Missionary Renegade: Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy goodman and Jean Gonzales for Monday, February 2, 2015

Monday, February 2, 2015

Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy goodman and Jean Gonzales for Monday, February 2, 2015

After Historic Victory, Greece's Leftist Syriza Party Begins Mandate Against "Vicious" Austerity & Amid Violence Against Journalists Worldwide, Egypt Releases 1 of 3 Jailed Al Jazeera Reporters
Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy goodman and Jean Gonzales for Monday, February 2, 2015

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Dave Zirin on NFL Season's Lowlights: Domestic Abuse, Concussions and Seahawks' Super Bowl Screw-Up

The National Football League’s tumultuous 2014-15 season ended Sunday with the New England Patriots’ dramatic Super Bowl victory over the Seattle Seahawks. The game capped a year that saw growing scrutiny of the NFL, most notably its poor handling of domestic violence cases. More than half of players accused of domestic violence during commissioner Roger Goodell’s tenure have gone without league punishment. The NFL is also under fire for its handling of player safety, predominantly concussions. While fans still turn out in record numbers, four in 10 parents now say they would think twice about letting their own child play football. We are joined by Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation magazine and host of Edge of Sports Radio on SiriusXM. In addition to talking about these NFL controversies, Zirin discusses the Super Bowl’s closing moments, when the Seahawks chose not to give the ball to against-the-grain star running back Marshawn Lynch and opted for a risky play that cost them the game.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn to the biggest football game and the biggest television event of the year: the Super Bowl. On Sunday, the New England Patriots scored a dramatic 28-24 comeback victory over the Seattle Seahawks. An estimated 113 million Americans were expected to tune in to the game, making it among the most watched Super Bowls in history. Advertisers spent around $150,000 per second of air time—about $4.5 million for a 30-second commercial. Last season, the National Football League, or NFL, earned at least $1 billion in profits.

The Super Bowl comes as the NFL is embroiled in a number of controversies, including its poor handling of domestic violence cases. More than half of the players who have been accused of domestic violence during Roger Goodell’s tenure as NFL commissioner have gone without punishment from the league. During Sunday’s game, the NFL teamed up with the No More campaign to run an anti-domestic violence PSA. It features an abused woman dialing 911. She’s ostensibly trying to order a pizza, but the police dispatcher listens carefully and realizes the woman is actually speaking in code because her abuser is in the room with her. During the call, startling images of the inside of a wrecked home are shown. Let’s go to the PSA.

911 OPERATOR: 911 operator, 911, where’s the emergency?

CALLER: 127 Bremier.

911 OPERATOR: OK, what’s going on there?

CALLER: I’d like to order a pizza for delivery.

911 OPERATOR: Ma’am, you’ve reached 911. This is an emergency line.

CALLER: Yeah, a large with half pepperoni, half mushroom.

911 OPERATOR: You know you called 911. This is an emergency line.

CALLER: Yeah, but do you know how long it will be?

911 OPERATOR: OK, Ma’am, is everything OK over there? Do you have an emergency or not?

CALLER: Yes.

911 OPERATOR: And you’re unable to talk because?

CALLER: Right, right.

911 OPERATOR: OK, is someone in the room with you? Just say yes or no.

CALLER: Yes.

911 OPERATOR: OK, it looks like I have an officer about a mile from your location. Are there any weapons in your house?

CALLER: No.

911 OPERATOR: Can you stay on the phone with me?

CALLER: No. See you soon. Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: The PSA ends with the words across the screen: "When It’s hard to talk, it’s up to us to listen." The PSA was based on a true 911 call taken by a dispatcher named Keith Weisinger.

Meanwhile, the NFL is also under fire for its handling of player safety, and concussions, in particular. While fans still turn out for the Super Bowl in record numbers, four in 10 parents now say they would think twice about letting their own child play football.

The NFL is also dealing with a scandal over the alleged under-inflating of footballs used by the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game. Journalists have raised questions about the league’s handling of the scandal known as "Deflategate."

Well, for more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we’re joined by none other than sports journalist Dave Zirin, sports editor of The Nation magazine, host of Edge of Sports Radio on SiriusXM. He’s also host of a Pacifica Radio show with Etan Thomas called The Collision, where sports collide with politics.

Dave, welcome back to Democracy Now! But before we go to the issues I just addressed, let’s go to those last seconds of the game: With less than a yard, why didn’t the Seahawks give the ball to Marshawn Lynch? Can you explain who he is, for people who don’t watch sports—

DAVE ZIRIN: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: —and why this matters, why we’re talking, actually, sports right now?

DAVE ZIRIN: Yeah, I’m very aware that maybe a lot of Democracy Now! listeners chose to join the two-thirds of Americans who did not watch the Super Bowl last night, but this will probably be discussed around your water cooler today. The Seattle Seahawks were down four points, from the one yard line, with under 30 seconds to go. It was second down. And they had one of the most punishing running backs in the history of the National Football League, Marshawn Lynch, ready to give the ball to score the winning touchdown. It seemed like it was already written. People were already celebrating on the sidelines. The tweets were already flying fast and furious that the Seahawks were going to win the Super Bowl. Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady’s head was already in his hands. But unexplicably—inexplicably, the Seattle Seahawks quarterback, Russell Wilson, was told to throw a crossing pattern across the middle of the field from the one yard line—a play that, honestly, is never called in any game under any situation. The Patriots picked the ball off, and the game was over.

