Transcripts For ALJAZAM Consider This 20140704

We want justice for the kids. Negotiations over Irans Nuclear programme kick off. The talks are aimed at reaching a permanent deal. Pressure has been tried. It didnt bring the iranian people to submission, it will not now. 288,000 jobs has been added. The country is capable of doing better. Much progress is made, there are folks that are struggling. We begin in texass rio grand valley, the busiest region in the nation for illegal border crossings. 38,000 children have been apprehended crossing into that area since object. 178 increase from all of the year before. On thursday the house whomland Security Committee arrived in the area to debate whether what we see is a Security Threat with a multi million price tag or a humanitarian crisis much. I never thought i would see this in the United States of america. Military bases are turning into refugee camps. These are the most oraledly be orderly behaved children who want an opportunity to be free from murderous conditions from which they plea. I ask the question is not america that great. Texas governor rick perry testified allowing the children come. Allowing them to remain will encourage the next group of individuals to undertake a dangerous and lifethreatening journey. Those that come must be september back to demonstrate in no Uncertain Terms that risking your lives on the top of those trains, in the ways that they that. It followed a heated townhaul meeting in murrieta. Use the word illegal ailiens, they came across here illegally. Murrieta major alan long heard from mayor alan long heard from hundreds of angry residents and warned the community to be prepared for more buses. This is admittedly a nationwide problem and murrieta change. [ cheering and applause ]. But not everyone is happy with the towns new reputation as the flash point for the immigration cries si. We are joined from los angeles by immigration attorney, great to have you with us. As we speak, more children and families are bussed, flown to different locations across the country. 90,000 kids over the past 10 months and in some cases their mum. You heard the chairman of the Homeland Security say he never thought military bases would be turned into refugee camps. Its a crisis. Its a political and humanitarian vice sis. We have to follow the letter of the law. And that letter of the law says that whip children are coming in from noncontiguous countries, they deserve due process. Constitution says that. They have a right to see a judge and have their cases heard. Ill talk about that in a minute. The hows Homeland Security meeting yielded grapes that there is that crisis, but theres a lot of disagreement among the members, the situation is political. You heard governor perry, chiding the president for not coming to the border when he goes to texas for fundraisers. This is what white house response. I think the reason some suggest that the president should go to the border whilst in texas, a theyd rather play politics than address the challenges. The mayor in murrieta said the white house shouldnt use frightened women and children to score political points. I imagine you think politicizing the issue doesnt help. Of course not. Its a huge issue. Its not the first time, it happened on vietnam, after the holocaust and other situations. We have to deal with the issue, and politicizing it is not creating a viable solution. The u. S. Runs tv and print ads to try to stop the surge. The reality is these kids are likely safer, better fed and taken care of medically, even if they are in a limbo in the United States, rather than back home. Do you think those ads are a west of money, is there a chance theyll work given the situation they are fleeing. I think every little grain of sand will help. There are rumours in late jin america and latin america and Central America that people can get permits. If you let them no that its not true, and this is what the children are going through, not only from the transformation, but the process, the Legal Process they have to go through. I believe its a grain of sat. Continue. You represent clients across the spectrum of immigration cases. What will happen here. As you bring up the due process, some show a quart are of undocumented immigrants show up for court dates. If released. 3 of nonmexicans are apprehended at the border. From the perspective of people who think this is something that needs to be stopped, how do you stop the flow, if you get here and you get to stay . Id like to cite that there has been studies performed in Central America, and of the groups of children studying, 60 suffered harm in their home country. They may have viable claims to credible fear interviews in the United States. So to circumvent that, its not american, not constitutional, because every person has a rite to have a hear. Are you concerned that will happen with the 2 billion president obama requested and talking about deporting people that people will not get here. That may be circumvented and a c bp officer may have the authority to decide you leave, you stay, that is not justice. Just is for an immigration judge to tied and hear the cases, get evidence and credible evidence to show they have a claim if they, in fact, do have one. To shorten the process, to make it quicker for a child to get to a hearing is a must. To circumvent the law and the process we have, i think that is unconstitutional. Of course, the counterargument is, yes, its unconstitutional and unamerican for people not to get a day in court and get due process. What do you do . Is the issue, aside from the terrible problems in Central America, is the issue that republicans bring up that secured . Definitely. Another knock on the door of congress and the house. We need to change the laws. They dont work. Regardless of what side. Political spectrum you are on. There has to be a modification. Here an indication of that. A pleasure to have you with us and give us your perspective on this. Moving to the economy. Junes job report triggered fireworks on wall street. The dow jones closed above 17,000 for the First Time Ever with a 92 point gain. That after the Labour Department recorded a pickup of 288,000 jobs last month, driving the Unemployment Rate down 0. 