Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Wednesday, May 27, 2015
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As negotiations continue, WikiLeaks has published leaked chapters of the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership — a global trade deal between the United States and 11 other countries. The TPP would cover 40 percent of the global economy, but details have been concealed from the public. A recently disclosed "Investment Chapter" highlights the intent of U.S.-led negotiators to create a tribunal where corporations can sue governments if their laws interfere with a company’s claimed future profits. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange warns the plan could chill the adoption of health and environmental regulations.
Watch more from our Julian Assange interview: Part 1 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We return to our exclusive interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. I spoke to him inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London on Monday.
AMY GOODMAN: Julian Assange, let’s stay with the United States for a moment, with the TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which certainly doesn’t only involve the United States, but there’s a huge debate within the United States about it right now. And I dare say, some of that debate is as a result of what WikiLeaks revealed. For some people, this treaty, that will determine 40 percent of the global economy, the only thing that we have seen about it comes from WikiLeaks. Explain what the TPP is and the information that you got, that you put out about this top-secret agreement.
JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, the TPP is an international treaty that has 29 different chapters. We have released four of them, and we are trying to get the remainder. For the information that has been released, through the chapters that we got hold of and through some congressmen who have seen the contents of some of the others, but they are not allowed to write it down—
AMY GOODMAN: They can go into a room and look at it.
JULIAN ASSANGE: They can go into a room. It has been—it’s not formally classified, but it’s being treated as if it was classified, in terms of how the information is being managed. They go into a room. If they try and take notes, the notes have to be handed over to the government for safe keeping. And, of course, congressmen under those situations won’t take notes. So it is very well guarded from the press and the majority of people and even from congressmen. But 600 U.S. companies are part of the process and have been given access to various parts of the TPP.
OK, so it’s a—the largest-ever international economic treaty that has ever been negotiated, very considerably larger than NAFTA. It is mostly not about trade. Only five of the 29 chapters are about traditional trade. The others are about regulating the Internet and what Internet—Internet service providers have to collect information. They have to hand it over to companies under certain circumstances. It’s about regulating labor, what labor conditions can be applied, regulating, whether you can favor local industry, regulating the hospital healthcare system, privatization of hospitals. So, essentially, every aspect of the modern economy, even banking services, are in the TPP.
And so, that is erecting and embedding new, ultramodern neoliberal structure in U.S. law and in the laws of the other countries that are participating, and is putting it in a treaty form. And by putting it in a treaty form, that means—with 14 countries involved, means it’s very, very hard to overturn. So if there’s a desire, democratic desire, in the United States to go down a different path—for example, to introduce more public transport—then you can’t easily change the TPP treaty, because you have to go back and get agreement of the other nations involved.
Now, looking at that example, what if the government or a state government decides it wants to build a hospital somewhere, and there’s a private hospital, has been erected nearby? Well, the TPP gives the constructor of the private hospital the right to sue the government over the expected—the loss in expected future profits. This is expected future profits. This is not an actual loss that has been sustained, where there’s desire to be compensated; this is a claim about the future. And we know from similar instruments where governments can be sued over free trade treaties that that is used to construct a chilling effect on environmental and health regulation law. For example, Togo, Australia, Uruguay are all being sued by tobacco companies, Philip Morris the leading one, to prevent them from introducing health warnings on the cigarette packets.
AMY GOODMAN: That we have in the United States on our own cigarette packages.
JULIAN ASSANGE: Yes. And it’s not even an even playing field. Let’s say you’ll say, OK, well, we’re going to make it easier for companies to sue the government. Maybe that’s right. Maybe the government is too powerful, and companies should have a right to sue the government under various circumstances. But it’s only multinationals that get this right. U.S. companies operating purely in the U.S., in relation to investments that happen in the U.S., will not have this right, whereas large companies that are multinationals, that have registrations overseas, can structure things such that they’re taking investments from the U.S., and that then gives them the right to sue the government over it.
