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Tariq Ali on Lahore Bombing: Is the Pakistani Government Turning a Blind Eye to Taliban Violence?
Pakistan has launched a paramilitary operation following the Easter Day bombing in the country’s second-largest city that killed 72 people, including 29 children. Another 340 were injured. A Taliban splinter group has claimed responsibility for the attack on a crowded amusement park in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, the country’s richest and most populous province. The attack occurred as members of the minority Christian community gathered to celebrate Easter Sunday. The Lahore attack was Pakistan’s deadliest since the December 2014 massacre of 134 schoolchildren at a military-run academy in Peshawar that prompted a government crackdown on Islamist militancy. We speak to British-Pakistani commentator Tariq Ali.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Pakistan has launched a paramilitary operation following the Easter Day bombing in the country’s second-largest city that killed 72 people, including 29 children. Another 340 were injured. A Taliban splinter group has claimed responsibility for the attack on a crowded amusement park in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, the country’s richest and most populous province. The attack occurred as members of the minority Christian community gathered to celebrate Easter Sunday. A spokesperson for the attackers said they targeted Christians, but most of those killed were actually Muslim. Eyewitness Ikram Arif gave a harrowing account of the attack’s aftermath.
IKRAM ARIF: [translated] I came here to Gulshan Park yesterday. I was standing there at the parking area while parking my motorcycle. My friend was with me. We suddenly heard the sound of an explosion from inside. I parked my bike and rushed inside. I picked up the injured to move them away from there. I saw bodies with blown-up heads, some with blown-up legs and some with intestines coming out of their abdomen. Many injured people—men, women and children—were lying there. I picked up a blown leg of an infant, who must have been about six months old. I still have bloodstains on my leg. I picked up many injured people last night and moved them to an ambulance. I was not feeling well after that, and I returned home very tired, as if my body was no longer responding. Now I have come to see what the situation is.
AMY GOODMAN: The bombing in Lahore was Pakistan’s deadliest since the December 2014 massacre of 134 schoolchildren at a military-run academy in Peshawar that prompted a government crackdown on Islamist militancy. Speaking Monday, the Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, renewed his pledge to crack down on militancy in Pakistan.
PRIME MINISTER NAWAZ SHARIF: [translated] It has been made clear to all concerned departments that any patrons or facilitators of terrorists, wherever they may be or in whatever disguise they may be hiding, they will not be spared from the clutches of the law.
AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about the implications of the Lahore bombing, we go to London to speak with Tariq Ali, British-Pakistani political commentator, historian, activist, filmmaker, novelist and editor of the New Left Review. His most recent book is The Extreme Centre: A Warning. He is also author of several books on Pakistani politics and history.
Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Tariq. Can you talk about what happened in Lahore?
TARIQ ALI: Hi, Amy.
Amy, basically, what has been going on in Pakistan now for two to three decades is that madrassas, religious schools, have been created in large parts of the country, used as transmission belts. Added to that, there are camps, which are supposedly educational camps for some of these groups, which exist in different parts of the country, not just on the Afghan border, and it’s not a secret that in parts of the Punjab, the country’s largest and most important province economically and politically, in the southern part of this province, there have been a number of camps set up by these groups which have not been dealt with or investigated seriously by successive governments. And the prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, every time there is a terrorist outbreak, says exactly the same thing: This will never happen again, this will not be allowed. He’s beginning to sound like a broken gramophone record from old times. No one takes him seriously, which is why I think the Army and the Rangers are moving in to try and see what can be done. But even they face a very difficult task, because many, many years ago, during the first Afghan War against the Russians, backed by the United States, all these groups were created. A whole number of religious schools, or madrassas, were set up, where the curriculum was very militant, in terms of, you know, suggesting violence against unbelievers, etc. So what we are now witnessing is the result of all those dragon seeds that were sewn over three decades ago and which many politicians at the time in the frontier province near Afghanistan warned would make Pakistan uninhabitable unless something was done. Well, it wasn’t done, and we now have another outrage in Lahore.
The one thing, Amy, which I think it’s important to understand, is that purely on the theological front, it is utterly grotesque of any group claiming to be Muslim to suggest that there is Qur’anic or institutional hostility to Christianity within Islamic writings. Jesus is one of the most revered of prophets in the Muslim pantheon. The only woman mentioned and praised and regarded as honorable in the Qur’an is Maryam, Mary, Jesus’s mother. There are more references to her in the Qur’an than in the New Testament, to show that these religions are linked to each other; they grew out of each other; they believe in the same book, the Old Testament; and they are all monotheistic. So, theologically, there is absolutely nothing to justify this.
This is a political assault on the country’s culture, its life, to try and create a jihadi, Islamic State-type republic. And this group, this splinter group, has expressed its admiration for the Islamic State, or Daesh, and regard themselves as its followers in Pakistan. So we’re now seeing the internationalization of a conflict that began in Iraq and created this group, now attracting others because it carries out these terrorist attacks in the Middle East and, of course, in Paris and in Brussels. It’s part and parcel of the same problem.
AMY GOODMAN: So, this group, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, that claimed responsibility, a faction of the TTP, the Tehrik-i-Taliban—what is even the Tehrik-i-Taliban? You say it is connected to ISIS, to the so-called Islamic State?
TARIQ ALI: Well, I don’t know whether it is connected in a concrete way, but it’s certainly influenced by ISIS and regards this group with some admiration, because they’re doing things. They don’t talk about what they’re doing, but they talked about doing things. It’s a form of very strong Sunni fundamentalism, which is disregarded and alienates most Sunnis in the world, which regards a particular type of Islam, a variant of Wahhabism, which is the only one acceptable. The demands of these people, when they actually bother to make them, is a state governed exclusively by Sharia. But Sharia has many interpretations. There is no single interpretation of the Sharia or Islamic law. Some of it already exists in the country.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Tariq, the significance of this taking place in Punjab?