2 to 6. 1 , the lowest mark since the start of the financial crisis since september 2008. For more im joined from washington d. C. An economic columnist and professor at the marlin smith Maryland Smith School of business. Lets listen to what president obama had to say about the jobs report . We have seen the fastest job growth in the United States in the first half of the year since 1999. This is also the first time we have seen five consecutive months of job growth over 200,000, and we have seen the quickest drop in unemployment in 30 years. But you teeth that job growth improves but hardly enough. From your perspective the better than expected job cree ace, not celebrate . We should be happy that the economy is doing better. This year jobs growth is stronger. Suns the beginning of the century, the bush and obama have nothing to cheer about. Weve grown at half of the pace we did. Im trying to be bipartisan. Thats what the facts say. We should be generating four to 500. So we should be happy we are doing better than we did last year, when it was less than 200,000. Is this a plateau or do we move up further. Jobs. 4 to 500,000 because thats what is needed to keep up with population growth. Not only population growth, but to put back people working. The jobs we created, have been all taken by immigrants, every one. We have a huge reserve of people that are not working. For example, one out of every six adult men between the ages of 25 and 50 are not working. Bringing up the people who still dont havons, the Labour Force Participation rate stayed flat from the month before but declined half a point from where it was a year ago. You wrote if the same percentage of adults were in the labour force today as when president obama or bush took office, the jobless rate would be higher would have been higher then, 10. 2 and 12. 2 respectively. Celeorrect. If we had the same percentage of adults. Wed have 12 unemployment. The most effective jobs that either came up with is to work. That is to quit work and watch e. S. P. N. And rebroadcast games, or they can watch Al Jazeera America. The economy is growing too slowly, its grown 1. 7 a year. During the reganclinton years it grow at twice that. Theres a lot of risky behaviour on wall street. The president suggests ladling more reg uselation. Perhaps regulation. Perhaps they figure out that the banks are too big to be run or regulated or effectively managed. No one was more surprised at citigroup than the people that run it to find they took losses in mexico because of fraud. We need to break them up, not regulate them, get them down to manageable size. Aside from that argument which is a whole other segment. Theres a lot of things like that holding it up the fact that we dont drill for oil, excessive regulation, theres story of the small firms trying to bring jobs back to america and they hit a wall of state and federal regulators, whats they start a factory this china for six months. This has to be positive after the horrible First Quarter where the economy shrunk 2. 9 on an annualized basis. Do you think we are seeing a slightly better recovery. Yes, i wrote in a column published that we are headed for stronger growth, 3 for the balance of the year. The Obama Administration should celebrate that and critics should recollection it. We should be growing stronger that that. Given the cop contingent labour force that we have, the unused industrial capacity that we have, we should grow at 45 . Things will get bigger. Its a reason the stock market is cracking along. 4 growth instead of 2 , 3 , instead of the 2 is 5 better, half again better. I dont think stocks will be overvalued, i think they have a lot of room to run. One thing that might hurt the stock market is what could happen if the economy picks up, and the feds stop stimulus and raises Interest Rates. Im in favour of raising Interest Rates. Now is the time to do it. Inflation has been starting to pick up. The wall street journal seems to be bent on apologising for janet yellen, they do year over year comparisons of prices. To say inflation is not heating up. Janet yellen is right, we dont need to raise Interest Rates now, cheering for wall street. Obvious the last 34 months, each and every month inflation has been higher. The Consumer Price index in may, was up at an annual rate of better than 4 . Now is the time, as Alan Greenspan would say, take the pump bowl away. We could stand slightly higher Interest Rates. What about wages, we see job numbers up, but wages stagnant. They are growing is the 2. 