And already, you are seeing a rebellion in the Seahawks locker room—in the very authoritarian structure of the National Football League, this is very rare—questioning why the coaches made that call, questioning why Marshawn Lynch was not handed the ball, and even asking much more pointed, conspiratorial and political questions about whether there was some kind of vested interest on the Seattle Seahawks sideline in making the clean-cut Russell Wilson the hero of that game, instead of the more rough-and-tumble Marshawn Lynch.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk more about why you think that happened.

DAVE ZIRIN: Well, first of all, let me say that this is not my conspiracy theory I’m pulling out of whole cloth. A player said it off the record to Mike Silver from the NFL.com, and I spoke to somebody who was inside that locker room. And granted, they were in a state of shock, but all they kept saying over and over was, "They didn’t want Marshawn to be the hero. They didn’t want Marshawn to be the hero." And without judging the veracity of this theory, it is worth explaining why.

Russell Wilson is very young. He’s very clean-cut. He’s 26 years old. He’s about to get a new contract. Him being the face of this billion-dollar entity that is the Seattle Seahawks going forward is something that the people of the NFL would absolutely love.

Marshawn Lynch is going to be 29 years old this summer. That’s actually quite old for a running back. And he’s also due a new contract. If you haven’t paid attention over the last two weeks, you might not know this, but Marshawn Lynch is very, very interesting and rebellious. The best way to put it, like labor journalist Sarah Jaffe put it, is that Marshawn Lynch is someone who believes in seizing control of his own labor, meaning he won’t talk to reporters even though it’s in his contract to talk to reporters, meaning he refuses to do anything that the NFL wants him to do. As one teammate said, he refuses to dance. Instead, he is himself. He is Marshawn Lynch. And so, he just says, over and over again, "I’m just talking so I won’t get fined." And he said that 29 times at the Super Bowl Media Day. "I’m just talking so I won’t get fined." Saul Williams, the great poet, he described that as poetry: "I’m just talking so I won’t get fined." He said, "Marshawn Lynch is a poet." And there’s a way in which that connected with a lot of people who don’t like being told what to do by authoritarian, top-down corporate structures.

So Lynch became somewhat of a folk hero, and also somewhat of a bête noire for the people in the higher offices of the National Football League. So hence the theory goes, "OK, we’re going to win this game anyway. Who’s going to be the person who says, ’I’m going to Disney World!’ and gets to be the big star at the end of the day? Let it be Russell Wilson," who’s kind of like Derek Jeter 2.0. "Don’t let it be Marshawn Lynch."

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to the issue of domestic violence. Miko Grimes, the wife of Dolphins cornerback Brent Grimes, took to the Twitter—took to Twitter last week to excoriate the NFL. In a series of fiery tweets, she said, quote, "The NFL is the [bleep]iest, SHADIEST, DISRESPECTFUL professional sport in the WORLD and as long as i breathe air, I will talk [bleep] about em!" and "I have friends that were beaten, thrown down stairs WHILE PREGNANT, guys arrested, & the NFL suspended them ONE [bleep]ing GAME! Now yall care?" she wrote. So, talk about what she said, and also talk about the PSA that went out to this 100 or so million people who were watching the Super Bowl last night, Dave.

DAVE ZIRIN: No, absolutely. I mean, the argument that Miko Grimes is expressing is one I have certainly heard from a lot of people who are connected to the NFL, from NFL families, and from people who work on the issue of domestic violence and intimate partner violence who are trying to partner with the National Football League, that it’s all optics, it’s all public relations, that the National Football League has spent decades covering up issues of domestic violence, and that if Ray Rice had not been caught on videotape punching his then fiancée Janay Palmer, that would have been just another time when it was brushed under the carpet. Yet it went viral, and the NFL has had to respond by doing these kinds of PSAs.

Now, maybe these PSAs will do some good. As we know, raising awareness does have its benefits on this issue. It cuts against the shame that too often accompanies issues of intimate partner violence. Yet, at the same time, the folks who actually do the work are very concerned that the National Football League is far more concerned with the public relations of this, and far too concerned with operating as a model of punitive measures, to actually punish players, suspend players, expel players from the league who are caught in acting in domestic violence, and aren’t trying to reach out to families. And the fear is that if you are an NFL wife or girlfriend or child who’s in this situation, you would be less likely to come forward if you think that the entire financial future of your family would be imperiled.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to the president of the National Organization for Women, Terry O’Neill, who has called the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell—she has called on him to resign.

DAVE ZIRIN: Mm-hmm, she’s absolutely correct. Yeah, oh, yes—

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s—I want to go to Terry O’Neill.

DAVE ZIRIN: Yes, yes.

TERRY O’NEILL: Roger Goodell has done some things right. He reached out to the National Network to End Domestic Violence. He established a new policy. The policy is not perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction. But the problem is he is continuing to treat this as an image problem. He’s trying to diminish it, deflect, evade, that it’s just about Ray Rice. We believe that it is really not just about Ray Rice. Roger Goodell cannot credibly commit to making the kinds of changes throughout the organization that we believe need to be made, and that’s why we think he needs to go.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Terry O’Neill. You, too, Dave Zirin, have called for Roger Goodell to go. Talk about her views and your views.