TARIQ ALI: Very much so. This is the area where the bulk of the recruits for the Pakistan Army, the Pakistan police force and the Rangers come from. This is the most populous province in the country. And if they’re boasting, as their leader did yesterday—"Yes, we’ve decided to take the war to the Punjab"—the question is raised: How come that the government, the provincial government, the central government, were not aware of this? We know, and it’s not a secret either in Pakistan or in Europe or anywhere else, that these groups are infiltrated by intelligence people who keep a watchful eye on them. They have people in there who report to them. What did they report? That there were attacks going to take place? We know now that some months ago the Lahore Literature Festival was not allowed to use a particular government venue because they said that they were fearful of terrorist attacks. So one assumes they were aware that this group was up to something. And it’s a complete breakdown of the intelligence networks if they couldn’t predict these attacks. I don’t believe it myself. I believe that the Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif, elements within it, didn’t want to take action against these groups, because they have indirect or possibly even direct links with them. They don’t want to upset the province, which is their power base. And now they’ve seen the result.
AMY GOODMAN: Tariq Ali, I also want to ask you about what’s happening in the capital of Islamabad. Thousands of Islamists are staging a sit-in outside the Parliament there to protest last month’s execution of Mumtaz Qadri, who assassinated reformist politician and Punjab Governor Salman Taseer five years ago. You grew up with the Punjab governor, Salman Taseer?
TARIQ ALI: Yes, I did. We were schoolfellows and very close friends, though we lost contact later on, except occasionally. But he was—on these questions, he was very open-minded. And the reason they targeted him was a poor woman, a Christian woman, was accused of blasphemy, on the basis of nil evidence, locked up in a prison. There was a big row about it in Pakistan. The press raised the issue. And Salman Taseer, as governor of the Punjab, decided to make a symbolic point, and he actually went into the prison and sat next to the woman and talked to her. This was regarded as blasphemy itself, and the religious group involved decided to punish him. He was shot dead by Mumtaz Qadri, who was one of his specially trained bodyguards, put into place in the police force to defend him. And all the other guards stood quietly and watched as this guy pumped bullets into Taseer. The judges were scared to convict him, so he was in limbo for some time, sentenced to death. No one would carry it out. The judge who finally said that the sentence had to be carried out has fled the country and is now in Dubai. So, this is his supporters, of the killer, the assassin, who are demonstrating against what was done to him on the 40th day after his funeral, which is a day for prayer and religious meditation, etc. And they organized this demonstration, demanding that Qadri be declared a martyr and a whole number of other totally ridiculous demands which no serious government could even think of accepting. And yet ministers, etc., have been talking and negotiating with them.
So, the country is in a total mess, Amy. I can’t stress this too much. And people don’t like talking about it, but unless and until the country’s social structure improves and people see an alternative, both on the level of education, health facilities, housing, there’s going to be a huge vacuum, which some of these Islamist groups fill. And I think it has to be pointed out that this is not only poor people who are behaving like this—they can sometimes be duped. This is a middle-class phenomenon. You have all over Pakistan, including in Lahore, the capital of the Punjab, very articulate, young, middle-class women preachers preaching a message of hate to middle-class people. They have nothing else. Their life is empty, so they go on this turn. And there have been many cases of a woman taking her three children from a pro-ISIS family and departing to Syria. No one knows what’s happened to her, when she’s coming back or not. The government is aware of all this. If I am sitting in London, they know it much better than me. And unless something is done to change the country from the top, nothing is going to change. This will carry on, and in a few months or a few years we’ll see the politicians repeating the same old nonsense. ... Read More →
Greenwald: FBI-Apple Fight Tied to U.S. Effort to Access the Communications of Everyone Everywhere
On Monday, the Justice Department announced it has succeeded in unlocking an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters and dropped its case against Apple, ending a high-stakes legal battle but leaving a broader debate over encryption unresolved. The fight between the FBI and Apple had grown increasingly contentious as the tech giant refused to help government authorities bypass the security features of its phone. The FBI wanted Apple to build a backdoor into the phone, but Apple said such a move would put the security of other iPhones at risk, as well. The FBI’s decision to drop its case now raises new concerns about the strength of security in Apple devices given law enforcement’s ability to unlock the iPhone without Apple’s assistance. Last week, we talked to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald about the fight between the FBI and Apple, as well as Donald Trump’s embrace of torture.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: On Monday, the Justice Department announced it succeeded in unlocking an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters and dropped its case against Apple, ending a high-stakes legal battle. But the news leaves a broader debate over encryption unresolved. The fight between the FBI and Apple had grown increasingly contentious as the tech giant refused to help government authorities bypass the security features of its phone. The FBI wanted Apple to build a backdoor into the phone, but Apple said such a move would put the security of other iPhones at risk, as well. The FBI’s decision to drop its case now raises new concerns about the strength of security in Apple devices given law enforcement’s ability to unlock the iPhone without Apple’s assistance.
After the Brussels bombing last week, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton delivered a major address at Stanford University and addressed the FBI-Apple fight.
HILLARY CLINTON: Impenetrable encryption provides significant cybersecurity advantages but may also make it harder for law enforcement and counterterrorism professionals to investigate plots and prevent future attacks. ISIS knows this, too. At the same time, there are legitimate worries about privacy, network security and creating new vulnerabilities that bad actors, including terrorists, can exploit. There may be no quick or magic fix. In the Apple case, the FBI may have found a workaround, but there will be future cases with different facts and different challenges, so the tech community and the government have to stop seeing each other as adversaries and start working together to protect our safety and our privacy.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaking last week after the Brussels attack.
We turn now to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of The Intercept. Last week, Democracy Now!’s Nermeen Shaikh and I interviewed him and asked about this fight between FBI and Apple.
