comparemela.com

New details about how the National Security agency targeted wikileaks and its supporters walk placing the sites founder Julian Assange on the main hunting target list together with al qaeda. We will speak with Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in london where he is and political asylum. Then interrogated at the airport. Who is Edward Snowden . Why have you gone to russia twice in three months . Those are some of the questions jesselyn raddack was forced to answer when she flew into london on sunday. She will join us today. New york times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse in a big defeat for organized labor in the south. Workers at a volkswagen plant in tennessee reject the United Auto Workers after a costly antiunion campaign. All of that and more coming up. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. A new report based on topsecret documents from Edward Snowden has revealed how the United States and britain targeted the whistleblowing website wikileaks after it published documents on the u. S. Led war in afghanistan. According to report coauthored by Glenn Greenwald and published intercept. Org, britains top spy agencies eagerly monitored visitors to wikileaks site by collecting their ip addresses in real time. The National Security agency added wikileaks founder julian hunting target list alongside al qaeda suspects. The documents also show the u. S. Urged its allies to file criminal charges against assange over the afghan war logs. We will be joined by Julian Assange and his attorney Michael Ratner after the headlines. In iraq, a series of deadly car bombings has rocked baghdad and the area south of it today, one day after another wave of explosions killed at least 24 people. Mondays blast in the iraqi capital included attacks targeting shiite mosques in the explosion of a bombladen minibus. Police in thailand have launched an effort to oust demonstrators from protest sites in the capital bangkok. At least three people have died in the resulting clashes. The government of Yingluck Shinawat has been embroiled in the political crisis since november with opponents wanting her to resign or be replaced by an unelected council. Ofukraine, tens of thousands antigovernment protesters have attended a march on the parliament, sparking clashes with police. Opposition lawmakers are pushing for changes to the constitution that would curb the power of president yanukovych following months of protests over his decision to accept strengthen ties with russia instead of europe. Protesters recently ended a nearly threemonth occupation of city hall and the capital kiev as part of an amnesty deal with the government, but that continued calls for yanukovych to resign. In venezuela, president underwrote has accused his opponents of mounting a coup amidst violent antigovernment protest that left at least three people dead last week. Claiming the United States sided with the opposition, president maduro ordered the expulsion of three u. S. Consular officials. I have ordered the foreign minister of the republic to declare persona non grata and expel the three consulate functionaries at the embassy of the unites states of america in venezuela. That they leave venezuela alone. President maduro accused u. S. Officials the meeting was stirred in students in a bid to stir up unrest. The white house has denied involvement in the protest. The Opposition Leader lopez has outed himself in after holding a final rally today. The government issued an arrest warrant for lopez last week, accusing him of inciting violence. President maduro has called on his supporters to rally today. United nations panel has issued a wideranging report accusing north korea of crimes that shock the conscience of humanity. Following a yearlong investigation, you investigators warned north Korean Leader kim jong than he could face responsibility in International Criminal court. The human rights abuses detailed by the panel include extermination, enslavement, sexual violence, religious persecution, torture, and the kidnapping of foreign citizens. The panel chair described the findings. The capacity of north korea to sail under the radar to avoid international scrutiny, to avoid examination of its record over such a long time, effectively, 60 years of very much wrongs , againsthe population christians, minorities, women. [indiscernible] in south korea, meanwhile, Court Sentenced in Opposition Leader to 12 years in prison monday, accusing him of plotting against the government in favor of north korea. Thesoekki has rejected charges against him, saying his trial was part of a government bid to muzzle progressives. Talks aimed at solidifying a deal over irans disputed Nuclear Program are opening today in vienna, austria. Iran, the u. S. , and five other world powers reached a temporary deal in november requiring iran to curb uranium enrichment in return for using crippling economic sanctions. The renewed talks are aimed at establishing a more longterm deal. On monday, irans Supreme Leader accused the United States of hostility toward iran. Issue is excuse for their hostility and even if the Nuclear Issue is resolved to the satisfaction of the americans one day, which is extremely