Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20140228

Of sexual images. We speak with antidrone activist kareem khan, who disappeared february 5, just before he was due to travel to europe to speak out about u. S. Jerome strikes, including one that killed his brother and son. He was released 10 days later and made it to london. We will also speak to his lawyer. This is what the human face of the victims is, and it is important that American People are told about who these people are that are being targeted in the name of National Security does what we see is really not serving the National Security interest of anyone. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Armed men have taken control of two airports in the crimea region of ukraine as tension escalates in the region. The new Ukrainian Government which seized power last weekend described the move as an invasion and occupation by russian forces. Fleet, denied sea its forces were used. Crimea is the only ukrainian region that has an ethnic russian majority. It was a russian territory until it was transferred to ukraine in 1954, during the soviet era. Protests have been held in crimea condemning the ouster of ukraines democratically president viktor yanukovych. The new authority includes, not all, but some, people Wearing Masks who fueled national anger, who are enemies of every russianspeaking person on ukrainian territory, or realistically capable of using force to kill People Living in southeastern ukraine. Viktor yanukovych is now in washington and is expected to hold a conference today. Meanwhile the United States is rejecting claims that the change in power in ukraine constitutes a coup. On thursday white house spokesperson jay carney said yanukovych had quote abdicated his responsibilities and quote undermined his legitimacy by fleeing kiev. Carney outlined plans to work with the new government. When it comes to u. S. Assistance, we are continuing to consider a range of options, jim, including loan guarantees to support ukraine economically. The next step is for the new government to resume talks with the imf, and as the government engages imf, we will take steps in ordination with multilateral and bilateral partners, as well as the new government. In the latest disclosure based on the leaks of Edward Snowden, the guardian reports britains spy agency gchq intercepted millions of peoples webcam chats and stored still images of them. The Surveillance Program, codenamed optic nerve, saved one image every five minutes from randomly selected yahoo webcam chats and stored them on agency databases. Gchq collected images from the webcam chats of more than 1. 8 million users globally in a sixmonth period in 2008 alone. Many of the images were sexually explicit. More after headlines. Were iraq, 51 people planted on aa bomb minibus killed five civilians. Over 1005 hundred 60 people have been killed so far this year in iraq, with 680 killed since the beginning of february. Israeli forces opened fire and killed a palestinian man thursday after the man had barricaded himself inside his house to avoid arrest. The Palestinian Authority described the killing as an assassination saying Israeli Forces shelled the house, destroyed a part of it, and then stormed it. The killing came on the same day that Amnesty International published a report accusing Israeli Forces of using excessive violence in the west bank, killing dozens of palestinians over the past three years in what, they said, might constitute a war crime. Protests and vigils were held across the globe thursday calling on egypt to free four al jazeera journalists including three of whom have been charged with aiding a terrorist organization. Ossama al saeed is head of Public Relations at al jazeera. What we have been seen over a number of weeks is massive support around the world for our journalists to be freed by the egyptian authorities, and there is a further ramp up today. There is action taking place in over 30 countries. Freeajstaff is trending. We think it will help. One of the al jazeera journalists, abdullah elshamy, has been held since august. His wife jihad khaled, spoke in doha on thursday. Egyptian authorities are treating him as a detainee like other detainees. Abdullah should be treated as a journalist. The charges against him are the same as other people. He was there to cover the sit in, no more. He was originally at the office and was called to provide coverage from egypt. Why you not treating him as a journalist . Haiti, many marched to safely. Protesters denounce the current government and called for resignation. In news from new mexico authorities have confirmed 13 , employees were exposed to radiation during a recent leak at the nations first underground Nuclear Waste dump. Authorities did not give details on the level of contamination detected. The radiation leak was detected february 14, but it is still not known what caused it. President obama has tapped a former lobbyist who led efforts to pass the stop online piracy act legislation to be the new deputy u. S. Trade representative. If confirmed Robert Holleyman will helped lead efforts to pass the controversial Transpacific Partnership trade deal. Critics of the tpp say the trade pact includes parts of the sopa bill that was rejected by Congress Last year. In prison news, solitary watch is reporting eight to nine inmates held at a Supermax Prison in florence, colorado are on Hunger Strike and are being force fed. More than 400 prisoners at the super max spend between 22 to 24 hours a day locked alone in concrete boxcar cells without access to a window. There is new development in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham a texas man who was executed 10 years ago after he was convicted of setting a fire that killed his three young daughters. For years family members and Death Penalty opponents have argued that he was innocent. The New York Times is now reporting newly discovered evidence suggests that the prosecutor in the case may have concealed a deal with a jailhouse informant whose testimony helped put him to death. Attorneys seeking a posthumous exoneration for willingham say they have found evidence that the informant johnny webb gave his testimony in return for a reduced prison sentence. In financial news, bank of america is contesting a 2. 