GLENN GREENWALD: One really interesting aspect of this is, a lot of people ask what really has changed as a result of Edward Snowden’s revelations, and sometimes people express the view that not much has, by which they mean that there’s not a lot of laws that have been passed limiting the NSA’s ability to spy. But one critical change, a really fundamental and significant one, has been that prior to the Snowden revelations, Silicon Valley companies, like Apple and Facebook and Google and Yahoo, were full-scale collaborators with the NSA’s effort to collect everything, essentially, to turn the Internet into an unlimited realm of surveillance. And they were able to do that because nobody knew they were doing it, and so there was no cost. Once we were able to shine a light on the cooperation between Silicon Valley and the NSA as a result of Edward Snowden, there was a huge cost to these companies, which was that people around the world would be unwilling to use their services and would instead move to South Korean or German or Brazilian social media companies that protected their privacy. And so these companies needed to say, "We are willing now to protect your privacy by putting encryption products into our products that will not let the government invade your communications and see what you’re doing." And there is now a serious wedge between the U.S. government, on the one hand, and Silicon Valley, on the other—not because these companies suddenly care about privacy. They don’t care about privacy at all. It’s because they perceive it as being within their self-interest to demonstrate a commitment to privacy. And that has created a real difficulty for the NSA and for its allied agencies around the world to be able to intrude into people’s private communications.
The other interesting aspect of this is that in the 1990s, after the Timothy McVeigh attack on the Oklahoma City courthouse, the Clinton administration—what may be the first Clinton administration—actually initiated the campaign to demand a law that said that no one was allowed to sell encryption products unless it included a backdoor for the U.S. government to enter. And now, 20 years later, after that campaign was defeated—ironically, by the Republicans in the Senate on privacy grounds, who said, "We are not going to let the government have a backdoor into our encryption"—you have Hillary Clinton exploiting these terrorist attacks to insinuate—although she hasn’t said it outright—that there needs to be, quote, "greater cooperation between Silicon Valley and the government," by which she can only mean greater cooperation to allow U.S. intelligence agencies access to overcome encryption and to enter people’s private communications. And so, ultimately, the question is: Do you think there should be ever any way for people, human beings, to communicate without the U.S. government being able to access that? That really is the critical question we face. And politicians like Hillary Clinton are trying to exploit the fear of terrorism to get people to say there should never be any communications out of the reach of the U.S. government.
AMY GOODMAN: And what do you see is the difference between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, and also the effect that Bernie Sanders is having on Hillary Clinton’s positions?
GLENN GREENWALD: It’s interesting, because if you look at Bernie Sanders’ political career, questioning and challenging and opposing U.S. militarism and imperialism was at one point a central plank of his political identity. That was why he went to Nicaragua and Cuba and talked about U.S. interference in those regions. For whatever reason—and there may be valid reasons—he has shifted his focus away from foreign policy to income inequality and the control of the political process by Wall Street and by banks. And to the extent he talks about foreign policy and civil liberties, it’s often in this very kind of tepid way, very minor differences with the standard Democratic platform. He’s recently become again clearer and sort of more aggressive about critiquing U.S. foreign policy, as we heard in the clip that you played earlier of his criticisms of Israel. He’s become more, I think, categorical and vehement about condemning Clinton’s hawkish positions. But the difference hasn’t been all that great, because his foreign policy message has been muddled.
And to the extent that he has changed Hillary Clinton’s posture politically as a result of his primary challenge to her, there’s this common perception that he’s dragged her to the left and made her become more liberal. You know, I think it’s really critical to understand that politicians—and this is the lesson we ought to have learned from Barack Obama—what they say in political campaigns doesn’t necessarily correspond to what they actually do in—once they obtain power. And so I think the effect on Sanders has been to make Clinton’s rhetoric in the Democratic primary be a little bit more left-wing, be a little bit more attentive to liberal constituencies. But I think you see her already, now that she’s confident she’s going to beat Sanders, already moving her rhetoric more to the center, and by the time she’s a general election candidate, will almost certainly revert to the kind of right-wing posture on foreign policies and civil liberties that she’s long had and the centrist approach to economics and domestic policies, other than social issues, where she tends to be a reliable liberal.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, I want to ask about the controversy around Trump’s statements endorsing torture tactics. Last month, speaking to HBO’s Bill Maher, former NSA and CIA director, General Michael Hayden, said the military would refuse to follow Trump’s orders on torture and extrajudicial killings.
MICHAEL HAYDEN: Let me give you a punch line. All right? If he were to order that, once in government, the American armed forces would refuse to act.
BILL MAHER: What? Oh, well, that’s—that’s quite a statement, sir.
MICHAEL HAYDEN: It’s a violation—
BILL MAHER: I thought the whole thing was, you have to follow orders.
MICHAEL HAYDEN: You cannot—you are not committed. You’re not required.
BILL MAHER: So—
MICHAEL HAYDEN: In fact, you’re required not to follow an unlawful order.
BILL MAHER: OK.
MICHAEL HAYDEN: That would be in violation of all the international laws of armed conflict.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Then, during the Republican presidential debate earlier this month, Trump said the military could not refuse his orders. He was questioned by Fox moderator Bret Baier.
BRET BAIER: What would you do, as commander-in-chief, if the U.S. military refused to carry out those orders?
DONALD TRUMP: They won’t refuse. They’re not going to refuse me, believe me.
BRET BAIER: But they’re illegal.
DONALD TRUMP: Let me just tell you, you look at the Middle East, they’re chopping off heads. They’re chopping off the heads of Christians and anybody else that happens to be in the way. They’re drowning people in steel cages. And he—now, we’re talking about waterboarding.
BRET BAIER: But targeting terrorists’ families?
DONALD TRUMP: And—and I’m a leader. I’m a leader. I’ve always been a leader. I’ve never had any problem leading people. If I say, "Do it," they’re going to do it. That’s what leadership is all about.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Glenn Greenwald, your response first to what former CIA Director Michael Hayden said and then to Trump’s endorsement of torture?