unlikely, another issue will follow again. Just observe the u. S. Government speakers are raising human rights issues, this missile issues, weapons issues, and so on. Im surprised the americans are not ashamed to even talk about human rights. Two members of the russian protest group pussy riot who recently returned from a trip to the United States have been attained in sochi, russia, where the olympics are underway. Nearly twoen spent years in prison for protesting russian leader Vladimir Putin inside an orthodox cathedral. They planned to stage a protest against putin in sochi. Meanwhile, transgender activist and former member of italys parliament has staged backtoback actions in support of lgbt right at the olympics in sochi. Wasunday, Vladimir Luxuria detained after disbanding displaying a banner read gay is ok annual of the heart. The next day she attempted to enter the olympic hockey arena wearing elaborate amo headdress entering a gay pride flag and was probably escorted away. She said she was protesting russias socalled gay propaganda law. Stop wearing the colors of the rainbow just because someone took away a flack from me, that means these people when and i dont want to be guided in my life by fear. I want to be guided in my life by courage, the courage that ive always had in my life. Back in the u. S. , an arkansas man is behind bars for allegedly opening fire on a car full of teenagers over the weekend, killing a 15yearold girl. Police in little rock say willie noble shot at the teenagers after they dumped eggs and leaves on his sons car as part of a prank. 15yearold Adrian Broadway was shot in the head and died. Noble has been charged with firstdegree murder. The oilrich city of williston, dakota now has the highest average rent in the u. S. , surpassing both San Francisco and new york city. It is the center of a boom in Domestic Oil Production filled by these are fracking in the bakken shale. Websiteg to the apartment guide, a onebedroom apartment now costs nearly 2400 a month almost 900 more than the average in new york. Those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Topsecret documents leaked by Edward Snowden have revealed new details about how the u. S. And britain targeted the whistleblowing website wikileaks after it published leaked documents about the afghan war. According to new article cowritten by Glenn Greenwald published this morning, britains top spy agency, the Government Communications headquarters or gc hq, secretly monitored as it is to wikileaks site by collecting their ip addresses in real time as well as the search terms used to reach the site. Shows thent from 2010 National Security agency added wikileaks publisher Julian Assange to a man hunting target list, together with suspected members of al qaeda. Another document reveals the nsa considered designating wikileaks as a Malicious Foreign actor. According to the intercept, such a designation would have allowed the group to be targeted with extensive electronic surveillance without the need to exclude u. S. Persons from the surveillance searches. In addition, the documents reveal the United States urged its foreign allies to file criminal charges against assange over the groups publication of the Afghanistan War logs. Joining us now from london is wikileaks founder and editor Julian Assange. He is talking to us by phone from the Ecuadorian Embassy where he has been holed up since 2012 with political asylum. In new york were joined by Michael Ratner, an attorney for Julian Assange. When you read this, julian welcome back to democracy now what were your thoughts on being put on this man hunting list together with al qaeda . Good morning, amy. Was, well,ought finally, we have some proof we can present to the public for what we have long suspected for a variety of reasons. Strange to see your name in that context with people who are suspected of serious criminal acts of terrorism. Clearly, that is a massive overstep. We have heard a lot of propaganda pushed on this issue in u. S. Er and Others National secure to complex that said the surveillance was justified by the need to stop u. S. Or the terrorist attacks being conducted on the United States and the allies. The were seeing example after example the last few months showing the National Security agency and its partner gchq have engaged in economic espionage. Here we have an example where the type of espionage engaging meing on the publisher personally and the other material that came out in relation to gchq was from 2012. And that shows gchq was spying on our service and our readers. Not just the publisher as an organization or a person, but also the readers of the publisher and that is, clearly, i believe, not something the United States population agrees with, let alone other people. Atwere you surprised anything that came out in these latest documents . I was surprised about how someone is added to the foreign bullishness act list foreign malicious act list. The Security Agency with your process to try a high level, the office of legal director, to designate us as a foreign elusive actor, which means our u. S. Personnel can be spied on or our associates or the human without can be targeted going through any of the checks the National Security agency