1 billion fines sought by the Obama Administration over defective mortgages sold by the countrywide unit. Bank of america is arguing the fine should be based on the amount of profit it made by selling the flawed loans which it says, was nothing. Court hasp criminal convictions of five italian agents for their role in the kidnapping of a muslim cleric as part of the cias extraordinary rendition program. The cleric, abu omar, was snatched from the streets of milan in 2003 and taken to u. S. Bases in italy and germany before being sent to egypt, where he says he was tortured. 22 cia members have been convicted in absentia in the case. But on monday, the court overturned the convictions of italys former military intelligence chief and four others, saying they were invalid because the case involved secret information. The interior department has endorsed seismic exploration for oil and gas in atlantic waters. The American Petroleum institute praised the move that could open up news areas for drilling, but the Conservation Group oceana said exploration quote could be a death sentence for many marine mammals. In other energy news, opponents of the keystone xl pipepine are gearing up for a series of protests in washington this weekend. Over 1,000 students and youth will march from Georgetown University to the white house. Over 300 of the participants are expected to risk arrest in a sitin outside the gates. Organizers say it will likely be the largest youth sitin on the environment in a generation. Consumer advocates at the Environmental Working Group are warning that a chemical used to make yoga mats and flip flops can now be found in more than 500 food items. The chemical azodicarbonamide is often used in bread, croutons, premade sandwiches and snacks made by brands including pillsbury, natures own, sara lee, kroger and little debbie. The restaurant chain subway recently announced it was phasing out the use of the chemical after an online campaign. The chemical is not approved for food use in australia and europe. And fernando gonzalez, one of the members of the cuban five has been released after mother 15 years behind bars. He was transferred thursday to an immigration prison pending deportation back to cuba. Havana,er spoke in praising the release of her son. For the cuban people that have been fighting for a long time for this return, it is also a victory. Convicted, and later of espionage. They say they were not spying by trying to monitor violent rightwing exile groups. Three others remain in prison. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. A new report based on topsecret documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveals the National Security agency and its british counterpart, the the Government Communications headquarters, or gchq, may have peered into the lives of millions of Internet Users who were not suspected of wrongdoing. A Surveillance Program codenamed optic nerve compiled still images of yahoo webcam chats in bulk and stored them in the gchqs databases with help from the nsa. In one sixmonth period in 2008 alone, the agency reportedly amassed webcam images from more than 1. 8 million yahoo User Accounts worldwide. The program was reportedly used for experiments in automated facial recognition as well as to monitor terrorism suspects. A more accurate name for the optic nerve program may have been peeping tom because it ended up collecting a large number of sexually explicit images. According to the documents, between three and eleven percent of the yahoo webcam images contained what the gchq called undesirable nudity. Yahoo responded to the news by denying any prior knowledge of the program, saying the spy agencies had quote reached of a whole new level of violation of our users privacy. The documents also reveal the surveillance agencies discussed intercepting other types of cameras, such as the ones found on xbox 360 game consoles. The nsa and gchq also reportedly considered designing more sophisticated and accurate facial recognition tools, such as Iris Recognition cameras. For more, were joined now by one of the reporters who broke the story, james ball. He is the special projects editor for guardian u. S. The article he cowrote with Spencer Ackerman is called, yahoo webcam images from millions of users intercepted by gchq. James ball, welcome to democracy now start with what was reported. Persons Edward Snowden reported the massive spying, we wondered how far it might go. This one, even after nine months was really shocking. This is when cameras and peoples web cameras in peoples homes. Essentially, it looks as if the document shows gchq could see the traffic and grabbed en masse. They did not just look for current targets. Did it have to be active or could it sit on your desk at home . This program was collecting one people were using it, as if you are having a skype call or