2 a year, its not stagg napt. It was a teeny gain. However, we are not going to get wage growth by depressing Interest Rates, well get the economy growing the way it should. Low Interest Rates are causing destructive speculative behaviour. We tell the banks they cant gamble, so what do they do they loan money to gamblers, to private equity firms, who i call pirate equity. And the fed says you shouldnt do that, these are risky bets, is it worse that citibank makes the bets itself or give it to people going to las vegas instead. They cant be regulated. Like with rockefeller,a broke up oil, id like to take app axe to jp morgue scrnan morgan. Not a week goes by without hearing about a new fraud. We should move the Justice Department to the old Federal Building in new york city. You would have been at home in the early 20th century with the antitrust folks back then. Economist peter marisi well have to have that conversation another time. Pleasure. Now for more stories from around the world. We begin in israel. Thursday Israeli Defense forces were mocialized to gaza. Air strikes gensified reportedly injuring several people. Hamas speaksified rocket fire into israel. More than 40 rockets were launched thursday, including one that damned a residential building and another that hit a kindergarten. Protestors and Israeli Police clashes offend for a second day in response to a suspected revenge killing of a palestinian teenager. His funeral has been put off until friday so israeli con do a post mortem. Next to paris why Nicolas Sarcozy hit back at corruption charges against him in a First Interview Since Leaving Office in 2012. Nicolas sarcozy was detaineded and questioned for 15 hours in a corruption probe and put under investigation by a judge. The frexg legal in the french legal system thats the nearest equivalent to being chargeded. Nicolas sarcozy accused a judge of trying to destroy him and that the Ruling Socialist Party may be behind the allegations. We end in the u. S. Where hurricane harth you are is poised to arthur is poised to disrupt 4th of july celebrations. Thousands were forced to cancel plans as they evacuated low have lying beaches. Forecasters predict it will grow in intensity, likely becoming a category 2 hurricane, packing wind of 96 miles per hour, as it moves towards new england. N. A. S. A. Released this video of the impressive storm as it looks from the International Space station. That is some of what is happening around the woirl. Coming up, with the rise of the Islamic State, is al qaeda becoming irrelevant . Could the terror group be planning an attack on the west to announce its a threat. The clock is ticking on Irans Nuclear programme as negotiations begin. We talk to a highranking iranian officialful harmeli aregawi is tracking the webful. A former model posted a photo, revealing an unusual accessory. It is shedding the stigma of a disease more that a million americans face. More coming up. While watching join the conversation were following the stories of people who have died in the desert the borderland marathon no ones prepared for this journey experience Al Jazeera Americas critically acclaimed original series from the beginning experiencing it has changed me completely follow the journey as six americans face the immigration debate up close and personal. Its heartbreaking. Im the enemy. Im really pissed off. All of these people shouldnt be dead. Its insane. The borderland marathon only at Al Jazeera America the Islamic State success in getting territory could lead to attacks on the west from the group that defined gloel scri had, al qaeda. Thats according to a report, warning that al qaeda may launch an attack to show its fighting the real enemy, america and its allies, white the Islamic State is battling fellow muslims in syria and iraq. Im joined by richard barrett. A senior vice president. Former chief of counterterrorism for britains mi6 intelligence service. Good to have you here. Al qaeda, we hear how its decimated. They are hiding in northern pakistan. The drone strikes hurting the group. You are saying because of the Islamic State success this is putting pressure on what is left of the al qaeda to make sure its somehow relevant. Yes, they have a credibility problem, now, al qaeda. They have not committed a decent attack since 2005 london bombings. And with i. S. I. S. So effective and taking a lot of territory in iraq. Claiming now to be leading the whole that global terrorist movement, al qaeda has to do something, else it becomes completely irrelevant. We think that probably they are calculating whether they should do something sooner or wait until they find something more effective later. Something. As part of the report, you looked at relevance when it came to media reports and other ways of seeing how much al qaeda is a part of the conversation. You have seen a significant drop, certainly in comparison to what has happened with the Islamic State. Thats right. If you look at twitter, which sa medium that these people really Pay Attention to, twitter is an amazing source of news for a lot of people interested in what is going on in iraq and syria and the global jihadist movement, and you see the mentions of i. S. I. S. And Islamic State zooming ahead. The mentions of al qaeda are static, and not particularly significantly. Clearly theres a generational thing that the younger people are interested in what is going on, are more interested in the Islamic State. As you bring up social media. The islamic stayed has been effective in putting out horrible videos, but used social media as a tool to make itself more relevant. You say in the