might normally engage in. The details, you can see it is quite a lot quite a cavalier approach to going to a very serious decision to spy on a publisher and all its u. S. Personnel. We must assume News Agencies like reuters or others that have foreign correspondents in the United States, american citizens or american citizens working overseas, could be similarly affected. Julian assange, the intercept article quote from the document you are referencing is from july 2011 and showed how to have nsa officers considered designating wikileaks a Malicious Foreign actor. I want to read from the exchange between the nsas agency general counsel and an arm of its Threat Operations Center Julian Assange, your response and what the documents reveal about the process of the nsa or gchq to designate someone a Malicious Foreign actor . What they mean by no defeats, it is sort of no protections for any form of perception of content of u. S. Citizens communicating with that anization or through that the particular document this came out in was actually not a document that was formally looking at this issue in relation to us, rather, it was from thattion consideration that happen sometime in the past and was put into one of their current if you like, sort of frequently asked questions internally in the nsa. We are quite lucky to have found this reference. We were used as an example of how you could infect target these Services Even when they were used by people in the United States. The answer is, yes, that can be done. We dont know what the answer was in our particular case, but given the general example is, yes, then we must assume that it was. Now general alexander needs to , wasclean and say, in fact in the case of wikileaks and the National Security agency proceed in spying on our u. S. Personnel or our lawyers, for example, like Michael Ratner who is based in new york. We have michael here. I want to ask you, then in the embassy and having had natural daylight, semifor 608 days for how are you having not had natural daylight for some 608 days, does this change in any way what your thoughts are about your future . I find it helpful that in comparing the files of course, we looked into many details like this. It is a big puzzle with many pieces, which some organization like a foreign officer has the time to assess come up and it is harder for the public to understand that documents like this show very readily sort of the scale of the u. S. Response to our publications and why, unfortunately, it is necessary for me to apply and receive and other personnel like sarah harris who is a british ,itizen to be legally advised exiled in germany. And will be information about whether there is a sealed indictment, which seems to indicate there isnt, to you have any further information about that, and indictment against you in the United States . The District Attorney of virginia gave the last information on that issue and stated publicly the investigation continues. Julian assange, thank you for being with us, founder and editorinchief of wikileaks. Will this change anything you do inside the embassy when you see how further information about your being monitored and people even going to the website, what , collecting the ip addresses in real time of people who even access the wikileaks site . Wikileaks Security Model has always been predicated under the basis that we are dealing with very powerful organizations that do not obey the rule of law. Are powerful to criminal organizations or corrupt governments in africa or whether there spy agencies allied with the west or russia or china. We haveoesnt always been prepared to defend against that sort of scrutiny. Upa government has said they spent 6 Million Pounds the u. K. Government said they have spent 6 Million Pounds surveilling to the Police Forces alone. We must assume gchq is also monitoring the situation. I suppose that is part of the said state of the rules of law and the west where these organizations gave that way. I think the days are clearly numbered that they can get away with it without being exposed. But i will leave you to Michael Ratner now. Thank you so much, Julian Assange, founder and editorinchief of wikileaks. When we come back, we will be with Michael Ratner and also from london, not in exile in the ecuadoran embassy, but in a studio in london, by jesselyn raddack, the Legal Advisor to Edward Snowden who was stopped at Heathrow Airport on sunday, asked, who is Edward Snowden . Where is Bradley Manning . Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Topsecret documents leaked by Edward Snowden have revealed new details about how the United States and britain targeted the whistleblowing website wikileaks after he published documents about the afghan war. According to a new article written by Ryan Gallagher and Glenn Greenwald, britains top , secretly, gchq monitor visitors through a wikileaks site by collecting their ip addresses in real time as well as a search terms used to reach the site. One of the documents leaked by Edward Snowden details a man hunting timeline that shows how the u. S. Try to pressure other nations to prosecute Julian Assange. One read joining us now is Michael Ratner , the president emeritus of the center for constitutional rights, which is a Legal Advisor to Julian Assange. Last point,his michael, first, what your most surprised by in this piece that just came out and particularly, the u. S. Pushing other countries to prosecute julian. What i was shocked by was the extent the u. S. And the u. K. Have gone through to try and get and destroy wikileaks and Julian Assange and her network of supporters. It is astounding. It is been going on for years. As julian pointed out, it tells us why he is in the Ecuadorian Embassy and what ecuador has given him asylum. He has every reason the heavily fear what would happen to him in this country in the United States if he were to be ever taken here. For me, that is a very, very critical point, justifies every reason why ecuador gave him asylum. The document you are addressing, amy, the manhunt timeline which is extraordinary because it groups him among a whole bunch of people who the u. S. Considers terrorists and also groups and with palestinians, which is pretty interesting in itself. The to have julian on that list as a manhunt timeline and it says prosecute him wherever you can get him, is pretty extraordinary. It doesnt necessarily say you need a good reason to prosecute him, but prosecute him. It is reminiscent of me to the program that took place in the 1960s and 1970s when the fbi said, we have to basically destroyed the black civil rights movement, the new left and others, and prosecute them, get them however you can, get rid of them. The manhunt timeline, even the name is chilling. But it is an effort to try and get wikileaks and their personnel wherever they are in the world. You have had people on the show. When people cross borders who were associates with wikileaks, they get stopped, surveillance all the time. We have seen efforts to basically destroy wikileaks by stealing their laptops on a trip that went from sweden to germany. We have seen efforts across the board in country after country. Germany, they surveilled conferences with people from wikileaks spoke there. This program has been implemented and the manhunt timeline i think is incredibly significant, considering the manhunt is an effort to locate, find, and destroy in some cases kill people. What do you think the appropriate response should be to Something Like that . Is there any legal action that Julian Assanges legal team can take . Julian assange in a statement to the articles that he felt he was should appoint a special prosecutor, not just to investigate what is happening to andleaks and the publisher journalist, but across the board. U. S. Is trying to basically say publishing is a crime. That is what the Obama Administration is saying. Julian is strongly suggesting, and i support the idea of a special prosecutor, to look into this. Is that aspect unprecedented . You drew comparisons to the 1960s and 1970s and now. On this level, i dont think it has occurred. We had the mannheim program and he also had what they call the anticrisis girl program. I dont know how i got that name. Anticrisis girl program. What is that about . I dont know. But whenever i search for wikileaks on my computer or go visit the wikileaks site in real time, the gchq can taken my ip address am a taken what im searching for in real time. A number of slides showing how they can do this. We dont know how extensively the implemented a program, but that means every one of us who have ever gone to wikileaks i to look for a document could technically wikileaks site to look for document could technically be surveilled in our ip address taken. And also anonymous and pirate bay . Anonymous, they did designate what they call a Malicious Foreign actor. Which is what they were deciding whether to designate wikileaks as or not, and we dont know the final decision was, whether wikileaks was designated as a Malicious Foreign actor, but anonymous, apparently, was. It means in restrictions on government surveillance of anything my conversations, my email are completely lifted. Whether you are in american or whatever. Any of my communications to anywhere in the world to that website come into anonymous, going on chat rooms with anonymous, tweets, those can be taken in an surveilled. It is incredibly broad power. We dont know if it was used against wikileaks. It was certainly discussed. What did the documents reveal about what u. S. Officials said they were doing and what in fact they were doing . Not only was there surveillance of u. S. Citizens that was problematic, but also foreign citizen. Im not following the question. And other words, the u. S. Officials have claimed that only surveilled foreign citizens who are in some sense either officially guilty of or likely to be involved in terrorist activities. But if youre monitoring every visitor to a website, whether wikileaks or pirate bay or, obviously aret is just lies but officials. If theres a wikileaks website overseas, theyre releasing everybody who visit that website, american or otherwise, we can surveill. It is complete b. S. Were all being surveilled. We want you to stay with us as we bring in another guest. Four journalists who revealed the National Security agencys vast web of spying have been awarded the 2013 george polk awards in journalism. Poitras,nwald, laura Ewen