Something Like that. If you are using it for a chat, it grabbed images as you did it. Targets,ou feel about at least it was just people they suspect. This is you, me, americans,. Ritts everybody could get caught. This is gchq. What is the role of nsa . Important question. What we do know is nsa research helped build this. Nsa learned how yahoo gchqmitted and ghs q learned that system. Could feed into a database. We know the nsa knew about the program because it was in the Edward Snowden files. Ist we really have to know whether the nsa had access to the system, whether they raised concerns about americans information being in there, because we know it was, and what else their involvement was because it doesnt look like the nsa it does look like the nsa itself could not have legally build a system like this. Chris you called yahoo . You called yahoo . My colleague, Spencer Ackerman, called yahoo . They were alarmed. If they were more secure, they would have encrypted peoples chats. They could have prevented this. People were saying at the time that they should do it. It is not just hindsight, but now they have come out strongly come calling for reform of surveillance laws. They have been one of the companies that has pushed for reforms. Now invited yahoo , but they did send a statement saying we were not aware nor would we condone this reported activity. This report, if true, represents a whole new level of violation of our users privacy and it is completely unacceptable and we strongly call in worlds governments to reform veillance law consistent that is what they said. There deals being made with these huge, multinational web giants and the government to continue to argue operate . Rocks that are two sets of problems. The internet companies, and the degree to which they are working with law enforcement, and this is a Prison Program that is now a household name. That was at least legally compelled. It does seem they helped to build automated or semi Automated Systems to make it easy. The big question has to be for , whether companies they are the ones that pipe internet into a house or industrial ones, they seem to have gone further. Cqknow from ghs q gh documents and nsa arguments, they do a lot to help these other programs. If i were looking into secret deals and who might be getting cash, and who is not just doing what they have to, but going further, it is the Cable Companies that i would be asking. Talk more about the facial recognition aspects. They had a couple of tricks. One of the things was to see if there was a face in the image, telling a face from an elbow. Happily, it seems the intelligence agencies can do this. They did this to try to knock out some of the adult images. What might get more concerning is what they are trying to do with this is see if the person using one particular yahoo account is the same person using another, so they are trying to find targets are using more than one account. They tried to automatically match it, check it against images they are collecting, and see if they get something, which we define it was a perfect technology, or it might be fine if it was a perfect technology, but it is not good not. The risk of people looking at your pictures, chats, because of because of malfunctioning algorithms think you look like somebody they are spying on. I want to turn to talk more about the spec sexually explicit images. It is quite a concerning thing. They were complaining at length in the documents just because aboutt how many just how many images were explicit. Ofy reckoned about 180,000 1. 8 Million People were sending explicit images. Vast storage of pornographic images. , in thisss to gchq instance, it does not look like they were trying to complain to collect all of that. ,here analysts complained warning if you do not want to see something nasty, do not use this database, but it is concerning this is is your privacy violated when in human analyst when human analyst looks at your pictures, or if it is just stored. Most might feel it is the latter. , every document we saw, suggested they did not want to use these or look at them, but there are other documents related to other programs that talk about using peoples browsing habits and porn habits to discredit them. Last month, a report from Glenn Greenwald revealed the ontish government can spy social media sites including youtube in real time. Nsa andround found the its british counterpart are targeting smartphone apps including the popular game angry birds for information on users. U wrote an article called angry birds firm calls for industry to respond to nsa spying revelations. Tell us more. We are seeing nsa spy in bulk rather than picking on people and going after them. They should spy bulkrgets, but spying on yes, by all means, we are in america having a debate about the limits of surveillance law and it is looking, hopefully, like there might be some reforms, may be more limited than people want, but the Tech Companies and application makers can do a lot to protect this. Use this, you have to make it clear that if you want change, you have to let your phone maker, your app maker know because a lot of this is piggybacking on bad security of them trying to sell you stuff. There is a relationship going on between the Big Companies and the spy agencies, even if it was not deliberate. November, leaks from Edward Snowden showed the National Security agency had gathered records on the online Sexual Activity of muslim targets in a bid to discredit them. The Huffington Post reported that the nsa had identified at least six Muslim Leaders whose speeches