Vote tonight on whether to accept harsh measures required by creditors. Prime minister Alexis Tsipras has vowed to defend the bailout, despite saying that he signed a deal he does not believe in. I overestimated the power that the people with the right on their side have, as well as the reactionary mike against the founding principles of europe which are a respect for democracy and peoples choices. What is the message sent to us by our partners . It is that there is no point for countries are in a program to hold elections, this is a very harsh message for europe. Amy president obama has continued his push to reform mass incarceration. Tuesday, he described the criminal Justice System as broken. Books the United States is home to 5 of the worlds population but 25 of the worlds prisoners. Think about that. Our incarceration rate is four times higher than chinas. We keep more people behind bars than the top 35 European Countries combined. Become more of president obamas speech after headlines. After a lengthy legal battle between the California City of gardena and the associated press, the Los Angeles Times and bloomberg, a federal judge has finally ordered the release of dashcam footage showing a Fatal Police Shooting two years ago. In the video, unsealed yesterday, Gardena Police officers ordered unarmed Ricardo Diaz Zeferino and two other men to raise their hands in the air. When diaz zeferino, who appears to not understand the orders raised and lowers his hands and then removed his hat, all three officers opened fire striking , him eight times. The men had been incorrectly suspected of stealing a bicycle. The family of eric garner, who died one year ago this friday after a Police Chokehold in staten island, has renewed their call for criminal charges against the officers. Video shows Police Pulling eric garner to the ground and piling on top of him while he says, i cant breathe at least 11 times. A grand jury declined to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo for the chokehold. On monday, new york city announced a 5. 9 million settlement with the family, but garners mother, gwen carr, said the settlement is not enough. This settlement that we get people walking up and down the street saying, congratulations. Dont congratulate us. This is not a victory. The victory will come when we get justice. Then we want to have a victory party. Amy a 23yearold massachusetts man accused by the fbi of plotting attacks to show support for the selfdescribed Islamic State appeared in court on tuesday. Alexander ciccolo was arrested after he allegedly bought a duffel bag full of guns from an fbi witness. His father, a Boston Police captain, had told authorities his son was growing obsessed with islam. Ciccolo has a history of Mental Illness and his arrest has raised questions of entrapment since the fbi effectively armed him, then charged him with having guns. While he is accused of plotting terrorist attacks, his attorney, the only charge against him is illegal gun possession. The American Civil Liberties union has filed a lawsuit to immediately end the national securitys bulk collection of americans phone data. In may, the Second Circuit court of appeals ruled in may the bulk collection was illegal. Congress then passed the usa freedom act, requiring the nsa to get a warrant in order to obtain records from phone companies. But the law and a ruling by the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court allowed the practice to continue until the end of november. In a statement, aclu staff attorney alex abdo said the constitution doesnt have a grace period. Bulk collection is unconstitutional and must end. Three top officials at the american psychologists association, the Worlds Largest group of psychologists, have lost their jobs following last weeks independent investigation showing that members of the apa were complicit in post9 11 torture and lied and covered up their close collaboration with officials at the pentagon and cia. In a statement, the apa announced that executive officials Norman Anderson and Michael Honaker have retired, while Longtime Communications director Rhea Farberman has resigned. And in germany, 94yearold oskar groening, known as the bookkeeper of auschwitz, has been sentenced to four years in prison. He was responsible for counting the belongings taken from prisoners at the nazi death camp. He was found guilty of being an accessory to the murder of at least 300,000 jews. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Amy yesterday, your covering Martin Omalley who came to new york. Juan omalley had a roundtable with immigrant advocates in new york city, some of them from maryland, his home state of maryland, to announce his bold new immigration policy as president ial candidate. He got a lot of support from a lot of the immigration advocates. He is proposing to go even further than president obama has if elected president , in terms of using executive action to offer some kind of support to the 11 million undocumented in the country. He is proposing to extend the coverage of the federal Health Care Act obamacare, to undocumented immigrants. And he is also proposing to sharply reduce the number of immigrants held in detention pending resolution of their immigration status and to sharply cut the population now under the detention. That is probably the boldest plan of any president ial candidate in terms of dealing with immigration. Clearly, omalley is way down in the polls but my sense is that once people start to hear him and some of the debates, his support is going to grow. He is certainly much more to the left of Hillary Clinton and somewhat more charismatic and perhaps less threatening