Now, it’s not so easy to get up these cases and win them. However, the chilling effect, the concern that there might be such a case, is severe. Each one of these cases, on average, governments spend more than $10 million for each case, to defend it, even successfully. So, if you have, you know, a city council or a state considering legislation, and then there’s a threat from one of these multinationals about expected future profits, they know that even if they have the law on their side, even if this TPP is on their side, they can expect to suffer.
Julian Assange: Despite Congressional Standoff, NSA Has Secret Authority to Continue Spying Unabated
The Obama administration's authority to collect Americans' phone records in bulk will likely expire next week after senators from both parties rejected attempts to ... Read More →
The Obama administration’s authority to collect Americans’ phone records in bulk will likely expire next week after senators from both parties rejected attempts to extend it. First, the Republican-led Senate rejected a House-passed measure to curb bulk spying by keeping the records with phone companies instead of the government. The Senate then rejected a bid by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to extend the current bulk spying program for two months. The Senate adjourned and will reconvene May 31, the day before the program expires. In an exclusive interview from his place of refuge inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange weighs in on the NSA standoff.
Watch more from our Julian Assange interview: Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to a Democracy Now! exclusive with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has spent nearly three years inside Ecuador’s Embassy in London, where he has political asylum. Assange faces investigations in both Sweden and the United States. Here in the U.S., a secret grand jury is investigating WikiLeaks for its role in publishing a trove of leaked documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as State Department cables. In Sweden, he’s wanted for questioning on allegations of sexual misconduct, though no charges have been filed. Earlier this month, Sweden’s Supreme Court rejected his appeal to lift his arrest warrant. Swedish prosecutors are reportedly preparing to travel to London to interview Assange after refusing to do so for years.
While Assange has been holed up inside the Ecuadorean Embassy, WikiLeaks has continued to publish documents, from leaked drafts of the TPP—that’s the Trans-Pacific Partnership—to the recent disclosures of the British nuclear submarine whistleblower William McNeilly, to secret details of a European Union plan to use military force to curb the influx of migrants from Libya. I spoke to Julian Assange about these issues and more when I sat down with him inside the embassy on Monday.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We’re broadcasting inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. That’s right. Here is where Julian Assange has been holed up, granted political asylum by Ecuador, holed up here for almost three years. June 19th will mark the date that he came to this embassy in 2012.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Julian. So it has been three years since you came here. How are you doing?
JULIAN ASSANGE: I’m not doing too badly, given the situation. And I think that’s really because I have something significant to focus on other than just my personal circumstance. That’s the same for all people who are in a situation of detainment. I’ve been five—almost five years now detained, in one form or another, without charge, here in the United Kingdom. I don’t live in the United Kingdom. I’m an Australian. So, it’s quite difficult for my family. But for me, WikiLeaks’ work and the various cases that we have, defensive and offensive, is enough to keep my mind out of the situation that I’m in. And that’s very important for detained people.
AMY GOODMAN: Which brings us to Edward Snowden, a man who you helped to secure his freedom, at least for now, though he’s not in the United States where he would like to be—he has political asylum in Russia—and what the revelations have led to—well, so many things all over the world, but in the United States, congressional action just in the last week, the challenges to the USA PATRIOT Act. Can you talk about what’s taken place? This is an absolutely critical week. June 1st, the USA PATRIOT Act, sections of it sunset unless they are continued. The administration has not appealed—applied for an automatic extension. And a number of senators, Republican and Democrat, have now bucked the corporate Republican-Democratic establishment and said they don’t want the overall surveillance of Americans. Explain more specifically what’s taken place.
JULIAN ASSANGE: The Edward Snowden revelations documented various forms of National Security Agency spying and secret interpretations of U.S. law that have been constructed by the Justice Department and the FISA courts. Now, some of those hinged on Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, a secret interpretation, that has been found just this month to be unlawful in the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals.
Now, that has dovetailed with the electoral process in the United States, and so there’s now increasing push to be—increasing push for popularism. Rand Paul and Ron Wyden have tapped into that. The USA PATRIOT Act has been on rolling sunset clauses since 2001. The sunset clause is June the 1st, and so Ron Wyden and Rand Paul engaged in a filibuster, pushing the passage of the renewal of the PATRIOT Act off to a week where Congress had scheduled to be away all the way leading up to June 1st. So unless there’s an emergency recall of enough of the Senate and Congress, the sunset clause will hit, and that means there will have to be a new PATRIOT Act reintroduced. So it will have to be resuscitated as opposed to having a rollover, and that’s a more involved process. However, our sources say that the NSA is not too concerned, that it has secret interpretations of other authorities that give it much the same power that it would have had under the secret interpretation of 215 and other areas of the USA PATRIOT Act.