have the potential to radicalize their audiences with an extremist message. None were accused of involvement in terror plots. The nsa had apparently collected evidence of their Online Activity including visits to porn sites in a bid to undermine their credibility or intimidate them into silence. Its unclear if the nsa carried out any of its plans. Given how they have done in the past, what risk is there with webcam photos . This is essentially the problem with bulk surveillance. Arell do things that private that we would not want the world to know. The problem. Of if it is all collected we all have some things we do not want used against us, so if the intelligence agencies really want to say we collect this compromising,t be and we have never dreamed of using it, that is commanding a lot of trust. Not, theyly or essentially have a black male file on almost everyone, and the issue is, with stories like that, it suggests that maybe we should not be trusting them with it. I should say, on this program, there is no sign of misuse, but we do know from the report you cited in november, it is not as if they dismiss this as a tactic. The idea of the government building, deliberately or quiteively, this is worrying. The relationship between these Companies Like yahoo , google, the government tradeoffs are made. The government expect something in return. We talk about this a lot in china. Google got out of china when censorship demands became too much, but other companies that microsoft will censor search results or do it they have to do their. We never think about it for the companies operated zero. Operating here. They have to comply with u. S. Law. They want friendly relations. They are worried about new regulation, all sorts of things here at any company in the sorts of things. Any company in the world has to the government, and sometimes that will not be in the interest of privacy. As the nsa responded . Together story, the nsa refused to answer any questions. We asked them specific, simple questions have you seen this imagery, do you have similar programs no answer. It is still going on . Is still goingit on. I am hoping somebody in Congress Asked the same question. What would legislation look like that prevents this kind of thing from happening, not to mention overall spying on americans and people from around . He world you would have to beef up the idea that there is only a problem when the stuff is searched. You have to focus on what the nsa should collect, or what reasons should they have to collect on me, you, or anyone. I am not american because i tend to and i tend to worry about the privacy of foreigners come even though i am one and i live here. You should not just start worrying about the law or privacy when you search it, but when you store it. That is the shift in principle that people are thinking about. Not, if the nsa wants to make the case that they absolutely have to do mass collection, they really are going to have to convince the American Public of it, and show why it is necessary. They have had nine months to do that, and they have not been able to point to a terror plot stopped or a criminal caught because of mass surveillance. If that is the case they want to make, they ought to do it better. James ball, thank you for being with us. A link at democracynow. Org. We are back in a minute. [music break] during the break, the Television Audience has seen pictures sent and from viewers around the world telling us why democracy now is important to them. Friday marked the 18th anniversary. We have posted many of these pictures online that you can see at democracynow. Org. Im amy goodman. Rightsto the human activist who was released from prison after a nearly year behind bars. She faced a return to prison based on her court appearance. The following day, her case was postponed until march 3. Her zainabh alkhawaja joined us last tuesday via democracy now video stream. I spoke to her along with nermeen shaikh, and began by asking her how it felt to be free. You have been imprisoned for almost a year. Talk about your time in prison. I feel about prison is that as a place where they try to break a person. You feel you can be humiliated at any minute on every given day. It can be a stressful situation if you do not look at the Bigger Picture and the cause you are sacrificing for. My time in prison was a little bit difficult. Prison in bahrain is a day and dirty place. Seen bedbugs, cockroaches, and all sorts of insects is a daily thing. The number of prisoners is too many. The rooms are very small. We can now move in and out of ourselves. Also, we had a difficult time convincing them to let us go out and get air and sunlight. For the First Six Months in prison, i was not let out. Sometimes it does feel like a grave. I came out, i set one year in prison is nothing, and i say that because it is nothing compared to what we are willing to sacrifice for our goals, democracy in our country. We continued on this path and we are determined until we reach our goal. What is your goal . What are you calling for . We are calling for a country where everyone is respected, treated equal, where we feel we have rights, and the city, where people cannot step all over us, torture, kill, and get away with these things. We live in a country where the criminals are the most powerful in the country, and a lot of us feel powerful when we are in jail because it feels like we did something right, not wrong. It should be the other way around. Shoulds that activists be outside, working, and criminals that are killing and torturing should be in jail. Way