DAVE ZIRIN: Well, she’s absolutely right, because there’s a legal term, "fruit from a poison tree," and that’s who Roger Goodell is at this point. He’s a poison tree. So no matter what he does, given the fact that the first 55 players who were accused of domestic violence under his tenure, Roger Goodell effectively just sat on his hands, everything is going to look shady this way forward. You need to have a new commissioner who’s actually willing to work with the Players Association to figure out how to have a sensible policy on this issue, how to do something that doesn’t just show the league cares, but actually does care and actually is trying to do something to reach out to families. Roger Goodell is just not seen as an honest broker.

And you saw this in his press conference, where—that he did before the Super Bowl. Frank Luntz, the Republican spinmeister, the person who tried to teach us all that global warming was really just suntan day, just if you rebrand things, everything will be fine—Frank Luntz was there in the press conference, practically mouthing words to Roger Goodell as he said the word "integrity" like 21 times and didn’t use the phrase "domestic violence" until 21 minutes in. And then, the one time the mask slipped was when he threw some serious shade on CNN reporter Rachel Nichols, one of the few women to even be able to ask him a question in this press conference, when she asked him about the conflict of interest around the fact that the NFL is basically hiring its own independent investigators. That’s the problem. And then you see Roger Goodell snap at Rachel Nichols, you see Frank Luntz in the room, and all you can think is: How sincere really is this?

AMY GOODMAN: For years, the NFL has disputed evidence, moving on to another issue, that its players suffer a high rate of severe brain damage. However, according to a September article in The New York Times, the league stated in federal court documents it expects nearly a third of retired players to develop long-term cognitive problems. The statement is the league’s most candid admission yet that the sport’s participants sustain traumatic brain injuries at a far higher rate than the general population. Last week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell praised the league for its recent efforts to protect its players.

ROGER GOODELL: We are doing more to protect our players from unnecessary risk. Hits to defenseless players this season were down 68 percent. And there were similar decreases in other areas pertaining to the safety of the game. We reported yesterday that concussions were down 25 percent this past regular season, continuing a three-year trend. And we are establishing the position of a chief medical officer. This individual, who we expect to have in place very soon, will oversee our medical-related policies.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Dave Zirin, that’s Roger Goodell.

DAVE ZIRIN: Wow.

AMY GOODMAN: You tweeted, doctors told the Patriots during the Super Bowl last night that their wide receiver should be checked for concussion, but he stayed in the game?

DAVE ZIRIN: Not only did he stay in the game, Julian Edelman, but he caught the winning touchdown in the game, which is just going to be more incentive to cover these things up.

Look, those percentages that Roger Goodell just put forward, those numbers are more massaged than the police numbers on the TV show The Wire. They are put forward as a way to say the NFL is doing something about these kinds of injuries. Yet we still have a commissioner in Roger Goodell who took the ALS ice bucket challenge while still denying publicly that there’s any connection between head injuries and ALS. That’s the sort of person we’re dealing with here. That’s the fruit from a poison tree. And that’s why I don’t believe anything—and no one, frankly, should believe anything—that’s coming out of his mouth about the game being any safer. Football is like smoking. And if you want to smoke, that’s your freedom, that’s your business. But do not kid yourself to think that just because you’re smoking an American Spirit and not an unfiltered Camel, that it’s somehow healthier for you.

AMY GOODMAN: Dave Zirin, thanks so much for being with us, sports editor at The Nation, host of Edge of Sports Radio on SiriusXM, also with Etan Thomas does a Pacifica Radio show on WPFW, The Collision.

After Historic Victory, Greece's Leftist Syriza Party Begins Mandate Against "Vicious" Austerity

After a historic victory in Greece, the leftist Syriza party’s finance minister has begun a tour of Europe to push an anti-austerity message. The former economist Yanis Varoufakis has promised "radical" change as his government seeks to renegotiate Greece’s huge debt obligations and to roll back key parts of its international bailout. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras says he is confident that Greece can reach a deal with creditors. We air an excerpt of our 2012 interview with Varoufakis and speak with Costas Panayotakis, a professor of sociology at CUNY and author of "Remaking Scarcity: From Capitalist Inefficiency to Economic Democracy." Panayotakis lays out the Syriza party’s historic rise to power and the challenges it faces in trying to restructure Greece’s economy.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: After an historic victory in Greece one week ago, the leftist Syriza party’s finance minister has begun a tour of Europe to push an anti-austerity message. The former economist, Yanis Varoufakis, has promised radical change as his government seeks to renegotiate Greece’s huge debt obligations and to roll back key parts of its international bailout. After talks in France this weekend, he’s set to meet with his counterparts in London today and in Rome later this week. On Saturday, Varoufakis said he wants to wean his country off of loans.

YANIS VAROUFAKIS: Do I believe that Greece, as we are now, should be taking another tranche of loans? No. It’s not that we don’t need the money. We are desperate because of certain commitments and liabilities that we have. But my message to our European partners is that for the last five years Greece has been living for the next loan tranche. And as I said to Mr. Sapin, we have resembled drug addicts craving the next dose. What this government is all about is ending the addiction.