report that al qaeda is kind of your fathers terrorist group, that the younger islamist extremist is state. Absolutely. And the Islamic State is effective at manipulating twitter. They use techniques to get the hash tags up more often than others. They are very attune to dealing with social media and reaching the audience, they are an offshoot or the successor to al qaeda in iraq. In those days al qaeda in iraq was part of general al qaeda, and the sworn allegiance to osama bin laden. Now this guys, the head of Islamic State wants al qaeda to swear allegiance to him. It was a direct threat to al qaeda. Al qaeda, when it was the al qaeda and iraq, they had a problem with this group. They were never under control. Now, yes, the tables are turned. And by declaring a caliphate, Abu Bakr Albaghdadi the leader of the Islamic State is saying to Ayman Al Zawahiri you have two choices, disappear or join me. Or ibrahim as hes apparently calling himself. In that context we see the threat of al qaeda in yemen and the peninsula are looking to created an undetectable bomb that may be put on an aeroplane coming to the United States, the u. S. Issued the warning and increased security at a number of airports, do you think its connected. We see it as one and the same. That al qaeda is looking to see what assets it has. Clearly the al qaeda is effective. They have tried to mount attacks through bombs on airplanes, you remember the christmas 2009. Underwear bomber. Printer bombs, if you remember that the following year. They were detected because there was a tip off that they were there, i think, otherwise they would have got through. Then in 2012 they fitted someone up with a bomb which was more sophisticated. Fortunately he was working for the saudis. Thursday there was a specific threat announced by the u. S. Embassy in uganda against an ai port in uganda, saying that there was specific hours as to when the attack could have happened, the time would have gone past. Who do you think is behind that. Big al qaeda or alshabab in somalia, who is loosely an alal qaeda affiliate. It seemed to be local. The tip was from ugandan police, they are effective i am sure, but its likely theyd get information that United States didnt have from al qaeda in yemen. Make alshabab supporters, make it was local. And warnings in algeria that americans should stay away from u. S. Hotels because of another threat there. Yes. Noise. Yes. Theres always an awful lot of noise. It goes up and down. Now, i guess, its edged up a bit. The people are more anxious, and perhaps want to get people more alert and on the toes, looking out for things that happens over the holiday weekend. Its a report to go online and find it and read it. I appreciate that you are here, richard. Good to see you. Now to the high stake talks to curb Irans Nuclear programme. As World Leaders finish up a round of negotiations, irans Foreign Ministers put out a message if discussion fail, iranment. People didnt believe me when i said that the iranians are allergic to pressure. I feel compelled to warn again that pursuing a game of chicken in an attempt to extract lastminute concessions cannot achieve anything better than what it achieved in 2005. The video was a response to screns opinion secretary of state john kerrys opinion piece where he urged iran to make concessions. This tit for tat is not a good sign for an agreement that president obama said is a top level conversation. Joining us is a spokesperson that served for iran in its negotiations with the European Union between 2003 and 2005, the former head of the Foreign Relations committee of the irans Security Council and worked with hassan rouhani, and is a Research Scholar at princeton. Hes an author of iran and the United States an insiders view on the failed past and the road to peace. Ambassador, pleasure to have you with us. Foreign minister is well liked. This video is meant for a foreign audience. He talks about how iran doesnt want a bomb, sanctions killed people. He pretty much threatens that the failure to reach an agreement will only result in a more advanced Iranian Nuclear programme, and that would be the fault of the United States. Noble he has made a threat actually. He used the same language that secretary of state john kerry used during his talks with the washington post. But i think the major dispute, or the major challenge between the iran and the p5 1, the world powers, plus germany in vienna is about nonproliferation treaty. Iranians believe any solution compromise should be within the framework of nonproliferation treaty, which is the only International Treaty on nonproliferation, but the world powers, specifically the u. S. , is pushing for a solution beyond npt. You need to understand where we are, that the fight is whether we want a deal within the framework of npt, beyond. I want to get to the specific issues in a minute. Do you not think, though, with Foreign Ministers telling a french newspaper that some among the p5 1 were suffering from illusions, that he seems to take a harder line . You know the illusion he is taking is about measures beyond mp 2, which they are going to impose on iran, not even for a short term. Something for 20 years or 30 years. This is the illusion hes talking about. Lets talk about the major issues. We are talking about the centrifuges, the number theyll be permitted to operate to enrich uranium, the duration, the notyet finished iraq reactor and the schedule for lifting the u. S. , United