around. Her at the same time, i say i do not feel pity for all of the people in prison, for the injured protesters. I feel proud when i see them. I feel pity for oppressors because what they do is breaking them inside. We are not broking broken. We hold our heads up high. How do you respond to criticism of the Antigovernment Movement that claims it is being funded exclusively by iran in an attempt to make the region more shiasympathetic . Shia bahrain, sunnis and have live sidebyside. We usually cannot even tell each other apart. The people trying to make it into a secretary in thing is the government. Thing, is then government. Arabs. E are very proud we have nothing to do with iran. We have lived under the same monarchy for more than an 200 years. It is really strange that nothing has happened before this revolution. It is long overdue. People are supposed to call for their rights. It is a 21stcentury. We see democracy, Civil Liberties and other countries, and here we are supposed to keep quiet so that nobody accuses us of doing something just because we are shia. I think it makes a lot of sense what is happening in bahrain. We were inspired by what happened in egypt, and we consider our egyptian brothers our brothers, and they started this, and the tunisians we are doing the same thing. All for rights, for a country where we could live freely without dignity. This has nothing to do with shia and sunni. Father, whot your is in prison. He has a life sentence now . Yes. He is sentenced to life in prison. He has now been imprisoned for almost three years. Y father is my rock he is one of the strongest persons i have ever known. I have never seen him weak. After three years in prison, he is as strong as ever. He has always been my role model. He has been a human rights activist for almost his whole life. He has been trying to do something for our country and the region. He had been, going from country to country, throughout the arab world, training people on human rights and how to write reports about human rights abuses. My father tries to put seeds in the ground so that those seeds will someday grow into something that will benefit our region and the world. I really believe in his work. He has been working very hard for the past more than 20 years. It is not something he started doing today and yesterday. This is why he is one of the people the government has been targeting for a long time and they have used the situation to silence him. My father is one of the most outspoken people in the country talking about what is happening here. Putting him behind bars, the that is to to do silence him, like they have done with other activists. They are behind bars so that there is nobody to represent the people of bahrain. What makes us proud is that even though almost all human rights activists are either out of the country or in jail, even though a lot of the Civil Society leaders are in prison, activists are in prison, still the bahraini people go out and protest and demand rights, which is difficult. Someonethere is protecting you, but even without this protection, on february 14, we saw big numbers of people going to the streets, making the same demand, showing that they down. T backing what are the prospects for any kind of change in bahrain . What is the state of negotiations and what prospects do these political prisoners, 3000, you said, have been released or have their jail sentence related diminished . Difficult and a lot of people want to get out of prison and go to their families, but this is not the end goal. Outust do not want to get of the small presented to the bigger prison that we call bahrain. It is a big prison for us. All i do not feel safe until they had outside of the country. Do not feelpeople safe until they get outside of the country. You do not feel safe. Our end goal is to say we do not just want to get out of prison. We want real results. We want democracy. We want to be represented. We want rights. Tries to solvent the situation just by releasing political prisoners, that will not be the solution. The government must give up some of the power and control that they have. They want of bahrain, ultimately, to have a full democracy. They want a country where they can vote for a president. Been forced on the people of bahrain. Regime and wetary have no choice in who is ruling the country. This is one of the biggest problems. It is not something that people here except. What about the United States a major force. It has a fleet of their. What is the role of the United States with the bahraini and monarchy . The fifth fleet is a part of this, and the relationship between the u. S. And the regime they want to be on their good side, i guess. I guess they do not see how supporting human rights and bahrain is going to do them any good, and that is not how the government of america should be thinking if they feel like they represent freedom and democracy. They should be taking first about the people and the freedom that they are demanding, the democracy they are demanding, not thinking first about how their interest in the region is direct supporting dictators. That was bahriani human rights activist, zainab alkhawaja. Just out of jail. We are back in 30 seconds. [music break] this is democracy now, democracy now. Org, the war and peace report. I am amy goodman. We turn now to my recent interview with pakistani antidrone activist, kareem khan. He made headlines earlier this month when he was abducted just before he was due to travel to europe to speak out about u. S. Drone strikes. In 2009, a u. S. Drone killed his brother and