AMY GOODMAN: Varoufakis said Greece was, quote, "desperate" for money. But he insisted it would not seek a seven billion [euro] installment on its 240 billion euro bailout package, because that would require the country to adhere to austerity measures. This comes as the new Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, said he was confident Greece could reach a deal with creditors. Meanwhile, on Sunday, President Obama made his first comments on Greece’s election outcome during an interview on CNN.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: You cannot keep on squeezing countries that are in the midst of a depression. At some point, there has to be a growth strategy in order for them to pay off their debts, to eliminate some of their deficits.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, for more on the historic developments in Greece and what they could mean for the rest of Europe, we’re joined by Costas Panayotakis, associate professor of sociology at New York City College of Technology at CUNY. He returned to Greece last week to vote in the election, has been following the developments closely. He’s the author of Remaking Scarcity: From Capitalist Inefficiency to Economic Democracy.

Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Costas. Can you talk about this election? You went back to Greece to vote?

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Yeah, I was there for the winter, before the election date had been set, and I extended my stay because it was a historic moment. For the first time in Greece, a party of the left had won power. And in Greece, this is a big deal, because Greece has had a civil war just, you know, after World War II, and the fact that many mainstream people, who traditionally have nothing to do with the left, actually voted for the first time for the left shows how dire the situation has become and how desperate the people have become for change.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you think it’s just a clear-cut vote against austerity?

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Yeah, I think so. I think these people had had enough. It was—people said enough is enough. And the policies that have been followed made the conservative party, mainly, and the socialist party, lose the people in the middle class, which has been decimated by these policies, so they lost much of their base.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain what the Syriza party is, what even that word means?

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Yeah. Syriza is an acronym, which in Greek means "coalition of the radical left." So, it’s a coalition that grew out of the anti-globalization movement in the late ’90s. The sort of—the most important component of the party goes back to the sort Eurocommunist movement of the 1970s. And over the time, it has become the voice against austerity in Greece. And in a matter of just, you know, three years, it rose meteorically from a small party that barely made it into Parliament to getting 36 percent of the vote in the recent election.

AMY GOODMAN: Is this their first victory?

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Yeah, well, they won the European elections last May, but this is their first parliamentary—victory in parliamentary elections. This is the first time they will assume power.

AMY GOODMAN: So, explain what they’ve promised to do.

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Well, what they want to do is basically to stop the austerity program that was imposed on Greece in 2010 and to roll back many of the structural changes that came with that, because this austerity program is not just about budget cuts and, you know, eliminating the budget deficit, it’s also about restructuring Greek society and Greek economy towards a sort of free-market, neoliberal model that basically has led to the crashes of 2008 around the world and that has led to, you know, increasing inequalities around the world and in Greece.

AMY GOODMAN: Greece’s new finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, is an economics professor who once described the EU-imposed austerity measures as "fiscal waterboarding." During an interview on Channel 4 in Britain, he vowed to destroy the Greek oligarchy.

YANIS VAROUFAKIS: Freedom of speech in Greece has been jeopardized by this unholy alliance between bankrupt bankers, developers and media owners, who become the voice of those who want to sponge and scrounge off everyone else’s productive efforts.

PAUL MASON: And what will you do to the oligarchy concretely?

YANIS VAROUFAKIS: We are going to destroy the basis upon which they have built, for decade after decade, a system and network that viciously sucks of the energy and the economic power from everybody else in society.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, back in 2012, Yanis Varoufakis appeared on Democracy Now! and commented on the political situation in Greece at the time.

YANIS VAROUFAKIS: Greece is going through its Great Depression, something akin to what the United States went through in the 1930s. This is not just a change of government. It’s a social economy that has entered into a deep coma. It’s a country that is effectively verging to the status of a failed state. Greece is going through an existentialist crisis. And just look at the numbers. The socialist party had 44 percent of the vote only two short years ago. It went down to 13 percent. The opposition, conservatives, they were at the low tide mark of 35 percent, 35 percent in 2009. They would have been in a position they should be picking up votes. They went down below 20 percent. The political class of Greece, effectively, has been thrown out by the electorate. This is very exciting and very worrying at the same time. The rise of the Nazis is something to be lamented.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s today’s finance minister. Costas, if you could respond?

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Yeah, I think this—his interpretation of what happened in the May 2012 election is accurate. Already people had expressed their dismay, their sort of anger with austerity at that time. But what happened in the election that followed immediately in June, basically, the conservative party managed to get power through scare tactics, by basically threatening people that if the left won, Greece would be thrown out of the eurozone. And they tried the same tactic in this recent election, but it didn’t work as well for them this time around.

AMY GOODMAN: Greece’s new prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has promised radical change as his government begins to roll back key parts of Greece’s international bailout. The government has put off the planned sale of the country’s biggest power utility, while pledging to raise pensions for those on low incomes and reinstate some fired public-sector workers. This is George Katrougalos, the new deputy minister of public administration.

GEORGE KATROUGALOS: It is the reforms, but the reforms that the country needs, not the reforms that are dictated from outside its borders. We must restart the economy. We must reinvigorate democracy. It is a big challenge, but I think we are fit to it.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us who the new prime minister is?

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Yeah. His name is Alexis Tsipras. He’s a young, very charismatic politician. And he has been able to unite the party. This was a party that in the past had sort of suffered from a lot of infighting. And it has managed to basically steer the party towards a credible alternative to the policies of austerity that have devastated Greek society.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go back to President Obama’s comments on Greece during his interview Sunday on CNN.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: There is no doubt that the Greek economy was in dire need of reform. Tax collection in Greece was famously terrible. I think that there—in order for Greece to compete in the world market, that they had to initiate a series of changes. But it’s very hard to initiate those changes if people’s standards of livings are dropping by 25 percent. Over time, eventually, you know, the political system, the society can’t sustain it.