What Edward Snowden revealed about the secret interpretation of Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act was that the National Security Agency was using it to bulk-collect the calling records, every day, of essentially every American in the United States—the majority of the big telecommunications companies. However, that’s only a very small part of the National Security Agency’s mass interception system. On one hand, it can suck information out of the—of Google, Facebook and so on, under the PRISM system; and on the other hand, even more data is collected as a result of information flowing across the border of the United States or across borders of the United Kingdom, which has a sharing agreement with the National Security Agency.
But it is a type of at least political victory, showing that you can—Rand Paul clearly believes that you can garnish a type of political power by having a filibuster on this issue. I think that’s quite an important thing leading up to the 2016 presidential election. It’s safe now to have this as part of the political debate.
AMY GOODMAN: The administration has said, well, we’ll put the information in the control of the telecoms, the telephone companies, but that’s also something that Rand Paul has challenged: Why should the telecommunications companies, why should private enterprise have this information, holding it to be sought by the government?
JULIAN ASSANGE: That’s right. So the alternative proposal, which is something that was in the USA FREEDOM Act, which is pretty misnamed—it is a sort of milder version of the USA PATRIOT Act, in some ways. Instead, Verizon and the other—AT&T and other big telcos will hold the information, ready for the National Security Agency. But, you know, it doesn’t make much of a difference if that’s an automated system. It’s just—you know, 80 percent of the National Security Agency is outsourced anyway, in terms of the management of its data. In this case, if it has automatic connections to AT&T and Verizon, there’s no difference in terms of its searching ability. Now, in terms of whether there’s warrants that are used for searches, it is perhaps an aid, because the companies could be made legally liable—that’s up to Congress—for not insisting on a warrant to access that information. I rather suspect that Congress won’t mandate that the companies can’t hand over information unless there’s a warrant.
Now, it’s interesting to contrast that with the situation here in Europe. So, in Europe, there was legislation that telcos should hold that information for 18 months. Now, in Germany, that has been found—in fact, at the European Court level, has been found to be unconstitutional. And in Germany, it was ordered that all that information be flushed away. And now there’s a fight on with various European states, such as Sweden, insisting that they can retain the information, even though the laws of Europe say that they’re not permitted to retain that information.
AMY GOODMAN: Before we get to Germany and what you’ve revealed there, I want to stay with the U.S. for a minute, because President Obama famously said that the debate over privacy and surveillance would have been had without Edward Snowden. Can you respond to that?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Oh, I think it’s obvious to everyone that that is false. How can you have a debate with secret interpretations of the law? How can you debate them? They’re secret. Similarly, what are the actual actions that are occurring, not just in policy, but what is actually happening? What are these bureaucracies actually doing? If you don’t know, how can you possibly have the debate? Information is classified, no debate is possible.
AMY GOODMAN: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaking inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. If he steps foot outside, he will be arrested by British authorities. We’ll return to our interview with him in a minute and talk about the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as well as British nuclear submarine whistleblower William McNeilly. Stay with us.
A Royal Navy whistleblower who exposed security problems at Britain’s Trident nuclear base in Scotland was arrested earlier this month after about a week on the run. In an 18-page report published by WikiLeaks, Able Seaman William McNeilly wrote: "We are so close to a nuclear disaster it is shocking, and yet everybody is accepting the risk to the public." McNeilly describes a fire on board a submarine, the use of a missile compartment as a gym, an alleged cover-up of a submarine collision and lax security which makes it "harder to get into most nightclubs" than into restricted areas of the nuclear base. In our exclusive interview from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, we speak to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange about McNeilly and his leaks.
Watch more from our Julian Assange interview: Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 4 || Part 5
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: So, let’s talk about more recently what you have been able to get out. I want to work backwards. William McNeilly, explain who he is and what he has to say.