Nations and european sanctions that crippled irans economy. The first three are about making sure that iran cant quickly ramp up to make a bomb. If, as minister sharif said, if its a myth that iran wants a bomb, why is that a problem. The number of center finals is not the centrifuges is not the key. The key is to be selfsufficient, to provide fuel for the Nuclear Power plant. The world powers are asking iran to buy fuel for your Nuclear Power plants from russia. But within npt you can provide fuel domestically. Many Member States produce fuel domestically like france, japan. This is the issue. Isnt the argument that. The issue is about selfsufficiency, numbers. When we talk about selfsufficiency. Iran, the numbers are what the big argument is as to how many iran needs. It has more than 9,000, 10,000 on the way. Some iranian officials wants thousands, if not tens of thousands more, white the americans are arguing that it should need more than a few thousand at most. Here is the misleading for public opinion. For the counter consumption ryan needs few thousand centrifuges, this is not a matter of dispute from the iranian side. They say we have a contract with russia providing fuel for the power plant at the Nuclear Power plant. It finishes by 2021. After 2021, we want to provide, produce our own fuel for the power plant. The new capacity, more centrifuges is not about todays iranian needs and requirements, but five, six years later. This is the matter of dispute. Quick final question for you. The u. S. And iran seem to be on the same page when it comes to what is gip on in iraq going on in iraq. Will that help or encourage a deal on the Nuclear Talks . I believe if theres a deal on the Nuclear Talks, the door is open for iran and the u. S. To cooperate on major crisis we have in the middle east, not limiting to iraq crisis. We have crisis in syria, we have crisis in afghanistan. And iran is a major regional power. The u. S. Is Major International power. They have many common interests for peace and stability in iraq and afghanistan, in syria. Therefore, if we have a deal, definitely the door will be open for broader regional dialogue between iran and the u. S. So many issues between iran and u. S. For so many decades. Lets home the talks are effective. Thank you for joining us. Time to see what is trending on the web. Brave men and women are posing online for a good cause. The photos are getting a lot of love on social media. According to the National Institutes of health a million mens are affected with chrons disease, making it difficult to deal with waste. Part of the tract may have to be removed and colostomy bags may need to be worn. 23yearold bethany is a Makeup Artist and former model and has chrons disease and she wears her colostomy bag, which she said she decided to show off after seeing others do the same. She wrote . The photo was liked by 200,000 people and shared 25,000 times, and bethany is helping to shed the stigma coming with wearing the bag. Others suffering from the disease followed, posting photos of them posing with their unusual accessories. Katrina wanted young people to know having a bag is not a life sentence and nothing to be ashamed of. Vicky says she wears her bag with pride. Surgery is often an effective treatment. Theres no cure for chrons disease. Share your thoughts with you. I love their courage. Very courageous. Thank you. Straight ahead a judicial system concern. Misconduct among prosecutors costing taxpayers mill lions, making us less safe. The bestselling fastfood chains on the planet may be selling customers short. We tell you how they are sending customers a message. Im ali velshi, the news has become this thing where you talk to experts about people, and al jazeera has really tried to talk to people, about their stories. We are not meant to be your first choice for entertainment. We are ment to be your first choice for the news. We trust prosecutors to put societys criminals behind bars. Who polices the prosecutors when they break the law . Rogue prosecutors and the minimal disciplinary action they face are the focus of the final episode of al jazeeras series the system. Reporter prosecutors possess a huge amount of power. When they abuse the power, theres no one out there holding them accountable. My case, it seemed to me, as if the political machine of keeping me in gaol, the prosecutors, were working together. The disciplinary method against prosecutors is a scandal. Some of these prosecutors are tough, hardnosed promoted. This man has written about prosecutorial misconduct and featured throughout the feature of the system, premiering sunday night on al jazeera. Great to have you here. Why is this happening. Prosecutors are supposed to be officers of the court, supposed to seek justice. It shouldnt be about winning the case. They face a tremendous amount of pressure to win the cases because it makes a difference for their careers. Is there a serious conflict of interest to begin with is this. We found that theres not a lot of incentive for prosecutors to follow the law. In terms of disclosing evidence that might be favourable to the defendant. And the reason why is when they do break the laws that require that, they dont suffer punish the. Theres no discipline. As you noted, they are under tremendous pressure to win. Once they bring someone to trial, the assumption it they have the rite guy. If they know they are not going to be punished and not following the rules will