GLENN GREENWALD: It was one of the most bizarre exchanges I think I’ve witnessed in a while. I mean, Donald Trump was absolutely, and Michael Hayden, what he said, is completely absurd. The idea that the U.S. military, in mass, refuses to follow orders if they constitute illegal conduct or war crimes is negated by the entire history of this country, including very recently. You do have isolated members of the armed forces who periodically refuse on grounds of conscience or legal and moral duty. They denounce certain tactics. They resign from the military. They refuse to follow orders. But overwhelmingly, the U.S. military has been continuously willing—and not just the U.S. military but also the CIA—to engage in all sorts of war crimes and illegal behavior. Who is it who instituted the worldwide regime of torture because they were told to by the Bush administration? Or who was it that instituted a policy of kidnapping people without trial from around the world and putting them into dark black sites outside of the reach of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations? Or who is it who carpet-bombed Cambodia and Laos and Vietnam? It’s this really self-pleasing fantasy to believe that the U.S. military and intelligence services would nobly refuse to follow the orders of their commander-in-chief if they constituted war crimes and other illegal conduct. But everything in U.S. history, including as recently as the war on terror, tells us that Donald Trump is absolutely right, that in fact they would follow orders.
As far as Trump’s, you know, specific advocacy of things like torture is concerned, we talked about this earlier, but the reality is, is that what he’s advocating, although he uses words for it that are non-euphemistic and therefore sound really extreme, even radical, is actually mainstream American political and military thought. The CIA, under the same General Hayden who said, "Oh, these are war crimes, and the U.S. military would never do it," instituted and applied a policy of waterboarding while Michael Hayden ran the CIA. A lot of those techniques were terminated by the time he took over the CIA in 2005, but many of them persisted after that. And so, again, you have Donald Trump using language a little bit more honest and non-euphemistic, but he’s advocating policies that are very much within the mainstream of the United States. And polls show that Americans largely want torture to be used when it comes to people the U.S. government regards as terrorists.
AMY GOODMAN: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of The Intercept. When we come back, the state of North Carolina is sued over its sweeping new anti-gay, anti-trans law. Stay with us. ... Read More →
Bullied by the Government: North Carolina Sued After Enacting Sweeping Anti-Transgender Law
In North Carolina, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit challenging a sweeping new law banning local governments from passing laws prohibiting discrimination against LGBT people in public accommodations. The law, House Bill 2, commonly known as the "bathroom bill," is widely considered to be the most wide-ranging anti-trans law to take effect this year. It was introduced after the city of Charlotte passed its own ordinance seeking to protect the right of transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. In response, the North Carolina Legislature convened an emergency one-day session, at the cost of $42,000, to push through the statewide law HB 2. Within hours of its introduction, the bill was pushed through both the House and the Senate, despite the fact that Senate Democrats walked out in protest. North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed the legislation late Wednesday night. On Monday, the ACLU announced it was challenging the law’s constitutionality.
We speak with ACLU staff attorney Chase Strangio about the law’s impact in North Carolina. "It means, first and foremost, that trans people have to live in a state in which they know that their government is willing to actively participate in the harassment and bullying of them," Strangio says. "But it also means that trans people are now completely unable to participate in public life, because trans people have no idea where they’re supposed to go to the bathroom." We also speak with Payton McGarry, a student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a plaintiff on the ACLU lawsuit against HB 2.
Watch Part 2 of our interview with McGarry and Strangio here.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: In North Carolina, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit challenging a sweeping new law banning local governments from passing laws prohibiting discrimination against LGBT people in public accommodations. The law, House Bill 2, commonly known as the "bathroom bill," is widely considered to be the most wide-ranging anti-trans law to take effect this year. It was introduced after the city of Charlotte passed its own ordinance seeking to protect the right of transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. In response, the North Carolina Legislature convened an emergency one-day session, at the cost of $42,000, to push through the statewide law HB 2. Within hours of its introduction, the bill was pushed through both the House and the Senate, despite the fact that Senate Democrats walked out in protest. Senate Democratic Leader Dan Blue issued a statement saying, "This is a direct affront to equality, civil rights and local autonomy." North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory then signed the legislation late Wednesday night.
On Monday, ACLU North Carolina Legal Director Chris Brook announced the organization was challenging the law’s constitutionality.
CHRIS BROOK: We are asking the court to overturn House Bill 2 because it is unconstitutional, because it violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment, because it discriminates on the basis of sex and sexual orientation, and because it is an invasion of privacy for transgender men and transgender women. The law also violates Title IX by discriminating against students on the basis of sex.
AMY GOODMAN: On Thursday, the NBA released the following statement. They said, quote, "The NBA is dedicated to creating an inclusive environment for all who attend our games and events. We are deeply concerned that this discriminatory law runs counter to our guiding principles of equality and mutual respect, and do not yet know what impact it will have on our ability to successfully host the 2017 all-star game in Charlotte," they said.
The passage of HB 2 in North Carolina comes amidst a spate of similar bills being introduced in state legislatures around the country. South Dakota, Tennessee, Kentucky, Minnesota, Washington state, Wisconsin and other states are all considering similar bills aimed at prohibiting transgender students from using the bathrooms that correspond to their gender identities.
For more, we’re joined here in New York by Chase Strangio, staff attorney for the ACLU.
Let’s start in North Carolina. The significance of this bill being put into effect and the ACLU now suing?
CHASE STRANGIO: Yeah, thank you, Amy, for having me. I think, first and foremost, I just want to say what an honor it is to continue to have these conversations and to be in a position to tell a legislature and a government, like North Carolina, "You pass an unconstitutional law Wednesday night, we’re going to sue you on Monday morning." And that’s what’s happening here. And it’s important that we have this tool.