JULIAN ASSANGE: William McNeilly is a submariner for the U.K. Trident fleet. Trident is the U.K.'s nuclear weapons system. All its nuclear weapons are in four submarines, called Trident. They're an expensive program, been going for more than 30 years, which is a matter of significant debate now in the United Kingdom because it has been stationed in Scotland. And if you look at this from the Scottish perspective, England put all its nukes and nuclear processing in Scotland, in Faslane, making it a nuclear target, but also making it a, you know, potential place of a nuclear spill, a nuclear accident. And so, with the rise of the Scottish independence movement has come a formal statement by the Scottish government, the Scottish National Party, that they want those weapons out, and that if they get independence, they will take them out.
And William McNeilly revealed to us a long analysis of accidents and other dangerous activities that had happened in those—in the Trident nuclear weapons system program and some extracts from the nuclear weapons safety book. And he went—he learned quite a lot from the Bradley Manning, Chelsea Manning now, and the Edward Snowden situations. You can see that quite clearly. And he—yeah, he learned quite a lot from that, and he was successful in bringing this issue into public debate. Although, that said, the U.S.—the U.K. media was very conspicuously silent. We suspect that there is a standing D-Notice on all Trident nuclear weapons issues. That would not be unusual. The D-Notice system here is a defense advisory notice. The editors of the mainstream newspapers meet once a month in a closed session with the government, which says what things it doesn’t want to appear, as far as military intelligence is concerned. Anyway, eventually that was broken after we published, and some of the Scottish newspapers also picked up aggressively on the issue.
AMY GOODMAN: So, I mean, here you have this Trident whistleblower, who actually has just turned himself in. He, in an odd way, like you, now in captivity, puts out this extended statement trying to explain his concern about the lax security around the Trident missile system, how easy it is to get into the heart of—into the belly of the beast, saying it’s harder to get into a bar than to lay a duffle bag, that no one has ever checked the insides of, next to a nuclear submarine or a nuclear missile.
JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, in a nuclear submarine next to a nuclear missile, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain some of the things that he has documented here, that WikiLeaks put out.
JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, he’s documented fires on nuclear submarines; that the—so many false positives in the alarm systems, you know, where there’s a fault or a problem in the submarine, that people just started turning the volume off on them, because, you know, they’re too irritating; a gradual collapse in the maintenance standards. In some ways, these are all things that you would expect. For example—he gives another example of security, that it’s harder to get through airport security than it is to get onto a Trident nuclear weapons submarine. And—
AMY GOODMAN: He said rarely was his ID checked.
JULIAN ASSANGE: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Almost never.
JULIAN ASSANGE: And another Trident submariner came out and said that, as well, backed him up, after this revelation, on exactly that point. And that is actually not surprising, if you know—if you’ve studied institutions and how they work. For example, in a nightclub, you have people trying to sneak in all the time, and, you know, clearly succeeding. And as a result, that disciplines the security staff. If they start slacking off, then very quickly they pay the consequences. Similarly with the airport, there’s passengers trying to get through all the time. And now, for something like a Trident system, you have 30 years with—if anyone’s getting in, it’s perhaps Russian or Chinese spies, historically. And they keep it all quiet. So there’s no disciplining effect when it goes wrong, and so gradually the standards all start to decline. And people engage in a kind of pantomime for the higher-ups, but everyone understands that we don’t bother to do this because it’s too much work.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re here with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean Embassy, where he’s lived, taken refuge, has had political asylum for almost three years. And now we’re talking about William McNeilly, the man known as the Trident whistleblower, who has just turned himself in after releasing remarkable documents about his observations getting to the actual nuclear missiles with hardly ID, let alone anyone checking, for example, big duffle bags—who knows what would be in them? So, why did McNeilly turn himself in?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, there’s two potential actions against McNeilly. One is a political action for his revelations. Now, the U.K. military, the Royal Navy, is very concerned about the politics. We have these missiles all based in Scotland. The recent election showed that the Scottish National Party was completely dominant. It won 57 out 60 seats in the election. And it says it’s going to remove Trident. That is its policy. And if it—as soon as it becomes independent, it will do that. As soon as Scotland becomes an independent nation, which they’re pushing for, they will do that. So the politics of this moment are acute, and the U.K. military doesn’t want to pour more fuel onto their political fires, trying to do everything to dampen out discussion of this material.