help them win the case, theyll do it. You found, in fact, there were dozens of cases in new york city over the first decade or so of this century, were cases thrown up because of misconduct by prosecutors. So why i mean, i understand the pressure they are under. You found that only one prosecutor was suspended or disbarred. And, in fact, many of those others as we heard in that piece from the system, many were not only promoted, they had raises and some were department heads. Right. Many of them went on to become judges, went on to become prominent Defense Attorneys or senior prosecutors and continued to work on cases to this day. And received raises and promotions, even after judges overturned convictions because they withheld evidence or committed some other form of misconduct. I understand that its important to have a certain level of immunity. The theory behind that is you need prosecutors to be aggressive, to be building to go after criminals, but if they are looking over their shoulders, they are not going to get things done. Shouldnt there be consequences. Thats been the art from a lot of people in the defense bar, and from the public. Sharls hines, the charles hines, the brooklyn District Attorney was voted out. He was one of the first District Attorneys to be vote out of office, for 100 years. He was in office for 23 reasons. A big part of the reason why he lost the seat is the public no longer believed in him because of his reputation on protecting rogue prosecutors. And because in the end, there are real significant consequences on a bump of different levels. Cities and counties are then open to civil lawsuits and have paid out millions upon millions of dollars in cases where people where there was bad prosecutorial conduct. On top of that you end up with people who are innocent, being put behind bars and people guilty getting out because the prosecutorial misconduct taints their cases. Theres no doubt that the consequences of prosecutorial misconduct are devastating for the defendants, their families, the victims of their crimes. Whether its an enjoyment person going to prison for a crime he didnt commit or, as you noted, a guilty person getting out early. That happens too. Is there any way of knowing how big a deal this is. We are talking about a couple of thousands prosecutors in new york city. You found a few dozen cases over a decade. Is this rogue prosecutors, like you find bad apples in organization . Its a difficult thing to measure. More than 90 of criminal cases never reach the trial stage. Those that do, its very unlikely that they are ever going to reach the appeal statement, and that is really the only window that you have into the records of the original trial, and the record of any prosecutorial misconduct taking place. When a defendant takes a plea, the court record is sealed, and youll never know what kind of evidence was in the cases, and that is most of the criminal charges in our system. Ending in that fashion. Your series is fascinating, bringing up a lot of important issues and a lot of things to think about, brought up in the episode of the the system airing here, and a pleasure to have you with us. Coming up, video raises concerns about abuse of wild animals at circuses. First, mcdonalds may boast more than 99 million served, but a on tech know, an amazing new species is discovered. Kind of like were watching little architects in action one of natures mysteries solved. I dont think its a spider or mite in the amazon rainforest were gonna try to get one in the act of actually making the structure tech know, every saturday go where science meets humanity. This is some of the best driving ive every done, even though i cant see. Tech know. Were here in the vortex. Only on Al Jazeera America. Al Jazeera America presents we all live for the moment thats all im trying to do 15 stories, 1 incredible journey edge of eighteen coming september only on Al Jazeera America todays data dive questions conventional wisdom op fast food. Mcdonalds made its name with burgers, kfc with chicken. And taco bell with burritos. Mcdonalds is the best growing chain, but the burgers have been voted the worst in america dead last against 20 competitor chains. The habit burger grill out west was best for burgers, in and out second, followed by five guys. Shake shack, a favourite, was not looked at. Taco bell may be the best mexian joint, but mexican joint, but was last on the bur itemos. It was trounced. Kfc may do chicken right. Readers place Colonel Sanders behind all other fast food chicken. Chick brulee finished first. Sandwiches and subs barely dodged the bottom of the list, next to last. Portillos hot dogs came in first, and fire house subs. What are the biggest chains doing wrong . Americans spend 680 billion a year to eat out. Our standards are getting higher. Consumer reports say we want more for our money, Higher Quality fast food. Greater variety than the chains have been delivering. People surveyed said theyd go out of their way for a good meal, helping smaller chains like in and out and others keep growing. The big guys have a long way to go for customer satisfaction. Alarming video raises questions about animal cruelty in americas this, is what we do. Al Jazeera America. The use of trauned elephants in trained elephants in circuses has a history dating back to roman times, its likely that abuse of the great animals goes back that far. A bill introduced in Congress Hopes to end the circus tradition