son. On february 5 khan was abducted at gunpoint from his home. He was hooded, shackled and then driven several hours to a location where he was held in a basement cell. He was held for nine days. During that time he says he was repeatedly tortured and beaten. He was then released on february 14. This week kareem khan traveled to london where he met with british lawmakers. He joined us from there to describe his ordeal, along with his attorney shahzad akbar, who also joined us for the interview. I began by asking khan what happened to him on february 5th. At the time i was sleeping at my home. Was 12 30. People entered my house. Willtook me, i asked them are you, and they said shut up, do not speak. Me, took me, blindfolded and put a cape on my head and a blanket. They took me to an undisclosed place and after 19 they took me from that place to another place, after one night they took me from that place to another place. Then after this they released me. Were you beaten . Me, and they also beat me and tortured me. They repeatedly asked me names, i said that i did not know them. They were very strange questions. What i remember, they were very strange questions. Shows up shahzad akbar, you are the attorney for kareem khan and other victims and families that have been killed. Talk about what happened to kareem khan, the case of his family, and what it means to get word out. The problem with drones is the u. S. Government does not want to talk about what is going on on the ground because what kareem khans story and so many other civilian drone victims stories tell us is these strikes precision, as president obama would like to sell to the people of america. This is what the human face of the victims is and it is important that American People are told about who these people are. They are being targeted in the name of National Security. Will we see on the ground, it is not really serving National Security interests what we see on the ground, it is not really serving the national. Ecurity interests of anyone it is counterproductive, and not really making any friends. Now, what kareem khans case is it is a clear case when we do not ask questions and government are not accountable. The United States government, first of all, killed kareem 2009. Son and brother in later on, when he tried to raise questions and awareness through legal cases, and many joined his legal battle, what we have seen recently is that when he was about to travel to europe to speak with european parliamentarians and parliamentarians in the u. K. , somebody tries to stop it. We do not know who they were a cousin is no transparency, no he cousin there is no transparency, no accountability. The powers seem to be acting with complete impunity. We went straight to court. The court took it seriously. The Civil Society, the media we have full support of everyone. With all of these efforts, it was possible he was released in a short span of time, the Important Message here is if the voice is raised and the facts are brought before public and the court of laws, there can be some difference, and kareem khans released in this short span of time is one example of this. What is the case that kareem khan has brought against the governments of pakistan and the United States . Well, there are two different cases. Wrongfule case of death of his son and brother, and he is suing for compensation. The second case is he is challenging the u. S. Drone strike the grammy and pakistan, program in pakistan. In 2009 kareem khan says he believed a person was a main conspirator who killed his son and brother who were innocent and civilians. An court and issue important issue on this case is that authorities refuse to investigate and prosecute cia officials in islamabad, the what the Islamabad High Court has recently declared is they do have jurisdiction because Pakistani Police were claiming they do not have jurisdiction for a matter that happens in the outsiderea, and that is of the legal jurisdiction of pakistani courts and police, but the Islamabad Court has held recently while kareem khan was in captivity, that they do have jurisdiction, and the offense alleged is an offense of murder, and therefore they have to ofestigate and in case finding true to the matter, prosecute the person. I wanted to play a clip of the family that we had on democracy now . This is a 13yearold and his nineyearold sister sitting with their father. I had gone to school that day, and when i came back i had a snack and offered my prayers. My grandma asked me to come outside and helped pick vegetables. You were hit by the drone . Hat killed your grandmother yes, i had seen a drone and italy will missiles hit down were met and two missiles hit where my grandmother was standing and she was blown to pieces. Of you are not the only ones injured. Can you talk about what happened to you, what you recall and your reaction . It was the day before, i was outside with my grandmother and she was teaching me how to tell the difference between okra that not right and not right. Then i heard a noise and i saw two fireballs come from the sky. You testify before congress. You are one of the first to do this. To america . Message what i would like to say to way to endase find a these drones because it is not only affecting me and my children, and it is not only because they were injured, but it affects their future. I worry that their education will be disrupted and they will not want to continue. Had he ever been contacted, either by u. S. Government officials or by have you ever been contacted either by u. S. Government officials or pakistani