Macaskill of the guardian and Barton Gellman of the Washington Post were among the winners announced on sunday. Even as the journalists who broke the stories based on snowdens leaks were awarded one of journalisms highest low highest honors, a lawyer who represents snowden was detained while going through customs at londons Heathrow Airport. Jesselyn raddack was firedoglake she was subjected to very hostile questioning about snowden and her trips to russia. Nn greenwald tweeted jesselyn raddack is just one of a growing number of people who are being stopped, harassed, and interrogated further work around Edward Snowden, wikileaks, and National Security agency documents. In this clip, we are from laura bound, andcob appel David Miranda who have all been stopped and interrogated in airports. Ive lost count how many times a been detained at the border, but i think it is around 40 times. Trip, lately,ular they have been sending someone from the department of Homeland Security to question me in the departing city. So i was question in london about what i was doing. So i was questioned in london about what i was doing. I was targeted by the u. S. Government and until the last four times that of flown, i was detained basically every time. Sometimes men would meet me at the jetway with guns. A room with three different agents. Youre entering and exiting and spoke to me, asking me questions about my whole life. They took my computer, my video games, everything. That was Glenn Greenwalds partner David Miranda. Before him, Jacob Appelbaum and journalist laura poitras. You can see our interview with jacob and laura at democracynow. Org. All of them interrogated at airports as most recently has jesselyn raddack, the attorney representing Edward Snowden, joining us from london. She is a former ethics advisor to the u. S. Department of justice. She is currently director of National Security and human rights that the Government Accountability project, the nations leading whistleblower organization. Jesselyn raddack, welcome back to democracy now describe what happened on sunday at heathrow. I was trying to enter through customs, which at heathrow is called the border course. I was directed to a very specific station, rather than the regular line. After the first question, which . , which is you here a normal question, things got more bizarre. I said i was here to see friends. They wanted me to be more specific. I said the sam adams association, the group that awarded Edward Snowden the award last year. I did not add that part. Then they asked for the names of the people in the group. So i gave names of people who are publicly known to be members. Where we wered meeting. I said at the Ecuadorian Embassy. They asked with Julian Assange . I said yes. But at that point, i was asked why i had been to russia twice in the past three months. I said because i have a client there. They asked who . And i said, Edward Snowden. This is the most bizarre thing, they said, who is Edward Snowden . And i just said matteroffactly, he is a whistleblower and an asylee. They next asked who is Bradley Manning . I said, a whistleblower. Then they asked, where is Bradley Manning . And i said, in jail. And he said, so he is a criminal . And i said, he is a political prisoner. Then they said, but you represents snowden. And i said, yes, i am a human rights attorney. And i am one of his legal advisers. But i found that entire line of questioning very jarring and very unnerving. I did not know what kind of answer i was supposed to give. It is like asking, who is president obama . Theyre asking about some of the most famous people on the planet. Obviously, i have an Attorney Client relationship to protect. Im not going to get into meetings ive had with clients. And only some of mike clients are public. And only some of my clients are public. Edward snowden is one of them, that is why can answer that question. I walked away from the interview just shaking. Fineg the interview, i was. I maintained my composure. But i walked away shaking and upset. I cried. It was very intimidating and very again, very unnerving to be asked that line of questions as an attorney. I dont think journalists or attorneys should be harassed or. Ntimidated at the border it is disturbing to me this has occurred in the u. S. And the u. K. , and ive heard this happened to someone recently in germany. I dont know the details of that. But as an attorney, having gone to 14 Different Countries in the past year, ive never endured a line of questioning like that. You get the usual, high, why are . Who are you seeing . Where you staying . But not, who is Edward Snowden . Where is Bradley Manning . To represent Bradley Manning . Which i would not even be allowed to answer, obviously, because that would be Attorney Client privileged information. In fact, i do not represent him, but it wouldve put me in a really difficult situation of actually making a false they meant if i did represent him and had to answer a question like that. Could you talk about the significance of the inhibited persons list . How did you first learn about it and are you in fact on it . Graduate or an alumnus of the nofly list, you are never officially told youre on this list. It is implied and you hear