Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20140528

U. S. Troops will remain in afghanistan until the end of 2016. 15 years after the start of the longest war in american history. We will speak with anand gopal, author of, no good men among the living america, the taliban, and the war through afghan eyes. Then we look at africa. The good news for the girls, we know where they are. We cannot tell you. Just leave us alone. We will get the girls back. But as nigeria claims to know the whereabouts of the close to three hundred kidnapped schoolgirls, with the crisis be used to justify further u. S. Militarization of africa . Then to egypt. As general lcc is expected to win the authority, authorities had to extend voting another day because so few people have headed to the polls. We will speak with sharif abdel kudos Sharif Abdel Kouddous in cairo. All of that and more coming up. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. President obama has announced u. S. Occupation of afghanistan will continue until the end of 2016. On tuesday, obama said the u. S. Will maintain almost 10,000 troops in afghanistan after its formal Comment Mission concludes at the end of this year. The u. S. Will eventually withdraw troops until only a small residual force remains after 2016. At the beginning of 2015, we will have approximately 9800 u. S. Servicemembers in different parts of the country. Together with our nato allies and other partners. By the end of 2015, we will have reduced that presence by roughly half, and will have consolidated our troops in kabul and on bagram airfield. One year later, at the end of 2016, our military will draw down to a normal embassy presence in kabul, with the Security Assistance component test as we have done in iraq. By the time he was fully withdrawals, the war will have lasted over this teen years, the longest in u. S. History. We will have more on afghanistan after the headlines. Thousands of people have at the university of california Santa Barbara for a day of mourning honoring the victims of fridays shooting and stabbing rampage. Elliot rodger killed six people and then himself after posting a video online saying he was seeking revenge against all women for rejecting his sexual advances. Uc Santa Barbara students joined together to remember their classmates. I know it hit close to home for some students here and i felt like we needed a space to recognize that. When one person hurts, we all heard. Santa barbara is going to this tragedy, we are, too. The father of one of the slain victims is now vowing to continue speaking out in favor of gun control. Richard martinez, whose 20yearold son christopher was killed, made headlines in italy following the attack after calling out the nra and politicians who stand in the way of gun reform. On tuesday, martinez said he rejects condolences from lawmakers saying i dont care about your sympathy. Get to work and do something. Martinez says he is calling on all americans to send a postcard to Congress Demanding the passage of gun reform gun control. Speaking at tuesdays memorial, martinez paid tribute to his son, as well as another son, saying their deaths wont be in vain. , mom and dad son are very proud of you. Your sacrifices werent in vain. Wake thefice will power and authority of america. It is time to stop the gun violence. Our children deserve a land free from fear. Son, you will be at peace in the hands of god. According to the gun violence archive, firearms have killed over 4100 people in the United States since chen were he first of this year. Aesident obama is delaying review of his administrations controversial deportation practices until after the summer. Obama had ordered Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson to look into legal ways to scale back deportations amid rising pressure from civil Rights Groups who have dubbed him the deporterinchief. Proposals have included limiting the deportations of undocumented immigrants who do not have criminal records, who account for some two thirds of the 2 Million People obama has deported. But the white house now says obama wants to put off any potential reforms to avoid angering House Republicans and dooming chances of passing a conference of Immigration Reform bill this year. House republicans have refused to take up Immigration Reform despite the senates passage of a bipartisan measure offering a path to citizenship, one year ago next month. A Top White House advisor says obama plans to give republicans one more chance to negotiate a compromise measure. Ukraine says it has taken control of the airport in the eastern city of donetsk following fierce clashes with separatist rebels. The government says fortier people were killed, nearly all rebel fighters. The organization for security and cooperation in europe, meanwhile, has announced it has lost contact with four monitors your in donetsk during the airport standoff. The violence followed ukraines election of billionaire chocolate tycoon Petro Poroshenko in the countrys first president ial vote since the ouster of viktor yanukovych. More than 30 people have been killed in the boko harams latest attack in nigeria. Militants struck a military base in the state of joeb. President haser reportedly met with figures close to the boko haram. The