But the larger context in which these laws are playing out is deeply disturbing, and the North Carolina law is almost, you know, a greatest hits of all of the terrible things we’ve seen in the almost 200 bills that have been introduced targeting LGBT people this year. And the law, as you note, strips away legal protections for LGBT people in jurisdictions across the state and mandates discrimination against transgender people. So we filed this lawsuit to basically say this law is unconstitutional and this law violates federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal funding, so that’s a Title IX claim, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: So, last Wednesday as the North Carolina Legislature convened the emergency session to push through HB 2, transgender rights activist Lara Americo spoke out.
LARA AMERICO: The true emergencies in North Carolina are subpar public schools, gerrymandered elections and the need for clean drinking water. This special session is hindering my rights as a transgender woman and the rights of the LGBT community. It’s also hindering Charlotte’s ability to govern itself. This is not how taxpayers’ money should be spent.
AMY GOODMAN: So that was Lara Americo. Chase Strangio, talk about how this law was pushed through—I mean, the emergency session spending $42,000?
CHASE STRANGIO: Yes, so this is—it was incredibly anomalous with a just unbelievable amount of procedural irregularities. Many of the Democrats in the General Assembly in North Carolina didn’t have a chance to see the bill until it was right before them and they were charged with voting on it. And I think, in addition to all these procedural irregularities, the discourse around the Charlotte ordinance and this law really are incredibly harmful for transgender people, because they rely on a myth and a lie about who trans people are and what it means to actually prohibit discrimination against trans people.
AMY GOODMAN: After House Bill 2 was passed, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory tweeted, quote, "I signed bipartisan legislation to stop the breach of basic privacy and etiquette, ensure privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms." Chase?
CHASE STRANGIO: Yeah, so that’s a complete lie. I mean, he did not do it for that reason. It does nothing to protect privacy in bathrooms. It does nothing to protect the public safety. Experience has shown that in the 200 cities and other jurisdictions that prohibit discrimination against trans people, there has never been a single incident of anyone, trans or nontrans, using a law to go into a bathroom to harm another person, which would already be illegal. Experience has also shown, however, that these conversations actively harm the trans community, who are vulnerable to violence, who do have rates of suicide attempts close to 50 percent. So, while our public conversations are distorting the reality of what these laws are doing, they are also contributing to an epidemic of violence that trans people are living under across the country.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what happened in Georgia?
CHASE STRANGIO: Yeah, so, I think, you know, as I mentioned, there have been many bills targeting the LGBT community that have been introduced, and Georgia passed through their Legislature another sweeping piece of legislation that would have authorized discrimination against LGBT people in a host of contexts. It’s one of those license-to-discriminate bills that allowed religious bases for discrimination. And that governor, under pressure, actually decided to veto that piece of legislation.
AMY GOODMAN: So let’s go to Georgia Republican Governor Nathan Deal announcing he would veto the so-called religious liberty bill critics said would allow discrimination against LGBT people.
GOV. NATHAN DEAL: I do not think that we have to discriminate against anyone to protect the faith-based community in Georgia, of which I and my family have been a part of for all of our lives. Our actions on House Bill 757 are not just about protecting the faith-based community or providing business-friendly climate for job growth in Georgia. I believe it is about the character of our state and the character of our people.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Georgia Republican Governor Nathan Deal. Now, the NFL had weighed in on Georgia, as well.
CHASE STRANGIO: Yeah, I think what we’re seeing is that businesses and sports—the NBA, the NFL—are saying, "We are not going to tolerate this type of discrimination." And that affected the Georgia governor, clearly. The problem with North Carolina was they had no interest in hearing from other people. They had no interest in assessing what it would mean for their state. They just wanted to pass through, in a matter of 12 hours, a sweeping piece of legislation that actively harmed particularly trans people, but the entire LGBT community.
AMY GOODMAN: So, the North Carolina bill goes into effect immediately. What does it mean for trans people?
CHASE STRANGIO: I think it means, first and foremost, that trans people have to live in a state in which they know that their government is willing to actively participate in the harassment and bullying of them. But it also means that trans people are now completely unable to participate in public life, because trans people have no idea where they’re supposed to go to the bathroom. Are they supposed to go use the bathroom that is listed on their birth certificate, that in no way matches who they are, which will be uncomfortable for them and others? Or are they supposed to risk potential arrest, potential other adverse consequences, by continuing to use the bathroom that accords with their gender, which is now illegal in North Carolina?
AMY GOODMAN: The North Carolina General Assembly’s passage of HB 2 came the same week the city of Charlotte was marking the first anniversary of the death of transgender student Blake Brockington, who was the first openly transgender homecoming king in a North Carolina high school. This is Blake speaking in a short documentary about his life.
BLAKE BROCKINGTON: I grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, in a Southern Baptist home. I’ve always been kind of different, and it was always a bad thing in my family, but they never really said anything. Then, when the homecoming stuff happened, it was—they were like, "You’re still not a guy to us." Like Guys and girls, you know. And it’s been really hard. High school has been really hard. To me, personally, it made me feel like, for once, I could just be a normal teenage boy, just a normal teenage boy just doing normal teenage guy things, like being homecoming king. That’s a normal teenage boy thing. We all want to do it, kind of.
AMY GOODMAN: So that was Blake Brockington. Chase, what happened to Blake?
CHASE STRANGIO: You know, so, seeing this is just so heartbreaking, because Blake, like so many trans young people, took his own life. And it’s in part because of the ways in which society is continuing to tell the horrible distortions about trans people, that really cut us out from public life and make vulnerable trans young people, vulnerable trans young people of color, like Blake, who are such beacons of hope and light for our community, end up dying by suicide. And so many other trans people are being murdered on the streets. And this is the context in which we’re having these conversations, and these conversations are impacting the opportunities for young trans people like Blake to survive.
AMY GOODMAN: We just got this news from down the street, actually, from the Stonewall Inn, this iconic place where the—the bar that really launched the modern-day gay and lesbian, trans movement, that a young trans woman was reportedly raped there this past weekend. What do you know about this? She was 25.