So, my hope is, is that Greece can remain in the eurozone. I think that will require compromise on all sides. When the financial crisis in Greece first flared up several years ago, we were very active in trying to arrive at some sort of accommodation. I think there’s a recognition on the part of Germany and others that it would be better for Greece to stay in the eurozone than be outside of it.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s President Obama. Costas Panayotakis, your response?

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Yeah, I think this was a welcome intervention, and it signifies, I think, the rifts that have existed with—that are developing within Europe and between Europe and outside partners. There’s a growing recognition within Europe and in the U.S. that the austerity strategy preferred by the German political class is not working, and in fact it is threatening to drag down the global economy. So, there are growing rifts within Europe. There is rift between Germany and France and Italy, which are also trying to resist the prioritization of deficit reduction above all else. So, this—and, of course, there’s the rift between the political elites and people around Europe, who are sort of getting inspiration from Syriza. And we have other movements—the rise of the left in Spain, in Ireland. So, I think there is an opening that has been created, and it’s up to the European left and the social movements there to take advantage of it.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras speaking last week.

PRIME MINISTER ALEXIS TSIPRAS: [translated] We did not come here to take over institutions and to enjoy the trappings of power. We have come to radically change the way in which politics and governance is carried out in this country.

AMY GOODMAN: Costas, if you could respond to what the prime minister said?

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Yeah, I think what his—his main point, basically, is that, you know, austerity—a new way has to be attempted. And I didn’t hear the whole thing.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, he basically said, "We did not come here to take over institutions and to enjoy the trappings of power."

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: "We have come to radically change the way in which politics and governance is carried out in this country."

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Yeah, I mean, the rise of Syriza signifies the bankruptcy of the political class in Greece, which has been—for very long, it has been very close to the Greek oligarchy, which has contributed to the crisis by not basically paying its fair share when it comes to taxes. So, what he wants to signify is that he wants to do things differently and to counter the cynicism that exists among many Greek voters, who have seen progressive parties in the past win elections—for example, the socialists back in ’81—and then they saw these parties basically disappoint, become corrupt, and corrupted by power.

AMY GOODMAN: Last week, Greece’s new prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, visited a World War II National Resistance Memorial in his first outing as the country’s new leader. The memorial is located at the site where the Nazis executed 200 Greek communist resistance fighters in May 1944. During the recent campaign, Tsipras called on Germany to pay Greece reparations for damages incurred during the Nazi occupation. A 2013 governmental study determined Germany owed Greece an estimated $200 billion. What’s the significance of this?

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Yeah, I think this is a way of signifying that, you know, Germany owes to Greece, in many ways, as much as Greece owes to Germany. I think it’s also part of the strategy. One of the proposals that Tsipras and Syriza have made is that what is needed is a conference, a European-wide conference, that would deal with European-wide debt and allow countries to basically stand on their feet by basically writing off debt, much as Europe and the U.S. did to Germany in 1953. So I think it’s a way of signaling, pointing to the history that exists behind the rise of Germany and the way that Germany was able to stand on its feet after the World War II by basically the rest of the world being generous towards it. And, you know, I think the feeling in Greece and Syriza is that, you know, something similar has to be done on a European-wide scale if this ongoing crisis is to be overcome.

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Panayotakis, talk about the creditors and what they will do now. Who are they?

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Well, at the beginning of the crisis, the creditors were mainly—you know, it was the private sector, European banks. In many ways, the bailout, even though it was presented at the time as a bailout of profligate and lazy Greeks, it was really a bailout of European banks. Now, there has been already a restructuring of the Greek debt. And by now, most of the debt is held by the different European countries, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. So, basically, one of the complications is, there is a lot of resistance to writing off the Greek debt, because, of course, the governments of European countries would have to deal with, you know, the discontent by their voters if money was to be lost. But at the same time, basically, what Syriza and other powers of—rising powers of the left in Europe are saying is that, ultimately, when you have debt that is not sustainable, this will hobble your economic performance forever, and you will not be able to grow. And if you don’t grow, you will not be able to repay your debt.

AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly, the media coverage of the elections?

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Well, the media coverage in Greece was interesting because there was a lot of fearmongering by the media that was controlled by the oligarchs. I think there was a lot of fearmongering in the 2012 election. The Financial Times at the time had an article in its first page in Greek to try to dissuade voters from voting for Syriza. I think this time around there was some fearmongering by international media, but it was a little more balanced. I think people had come to accept the fact that Syriza was going to probably win. And Syriza has and Tsipras had tried to sort of tone down his rhetoric as a way of reassuring people outside Greece that he was not an enemy of Europe, but was trying to try a different strategy so as to—that would be more effective than the strategies that have been attempted so far.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Costas Panayotakis, thanks so much for being with us, professor of sociology at the College of Technology at the City University of New York. He’s the author of Remaking Scarcity: From Capitalist Inefficiency to Economic Democracy.

When we come back, Peter Greste, the Al Jazeera journalist, one of three Al Jazeera journalists in jail in Egypt, has been freed. We’ll talk to Reporters Without Borders. Stay with us.