to many of the establishment than bernie sanders. I think he is going to grow considerably in support as time goes on. I think in an interview i had with him, he was especially focused on reforms in education and student debt. He confided he and his wife have over 300,000 in loans theyve taken over the education of their children and that they are definitely determined to do something about bringing down the cost of Higher Education to millions of American College students. Amy we will have a link to your column on democracynow. Org. Juan this week president obama has launched a major push to reform the countrys criminal Justice System. On monday, he granted clemency to 46 men and women facing extreme sentences in some cases life in prison for nonviolent drug offenses that offenses. Tomorrow he is set to become the first sitting president to visit a federal prison. On tuesday, obama described what he called a broken system in an address at the naacps annual convention. The United States is home to 5 of the worlds population but 25 of the worlds prisoners. Think about that. Our incarceration rate is four times higher than chinas. We keep more people behind bars than the top 35 European Countries combined. And it hasnt always been the case. This huge explosion in incarceration rates. In 1980, there were 500,000 people behind bars in america. Half a Million People in 1980. I was in college in 1980. Many of you were not born in 1980, thats ok. I remember 1980. 500,000. Today, there are 2. 2 million. It has quadrupled since 1980. Our prison population has doubled in the last two decades alone. Juan in president obamas call for an overhaul of the criminal Justice System, he also emphasized that the vast majority of prisoners will eventually be released and need more programs to help them reenter society, and to remove barriers to employment and voting. This week, house lawmakers are Holding Hearings on the safe justice act, which could accomplish some of these goals. It was introduced by republican congressman Jim Sensenbrenner and democrat bobby scott. On tuesday, obama recognized the bipartisan effort. This is a cause that is bringing people in both houses of congress together. It has created some unlikely bedfellows. Youve got van jones and Newt Gingrich. Youve got americans for tax reform and the aclu. Youve got the naacp and the Koch Brothers. [applause] no, you have to give them credit. You have to call it like you see it. Amy well, for more, we are joined by three guests who got a shoutout from president obama there and are at the center of this push to make the criminal Justice System more fair. In boston, van jones is president and cofounder of cut50, a National Bipartisan initiative reduce the u. S. s incarcerated population by 50 over the next 10 years. He was president Barack Obamas green jobs adviser in 2009 and founded green for all. He is also a cnn political commentator. In wichita, kansas, we are joined by one of those unlikely bedfellows to whom obama referred. Mark holden is Senior Vice President and general counsel for Koch Industries, where he is a close adviser to its leader charles koch. Koch industries is a supporter of the criminal Justice Group called the coalition for public safety. And we are joined in boston by shaka senghor. He shot and killed a man in 1991. At the age of 19, he went to prison for 19 years, seven of which he spent in solitary confinement. He has used his experience to inspire and motivate others to understand the causes of youth violence. Welcome all of you to democracy now van jones, lets begin with you. Can you react to president obamas speech yesterday . What you found was most cutting edge of that what he said . Did anything surprise you . And what are you doing . Worst of all, it is good to be back. We have ability for a couple of years first of all, it is good to be back. We havent been with you for a couple of years. I want to say the president speech was courageous, but it wasnt as courageous as it might have been even two or three years ago. Were in the middle of a very rare convergence both political parties, republicans and democrats, were stuck on stupid for 30 years, chasing each other off a cliff to put more and more people in prison. The way you showed your smart politician was you tried to one of your opponent on how many people you wanted to put behind bars for petty offenses. Three strikes and youre out two strikes you are out, hey, if youre black, youre out. That became politics for both parties. Bill clinton was a mass incarcerated. Over the past years, Building Momentum in both parties you both parties saying, this was a mistake. This was a catastrophe for america. We now have 2. 2 am a 2. 3 nine people behind bars. 2. 2 million, 2. 3 Million People behind bars. Lets be clear, you have republican governors from rick perry in texas who is been closing prisons, republican governors like governor kasich in ohio, georgia, closing prisons and giving some of speeches. You now have five bipartisan bills with rand paul coming together, sensenbrenner and bobby scott in the house coming together. Rightwing leftwing saying, we have to go in a different direction. So next week when the safe justice act i will say it again, the safe justice act finally gets a little bit of daylight and some hearings in the house, i believe youre going tohappened in d. C. Democracy might actually work for the people instead of the powerful because even the top of democratic party, the top of the Republican Party, and the base of both parties is tired of mass incarceration. Juan mark holden, general counsel for Koch Industries, has this been a catastrophe . Why is Koch Industries getting