CHASE STRANGIO: You know, I am also hearing that a young trans woman was raped in a bathroom at the Stonewall Inn, and I think this is a reminder, as if we need any more, of the vulnerability of transgender people, particularly transgender women, to violence. And yet, here we are with officials across the country talking about how somehow allowing trans people to live our lives is going to threaten the public safety or the privacy of others, and meanwhile it’s trans people who are being assaulted on the streets, raped in bathrooms and otherwise experiencing terrible harms.
AMY GOODMAN: Chase Strangio, you just wrote a piece, "Don’t Forget, Trans People Are Loved."
CHASE STRANGIO: I mean, you know, I came on the show to talk about what happened in South Dakota and listening to all the young people who are mobilizing to stop a terrible anti-trans bill that was ultimately vetoed by the governor there, and I was in Tennessee also working with young people there to lobby against their legislatures. And, you know, every time the lawmakers make these horrible statements that impact young people, that impact trans people, we have to listen to these distortions. And I think it’s important that we have lawsuits and that we have advocacy, but at the same time I think we’re ultimately going to be more transformative if we just continue to tell our stories of love for each other.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn very quickly to Payton McGarry, who we just got up in a studio at Duke University in North Carolina, the student at UNC-Greensboro, plaintiff in the federal lawsuit filed Monday to challenge the new North Carolina law, HB 2. Can you talk about your own story, Payton, why this means so much to you? And what do you think of the law that was passed?
PAYTON McGARRY: Yeah, absolutely. First and foremost, thank you for having me. My own story, so I’m a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Greensboro—University of North Carolina at Greensboro, rather. And I started my transition while I was in high school. I realized pretty early on, through puberty at the age of 16 years old, that something wasn’t quite right. I came out to my family and started undergoing therapy at 17 years old. Eighteen years old, I started hormones. And here we are. And it means a lot to me just because of the experiences that I have had with opposition to my gender, particularly in bathrooms. And even more so, I’ve been fired from jobs for being transgender. I’ve, you know, witnessed all kinds of discrimination just based on my gender identity.
AMY GOODMAN: Payton, we’re going to leave it here, because this is the end of the show. We just got you up. We’re sorry we weren’t able to get that satellite a little before, but we’re going to continue this conversation and post it online at democracynow.org. Payton McGarry, thanks so much for being with us, plaintiff in the federal lawsuit filed against North Carolina, and Chase Strangio with the ACLU. ... Read More →
"Complete Fantasy": Tariq Ali on Donald Trump's Claim "I Alone Can Solve" Rise in Islamic Militancy
Following the attacks in Lahore, leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tweeted to his 7 million followers, "Another radical Islamic attack, this time in Pakistan, targeting Christian women & children. At least 67 dead, 400 injured. I alone can solve." We speak to British-Pakistani commentator Tariq Ali about Trump’s candidacy, as well as Bernie Sanders.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Following the attacks in Lahore, the killing of, what, more than 72 people, injuring close to 350, the presidential front-runner of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, tweeted to his 7 million followers. Quote, "Another radical Islamic attack, this time in Pakistan, targeting Christian women & children. At least 67 dead, 400 injured. I alone can solve," Trump tweeted. Tariq Ali?
TARIQ ALI: Complete fantasist, Amy. What can this guy do to deal with the problem in Pakistan? He doesn’t even understand it, if he speaks of only Christians being killed. That’s bad enough. Lots of Muslims, as you said earlier and as the country knows, more Muslims than Christians, have died. Why didn’t he mention that? Why, if he’s a serious politician, didn’t he say that these terrorist attacks do not only take place in Europe or North America, they actually target other Muslims in Muslim states regularly, and more people die there? It’s simply this one got more publicity because it came very soon after Brussels, so it made the front pages of The New York Times and various European papers. Had it happened six months later, it would have been inside-page news. But for Trump to be so completely ignorant of what’s going on is hardly a surprise. And this is just empty bravado. "I can deal with it." What—how can you deal with it? By nuking the country? I mean, it’s just ridiculous.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Donald Trump, his first television advertisement certainly created a lot of controversy, as it demanded a ban on Muslims entering the United States, while vowing to decapitate the militant group ISIS.
TARIQ ALI: Well, I mean, you know, how can you decapitate a group that has been created as a result of your own actions? Everyone knows, it’s not a secret—and Trump himself actually has said it; Obama has said it, too—that had we not invaded Iraq, there would have been no ISIS, which is absolutely true. So it’s U.S. policies which create these groups, and then more wars are proposed to deal with them, to decapitate them, when the actual problem isn’t understood.
But I think, Amy, that Trump’s popularity, whether we like it or not, doesn’t come from stupid, absurd remarks like this, but comes that he appeals to a layer which feels—social—a social layer in American political life which has been ignored by mainstream politicians, and which is poor, white, working-class families. That is where his appeal is coming from. And thank God we’ve got Bernie Sanders also appealing to this layer, and others, and saying there is an alternative on the other side. My fear is that if Bernie is not the presidential candidate of the Democrats—which might be the case, though I hope not—and Trump has to deal with Hillary on the issue of war, on the issue of TTIP and all these trade treaties that have been signed, on the issue of doing something for poor whites, he’ll trump her, to use an awful pun. He will do better than her. She has absolutely no reply on any of these issues or of being a creature of Wall Street.
AMY GOODMAN: We have less than a minute, but you have the interesting political phenomenon in Britain of Jeremy Corbyn rising to be Labour leader. The Independent just reported that Jeremy Corbyn overtakes David Cameron in leadership satisfaction ratings. If you can very quickly comment on Jeremy Corbyn now in his tenure as Labour leader?