Amid Violence Against Journalists Worldwide, Egypt Releases 1 of 3 Jailed Al Jazeera Reporters

Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste has been released from an Egyptian prison after 400 days behind bars. Greste and two of his Al Jazeera colleagues, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, were convicted on terrorism charges in a case widely denounced as a sham. Greste flew to Cyprus on Sunday following his release, but Fahmy and Mohamed remain behind bars. "We are relieved by this great news," says Delphine Halgand, U.S. director of Reporters Without Borders, of Greste’s freedom. "But we have to continue to work to assure the release of all journalists in Egypt who are detained on spurious charges." Halgand also discusses the violence directed against journalists worldwide in the first month of 2015, including attacks on journalists in France and Iraq and the beheading by ISIS of Kenji Goto, a Japanese reporter kidnapped in Syria last year. Video of Goto’s execution emerged over the weekend.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn to Egypt, where after 400 days Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste has been released from prison. Peter Greste left a Cairo jail on Sunday and was quickly deported. He and two of his Al Jazeera colleagues, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, were convicted on terrorism charges, including "spreading false news" in support of the Muslim Brotherhood, deemed by the government a terrorist group. Canadian-Egyptian Fahmy and Egyptian national Mohamed are still imprisoned. The three were initially sentenced to seven to 10 years, but earlier this month an Egyptian court ordered a retrial. The managing director of Al Jazeera English, Al Anstey, spoke in Doha after Greste’s release.

AL ANSTEY: We spoke to Peter earlier on this afternoon, just after he was released from detention. And I can’t tell you how relieved we are that Peter has left Egypt and is on his way to be reunited with his family. It’s a day of very mixed emotions, and I think we’ve got to focus on the fact that Baher and Mohamed are still behind bars 400 days after being taken into detention, and that injustice needs to come to an end. They are guilty of nothing apart from great journalism.

AMY GOODMAN: Egyptian authorities accuse Al Jazeera of being a mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood. Of course, the three journalists absolutely deny this and all the charges against them. The timing of Greste’s release came as a surprise, just days after Egypt suffered one of the bloodiest militant attacks in years. More than 30 members of the security forces were killed last Thursday in Sinai. Australian foreign minister said Greste flew to Cyprus from Cairo.

JULIE BISHOP: [I spoke to Peter Greste] shortly after his release and before he departed Egypt. He was immensely relieved, and he was desperate to come home to Australia and reunite with his family—his parents, Lois and Juris, and his brothers, Michael who is with him and his other brother Andrew.

AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about the implications of Peter Greste’s release and the fate of his two colleagues still in jail, we go to Washington, D.C., to speak with Delphine Halgand, U.S. director of Reporters Without Borders.

Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Delphine. Talk about the significance of Peter Greste’s release and why you think it happened now.

DELPHINE HALGAND: So, of course, we are all relieved by this great news, but we have now a lot of work to do still, because we have to continue to work to assure the release of all the journalists in Egypt who are detained on spurious charges, including the Al Jazeera journalists, but there are even more Egyptian journalists who are still detained on spurious charges. So it seems that the international pressure worked, and we have to continue to do so. But I just want to highlight once again that actually the new Egyptian constitution, adopted under President Morsi, actually guarantees freedom of expression, freedom of opinion, media independence. So, once again, we urge the Egyptian authorities to just implement their own constitution.

AMY GOODMAN: [Peter Greste was] deported to Australia, and the fiancée of Mohamed Fahmy says, "Deport Mohamed back to Canada." What is happening in his case?

DELPHINE HALGAND: We are actually really looking at the news, because we hope that after Peter Greste’s release yesterday there would be the release of the two other Al Jazeera journalists in the coming days, in the coming hours. So, we know that the Canadian government has been very active, of course, on this case, and we are really hopeful that there could be a good end to at least this Al Jazeera case. But we don’t have to forget the dozens of Egyptian journalists who are also detained on spurious charges and who don’t have the same support from the international community.

AMY GOODMAN: In the case of these three men, now two still in prison, why were the Al Jazeera reporters targeted?

DELPHINE HALGAND: So, it’s really important, in fact, to understand this historic perspective. So, first you have to remember that all governments in place after the fall of Mubarak have tried to control the media and tried to control the information as much as possible. In a sense, we have seen a Morsification of the media, and now we are seeing a Sisification of the media. But it’s also important to have in mind that the media freedom really declined since the army seized power and since Sisi is in power. Dozens of journalists have been arrested these last two years. Six journalists have been killed even during a pro-Morsi demonstration. And now, right now, what we are seeing is that all media considered to be linked to the Muslim Brotherhood are persecuted. And Al Jazeera is one of the main targets of this witch hunt.

AMY GOODMAN: Delphine, I wanted to turn to other news about reporters. I wanted to turn to Kenji Goto, the Japanese journalist beheaded by Islamic State militants. Video of his execution emerged over the weekend. Junko Ishido, Goto’s mother, led tributes to her son in Tokyo.

JUNKO ISHIDO: [translated] I cannot find the words in the face of such a heartbreaking death. I can only express this grief with tears. I wish to continue to believe in Kenji Goto’s wish for a world without war and in his work to save the children from poverty and war.

AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, on Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reignited the debate on changes to the extent its military can operate overseas, by saying the country would look into ways of rescuing its citizens if another hostage crisis happens.

PRIME MINISTER SHINZO ABE: [translated] Currently, at the moment, if a Japanese citizen or someone with an NGO is in a dangerous situation, it is necessary to, of course, have permission from the country they are in, but they can only be transported out by Japan, but not rescued. We would like to start a discussion so that it will be possible for Japanese citizens to be rescued, as well.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe. Delphine Halgand, if you can talk about what happened?