Now, the other attack on him is that he was—
AMY GOODMAN: He’s an Irish seaman, right? Irish?
JULIAN ASSANGE: He’s from Northern Ireland. The other attack on him is that he went AWOL during this whistleblowing period. Clearly learning from Edward Snowden’s playbook, stepped back, released material, try and manage the situation in terms of media and so on, and then, once you see how it’s going, maybe step back into the fold. So, every day he was away, he was technically committing another crime in military law of being away without leave. So the U.K. military have now said—we’ll see whether they stick to this; their promises can’t be relied on—but that they’re not going to prosecute him under the Official Secrets Act; they’re going to go for him under AWOL.
And I imagine if they’re trying to suppress debate about this matter, they will prosecute him for being away without leave, they will perhaps put him in prison for 28 days, and they’ll give him a dishonorable discharge, as a way to kind of dampen the conflict. If it comes to court about the material that he’s been released, well, they’ll have to say, "Yeah, it’s true. This is true. And it was unlawful for him to release this true information." And he will say, "Well, but there was a public interest in this." And then they’ll say, "Well, you don’t have a right to argue public interest," and so on. So, at the moment, it appears that the U.K. government is heading down this direction of trying to not have a big, high-profile court case, which would probably be held in Scotland and further inflame the Scottish independence movement.
AMY GOODMAN: So, I just want to read from his observations. "This contains references," he writes, "to CB8890: The instructions for the safety and security of the Trident II D5 strategic weapon system. I’m sure all the Strategic Weapon System (SWS) personnel are scratching their heads and wondering how I’m writing this on my personnel laptop"—I think means personal laptop—"and referencing a book, which is contained within a safe in the Missile Control Centre (MCC). The MCC is the compartment used to control the launch of the nuclear missiles. It can only be accessed by people on the access list, and no personnel electronics are allowed. I was on the access list but how could I have gotten a copy of every single chapter on to my phone? A hidden camera? No. Smuggled the book out then filmed it? No. What I did was walk into a room [where] no recording devices are allowed. I sat down; took my Samsung Galaxy SII (white) out of my pocket, and recorded the entire book word for word. I held the phone still, about a foot in front of my face and anyone who looked at the screen or used common sense, would’ve seen I was recording. There were other SWS personnel in the room; in the video you can see a SWS JR about 3 feet in front of me"—or an SWS JR about three feet in front of me—"talking to another SWS JR sitting right beside me. You probably think that’s impossible but I’ve got the evidence to prove it. The complete lack of concern for security worries me. The fact is it would’ve been even easier for me to cause a nuclear catastrophe than to gather that information, and gathering that information was actually quite simple, due to the amount of ignorance," he writes. These are the words of William McNeilly. He says he filmed this top-secret book with his Samsung, which is white, out in front of other people—
JULIAN ASSANGE: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: —in a room where he wasn’t even supposed to have a personal device.
JULIAN ASSANGE: And gives quotes from it in the material that we released, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: So this is a tremendous embarrassment, to say the least, to the British military.
JULIAN ASSANGE: It is. But it’s very interesting to see the way it’s playing out in the U.K. press, you know, with a—it seems like an initial ban on reporting any of the information.
AMY GOODMAN: Has a deal been made between journalists and—or is there a kind of actual official ban?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, the U.K. society is a often informal society. In London, things work behind the scenes, and—but there is a formal mechanism, as well, which is the D-Notice advisory system, where the military and intelligence agencies once a month meet with the editors of the U.K., and they say what things are not to be reported, and then there’s a gentlemen’s agreement that these things are not reported. It’s a sort of—the media self-regulates, because there’s a fear of regulation if they don’t do what they’re told.
AMY GOODMAN: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaking inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he’s taken refuge for the past three years. We’ll be back in a minute with another explosive revelation.