TARIQ ALI: Amy, I’ve written a long essay on his progress in the last London Review of Books. He’s doing well. He carries on addressing meetings. He’s very similar in many ways to Bernie Sanders, except that he’s actually the leader of a political party. If the Blairites stop sniping at him from inside the Labour Party and let him get on with it, I don’t think it’s at all impossible that Jeremy Corbyn could be the country’s next prime minister, because David Cameron is in a fix with the euro referendum coming up, with his own party divided. So we could have an election sooner than 2020, and a unified force behind Jeremy could actually propel him into Downing Street.
AMY GOODMAN: Tariq Ali, I want to thank you for being with us, political commentator, historian, activist, filmmaker, novelist, editor of the New Left Review. His latest book, The Extreme Centre: A Warning. He’s written a number of books on Pakistani politics and history.
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald on the FBI versus Apple. Stay with us. ... Read More →
Headlines:DOJ Unlocks iPhone Without Apple's Help, Dropping Legal Fight
The Justice Department announced it has succeeded in unlocking an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooting suspects and dropped its attempts to force Apple to break into the phone. The announcement ends a high-stakes legal battle but leaves a broader debate over encryption unresolved. The FBI wanted Apple to build a backdoor into the phone, but Apple said such a move would put the security of other iPhones at risk, as well. We’ll have more on the story with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald later in the broadcast.
TOPICS:
Privacy
ACLU Sues over Sweeping Anti-Transgender Bill in North Carolina
In North Carolina, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit challenging a sweeping new law banning local governments from passing laws prohibiting discrimination against LGBT people in public accommodations. The law, House Bill 2, commonly known as the "bathroom bill," is widely considered to be the most wide-ranging anti-transgender law to take effect this year. It was introduced after the city of Charlotte passed its own ordinance seeking to protect the right of transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. Equality North Carolina Executive Director Chris Sgro announced the lawsuit.
Chris Sgro: "This morning, we’re here to announce that Equality North Carolina, ACLU, the ACLU of North Carolina and Lambda Legal have filed suit against the state of North Carolina in federal court in the state’s Middle District. Along with those organizations, other plaintiffs join us in this suit, Carcaño v. McCrory. HB 2 is the most sweeping anti-LGBT bill in the nation, and it will not stand the test of time or the test of federal court."
TOPICS:
North Carolina
LGBT
Georgia Governor to Veto Anti-LGBT "Religious Liberty" Bill
Meanwhile, Georgia Republican Governor Nathan Deal announced he would veto a so-called religious liberty bill critics say would allow discrimination against LGBTpeople. The measure would have let faith-based organizations in Georgia deny services and jobs to LGBT people. Deal had faced pressure to veto the bill from about 500 businesses and the National Football League, which implied Georgia might lose its bid to host the Super Bowl if the measure was enacted. We’ll have more on the anti-LGBT measures in North Carolina and Georgia later in the show.
Arizona: Transgender Woman Detained by ICE, Sent to Male Detention Center
A Mexican transgender woman and activist who has been living in Phoenix, Arizona, for more than a decade has been detained by U.S. immigration authorities and placed in a men’s detention center, despite identifying as a woman. Local activists said Nayeli Charolet was given three choices: live at a men’s detention center or in solitary confinement or in a segregated unit for transgender women. Activists say the segregated unit in Santa Ana, California, is known for its abuse of transgender women, with complaints of degrading strip searches by male guards and the denial of hormone therapy and other medical care. Charolet is currently being held in all-male facilities at the for-profit Eloy Detention Center in Arizona.
TOPICS:
Arizona
LGBT
EgyptAir Flight Hijacked to Cyprus by Man Seeking to Speak with Ex-Wife
A man claiming to be wearing an explosive belt hijacked an EgyptAir flight and forced it to land in Cyprus today over what authorities said appeared to be a "personal" matter, not a terrorist attack. The flight was en route to Cairo from the Egyptian city of Alexandria when it was diverted to the Cypriot port city of Larnaca. After negotiations, the alleged hijacker, Seif Eldin Mustafa, allowed most of the more than 50 passengers on board to walk free. He has now reportedly been arrested. Authorities say he wanted to talk to his estranged wife in Cyprus.
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Egypt
Cyprus
Brussels: Man Initially IDed as Third Airport Bomber Released
In Belgium, a man charged with terrorism and identified by Belgian media as the "third bomber" in the deadly Brussels Airport bombings last week has been released. Faysal Cheffou, described as a citizen journalist, was picked out of a photographic lineup by a cab driver who said he drove the three bombers to the airport; two of them blew themselves up, the third escaped. Authorities released Cheffou Monday, saying they lacked evidence against him. They have now released surveillance video of the third bombing suspect at the airport, seeking help identifying him.
U.S. Capitol Police Shoot, Wound Man Accused of Pulling Gun
In Washington, D.C., police shot a man they say pointed a gun at them in a screening area of the visitor center at the U.S. Capitol. The man, identified as Larry Dawson of Tennessee, was taken to the hospital, as was a female bystander who suffered injuries. Dawson faces charges including assault with a deadly weapon. He is said to be in stable but critical condition. Police say he acted alone, and they have ruled out terrorism, saying, "There is no reason to believe that this is anything more than a criminal act."
Fidel Castro on Obama Visit: "We Don't Need the Empire to Give Us Anything"
Retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro has published a letter criticizing President Obama after Obama wrapped up a historic visit to Cuba last week. Castro invoked the multiple U.S. attempts to overthrow and subvert the Cuban government, from the Bay of Pigs invasion to the economic embargo. "We don’t need the empire to give us anything," Castro wrote. Responding to Castro, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said his words show Obama’s visit made an impact.
Josh Earnest: "The fact that the former president felt compelled to respond so forcefully to the president’s visit, I think, is an indication of the significant impact of President Obama’s visit to Cuba. We obviously were quite pleased with the reception that President Obama received from the Cuban people."