involved in this . Talk about your own experience with the kernel Justice System 07 15 15 07 15 15 good morning. Thank you for having us here today. Koch has been involved for many years now and it all comes down to really what were trying to do is to help people remove their lives, improve their lives, excuse me, by removing obstacles. If your goals are to honor the bill of rights and remove obstacles of opportunity especially for the poor and disadvantaged, you have to be in the criminal justice arena. To answer your question, as van pointed out, what worked 20 or 30 years ago doesnt work today. We have to have the intellectual honesty and courage and human ability to correct that. In our business, we do that all the time when things are not working. Two vans point, what were seeing happen in the states is what should be happening at the federal level. We need to make sure everything honors the bill of rights and treats everybody in the system as individuals with dignity and respect, particularly victims law enforcement, the incarcerated, the accused, and their families. To your point, my expense, i grew up in worcester massachusetts. I was a prison guard to help pay for college for a couple of years. What i saw their first hand, in the early 1980s when the drug wars were beginning, were a number of people i went to high school and middle school with who were in prison. These were kids who were poor, who did not have Family Support who made mistakes and got booked on drugs and then got in a cycle of despair and it led them some of them to a life of crime. Some of them are life in prison now because they made more and more mistakes. What i think were seeing across the country and from the left and right, and were proud to be part of the coalition for public safety, is people coming together and realizing what worked 20 or 30 years ago, if it worked ever, isnt working now. It is morally constitutionally, and fiscally the right thing to do to reform our kernel Justice System. Amy shaka senghor, can you talk about your own experience and what youre pushing for today . You spent seven years in solitary confinement . Yes. I was incarcerated at the age of 19. I walked into a very brutal, volatile environment. And from the onset, there was no rehabilitative tools in place. So like many of the young men, i got caught up in the daytoday realities of prison life of survival. Unfortunately, i landed in solitary confinement multiple times. The longest stint was 4. 5 years straight. It was in that space i discovered my own humanity and figured out some of the root causes to why so many of the young men from my community landed in prison. It was in there i began to write in journal and think about what are some of the steps we can take to ensure young men and women are not being hurt in the prison and if they are incarcerated, what are some of the things we can do to ensure once they return to society they have a fighting chance of getting back on their feet, becoming country meeting members of society, and assets as opposed to liabilities. Unfortunate, the brokenness of our system hasnt set the platform for that to take place. The things i advocate for most important he and first was to be honest about what is happening in American Society to land so many young poor men and women in prison in the first place. And one of the greatest examples i use is when i walked out of prison, i went into a school in the inner city of detroit and begin mentoring. What i noticed about the school, it was in worse condition than any prison i have been in. That showed how much we cared about those in the city that so often filled up the prisons. It is important for me to point out there are root causes to this problem. We havent addressed them and we should be looking at them. As we talk about reform, it starts on and terms of the community, but also for the men and women incarcerated, we have to realize the majority of them violent or nonviolent, are returning to our communities and we as a nation have a responsibility to understand what kind of men and women we want to ensure comes back to society. I was fortunate. I was literate when a to prison. I had ended than it that the majority did not have i had an advantage that the majority did not have. I was able to advance my educational my own. I set up my prison cell like a school. University of higher learning. At that is just not the reality that takes place inside prison. Amy were going to go to break and come back to this discussion. Were joined bys, who served 19 years and shaka senghor, who spent 19 years in prison, seven of that in solitary. Mark holden is Senior Vice President and general counsel for Koch Industries. And van jones of cut50. We will be back in a moment. [music break] amy keep on pushing by the impressions. This is democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Our guests are van jones founder of cut50, mark holden from Koch Industries and shaka senghor who spent 19 years in prison. As we talk about president obama , the first time a sitting u. S. President will visit a federal prison, that is tomorrow, and his speech he gave before the naacp. Juan i want to ask shaka senghor, once you got out of prison and you became an advocate for Prison Reform as well, you had an opportunity to see what is going on in other parts of the world. Because most americans dont realize what an outlier our country is when it comes to dealing with incarceration. Good you talk about your experiences, for instance, in germany and the prison system there . A couple of weeks ago, i went to germany and got an opportunity to go to several prisons over there. I was shocked at how different their