WikiLeaks has just revealed secret details of a European Union plan to use military force to curb the influx of migrants from Libya. "The documents lay out a military operation against cross-Mediterranean refugee transport networks and infrastructure," WikiLeaks says. "It details plans to conduct military operations to destroy boats used for transporting migrants and refugees in Libyan territory, thereby preventing them from reaching Europe." WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange discusses the EU’s plan from his place of refuge inside Ecuador’s London embassy.
Image Credit: Reuters
Watch more from our Julian Assange interview: Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 5
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We return to our exclusive interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. I went to London and spoke to him inside the Ecuadorean Embassy there on Memorial Day.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the documents you have released around Libya and the immigrants that are trying to escape?
JULIAN ASSANGE: A secret plan was constructed by the defense ministers of Europe, the defense ministers from the various countries. The plan was led by the U.K. and Italy. And that plan, authored on the 13th of May, is what we have released. Now, it calls for a military intervention in Libya to destroy refugee boats before they leave port, from Libya coming to Europe, and also for other attacks on the people who provide the services of conducting the boats, called, of course, in that plan, "people smugglers," and they’re necessary to stop their network.
AMY GOODMAN: You said destroy the boats. What do you mean?
JULIAN ASSANGE: That’s right. Before the refugees get into the boats, destroy the boats. And so, of course, this involves potential infringements of Libyan sovereignty, destroying boats in port.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean, "destroying"? Blowing them up?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Blowing them up, sabotaging them. Destroying them through military means is what is specified in the document.
AMY GOODMAN: How would they know if there are people in them?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, they may not. They may conduct surveillance operations to detect people. They may be unconcerned with people. The way that they’re talking about the people smugglers in the document is such that you have the impression that the people smugglers themselves would be a military target. The infrastructure, and specifically boats, but their broad infrastructure, also appears to be a military target. So, for example, the systems that repair boats or who are involved in collecting together the refugees, these seem like they would also be military targets.
AMY GOODMAN: And whose documents are these?
JULIAN ASSANGE: This is a classified document from the European Union, from the EU Military Committee. And the EU Military Committee is the defense ministers of the European Union. The document was led by the United Kingdom and Italy. And it will be Italy who is leading the on-the-ground—it will be Italy who is militarily coordinating the on-the-ground efforts.
AMY GOODMAN: And in the documents, the concerns about what this will look like, the so-called optics of the situation?
JULIAN ASSANGE: Yes, there’s a layout for a media information operations at the same time, very significant concern about the optics, about where there’s media scrutiny of the EU for killing people, or false reports of killing people. They say, you know, where the EU has actually killed people in this operation, so they are intending to at least risk killing people in blowing up these boats.
I guess from a—if we now pull back a bit, where is this coming from? Well, it’s no surprise that the U.K. was involved in the draft. Since the 7th, with the new Conservative government here having a majority, we have seen a very strong push along a Conservative agenda against migrants, against pulling out of some parts of the EU, against a retardation of the European Court of Human Rights. From the Italian perspective, they have to deal with the migrants that come across.
Now, this will be the first time that the EU, as a military force—not NATO, but the EU—is engaged in hostilities. So it’s quite—it’s quite significant from the perspective of what the EU is going to look like as a military force. And if you think of Libya, there’s the question of what do these EU nations want with Libya. Well, remember, Libya was largely Hillary’s war. That’s came out, that in fact the Pentagon was pushing against it, Hillary was pushing for it. From the American side, there wasn’t unity in pursuing the prosecution of Libya, because the Pentagon was worried about the post-Gaddafi environment, had that been set up enough, for exactly the same reasons—the exact same lessons we learned in Iraq. Now, there was considerable European push for war in Libya, as well, from Italy, from France and from the United Kingdom, to get at Libyan oil. Deals were done in terms of splits with the Libyan rebels, the splits that Italy would have, the splits that France would have. So, we may also be looking at an excuse to get on to the shoreline of Libya. They will have established a breach of Libyan sovereignty. They will be engaging in destruction of these boats and the people-smuggling operations on Libyan soil.
AMY GOODMAN: And the documents address the Western-backed groups within Libya and what they feel about this?