TOPICS:
Cuba
Report: CIA Took Naked Photos of Detainees Before Sending Them for Torture
The Guardian newspaper has revealed the CIA took naked photographs of people it sent to foreign countries for torture. The photographs, described by one U.S. official as "very gruesome," were reportedly taken to protect the CIA from ramifications if the prisoners were tortured after being transferred to foreign custody. Human rights groups said taking naked photographs of prisoners constitutes sexual humiliation and could even be a war crime.
TOPICS:
CIA
Torture
California Gov. Jerry Brown Unveils Deal to Raise Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour
California Governor Jerry Brown has formally announced a deal with lawmakers and union leaders to raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022. The move avoids a November ballot measure that would have raised the minimum wage faster. On Monday, Governor Brown said California is the first state to take such a step.
Gov. Jerry Brown: "An agreement has been reached among key labor leaders, legislative leaders and my administration to raise the minimum wage, over time, to $15 an hour, making California the first state to do that. It’s a matter of economic justice. It makes sense. And it will help our entire state do much better for its citizens."
TOPICS:
California
Judge Strikes Down Puerto Rico's Tax on Wal-Mart Amid Debt Crisis
Wal-Mart has won a legal victory against Puerto Rico after a U.S. judge struck down a tax Puerto Rico tried to impose on the retailer. This comes as Puerto Rico faces a massive $70 billion debt. After Monday’s ruling, Puerto Rican Governor Alejandro García Padilla vowed to appeal, saying, "The judge just took away $100 million from the people of Puerto Rico and gave it to Wal-Mart."
TOPICS:
Walmart
Puerto Rico
Debt
Argentina to Drop Funding for TeleSUR TV Network
Argentina’s new right-wing, pro-corporate government is cutting funding for the regional, Spanish-language television network TeleSUR. TeleSUR was launched in 2005 by a coalition of leftist governments, media outlets and movements, led by Venezuela under President Hugo Chávez. Now, the administration of Argentine President Mauricio Macri will dump its nearly 20 percent stake, citing a lack of influence over financial and editorial decisions.
TOPICS:
Argentina
Journalism
Al Jazeera Fires 500 Employees, Mostly at Qatar Headquarters
In other media news, the Al Jazeera Media Network has fired about 500 employees, most of them at its headquarters in Qatar. This comes after Al Jazeera announced in January it was shutting down its U.S. offshoot, Al Jazeera America.
TOPICS:
Journalism
Wisconsin: 6 Arrested Protesting Trump at Janesville Holiday Inn
In Wisconsin, six people were arrested while protesting Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump. Dozens of people occupied the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express in Janesville, and six of them locked themselves together with PVC pipe. The protesters demanded Holiday Inn not "be a host for hate." The hotel’s convention center is set to host a Donald Trump event today.
TOPICS:
Donald Trump
Wisconsin
2016 Election
Arizona: Maricopa County Recorder Apologizes for Primary Voting Mayhem
In Arizona, protests erupted inside the Legislature during a hearing over last week’s primary voting day, when tens of thousands of people were unable to vote and many waited hours in line. One person was hauled away in handcuffs. Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell addressed Arizona state lawmakers after the number of polling places in the county was slashed by 70 percent from 2012, from 200 to 60. Purcell apologized for the mayhem that resulted.
Helen Purcell: "As I said, we made some horrendous mistakes, and I apologize for that. I can’t go back and undo it. I wish that I could, but I cannot. I can only say that we felt that we were using the best information that we had available to us and in past history."
TOPICS:
Arizona
2016 Election
Former Blackstone Exec Arrested on Criminal Fraud Charges
In news from the financial world, a former top official at the massive private equity firm Blackstone Group has been arrested on criminal fraud charges for what U.S. prosecutors called a "brazen" scheme to defraud investors of up to $95 million. Andrew Caspersen was a partner at the Park Hill Group, which until recently was part of the Blackstone Group. His father, Finn M.W. Caspersen, committed suicide in 2009 while under federal investigation for allegedly concealing millions of dollars in a tax shelter.
Report: 7 Million in U.S. at Risk of Human-Induced Earthquakes
About 7 million people in the United States live in areas at risk of an earthquake induced by human activity. That’s according to a new report by the U.S. Geological Survey, which said states including Oklahoma and Kansas are now at as high of a risk as earthquake-prone California of a devastating earthquake. The Central United States has seen a spike in seismic activity due to the injection of wastewater from oil and gas drilling deep underground.
TOPICS:
Natural Gas & Oil Drilling
Arctic Sea Ice Hits Record Winter Low Amid Unprecedented Heat
A record swath of Arctic sea ice failed to freeze over the winter amid record-shattering heat. The National Snow and Ice Data Center said the sea ice’s maximum expanse this winter was the lowest since record keeping began nearly 40 years ago. This comes after NASA announced two new missions to explore the disappearing sea ice in the Arctic. NASA scientist Walt Meier described the problem.
Walt Meier: "You’ve probably heard that it’s been a record-breaking winter in the globe, but it’s been kind of turbo-charged in the Arctic—record warmth. We’ve seen temperatures 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. And then we’ve seen the Arctic sea ice, that grows in the cold winter, dark winter period in the Arctic, it’s been growing more slowly, because it’s so much warmer than normal there, and it’s covering less of an area than it normally does, and it’s one of the lowest that we’ve seen in our satellite record, going back almost 40 years now."
TOPICS:
Climate Change
Arctic
Utah Becomes 1st State to Require Anesthesia for Abortions at 20 Weeks
And Utah has become the first state to require women having an abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy to receive general anesthesia. The measure signed by Republican Governor Gary Herbert is based on the debunked claim a fetus can feel pain at that stage. Doctors warn the law could force them to anesthetize women who have to have their labor induced because of problems with their pregnancy.
TOPICS:
Utah
Abortion
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WEB EXCLUSIVE
Meet the Transgender Student Suing North Carolina over Its Anti-LGBT "Bathroom Bill" (Part 2)
WEB EXCLUSIVE
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