prison system was from ours. It was really an emotional expense for me because one of the things i saw immediately is they embrace the men and women who had ran afoul from the law with compassion and a but the. They assured from the onset there being prepared to be resocialized back to society. They ensure they remain connected to their family members and the community at large. I think that is one of the things that was really, really important. Also, the way they use solitary confinement. They use it very sparingly. When they learned i had spent so much time in solitary confinement, one of the wardens, she almost weeped in my presence for the young man i was at the time. That was startling and shocking to me. It reminded me of how capable we are of changing our system and how we need to really look at those other models and see what is working and look at the recidivism rate compared hours. Juan what about the medical treatment and the maximum sentences . Their life sentences, no one really serves sentences longer than 15 years. They recognize the difference between Mental Illness and criminal behavior. I think that is one of the areas we have failed at in this country, we have criminalized until illness and that is reflected in solitary confinement. My hopes is when president obama goes inside the prison, he actually goes into a solitary confinement unit because i think that speaks lines about where the system that it is cool to go to the medium security where many women are getting repaired to go home, but i think if we need to and where men and women are getting prepared to go home, but i think we need to look at solitary confinement. One thing that germany does well is taking care of those with mental lists and make sure they do not overuse solitary confinement to basically break and destroy human to have already been broken. Amy i want to turn to mark holden in wichita, kansas. Something that indicates this kind of reform can go somewhere, that reform in the criminal justice, is this rightleft coalition. Any people might be surprised to hear we had to say that charles and david koch are classic liberals. I want to ask you about an issue we have covered a great deal the American Legislative Exchange council and how that fits in with your attitude toward reforming the criminal Justice System. You know, well known koch supported organization that helped finance some of the toughest sentencing laws on the books today like miniature minimums for nonviolent drug offenders, three strike laws am , pushing for privatizing the prison industry. Also worked to pass state laws to create private forprofit prisons, a boon to several of the Major Corporate sponsors of alec like cca and the geo group. How do you reconcile that with your push to reform the system . Well, i mean, were pushing to reform the system. As i said, we of been doing so for over a dozen years now. Our membership in alec isnt related to any of those types of issues. But i would note alec has been pushing the reform issues as well and several of the states that of had reforms last few years, so they have been on board with that as well. Alec, notwithstanding, a lot of people say, is a Bipartisan Group democrat and republican legislation at 10 those sessions. Not really here to talk about that. Im going to talk about what we view as the need for reform and it has to be holistic. It has to be conference of across the board. It has to be conference of an across the board. Whether it is a private prison or public prison, the prisons job, in our opinion, is to make the people who they have stewardship over and are watching, they have to make them better people when they come out than when they went in. If theyre are not doing that, and if we dont see recidivism rates go down, if were not making the people better, so when they get out of prison they have a chance at a productive life, then we need to reform the prison system and get new guards, get new wardens, get new leadership in and cut funding until they make sure they are creating a situation where people are better on the way out then when they came in. What we propose is comprehensive reform across the system. Each part of the system from the laws that are passed, the over criminalized conduct that really probably should not be criminal to begin with, personal conduct in many ways, drug usage, that type of thing, then we overcharge that conduct over prosecute people and then we over sentence them, over incarcerate them. On the way out, theyre overburdened with collateral consequences. We want to fix that system. Like i said, working with van the aclu atr across the board, to make it a more effective, more fair more just system. That is our goal. Everything we have done at koch is completely consistent with reforms were seeing implement it at the state level and the reforms that van was referring to, the federal bills circulating, including the safe justice act, which were big supporter of. Juan on the issue you raised in reform of the prosecutorial process because i think somebody who has covered criminal justice issues for decades, i have been often astounded at the level of prosecutorial misconduct or abuse that occurs basically for which there is no accountability. Could you talk about this issue. How prosecutors abuse to the grand jury or discovery process or other parts of providing a fair trial to someone accused of a crime . I like to say i think most prosecutors get it right. But the system has a lot of room for error in it and we need to get rid of that because were talking about life, liberty property, and the pursuit of happiness is at stake. And the bill of rights. All of the rights need to be fully guarded against. When you look at what is happening in our grand jury system, the whole idea of the grand jury when it started was to act as a check against arbitrary government overreach in the criminal justice area. For the 10 amendments in the bill of rights, colonel justice issues, the Founding Fathers were sending us a message that was the greatest infringement was going to come from. It is not been in check of government overreach. In many ways it has become a rubber stamp. 