst a recent escalation. The confusion comes as President Obama visits the former Soviet Republic of Estonia ahead of a major NATO summit in Wales. More than 2,600 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since April, the majority by Ukrainian forces. The United Nations says more than one million people have been displaced, over a quarter of them internally.
•Islamic State Beheads 2nd U.S. Journalist in New Video
The militant group Islamic State has released a video which appears to show the second beheading of a U.S. journalist in as many weeks. Steven Sotloff is seen wearing an orange jumpsuit similar to those worn by foreign prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. He kneels in the same position as ISIL’s previous victim, James Foley. As a masked person stands over him with a knife, Sotloff speaks directly to the camera and recites what appears to be a coerced statement about "paying the price" for U.S. airstrikes against the group. The man with a knife also issues a warning that ISIL will continue to kill Americans if the strikes continue.
Unidentified: "I’m back, Obama, and I’m back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards Islamic State, because of your insistence at continuing your bombings in Amerli, Zumar and the Mosul Dam, despite our serious warnings. You, Obama, have yet again, through your actions, killed yet another American citizen. So just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people."
Sotloff was kidnapped about a year ago in Syria while working as a freelance journalist. On Tuesday, filmmaker Matthew VanDyke, a friend of Sotloff’s, said he was dedicated to reporting on the Middle East.
Matthew VanDyke: "He had a love for the region. He took time to understand the region, to understand people, to make friends and contacts there, to learn the language, to drink the tea. He was somebody that was really, really set on doing things that way and really getting — it allowed him to get stories. I mean, his story on the Benghazi attack was one of the first comprehensive investigations where he talked to witnesses and sort of began to unravel the truth of what had really happened there."
•Obama Sends 350 More Troops to Iraq
The latest ISIS video release comes as President Obama has authorized an additional 350 soldiers to guard the U.S. Embassy and personnel in Baghdad. The United States now has well over 1,000 troops operating in Iraq. In a statement, the White House said the soldiers would not serve in a combat role. But The Daily Beast reports U.S. special operations forces may be operating on the ground in parts of northern Iraq.
•Pentagon: 6 Killed in Somalia Drone Strike
The U.S. military has killed at least six people in Monday’s drone attack in Somalia. The Pentagon says it struck a meeting of leaders with the militant group al-Shabab, but is still confirming victims’ identities. In Washington, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane may have been among those killed.
Rear Admiral John Kirby: "At approximately 11:20 Eastern time, working from actionable intelligence, U.S. special operations forces using manned and unmanned aircraft destroyed an encampment and a vehicle, using several Hellfire missiles and laser-guided munitions. This operation was a direct strike against the al-Shabab network, specifically the group’s leader, Ahmed Abdi Aw Muhammad, also known as Ahmed Godane."
Al-Shabab has denied Godane’s death, saying he was not at the attack site.
•U.N., Aid Groups Seek Stepped-Up Global Response to Ebola Outbreak
The United Nations and international aid groups have issued new pleas for a heightened global response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The virus has now killed more than 1,500 people and spread to Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Margaret Chan of the World Health Organization said the outbreak is outpacing efforts to contain it.
Margaret Chan: "This is the largest and most severe and most complex Ebola outbreak ever seen in nearly 40 years’ history of this disease. No one, even outbreak responders with experience dating back to 1976 to 1995, have ever seen anything like it. As of this week, more than 3,500 cases are reported in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and more than 1,500 deaths. The outbreaks are racing ahead of the control efforts in these countries."
The WHO and other groups have called on countries to send donations, doctors, biohazard experts and protective gear to the affected regions.
•Halliburton to Pay $1.1 Billion Fine for 2010 Gulf Oil Spill
The contracting giant Halliburton has agreed to pay a $1.1 billion fine for its role in BP’s 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the worst in U.S. history. A White House panel found BP and Halliburton ignored critical design flaws in the Macondo well’s cementing just before the explosion. Halliburton later pleaded guilty to destroying evidence relevant to the investigation. The bulk of Halliburton’s settlement money will go to local residents and businesses.
•DNA Tests Clear Wrongfully Convicted Half-Brothers After 30 Years
Two African-American half-brothers have been exonerated of rape and murder convictions in North Carolina after over 30 years behind bars. Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown were found guilty in 1984 of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl the previous year. There was no physical evidence tying them to the crime, but police obtained confessions that McCollum and Brown have always said were coerced. Both brothers have mental disabilities. McCollum was sentenced to death and Brown to life in prison. Police at the time failed to investigate another man, Roscoe Artis, who lived nearby and had admitted to a similar rape and murder at around the same time. After three decades, the case saw a major breakthrough last month when testing by North Carolina’s Innocence Inquiry Commission tied Artis’ DNA to the crime scene. On Tuesday, the two brothers were declared innocent and ordered freed. Prison officials say they will be released today after ordering them to remain behind bars for a final night. In a recent interview with The News & Observer after the DNA testing pointed to a likely exoneration, Henry Lee McCollum said he never lost hope that he would one day see freedom.
Henry Lee McCollum: "Since I have been here, I have never stopped believing that one day I would be able to walk out that door. I never stopped believing that. A long time ago, I wanted to find me a good wife, I wanted to raise a family, I wanted to have my own business and everything. I never got a chance to fulfill those dreams, never got the chance, because the people took 30 years away from me, and they destroyed my life. Now, I believe that God is going to bless me to get back out there."
Over the years, death penalty supporters have cited the brothers’ case in order to back capital punishment. In 2010, the North Carolina Republican Party pasted McCollum’s mug shot on campaign mailers. In 1994, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia pointed to McCollum as an example of why the death penalty is just. Henry Lee McCollum was North Carolina’s longest-serving death row prisoner until Tuesday. Today, along with his half-brother Leon Brown, he will walk out of prison after 30 years behind bars for a crime they did not commit.
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