DELPHINE HALGAND: I think there is no word, as the mom, the mother of this journalist, said. But I just would like to highlight again that 2014 and the beginning of 2015 have been marked by an extreme level of violence targeting journalists, from Syria to France. And what we have seen is that the murders are more and more barbaric, but also we have seen the apparition of a barbaric propaganda, with carefully staged beheadings of Western journalists, but also public execution of local journalists, like in Iraq, and, again, a barbaric propaganda with the Charlie Hebdo attack.

And one other comment that I would like to make is that in these last two years we have seen an increase, an explosion, in the number of journalists kidnapped all around the world, especially, again, in Syria, Libya, but also Ukraine. And again, I want to highlight one point. Ten percent of the journalists kidnapped right now are Westerners, but 90 percent of the journalists kidnapped right now are locals. And again, we don’t have to forget that ISIS, by example, is kidnapping and is executing more local journalists than foreigners. And we have to keep that in mind to understand how, actually, the Islamic State is holding hostage journalists, is killing journalists, but at the end, their main target is really the information and all freedom to all of us, in Iraq, in Syria and all over the world, to be informed.

AMY GOODMAN: Delphine Halgand, I want to thank you for being with us. And I want to end by going to comments from Mohamed Fahmy, who has criticized the Canadian government, saying they haven’t done enough to free him. Again, he is a Canadian Egyptian. Canada has refused to even directly call for his release, saying only they have deep concerns about his case. In a statement last month, Mohamed Fahmy said, quote, "I understand that the ability of the Canadian government to help me is limited by the rules of diplomacy. But I do believe that Prime Minister Harper could do more to obtain my release if he were to directly intervene in our case." Delphine Halgand, thanks so much for being with us from Washington, D.C., U.S. director of Reporters Without Borders. Oh, and happy birthday.

DELPHINE HALGAND: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. When we come back, it was television’s, it was NFL’s biggest day yesterday, the Super Bowl. But we’re going to talk about, well, sexual abuse, domestic violence and what its links are to the Super Bowl. Stay with us.

Headlines:

U.S. Mulls Arming Ukraine Against Russian-Backed Separatists as Truce Talks Collapse

The United States is reportedly considering arming Ukraine’s military amidst renewed fighting with Russian-backed separatists. According to The New York Times, top administration and military officials are leaning toward sending defensive weapons to help Kiev fight a new rebel offensive that has shattered a five-month truce. The White House has held off on directly arming Ukraine in favor of economic sanctions against the rebels’ chief backer, Russia. Violence has spiked in recent days with heavy attacks across all parts of the eastern Ukrainian frontline. At least 13 government soldiers and as many civilians were killed in one 24-hour period over the weekend as talks in Belarus over a new truce broke down. Mediators with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe say the rebels have refused to discuss implementing a ceasefire and instead want to revise the terms of the September truce to reflect their territorial gains.

ISIS Kills 2nd Japanese Hostage; Jordan Seeks Release of Captured Pilot

The militant group the Islamic State has released a video showing the beheading of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto. Goto is the second Japanese hostage to be killed by ISIS in a week following the expiry of a 72-hour ultimatum. ISIS had demanded a ransom of $200 million — the same amount Japan recently pledged in nonmilitary aid to the anti-ISIS coalition. A freelance journalist, Goto had been held since his kidnapping in Syria last year. On Sunday, his mother remembered him as someone who sought a world without war.

Junko Ishido: "I cannot find the words in the face of such a heartbreaking death. I can only express this grief with tears. I wish to continue to believe in Kenji Goto’s wish for a world without war and in his work to save the children from poverty and war."

Jordan, meanwhile, says it is making every effort to obtain the release of a fighter pilot also in ISIS captivity. ISIS wants to swap the pilot for a prisoner accused of involvement in a 2005 hotel bombing that killed 60 people. Jordan has signaled it would consider the exchange if it is given proof the pilot is still alive.

Iraq Suffers Deadliest Month Since 2008

The United Nations says at least 1,375 people were killed in Iraq last month, making it one of the country’s deadliest in years. The January toll follows more than 12,000 deaths in 2014, Iraq’s most lethal year since 2008.

Boko Haram Hits Major City in Northern Nigeria; African Leaders Approve 7,500-Strong Force

The militant group Boko Haram has launched a major new attack in northern Nigeria. Fighters hit the city of Maiduguri from four different fronts after earlier offensives last week. The Nigerian government says it has repelled the assault and inflicted "massive casualties" on the Boko Haram. This comes as African leaders have approved a new force of at least 7,500 troops to confront Boko Haram’s rise. The group’s recent attacks include the reported massacre of hundreds of people in the northern town of Baga last month. Nigeria is due to hold national elections in two weeks.

Al Jazeera Journalist Peter Greste Deported from Egypt After 400 Days in Prison; Colleagues Still Jailed

Al Anstey: "We spoke to Peter earlier on this afternoon, just after he was released from detention. And I can’t tell you how relieved we are that Peter has left Egypt and is on his way to be reunited with his family. It’s a day of very mixed emotions, and I think we’ve got to focus on the fact that Baher and Mohamed are still behind bars 400 days after being taken into detention, and that injustice needs to come to an end. They are guilty of nothing apart from great journalism."