90 of the cases, colonel cases dont go to trial. It really becomes a situation where youre depending on the people are trying to put your away to provide you all the information to be able to put together a defense. If theyre not playing by the rules, if they are hiding documents, not giving you all the information particularly if youre poor and you are poor and have a public defender. Public defenders to great job, but they are overworked. The deck is stacked against you. We see a lot of times the whole thing with the trial penalty where individuals may be innocent but they get a bunch of charges loaded up against them and grand jury indictments were there facing 40 or 50 or more years in prison, so they will plead out to something that is relatively minor but as a lifelong impact it has of the collateral consequences. Particularly any felony conviction and you have really limited your Life Opportunities once you get out of prison or your probation is over. What i think needs to happen, and i think most prosecutors do it right, is to really focus on doing justice and not victory. And not worrying about whatever might be Career Advancement or enhancements, but looking at the individual in front of them, treating them as an individual, what the facts are, and then just plain and straight down the middle. If there are charges to be brought, bring them. I do not load it up. Do not overwhelm the individual with charges that you put in there just so you can extract a settlement or plea bargain. That is not necessarily doing justice. We have to get back to that type of situation. Some of the reforms that are in the safe justice act called for open file discovery. There is some concern, i understand, from prosecutors about that stuff that my point of view is, i am the individual being accused by the government of a crime and theyre trying to take away my life liberty, property, and pursuit of happiness, i should have access to all the information. And i get to defend myself. We favor reforms like that. Again, i think our system is great and overall it is the best system probably in history. I think most prosecutors do a good job that we have seen flaws. There is no room for error. With human beings, youre always going to have some error. We need to make sure were honoring the bill of rights when we do these things particularly in the area of prosecution. Amy i want to go back to van jones. Van, but a restriction is a big issue in this country. Who gets to vote. Nothing curtails it more than a prison record in many states. Can you talk about president obamas call yesterday for the changing of the laws around voting for ex felons . Icily well. First, i want to address the elephant in the room. Which is that for a lot of people who are in the listening audience, this is the first time theyve actually heard from anybody associated with Koch Industries directly and people are probably just shocked to hear with a just heard from someone who does of us on the left spent a lot of time finding. We have to deal with the question, how can this rightleft thing even exist . Im a part of green for all. Green for all and Koch Industries are fighting on Environmental Industries every desk issues every day of the week. We dont agree on so many issues. Newt gingrich and i launched this whole effort and a major summit in washington d. C. We thought we would have 100 people for an hour, we had 700 people incredibly bipartisan 10 congress members, three governors, president obama sent a video if you closed your eyes, you could not to listening to people talking, who were the republicans and who were the democrats. Nobody knew that agreement was there. Newt gingrich and i dont agree on anything publicly and privately, but we dont fight on this issue. Why is that . It is because of two things. The core values of the Republican Party around liberty, and you just heard mark talking about it so eloquently, have been completely violated. The core values of those democratic parties around justice of a social justice racial justice, gender justice totally being violated. Liberty and justice for all. Both parties politically are being violated by this system. What we discovered by not talking about each other, but by talking to each other, starting out with me and Newt Gingrich and me and mark, we realized there was common ground. In a democracy, we dont have to agree on everything. Literally comes a desk legally, i will talk to new and say what we were just trying to talk about how to be you on an issue. He would laugh and say, we were talking about how to beat you. Nobody sitting in prison is saying i hope the republicans dont help. I hope the democrats and republicans to work together. Any parent who has a child locked up is not asking for more division. Lets fight hard to we dont agree. But where we do agree, lets fight together. The other thing is, we are in a situation, and a lot of my friends say, van you cant work with these people, were only going to work with progressives and grassroots. How can we win 30 statehouses are controlled top to bottom by republican and both houses of congress . There is no way to close prisons without working in a bipartisan fashion. I want