JULIAN ASSANGE: It has come out publicly, when some versions of this plan have been spoken about in the media. The plan hasn’t come out, but versions of it have been spoken about, and that the groups that the West says is the government of Libya, if you like, they’re those factions around Benghazi. The Libyan foreign minister says that this should not be tolerated, of course. Libyans could not accept the prevention of Libyans seeking refuge being pursued by jihadists. It’s really a very new situation. It’s new in terms of the EU acting as a force in this manner, acting as a force against refugees, against refugee boats, acting as a force, in effect, to assist ISIS. These are people that are being driven out of Libya by jihadists of various factions, including ISIS. So, I find it quite, you know, quite a dangerous precedent. Now, having once established themselves on the northern shore of Libya, there’s a question about then what happens. Presumably, EU troops or EU agents or EU warships on the shore of Libya are going to receive some kind of resistance occasionally, and they will meet that resistance. And that could then well snowball into an invasion of Libya. And that may—I must speculate that that may be part of the vision.
ISIL Suicide Attack Kills Dozens; Pentagon Says Shiite Codename "Unhelpful"
A suicide attack by the self-proclaimed Islamic State has reportedly killed dozens near the Iraqi city of Fallujah. The bombing hit an Iraqi army convoy involved in the ongoing offensive to retake the capital of Anbar province from ISIL. At the White House, Press Secretary Josh Earnest stood by comments from Defense Secretary Ash Carter that Iraqi forces have lacked the will to fight.
White House Secretary Josh Earnest: "That certainly has been a problem that we’ve seen in the past. That’s what allowed ISIL to make such significant gains last summer. And so, what the United States and our coalition has been focused on is making sure that we can enhance the capacity of the Iraqi security forces in supporting the Iraqi central government as they try to unite that country and build a multisectarian security force to face the threat that is posed by ISIL."
Shiite militias have given the offensive to recapture Ramadi a sectarian codename, "Labaik ya Hussein," in honor of an ancient figure killed in a war that helped set off the Shiite-Sunni divide. On Tuesday, the Pentagon called the codename "unhelpful."
Top FIFA Officials Detained, Face U.S. Extradition in Sweeping Corruption Probe
Top officials with the world’s governing soccer body FIFA have been detained in a sweeping corruption investigation that could see them tried in the United States. The suspects were arrested while gathering for FIFA’s annual meeting at a luxury hotel in the Swiss city of Zurich. The Justice Department has requested their extradition on charges related to accepting bribes on World Cup bids and television broadcast deals. The FBI says "undisclosed and illegal payments, kickbacks, and bribes became a way of doing business at FIFA."
Cleveland Agrees to Limits on Police Force, Federal Oversight
Cleveland has agreed to some of the nation’s toughest limits on the use of police force under a settlement with a federal government. Officers are now barred from firing warning shots and pistol-whipping suspects, and can no longer use force against those who talk back or run away. The police force will also undergo increased training on racial bias and will be tracked by an independent monitor. U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said the terms could be a model for other police forces nationwide.
U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach: "We have signed and are filing this 105-page comprehensive consent decree that, once approved by a federal judge, will not only serve as a roadmap for reform in Cleveland but as a national model for any police department that is ready to escort a great city to the forefront of the 21st century. And even though we are speaking, what we are announcing here today is way more than just talk."
The consent agreement was reached after the Justice Department sued Cleveland over a pattern of unlawful abuses uncovered in a probe last year.
It comes just days after an officer was acquitted in the fatal shootings of two unarmed African Americans in their car, sparking protests that continued on Tuesday. Mayor Frank Jackson called it a defining moment for Cleveland.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson: "I want to say that this is really a defining moment for the city of Cleveland and for the citizens of the city of Cleveland. It will define who we are as a people and who we are as a city. Over the last several days, the general peaceful response to the Officer Brelo verdict has reinforced my belief that Cleveland is a community where peaceful demonstrations and dialogue will and can provide for change and will make a lasting difference for the people of the city of Cleveland."