it. Apparently, this is some list maintained in great britain, but originally been originating from the department of Homeland Security. That is just what i was able to learn from speaking with other people who have had difficulty getting out of the u. K. My difficulty was getting in. Im hoping i dont have any difficulty getting out. List, to me,sons is another kind of watch list for meke how ridiculous to be on the nofly list when i posed no direct threat. I am an attorney being human rights lawyer does not pose any kind of Immigration Violation or safety threat to entering the united kingdom, so not sure why i was subjected to that interrogation other than to try to intimidate me from doing my job. And a report based on leaks by Edward Snowden reveals the nsa played a role in the monitoring of the u. S. Law firm that represented the indonesian government during trade disputes with the u. S. According to the New York Times, the australian counterpart told the nsa it was spying on trade talks between the United States and indonesia from including potentially Privileged Communications between indonesian officials and the u. S. Law firm mayer brown will stop the document notes the Australian Agency has been able to continue to cover the talks providing highly useful intelligence for interested u. S. Customers. Claims by bolsters snowden and others that the nsa and its allies conduct spying for economic gain. I wanted to bring Michael Ratner back into the conversation along with jesselyn raddack, both attorneys. So this is spying on u. S. Law firm. Talk about the nsa and lawyers, which goes to everyones legal rights. There are two big points. One you brought out which is this is economic spying and Edward Snowden has said what will be revealed as we go through these documents are more and more economic spying and essentially, this whole claim this is about stopping terrorism is just bogus. That is really what is going on. I think that is a crucial point. This was to get an advantage in very Straight Talk over shrimps, etc. So it is a new role after the cold war is to be a spying arm. His corporations . That is what it appears to be. Not only for themselves and negotiations but to private corporations, u. S. Corporations in particular. Veryolving concern for long time about spying on attorneys and our clients and we do know for example if i talk to my client Julian Assange, because he at least we dont have any public indictment of him. We suspect he has been indicted, but we dont know. According to the nsa spying role, they can take an Attorney Client conversations with our clients overseas as long as both clients havent been indicted. That is just wide open. That is ridiculous. As an attorney, i have a right of legal confidentiality with my client and i did or not. We know there are ready doing that. In this case, theyre taking a , which a law firm actually helped us with the guantanamo cases, and taking in with their negotiating or what advice theyre giving so it does seem to me at this point that certainly lawyers conversation with Julian Assange and all of our clients, jesselyn raddacks as well for clients, almost for sure just swept in their, no minimization and adjust all of our legal advice to our clients are taken in by the nsa. It is outrageous. What happened to Julian Assanges right to counsel . It basically has been destroyed by the nsa. Michael ratner, why would they conduct this type of surveillance, only because they can . Knowthink they want to everything about, for example in the case of Julian Assange or other whistleblowers out there, other publishers, what theyre planning to do, what legal moves they might make. For example, in the recent stories that have come out, the Glenn Greenwald stories, are we planning to bring a lawsuit . What are we planning to do . What is going to be our legal take on it . If they can get advance notice on that, they can begin to counter it in their own publicity and how they do with that legally, etc. Theres a reason we have Attorney Client privilege. That is so your client to ensure both what the situation is as well is what your legal tactics are. Essentially, the government is wide open. The director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in an interview published on monday that the Intelligence Community should have told the American Public about secret phone Data Collection and that Program First began years ago. He told the daily beast let me get your response, Michael Ratner, and then i would like to hear from jesselyn raddack, and ask you, as an attorney representing Edward Snowden, if you have any confidential way of communicating with him. I dont see how you could say there would have been a dramatic negative response to broad skill government spying on all our phone calls. I mean, what happened is it came out without the government saying it, and there was a huge response. It changed the perceptions in this country about what the nsa is doing. I dont think it would mean it any different if they wouldve put that forward in a different way. One case where they finally admitted it, the war less wiretapping, there was a huge outcry warrantless wiretapping, theres a huge outcry. He should not be doing it. They should not be surveilling