to point out, nobody should be more shocked than my friends because back when i was in the white house, im against for prosperity funded by the Koch Brothers led the fight to get me out of the white house and they won a fight. Nobody has to to me how dangerous is to be fighting against conservative folks. I paid the price. I also will not turn down any helping hand from any of our sisters and brothers from all colors who are fighting for justice. I know people are saying, how can amy goodman put the Koch Industries on the air and it is because there is a principled reason for them to be in the fight, a principled reason for us to be in the fight, and we have to fight together. That said, in california when people complete their parole violations or complete parole, theyre given a right to vote. It works in california just fine. The idea of somebody cant be given the right to vote without is somehow destroying america is disproved in many states that they are given the right to vote. It is much more dangerous to live in a country where people make a mistake when there are 19 and at 90 they still cannot vote or get a job or get a student loan or rent an apartment. That is not a safe, smart strategy. It is not a fair strategy. It does not recognize Human Dignity or fallibility. It doesnt recognize humanis was a many conservative christians and evangelicals are coming on board. This is a situation that is so horrible it has brought the best out of both parties in the same way about the worst out in both parties of until now. Juan talking about people being surprised, im surprised to president obama i just want to followup with van. That president obama has finally spoken up and taken a clear stand and is visiting a federal prison. It is almost like since the last correctional election, russian election, president obama is finally standing up for the issues that summon people voted for him thought he represented. I think you alluded to that when you said earlier on he couldve said the same thing several years ago, but he is finally doing it now. There might be called a movie called jbjobama unchanged, i dont know. This is a stench in the nostrils of god. You are making money off of trafficking in human bodies. We are reintroduced the two worst racial crimes, from the left the right may not agree from the left the two of the worst racial crimes, slavery and jim crow segregation. Everybody in prison is forced to work. That is slavery. When you get out, your than in an economic prison where you are no longer having the rights and liberties that of her but he also has, that is segregation. The new jim crow, as Michelle Alexander says. You have the two of the worst racial crimes in our country right back and through the prison door. We are against it and were proud to find other people with other political traditions who can also see the injustice in their own terms. Amy shaka senghor, we just did a series of pieces on Kalief Browder, this 16yearold boy africanamerican and new york, who was sent to Rikers Island because they said he stole a backpack which he swore he didnt. In fact, they said over a period of time, they said they would let him out if he said he did it. He was held for three years without ever been convicted of a crime. He was held in solitary for close to two years. He got out after three years attempted to go to college. He was very popular, but he left with being haunted by the rotelle imprisoned, beaten by guards shown on video. He took his own life last month. She wrote him a letter, is that right . Yes. Amy right before he died. I wrote the letter after i learned of his suicide. I wrote the letter in the spirit of what would i have said to him when he was struggling with the realities of what he experienced inside solitary confinement. It was largely based on my own experience. Solitary confinement is by far one of the most barbaric and inhumane aspects of our society. I call it americas greatest shame. Men and women in that environment suffer from high levels of Mental Illness often and every day in that environment, there is a level of brutality that would shock the megan conscience if they saw what was going on the american conscience if they so what was going on. The restraints, starvation, and just outright bullying by correctional officers, etc. And one of my experiences that makes me talk about it so much is i remember a neighbor of mine who was a couple of cells down that in desperation, he set himself afire. That smell stays with me today just the thought of human to be so desperate that the attempt to take their own life. When i learned of Kalief Browders death, and immediately sent a letter out. I really wanted people to understand solitary confinement is one of the most desperate, lonely inhumane spaces we can find ourselves in as humans. Fortunately, for me, because i was literate, i was able to escape the scars of that environment to some degree i reading and taking my mind out of that environment. But it is so chaotic, so degrading, so dehumanizing. It hurts my sold in a this is what Kalief Browder suffered at 16 years old. He wasnt street hard and tough and criminal that people may have in their head when they think of somebody in solitary confinement. He was a kid. He spent those years, those formative years in his life that basically crushed his spirit crushed his soul and destroyed him as a human being. Despite the support he got when he came home, it was just impossible for him to rebound from that trauma. That is one of the issues we dont even talk about is when men and women get out of that environment, theres no resource was eight or counseling available or socialization or counseling available to help them cope with the trauma that they have dealt with, often for several years. Amy we want to thank you all for being here. Van jones, the significance of the last 30 seconds of president obama going to this prison tomorrow in oklahoma . There can be no bigger just are just just impossible there can be no bigger witness. You once the president when there are disasters come to show he cares. This is one of the biggest moral and political, fiscal and human disasters in our countries history. This president is going to bear witness, and im proud he is doing so. Amy van jones of cut50 mark holden of koch and shaka senghor we thank you for being with us. When we come back, seaworld infiltrates the organization that protests treatment of animals. Thats right, peta, a remarkable story. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan we end todays show today with news about seaworld, the popular animal theme park known for its dolphin and killer whale performances. On tuesday, the Animal Rights group people for the ethical treatment of animals publicly revealed seaworld of infiltrating its organization by sending an employee named paul mccomb on an Undercover Mission posing as a peta activist. According to peta, mccomb took part in numerous protests against seaworld including one at the 2014 rose parade in pasadena when he was arrested along with other activists. One photo posted on twitter showed him inside a police van along with other arrested activists. Mccomb told activists his name was thomas jones. Unlike the other activists arrested that day, he was released without charge. His name never appeared on an arrest sheet. Amy according to peta, the undercover seaworld employee also repeatedly used social media in an effort to incite other activists stating that its time to grab pitchforks and torches and time to burn seaworld to the ground. To talk more about the case, we are joined by three guests. Michael strugar is the director of litigation for the peta foundation. Hal weiss is a volunteer with peta who was arrested alongside the undercover seaworld employee at the 2014 rose parade. They both just us from los theyre both joining us from los angeles. In washington, d. C. , is will potter, Investigative Reporter and author of, green is the new red an insiders account of a social movement under siege. We invited seaworld on the show, but they declined our request. Will, firstly out this picture of what has been exposed. We found out recently in the desperation as the profits continued to plummet and as seaworld has been rocked by the blackfish movie in the cultural change that has prompted theyve resorted to some dirty tricks including using Staff Members to attempt to infiltrate protest groups and peta volunteers, going so far as to actually provoke and instigate or attempt to on social media illegal activity. Unfortunately, this isnt really a shock if you have been following these types of activities by corporations for quite some time. Amy Matthew Strugar, youre the director of litigation for peta. Explained what you learned and when you learned it. Like will said, this was a desperate attempt by desperate company to save stock prices that are plummeting and attendance that is tanking. When this gentleman was arrested with 16 other activists at the 2014 rose parade, he was handcuffed, taken to the station with all the other activists. After the other activists were booked and released, he never came out of the jail. People were waiting and sitting around, waiting for him to be released. They called him and he said, oh i got out a long time ago. We looked into it and he never showed up on any arrest sheets. He never received any charges. In connection with my representation in the other 16 activists, i called him, basically to interview him as a witness in connection with my clients arrest. He gave me some really incredible stories. He stated the locals does he state he stayed at a local city nearby but could not include any names. He said after he was arrested, he simply broke down crying and holding cell and police had pity on him and released him. As if that is something that never happens. And then when i asked him, where he worked in basic pedigree information and told him i might have to call him as a witness in connection with a criminal trial, he got incredibly defensive and told me to lose his number and hung up on me was to be told me he was never going to testify. That is when we knew something was up. Juan hal weiss could you talk about the role he played in a protest and your interactions with them . My interactions with him were rather limited. If you look at the photographs i think he was arrested right next to me and i shared a bench with them in the paddy wagon. Other than that, i remember him essentially keeping to himself. He did not say much to me. I had never seen him before that day. I dont recall ever seeing him again after. Amy so talk about the protest hal, that you engaged in and youre feeling now about this person, who you thought was a fellow activist, being an employee of the world, the organization you were protesting seaworld, the organization he were protesting . We went out on that january 1 to protest seaworlds participation in the rose parade. Amy why . And i recall tom jones was his mentor paul mccomb or whatever it is, his actual name, being there with us. Kind of just popping up out of the blue. I was extremely focused on the day. I wanted to show my concern about orcas in captivity at seaworld, so i did not pay much attention to him. Amy i want to turn to a clip from the documentary blackfish 2013 documentary that takes a critical look at seaworld. The film exposes