Nigerian Government has ruled out formal talks, but has not tonight that some form of discussions are underway. The head of nigerias military has said the military now knows where the abducted girls are being held, but has ruled out using force to rescue them for fear of endangering their lives. We will have more on a jury later in the broadcast. A computer hacker who led a series of cyberattacks on governments and corporations before turning fbi informant has been released from prison. Alias sabu, he walked free tuesday after being sentenced to time served. He was seven months hes spent behind bars. He was once a key member of , launchingnd lulzsec cyberattacks that caused an estimated 50 million worth of damage. But he later turned on his cyber. Omrades, working for the fbi he allegedly directed his friends to carry out more Cyber Attacks while feeding investigators enough incriminating evidence to indict them. Defense attorney peggy crossgoldenberg said sabu hopes to put his past behind him. It has been a long and hard three years for mr. Monsegur. Were very pleased that the judge recognized both what instrument personyears and extraordinaire efforts he has gone through in the past three aroundo turn his life and to make up for his conduct and really to, as she said, use his skills to do good. Those who know him know he is a smart, diligent, loyal, hardworking person. And he and his family are looking forward to putting this behind them and moving on with their lives to do good things. Sabu also played a key role in the governments arrest of computer hacker jeremy hammond, who sentenced last are to 10 years in prison for hacking into the computers of the private Intelligence Firm stratfor. Hammond has accused sabu and the fbi of using him to attack the webpages of foreign governments. The Supreme Court has struck a law that limited how death row prisoners can prove their mentally disabled. Federal law bans the execution of the mentally impaired. The law says prisoners must have an iq below 70 four being allowed to present any additional evidence to prove their case. In a five to four decision, the court ruled the law violates the eighth and amid ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Democratic Congress Member john conyers of michigan has won a place in his districts upcoming primary ballot after facing the threat of exclusion. The Wayne County Elections clerk had initially ruled conyers was not eligible for the primary because his campaign failed to collect enough valid signatures and one of his staffers were not properly registered to vote. But a federal judge has ruled the step icon near staffers was the missteps by conyers staff were the result of goodfaith mistakes. The nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden has spoken out in his first interview with an American Television network. Speaking to nbc news anchor brian williams, snowden rejected governments attempts to dismiss his views by painting him as a low level analyst. What i do is ipo put systems to work for the United States. And i have done that at all levels on the bottom on the ground all the way to the top. The government might deny these things and frame it in certain ways and say, well, he is a lowlevel analyst. But what theyre trying to do is theyre trying to use one position that i have had in a career here or there to distract from the totality of my experience, which is that i have worked for the Central Intelligence agency undercover overseas. I have worked for the National Security agency undercover overseas, and ive worked for the defense Intelligence Agency as a lecturer at joint Counterintelligence Training Academy where i developed sources and methods for keeping our information and people secure and dangerous environments around the world. So when they say im a lowlevel systems administrator, that i dont know what im talking about, i would say it is somewhat misleading. The full interview airs wednesday night. In a democracy now exclusive, and the former top counterterrorism official said he believes president george w. Bush is guilty of war crimes for launching the 2003 invasion of iraq. Richard clarke served as National Coordinator for security and counterterrorism in president bushs first year in office. He resigned in 2003 following the iraq invasion, and later made headlines by accusing bush officials of ignoring pre9 11 warnings about an imminent attack by al qaeda. On tuesday, Richard Clarke spoke to democracy now in an interview that will air next week. Do you think president bush should be brought up on war crimes and Vice President cheney and Ronald Rumsfeld for the attack on iraq . I think things that they authorized probably fall within the area of war crimes. Whether that would be productive or not, i think is the discussion we could all have. Have we have established teachers with the criminal court and the hague asre people who take actions serving president s or prime ministers of countries have been indicted and have been tried. So the president is there. To do that sort of thing. And i think we need to ask ourselves whether or not it would be useful to do that. In the cases of the bush a administration, and is clear that things the Bush Administration did, in my mind at least it is clear, that