americans phone calls. They should get probable cause. In my view, that is the only way you can do surveillance. Jesselyn raddack . Was found what clapper said completely disingenuous. We know he perjured himself under oath before congress on camera with no consequence. This strikes me as one of the least untruthful of his statements. I take that with a grain of salt. He thinks it should be known because they got caught, and that is only reason he makes these opportunistic statements. In terms of monitoring, i assume i am being monitored. I am encrypted to the hilt. Im not going to say what encryption techniques i use, but it is a really unfortunate way to do business as a lawyer to have to pretty much arrange meetings in person with your client and have to be so encrypted and get into a very encrypted environment anytime you want to communicate. Of spying on Attorney Client relationships, you have to remember, nsa is collecting bulk metadata. They dont have some carveout for attorneys and clients. They dont have a carveout for dr. patient communications. They dont have a carveout for communications between accounts and their clients. They have access to any of that information should they choose, not only to collect it, but to go ahead and look at it. There have been other instances that only economic, but spying on political enemies like the that case was not allowed to proceed because i believe a state secrets privilege in that particular 1 where the government accidentally sent them the transcripts of recorded Attorney Client conversations. Occurred and has has occurred a number of times and is now being documented, really it is incumbent upon attorneys to using correction. I have a disclaimer the organization came up with a disclaimer on every email that this communication may be monitored and collected without consent, in secret, by the nsa. I think everybody should have that kind of statement after their email. I think would raise Public Awareness about how insidious and widespread this problem is. Jesselyn raddack, we have to wrap up, but i want to ask him if you had an answer those questions at the airport, do you think you would have been barred from entry were arrested like David Miranda was . Detained . I certainly fear that, yes. I feared that i gave the wrong [indiscernible] griefive them any kind of whatsoever, yes, that was my fear. Today is the big anniversary . The fourth anniversary of the release by wikileaks of the first cable gate document released from a which is the one shown was pressure on iceland to try and concede to imf demands when theyre going to the difficult economic period. It is the first one of the cablegate documents. Just to give someone is my daughters birthday today. That is a way to get that in there. Thank you, Michael Ratner, for being with us, president emeritus of the center for constitutional rights, which is the Legal Advisor to Julian Assange and wikileaks. Thank you, jesselyn raddack, for curly director of National Security and human rights at the Government Accountability project. When we come back, we go to houston to speak with a reporter Steven Greenhouse about a big labor defeat in tennessee. In a volkswagen plant. Stay with us. [music break] Steven Greenhouse with nermeen shaikh. From pacifica, this is democracy now we turn now to chattanooga, tennessee, where employees at a volkswagen plant have rejected membership in United Auto Workers union. In a blow to organized labor, volkswagen workers voted against the measure by vote of 712 to 626 d rilling attends to make it the first unified unionized foreign owned car factory in u. S. Outside groups also played a role, the dcbased americans for tax reform funded more than a dozen local billboards urging an antiunion vote. By law, the uaw cannot begin another organizing effort at the volkswagen plant for another year. To find out more about the implications of the vote, we go to houston, speak with Steven Greenhouse, the labor and workplace reporter for the New York Times, whos been following the events leading up to the vote at the volkswagen plant. His most recent pieces, labor regroups in south after vw vote. He is also author of, the big squeeze tough times for the american worker. Talk about what happened. A majority of the workers had to sign on to have this vote. The vote took place. Both sides thought they would win. The uaw lost. Was totally stunned it lost. It really thought it would win. September that collected cars from a majority of workers showing they generally supported the union. There was a campaign where the union thought it was going pretty well, then in the last week, republican politicians of tennessee really weighed in. Eavily against the union the governor said if the union wins, auto suppliers are not going to come to chattanooga. Some in the state legislature set up the union comes in, they will not approve incentives to help woo volkswagen to bring a second production line to make suvs and the plant. Said they had heard from people ive volkswagen that if the union loses within volkswagen will bring in the second auto line. Workers i spoke to at volkswagen said that these threats, pressures from republicans really persuaded some, perhaps many, workers to vote