how holding killer whales in captivity is dangerous for both them and their human trainers. This is part of the trailer for blackfish. When you look into their eyes, you know some of the is home. They are an animal that possesses great spiritual power not to be meddled with. Sheriffs office. We need so to respond for a dead person at seaworld. A whale has killed one of the trainers. Tilikum is the one that went after her. Dawn is a senior trainer. She captured what it means to be a seaworld trainer. It made me realize what happened to her, really could have happened to anyone. I have been expecting 70 to be killed by tilikum. Were not told much other than it was trainer error. It didnt just happen. The speedboat herded them in and kick out the young one. This is the worst thing ive ever done. When tilikum arrived at seaw we stored these whales and we called a module, 20 the dust 20 feet across and 30 feet down and the lies were all turned out. Probably led to what i think is psychosis. Amy the film blackfish recounts the 2010 death of veteran seaworld trainer dawn brancheau by a killer whale named tilikum. We did reach out to seaworld. They declined to come on the show, but they did send us a statement to read on air. They wrote we are focused on the safety of our team members, guests and animals and beyond that we do not comment on our security operations. This is a responsibility that we take very seriously, especially as Animal Rights groups have become increasingly extreme in their rhetoric and tactics. In fact, peta itself actively recruits Animal Rights activists to gain employment at Companies Like seaworld, as this job posting demonstrates. Safety is our top priority, and we will not waiver from that commitment. Again, that the statement of seaworld. Matthew strugar, the lawyer for peta, if you would respond . It is a bizarre response that they say theyre concerned about the safety of their employees and the rhetoric of Animal Rights activists when it was their own employee who had the most inflammatory rhetoric of any antiseaworld activist that ive seen. We have this guy posting on social media that need to bring the pitchfork and torches to the demos, burn this place down, even encouraging activists to show up at seaworld Vice President s house with all torrents late at night and keep them awake with bullhorns late at night and give them away. This guy was going to demonstrations saying, we knew to take increasingly militant action, increasingly urging people to ramp up their activity. So the bizarre thing is that the most inflammatory rhetoric and the most with elect the biggest threat to seaworld safety to its employees was its own employee in the situation. Juan will potter, i want to ask you what is been the impact of the campaign of peta to expose the mistreatment of fish at seaworld . You are seeing on television now, almost bplike ads on television constantly by seaworld claiming that it is treating its animals properly. Well, when people make a lot of money by abusing animals they dont like having that abuse exposed because it means they lose profits and consumers dont like that very much. That is exactly what has happened with seaworld, especially with blackfish. It is unprecedented how quickly the tides of turned against this company. In just a couple of years theres been a groundswell of public opposition and just a cultural change in how we regard these animals and using animals for entertainment at places like seaworld. I think these types of tactics that i have reported on extensively from corporations are truly an act of desperation and activists become incredibly effective at changing cultural values, cultural discussion, and also threatening corporate profits. I think if anything, the example of this infiltration and attempt a provocation shows the lengths to which these copies are willing to go rather than change the Business Practices and respond to consumer pressure. Amy you have exposed other corporations double trading groups like peta and others, will. Right. Were seeing just the two of the iceberg with this. Along time, i have written about tactics like this disruption, provocation, by the fbi, which we have seen for decades. What we dont know is what corporations are doing. Some other examples that have reported i have reported on, cocacola was exposed through wikileaks of contracting with private secured a firm called stratfor to spy on peta activists and i gathered information about the protest activity. Burger king also hired spies together information about the Student Farmworker Alliance that were protesting the labor practices and similarly, greenpeace found out that Companies Like dow chemical were going through their dumpsters and hiring private firms to gather information in illegal ways to do that. So this is really fitting into that pattern of behavior that what is truly disturbing is we dont know the extent to which this is happening. At least with the fbi, theres some ostensible oversight work on ability. With these corporations, theres nothing like that. Amy i want to thank you for being with us, a fascinating discussion. We will continue this discussion. Journalist will potter with us from washington and hal weiss and Matthew Strugar joining us. That does it for our show. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ] join me today. I love making delicious, heartwarming dishes like this. So lets make them together. [theme music playing] tui a vola mangiare at cento fine foods, were dedicated to preserving the culinary heritage of authentic italian foods by offering over 100 specialty italian products for the american kitchen. Cento trust your family with our family