some of the things they did were war crimes. Richard clarke, the nations former top Counter Terrorism official under president george w. Bush. Tune into democracy now next week for our full interview. And 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. President obama has announced the longest war in the history of the United States will last another two. 5 years. On tuesday, obama said the u. S. Will maintain almost 10,000 troops in afghanistan after its formal combat mission concludes at the end of this year. Obama said the u. S. Will eventually withdraw troops until only a small residual force remains after 2016. By then, the war will have lasted over 15 years. The combat mission will be over by the end of this year. Starting next year, afghans will be fully responsible for securing their country. In anan personnel will be advisory role. We will no longer patrol afghan cities or towns, mountains or valleys. That is a task for the afghan people. Clear thate made it we are open to cooperating with afghans on two narrow missions after 2014. Training Afghan Forces and supporting Counterterrorism Operations against the remnants of al qaeda. That was president obama speaking tuesday, one day after he made a surprise memorial day visit to afghanistan. During the ceremony, he paid tribute to more than 2000 u. S. Soldiers who have lost their lives in the war. Meanwhile, the second round of president ial elections in afghanistan is scheduled for june 14. The frontrunner in the race is former foreign minister abdullah abdullah, who won almost 45 of the vote in the first round while x finance minister ashraf 31 . Came second with over but to talk more about afghanistan, were joined by anand gopal, author of the new book, no good men among the living america, the taliban, and the war through afghan eyes. He is a journalist and fellow at the new America Foundation and spent years reporting on afghanistan. Welcome back to democracy now talk about the president s announcement. It wasnt really a surprise. Realize theant to war is not going to and even after 2016 because the west has allied with powerbrokers, warlords, and the afghan army. We will continue to fight war on terror on usb have. But after to sell than after 2016, will it only the afghan warlords fighting or special Operation Forces will remain . It will only be afghan warlords. For the next two years, it will be special Operation Forces. What he means is night raids, turkey killings and outline targeted killings an outline with these warlords. What about mercenaries and private contractors . When i say warlords, i mean private contractors. There are hundreds of thousands of them around the country. And they will leave, according to this plan, by the end of 2016 or continue . These are afghans. Mercenaries and private contractors, they are afghans. U. S. Has been paying them unofficially. They will continue. It will look like a proxy war of afghans who are being paid by the u. S. To fight against the taliban. Do we have an idea of these 9800 troops that will remain in afghanistan, how many of them will be special Operations Forces or Specials Forces . Is unclear, but we can expect a sizable number to be special forces. You dont need a lot of advisers. What do they do as against regular military personnel . Special Operations Forces to Counterterrorism Operations, which means night raids, for example. Owing into peoples houses, taking people suspected to be al qaeda or taliban and sending them to bagram. Previously they sent them to guantanamo. It also means targeted killings. There are list of those were supposedly enemies of the u. S. Will be targeted through drone strikes or conventional types of attacks. Can you talk about the election taking place in what the two major candidates represent . What is the role of karzai . Both candidates have a surprisingly similar platform. Theres not much different. Both have pledged to sign the agreement that would keep u. S. Forces in afghanistan over the next two years. Both are considered to be very proamerican. They both recognize without the u. S. Support, Financial Support in particular, they would not exist. The Afghan Government would not be able to exist because the u. S. Government pays for them to function. You are reporting in afghanistan over the course of the work you have done there and what did you find was the affect among afghans of the kinds of operations that you suggest special forces will continue to carry out . Afghanistan is complicated because the war is only being fought in about half the country. And where these rates are being carried out, people are very angry and have been angry at the u. S. Forces. If you ask someone, what you think about the United States . They will say, these are those who come down and kick our doors down and take our loved ones away. Talk about the people you profile in your book. You have spent years reporting from afghanistan. You look at three major figures. Thats right. I look at three afghans that i followed their lives from 2001 until today. One is a taliban fighter, somebody who had been a Major Taliban commander in the 1990s during the taliban government and then quit in 2001, tried deliver civilian life but for various reasons, mostly because of the warlords the u. S. Had