Egyptian Court Confirms Mass Death Sentences of Muslim Brotherhood Supporters

In other news from Egypt, an Egyptian court has confirmed the mass death sentences of nearly 200 supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood. The defendants were convicted in December of involvement in the 2013 killings of police officers. Defense attorneys say the accused were excluded from the courtroom and that no effort was made to prove anyone’s individual guilt. It was the third such mass sentencing of alleged Muslim Brotherhood supporters last year, as part of a crackdown on the group by Egypt’s military regime.

CIA, Mossad Carried Out 2008 Car Bombing of Hezbollah Figure in Damascus

Former intelligence officials have confirmed the CIA and its Israeli counterpart, the Mossad, assassinated a senior Hezbollah leader seven years ago this month. Imad Mughniyah was killed in a 2008 car bombing in the Syrian capital of Damascus. According to The Washington Post, CIA and Mossad operatives worked closely together to carry out the attack. The bomb was built and tested in the United States. Israeli agents in Tel Aviv then triggered it while coordinating with CIA colleagues on the ground in Damascus. As the head of Hezbollah’s international operations, Mughniyah was accused of involvement in attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets in Lebanon and around the world as part of the group’s effort to end the two-decade Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. U.S. officials also accused him of involvement in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and of arming Shiite fighters targeting the U.S. occupation in Iraq.

U.S.-Israeli Assassination of Hezbollah Commander Raises Concerns of Legality and Potential Reprisals

The killing of former senior Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyah raises a number of legal and political issues. Its approval required a presidential finding by President George W. Bush and the endorsement of several top Cabinet officials, including the attorney general. Of the use of a car bomb to kill a target, Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of international law at the University of Notre Dame, said: "It is a killing method used by terrorists and gangsters. It violates one of the oldest battlefield rules." With CIA involvement confirmed, the disclosure could also set off retaliatory strikes by Hezbollah against U.S. targets around the world. It comes just days after Hezbollah and Israel exchanged fire in one of their most violent clashes since the 2006 war.

Israel OKs New Settlement Construction as Obama-Netanyahu Tensions Peak

The Israeli government has announced a new round of settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, approving 450 homes in several Palestinian areas. On Friday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest criticized the move.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest: "Our position is that we believe that settlements are illegitimate and counterproductive to achieving a two-state outcome. We have deep concerns about these highly contentious settlement construction announcements. They will have detrimental impacts on the ground, inflame already heightened tensions with the Palestinians and further isolate the Israelis internationally."

The new settlement building comes amid reports that ties between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama are at their lowest point. White House officials have criticized Netanyahu for a planned trip to the United States next month to address a joint session of Congress on Iran. Netanyahu has backed new sanctions on Iran, despite Obama’s vow to veto them as he pursues a nuclear deal with Tehran. An unnamed administration official told the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz: "There are things you simply don’t do. [Netanyahu] spat in our face publicly and that’s no way to behave. Netanyahu ought to remember that President Obama has a year and a half left to his presidency, and that there will be a price." According to The New York Times, a senior administration said the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, "had repeatedly placed Netanyahu’s political fortunes above the relationship between Israel and the United States."

Thousands Join Renewed Pro-Democracy Protest in Hong Kong

Thousands of pro-democracy protesters have returned to the streets of Hong Kong to protest China’s rejection of a free vote. Sunday’s action was the first since a pro-democracy encampment was dismantled late last year. The protests erupted in September after the Chinese government said it would only allow Beijing-approved candidates to run for Hong Kong’s next chief executive. Rally organizer Daisy Chan said protesters are prepared to resume the civil disobedience that shut down key roads for more than two months.

Daisy Chan: "We try to use peaceful methods to give an opportunity to government to respond to our ideas. But if the government rejects our sincere opportunity, then the government must face more pressure from more and more civil disobedience action will be taken."

Houthi Rebels Set 3-Day Deadline to Seize Control of Yemeni Gov’t

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Guatemala Marks 35th Anniversary of Spanish Embassy Massacre Following Verdict

Guatemala has marked the 35th anniversary of the Spanish Embassy massacre just weeks after a historic verdict in the case. Thirty-seven peasant activists and student organizers were burned to death in 1980 after the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City was set on fire. The activists had been occupying the embassy to protest government repression. Last month, former police chief Pedro García Arredondo was found guilty of ordering the attack and sentenced to 90 years in prison. A memorial was held to mark the 35th anniversary on Saturday. Rigoberta Menchú, whose father, indigenous peasant leader Don Vicente Menchú, died in the massacre, said a copy of Arredondo’s guilty sentence will be stored at the memorial.

Rigoberta Menchú: "Well, first of all, it was the truth. I mean, I think we have been drawn out from the dark, from the abandonment of the truth of the massacre of the Spanish Embassy. The sentence is huge. To read it completely takes six hours, so therefore we will place it in a box here at the foundation, and you can go by in a little while to see where it will always be for those who want to ask questions about the sentence."

Dozens Rally Outside White House Against Nuclear Weapons Upgrade

Dozens of people have rallied outside the White House to oppose President Obama’s plans to upgrade the nation’s nuclear weaponry. Obama has called for a nuke-free world, but has reportedly put the United States on pace to spend as much as $1 trillion over the next three decades to rebuild its nuclear arsenal and facilities. On Sunday, activists held up a full-size inflatable missile while calling for the verified elimination of all nuclear stockpiles by the year 2030.

Family of Slain Black Teen Ramarley Graham Agrees to $3.9 Million Settlement with NYC

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