Appeals Court Maintains Hold on Obama Deportation Reprieve
A federal appeals court has refused to restore President Obama’s executive actions protecting millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. A right-wing judge blocked Obama’s deportation reprieve earlier this year after a motion filed by Texas and 25 other states. The federal government had asked for the injunction to be lifted while the original ruling is appealed, but a divided two-to-one panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that bid.
Nebraska Gov. Vetoes Bill to Abolish Death Penalty
Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts has vetoed a landmark measure that calls for abolishing the state’s death penalty. Nebraska lawmakers passed the bill last week and appear to have enough votes to override Ricketts’ veto. If the override prevails, Nebraska would be the first conservative state to ban the death penalty in more than four decades.
Floodwaters Strand Residents Across Texas
Record-setting flooding continues to inundate Texas and Oklahoma, leaving 17 dead. Houston was brought to a near standstill on Tuesday as surging floodwaters stranded motorists across the city. Houston Mayor Annise Parker urged residents to stay in their homes.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker: "We all have to remember that we’re the point of a really big funnel that kind of extends up into Central Texas, and a lot of water that falls upstream flows through Houston. It’s still a dangerous situation along the bayous. They’re full of water. The water is moving very, very rapidly, and a lot of folks want to come down and look. A lot of kids, particularly, want to come and toss something in the bayou, see what they can see. It’s exciting. Still a very dangerous place to be. So I would urge caution. And if you can stay home, please stay home today."
Death Toll in India Heatwave Hits 1,100
The death toll from a scorching heatwave in India has topped 1,100. Temperatures have reached as high as 50 degrees Celsius, or 122 degrees Fahrenheit.
Trial of U.S. Journalist Jason Rezaian Begins in Iran
An American journalist is on trial in Iran nearly one year after he was detained. Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post’s bureau chief in Tehran, is accused of espionage and passing information to "hostile governments." He faces up to 20 years behind bars. In Washington, State Department spokesperson Jeff Rathke called for Rezaian’s release.
Jeff Rathke: "We continue to monitor this as closely as possible, and we continue to call for all of the absurd charges to be dropped and for Jason Rezaian to be released immediately. We always raise the cases of detained and missing U.S. citizens with Iranian officials on the sidelines of the P5+1 talks and the other interactions that happen in that context, and we will continue to do that until all of them are home."
Israel Bombs Gaza After Rocket Hits Ashdod; Aid Groups Seek Pressure to Lift Blockade
Israel has carried out bombings on the Gaza Strip after a rocket landed in the Israeli city of Ashdod. Palestinian militants say the rocket crossed into Israel by mistake as they fired test rockets into the sea. It’s at least the fourth time Palestinians have launched rockets and Israelis conducted airstrikes since the ceasefire ending last summer’s 50-day Israeli assault. But Israeli forces have also fired into Gaza more than 400 times, including on farmers and fishermen. Meanwhile, a new report from dozens of aid agencies is calling for pressure on Israel to lift the blockade and allow Gaza’s reconstruction. The groups, including Oxfam and Save the Children, endorse measures such as suspending arms transfers that could be used to violate international law.
Amnesty: Hamas Killed Alleged Collaborators During Gaza Assault
Amnesty International meanwhile says Hamas used last summer’s Israeli assault to kill 23 Palestinians and torture dozens of others accused of collaborating with Israel. In a new report, Amnesty alleges Hamas gave its security forces "free rein to carry out horrific abuses." Hamas has denied responsibility for the killing of alleged collaborators and has blamed Israel for sowing chaos with attacks on the Gaza security apparatus.
Sanders Formally Launches Presidential Campaign
And independent Senator Bernie Sanders has formally kicked off his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Addressing a rally in his home state of Vermont, Sanders vowed to tackle income inequality and the political power of the 1 percent.
Senator Bernie Sanders: "I am proud to announce my candidacy for president of the United States of America. Today, with your support and the support of millions of people throughout our country, we begin a political revolution to transform our country economically, politically, socially and environmentally. Today, we stand here and say loudly and clearly: Enough is enough. This great nation and its government belong to all of the people and not to a handful of billionaires."
Sanders is the only challenger to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton so far, but former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley could declare later this week.
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