supported, couldnt. He was driven back into the insurgency. The second is a warlord the u. S. Has supported over the last 10 years. He rose from obscurity to become a very rich and powerful person. It is symbolic of many of the types of warlords we have supported over the last decade. The third isnt an afghan housewife, someone who grew up in kabul and fled to the countryside. It is interesting to get the point from afghan women. Talk about how they will each fair now, what theyre doing. Give us more about the way you flesh them out in these profiles in your book. Fighter, hes interesting because he had quit the fight in 2001. Most taliban had quit when the u. S. Invaded. They tried to switch sides. What ended up happening, you essentially had no taliban fighting and no al qaeda because al qaeda had fled the country as well. On the groundts without an enemy to fight. That is where the alliances with the warlords can in. They would accuse people of being al qaeda or taliban and a lot of people that wrongfully arrested and sent to guantanamo. This taliban fighter was one of those wrongfully arrested and a couple of times he was beaten and through this he ended up back in the insurgency. And the housewife . She grew up in kabul and was somebody what is her name . Hila. She fled in the 1990s when there was a civil war, basically, u. S. Back measured in who are the warlords and islamic fighters we back in the 1980s when he were against each other, basically reduced kabul to shreds. She fled to the countryside and for the next 10 years, she essentially lost her house, including when the taliban was in fighter and the u. S. Backed regime was in power. She had little chance to go outside the house. A lot of the book details her travails under the circumstances, how she can get out of the house and find a way back to her home in kabul. And the warlord and how the warlord will fare after the u. S. Leaves . Ones leavinge power. We have taken some of these people were obscure before. This warlord back in the 1970s was a school janitor. After the cia had backed a lot of the fighters and after the last 10 years when we backed warlords, people like and became extraordinarily wealthy and powerful. It left afghanistan with a country full of these warlords. A lot are drug traffickers and a lot are human rights violators whose record is no better than the taliban and they replaced. He is an example of that. He was killed. There are many others like him who gain power in the country. You point out in a recent article that you have written and also suggested in your book the war in fact could have ended much earlier than it did. So what is a precisely that u. S. Policy produced that allowed the war to go on until this day and 2. 5 years in . You have to go back to the mood in 2001. Youre are either with us or against us. Bush divided the whole world into two categories. When the u. S. Came and invaded in 2001, they expected to find either good guys people who supported the u. S. Or terrorists. Morehe reality was much complicated. The taliban had completely surrendered. All of the talent and had given up there taliban had given up their weapons and were sitting home. They were not doing this because they became proamerican, this is sort of how afghanistan has function over 30 years where people learn to switch sides very quickly to save lives. The because they allied with the warlords and thought youre either with us or against us, whoever the warlords said was an enemy, that became the u. S. Enemy. A lot of innocent people got caught up in that. Lets go to another clip of the speech from president obama tuesday. I think american seven it is harder to end wars and to begin them. The 21stow wars end in century. Not through signing ceremonies, but your decisive blows against our adversaries, transitions to elected governments, Security Forces who were trained to take the lead and ultimately full responsibility. We remain committed to a sovereign, secure, stable and unified afghanistan. And toward that end, we will support efforts to promote peace in the country through reconciliation. We have to recognize afghanistan will not be a perfect place, and it is not americas responsibility to make it one. The future of afghanistan must be decided by afghans. But what the United States can do, what we will do, is secure our interests and help give the afghans a chance, an opportunity to seek a longoverdue and hardearned peace. You couldopal him if respond to that. He also compared leaving afghanistan like u. S. Government has left iraq. I think it is setting a pretty low bar because iraq is pretty violent today. Afghanistan will continue to be violent. We say the war willn. The war will continue. There is no end in sight. The Afghan Government and the afghan army will be entrenched in the cities, the taliban will remain in the countryside. Neither side will be able to defeat or dislodge the other. We will see the status quo, which is war, continuing in perpetuity. Could you explain, you resent that she recently wrote about the haqqani network. Who is it and now have they grown . It is one of the factions that makes up the afghan insurgency. They were considered even a bigger enemy than al qaeda. They had attacked many u. S. Soldiers. They have been the main