against the union. Remember, the south is an antiunion part of the country. Unions have had a very hard time getting traction there. I think some of the statements from republican lawmakers might have helped tip the balance. The union lost by 86 those. They only needed 44 workers to change their minds. One worker i spoke to yesterday said, when you hear the former mayor of chattanooga, various state lawmakers representing chattanooga say, look for my folks, for the good of our city and our region and for future jobs, expansion, for your neighbors, perhaps for your sons and daughters, you should vote against the union, i think a lot thosekers took that hands and ended up voting against the union. Of united autot workers expressed as a point with results of the election and was critical of what he called outside interference in the vote. President bobw king. The outside interference in the selection [indiscernible] governor,enators, the leader of the house, leader of the legislature here threatened the company with no incentives, threatened workers with the loss of product. We think that is outrageous. That was uaw president bob king. Steven greenhouse, he referred to the senator, that was senator bob corker, played a very active role. Townad billboards all over showing images of detroit saying, this is what could happen to us in chattanooga. Been writing about labor for a long time and ive never seen such aggressive outside intervention in the union campaign. I think the union was in ways and not aggressive in responding. I think it really was caught off balance. Damned if itwas did and damned if it didnt. There were saying if the uaw comes in, that will make our region less competitive, hurt our Business Climate, help make it harder for us to attract jobs. Bob king very much indicated, we are a new uaw. We will be more cooperative. He signed as a neutrality agreement with volkswagen or he actually pledged to out keep. Olkswagens wages competitive he is bending over backwards to say, we are not the old confrontational uaw of old. On one hand, many workers were uncomfortable with the uaw because they thought it would be too confrontational and heard business image and her chattanoogas efforts to bring jobs. On the other hand, some were against the union because they thought it was being too accommodating and bending over backwards and saying, we will restrain wages to assure the factory would be competitive. I think the uaw really has an uphill climb and battles because these billboards said, they tried to tar the uaw with all of the problems of detroit. The uaw played a role, but the automakers made humongous number of mistakes and that was only a big reason also for the decline of detroit and the automakers in detroit. Bob king was saying, look how detroit has rebounded now and look at the gm factory in spring bill in tennessee that has reopened since the recession and added 1800 workers and another 1800 are expected to be added. Bob king tries to make the case that we are different union, we are helping detroit, helping American Automakers rebound, and we cannot volkswagen do very well also. We can help volkswagen do very well also. We have not seen the extent of this kind of external interference in such an election. Can you explain what accounts for it in this case and what you think the uaw could have done differently, if anything, to sway the vote . I think for governor haslam, for senator corker, the republicans, it is a win win win. They pleased their base by been tough for the unions. Second, i think they do have a concern for if the union comes in it will hurt the Business Climate and figure, we might as well try to keep the union out. Third, i think they see the uaw if the uaw were to win, it would be this powerful, liberal force getting its nose under the tent and helping democrats in tennessee and they want to do as much as they can to help keep the democrats from having any resurgence in tennessee. Win win win for republicans and going after the union. I think the uaw might of been more effective in several ways. When youre trying to organize in the south, and you want to win strategically, you have to do work every angle to maximize the chances. This one very impressive antiunion worker mike burton ran this very elaborate website and i think a lot of people paid a lot of attention to it. I dont think the uaw website began to compare. Elk had a good story saying the uaw should have reached out more to Community Groups. I think the uaw was confident it could win. I think it felt it did not need to spend the time and energy to develop ties with Community Groups to help put or get the ball over the goal line. Whennk in the final days it faced all this pressure and criticism from the governor, from the senator, local lawmakers, i think it would have helped them to have cemented further ties. Third, i think we have 10 seconds. The antiunion forces were much more aggressive in using the media and getting on tv and i think the union was a little slow in that regard. Steven greenhouse, thank you for being with us, reporter for the New York Times and we will have a piece at a link to your piece at democracynow. Org

© 2024 Vimarsana

comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.