and abuse. Known as the travelling Exotic Animal protection act, it outlaws the use of wild animals in u. S. Circuses. According to my next guest the changes could not come fast enough. Jane kramer president of animal defenders international, an organization that campaigns for animals and against their use in entertainment. Lets begin with a video that your organization released. Some of it is disturbing, showing elephants being abused. It shows elephants controlled with bull hooks, metal bars, stun guns and the elephants get out of control and the trainers hit them and prodding them. How did you get in video . What this . This is the kind of thing that we monitor all the time. The problem that the authorities have, like the Occupational Health and safety administration, the u. S. Da, the problem they have with enforcement and application. Animals and people is that the circuses are travelling, so by the time an official gathered together evidence and is putting a case together. The circus has moved on. What we need is federal legislation. The fact is that these animals are frustrated. They are abused, in distress. And at some point its inevitable theyll explode. Theres no way to keep them in the circuses. These animals, the elephants are used. They are the same ones used for rides with small childrenful. Absolutely. You see in the video they are giving rise to children and some of the elt fantastic you see here, having the fight elephants you see, having the fight, escaped in missouri, they escaped and went on the rampage. The point that we are making to congress is that this has to stop. 27 countries now around the world have ended the use of animals wild animals or all animals in travelling circuses because they looked at the evidence and with the best will in the world, travelling circuses cant keep the animals in conditions that can keep them healthy and happiy. Thats part of your point. If they were treated well, the conditions are such that inherently it means they are not treated well, because they have no space to roam, they are forced to do things that are upnatural and you plan to send some of the material to the u. S. Da. I know thanks to some of your efforts there are a number of jurisdiction s in the United States, not just countries around the world, that ban animals. Absolutely. 44 jurisdiction in the u. S. Banned animals and travelling circuses. We hope to see more. All the time now we have various towns, cities coming to us for this information balls people can see the problems not only for the animals, but for members of the public too. And, you know, this is something that we know more we should change the way we use the animals for the way we treat the animals and our view of them. I should say we contacted the company that you say supplies the elephants for the circuses. Carson and barnes and responded with the following what do you say to them . They are using stun guns, i think the way those electric stun guns are used is abuse. Anyone looking at that video can see that those animals i mean, one animal, one elephant screams and cries out. You hear her crying. You know that shes suffering there. What we are saying is in those circumstances, in a travelling circus, those workers are going to abuse the animals. Its almost inevitable. They are trying to keep them under control. And the circuses say that the care and treatment of their animals is of utmost importance to the companies. Ringley brothers, and in 2011 another company was forced to pay a fine 230,000, a record for violating an Animal Welfare act. Is there enough monitoring. Do you think the new law will pass . Will things challenge . I think the new law will pass. People have a greater understanding of the needs of other species and the animals, and they can see they are suffering. Most decent people dont want animals abused for entertain through. You have another video that is powerful entitled no fun for elephants. What did you find there . Again, repeated use of stun gun, electric shock devices, beating of the elephants with ball hooks and pretty much with anything to comes to hand. The fact it that behind the scenes in a travelling circus, the animals are treated in a way that most decent people would finessedive and consider offensive and consider abusive. The fact that people in the circuses treat the animals like this dont see anything wrong with it says more about those people than the rest of the public who finds it offensive. Its sad to see the great animals treated that way. Jan kramer, a pleasure to have you back. Thank you for call attention to this. Appreciate your time. Thats all for now. Coming up friday, former president jimmy carter joins us with erts to raise awareness efforts to raise awareness about violence for women, and ken burns, in time for 4th of july, joins us with a take on the gettize burg address. The conversation continues phone facebook, google , twitter. See you welcome to alJazeera America. Here are todays headlines at this hour. President obama today will swear in foreign Born Service Members to celebrate independents day. It comes as governor rick perry attacked the president , saying that undocumented residents entering the country adds to the crisis. Hurricane arthur is a category 1 storm. It was downgraded after slamming into north carolinas outer banks with winds of 100 miles per hour. 20,000 people lost power, and thousands of vacationers had to evacuate the coast stereo. Tensions are high around