target of the Drone Campaign and the border areas of pakistan and afghanistan. Talk more about this. The title of the piece you did in Huffington Post is very interesting. How the u. S. Created the afghan war and then lost it. You relate it to a connie. If you listen to the u. S. , backhink the in 2001, the leader of the network tried to cut a deal with United States. He has a history going back to the 1980s. He tried to cut a deal to join the Afghan Government, but because u. S. Had allied with a different warlord who was an enemy of the hi connie, the deal was rebuffed. There was a campaign to kill haqanni. They drove him and his followers into pakistan where they regrouped and launched the insurgency was the today. How common is that trajectory . From the 1980s and then the taliban . It is very common. Everybody in the taliban or most people in the taliban were mu jahideen. In one way or another they did a fitted from the cias eight and later become the taliban and then try to join the americans again in 2001 and more rebuffed and then went back. Can you talk about the numbers of afghans who have died during the war . Today in all the u. S. Media, theyre talking about the number of u. S. Soldiers, which is well over 2000. But i dont know that we have that sense of how many afghans have died. We dont. We dont even know how many numbers are what the numbers are because it is very difficult to count and afghans who were killed by the taliban to to be counted theyre not always counted. What we know is tens of thousands of afghans have died in this conflict and continue to die. What it means to be in afghan today is on the one hand you run the risk of hitting roadside bombs are being caught by the taliban are on the other side being caught by proamerican warlords. They get summarily executed. There are grave human rights violations. That is what it means to be an afghan today in the countryside. Before we conclude, could you talk about on june 14 the second round of the president ial elections will be held both the leading candidates have said they will sign a bilateral Security Agreement with the United States. Could you talk about the significance of the bilateral Security Agreement and theres also a status of forces agreement that the same thing about the operational or both candidates are amenable to signing . It applies to nato. The bilateral security applies to u. S. Forces. The idea is, u. S. Troops or foreign troops would be allowed to stay in afghanistan after this year and given immunity from prosecution in local courts. That is what it is about. Ultimately, it is the idea of sovereignty. That is why karzai did not want tobecause he is sensitive the fact a lot of afghans feel the Afghan Government is a client state for the United States. Finally, the search that happened in 2009 were Something Like 100,000 u. S. Soldiers were there. As you reflect back on it and are reporting on it there in afghanistan, what effect did it have . The surgical was to defeat the taliban and leave terrorismn without and every day deprivations that we see, then the surge failed. What it has done is it is cap the taliban in the villages and cap the Afghan Government in the cities and the afghans in between these two sides. If you are an afghan, is you cant be neutral. If you live in the city, you have to support the government. Anand gopal, thank you for being with us. The title of his book is, no good men among the living america, the taliban, and the war through afghan eyes. Anand gopal is a journalist and fellow at the new America Foundation. Thank you for joining us. When we come back, we will talk about the nearly 300 schoolgirls who were kidnapped in nigeria. What is happening now and will the crisis there be used to justify increased u. S. Militarization in africa . Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. In a speech later today, president obama is expected to layout a u. S. Foreign policy approach that avoids large wars like iraq and afghanistan, and shifts instead to partnering with countries on counterterrorism efforts. This comes as the New York Times reports the Obama Administration launched a program last are to train homegrown african counterterrorism teams in libya, niger him a mauritania, and mali. Just last week, the United States deployed a battalion of 80 marines in nigeria to help search for the nearly 300 missing schoolgirls there. Au courant attacked a nigerian poetry praising killed more than 30 people in the state of yobe, not far from where the militants killed 59 students at a boarding school in february. All of this follows a nearly your long military offensive that critics say strengthened the group and made it a threat to security in the whole region. Click on tuesday, nigerias chief of Defense Staff air Marshal Alex Badeh said the military now knows where the of the the girls are being held but thats where the girls are being held at rolled out force. We know where they are but we cannot tell you. We cannot tell the military secrets. Just leave us alone. We will get the girls. Nigerians in the capital city continued to call for more to be done to secure the release of the schoolgirls abducted by boko haram. [indiscernible] confirmed that discovered where they are. We are happy with this development. We