officials to explain why this attack occurred . Why your mother was killed . A i did communicate with local political officer of my village to find a reason and answer, but he was unable to give me an answer. Have you been compensated for the death of your mother, your childrens grandmother . Nobody has given me anything. You are nine years old. How have things changed for you since the attack . Are you going out in the fields alone, do you fear another possible attack . Ever since the strike i am just scared. I am always scared. All of us little kids were scared to go outside. Now i would like to play a clip of president obama addressing u. S. Drone warfare at National Defense university. Before any strike is taken, there must be near certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured, the highest standard that we can set. Yes, the conflict with al qaeda, like all armed conflict, invites tragedy, but by narrowly against thoseon who want to kill us and not the people they hide among, we are choosing the course of action least likely to result in the loss of innocent life. Least likely to result in the loss of innocent life. Shahzad akbar, can you respond . Is a great orbama greater, but he has to support his argument with facts orator, but he has to support his argument with facts. If you look at cases that have been investigated by us and organizations like Amnesty International, this is not a liberal rule of law favoring the United States. Attack one you place, wait for rescuers and then you attack a second time. You do not attack people on behavior, patterns, how they are dressed, and then make guesswork on how to attack people. This all happened during president obamas tenure. Kareem khan, can you talk about the effects of the drone strikes in your area . How do you people feel . It has disrupted everything, for example, the education. Everything is disturbed. Our trade is disturbed. , Health Institutions everything is disturbed by these drone strikes. Explain further, the way people respond, how often do these drone strikes happen . How often are People Killed . Attacking mosques, schools, school children, every oneo, every is completely everything is completely disturbed by these drone strikes. If we see our forests, trees are completely destroyed. Our agriculture is completely destroyed. Everything is destroyed by these drone strikes. Have turned to antiamerica, antieurope, due to these drone strikes. Everything is disturbed. The United States, kareem khan, says they are doing this to route out al qaeda, to protect National Security. You can see in the drone strikes they are not only targeting al qaeda or taliban. They are killing innocent people. Example, they killed a leader. They killed other innocent people, for example, they attacked my house, killed my brother, my son. Before myacked the attack in my home, then attacked another home in my village. This was a person whose lower body was paralyzed. He was a drywall or by profession. His son, andim and his nephew, and his cousin. They think any person from taliban is from al qaeda, and they are killing innocent people, and announcing that they are killing taliban and al qaeda members, but in fact they are killing innocent people. Yourreem khan, how does community feel about the United States . How do they feel before the drone strikes and how do they feel now . We did not know about america before these difficulties, but we have questioned so much more, and after these drone strikes and these difficulties, we have criminal. Are they are cool people. People. They are destroying humanity. The pakistani muslim and the tribal people have no rights. Usy are declaring terrorists. For example, [indiscernible] they killed her, and declared her a terrorist. It is very strange. Caree thinking there is no for humans, and there is no humanity in these people. They are killing our innocent people. Shahzad akbar, what are your plans now moving forward . Do you see progress in your lawsuits and in changing u. S. Policy . The lawsuits, on one cents, are making some progress in the way that the number of have gone down. We do not know the real reason, but the fact remains that the numbers have gone down. Announcedident obama they would ignore more signature strikes, we still have to investigate on the ground. If there are more signature strikes taking place, they seem to have gone down. In terms of the legal battle, the most important task is to get justice for the civilian issues because this is an the u. S. Needs to address and cannot shy away from. Benefit strategic president obama thinks he has achieved, that is in the past now, and what is left for the future is the case of civilian victims, and according to a high court founding, there are more than 115 civilian victims. This is something president obama can ignore and leave when he is leaving in 2014 from the region, or he can address it because i think it is something that will be better for the future. Will you khan, continue to speak out . You have certainly gotten a painful warning. Are you afraid for your life . Yes, i will continue this effort until i get justice. That was pakistani antidrone activist, kareem khan, and his lawyer, shahzad akbar. They joined us from london after khan traveled there to meet with british lawmakers to speak out about u. S. Drone strikes, including one that killed his brother and son in 2009. Kareem khan was abducted earlier february 5 in pakistan and held for 9 days just before he was due to travel to europe. That does it for our show. 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