want to see how the army will rescue these girls safely and alive and bring them back to their parents. That is what we expect the Nigerian Army to do. If they do that, surely they will [indiscernible] from one the situation in nigeria and the newly revealed us program to train so called homegrown african counterterrorism teams, were joined by dayo olopade. She is a Nigerian American of, thet and author bright continent breaking rules and making changes in modern africa. Welcome to democracy now it is great to have you with us. Talk about the latest. I think just looking at those clips and hearing folks expressed confidence in Nigerian Government and military possibility to rescue these girls rang a bit false to me. I think this has been a problem upwards of five years with respect to boko haram and earlier in this debacle, the Nigerian Government claims they have found the girls. So unless theres really some hard evidence they really have managed to track the girls down and have the capacity and willingness to rescue them, i would take some of these with a grain of salt. In general, that is been one of the more frustrating elements where the most basic definition of the state is to happen a monopoly on violence and force. The nigerian state, not just a northeast nigeria but throughout has provided over a feeling of insecurity and the part of many citizens. Certainly, physical insecurity, particularly in the elected neglected areas that border niger and chad. Beyond the Police Attack this week which more than 1500 people have been killed this year by boko haram, was a real problem that they have managed to get a handle on it. Many suggest that Nigeria Military first this and Operations Forces in operations bolster the Group Boko Haram from 2009 to the present. Could you say a little about that and how that happened . The incentives simply are not aligned. The Nigerian Military spends a lower percentage of its federal budget on military policing than honest any of the other countries in west africa. Ironically, in a country where the military has been enormous compared to its neighbors. It is a lot of policing on behalf of the African Union drought the continent. The soldiers are underpaid. Once more, the soldiers, some of them, are predominantly muslim and some subsection of the soldiers are part of the ethnic group that makes a boko haram. When i say the incentives are misaligned, it is not always clear where the allegiance lies between the military group or religious community and ethnic community. I think looking at the times peace, it was about the market never to engage soldiers and to train them. The problem that happened in libya that was discussed in the article was one, the incentives were not aligned. Which committed the the soldiers were pledging allegiance. The soldiersunity were pledging allegiance. It requires a lot of trust and capacity building. In nigeria, certainly, there are complicated political incentives and complicated ethnic religious dynamics that make it such that the boko haram threat has been somewhat neutralized. What do you think needs to happen in nigeria right now in terms of these schoolgirls . I think it is a difficult issue. As i mentioned, you more than 1500 people that have been killed by boko haram this year. What is more frustrating is that we dont necessarily this is a different situation than a bombing. It is a hostage situation. The position of both the Nigerian Government and American Government and most around the world is that you dont negotiate with terrorists. At first it was kidnapping come and sort of an a lot of listed act in which the girls were taken overnight and a nihilistic act in which the girls were taken overnight. Then folks were imprisoned by Goodluck Jonathan were asked to be free. I understand that evaporated in the last week. Now i do think the United States , for what it is worth, is a useful partner for this kind of complicated and delicate hostage situation. I think Nigerian Forces and many forces across the continent may thehave the training, intelligence, sophistication, the personnel, and the weaponry to enact the kind of extraction that we think would be necessary in this case. So the u. S. Has sent helicopters and drones, as we do, to try and deal with the situation. I will wait and see. I dont know. It is not a hopeful situation. But certainly, the world committed these attention to the issue has become a kind of global cause, certainly allows for more transparency and more care than might have been shown in the weeks before became public or globally public. And so in that case, i hope for Something Like a resolution. Could use a little bit more about the group okara rom . In 2009 and spread to nigeria but now spread to chad and niger, etc. How many people are in the group . What is the constitution or goals . Boko haram, we dont have exact numbers. The most important thing is that it is an extreme manifestation of a kind of shared frustration among many young people all across Subsaharan Africa. Boko haram is a terrorist group but a terrorist group that was initially driven by a sense of disenfranchisement, a sense of disinvestment, a sense of being on the periphery of the Central Government that wasnt taking care of it. A lack of Employment Opportunities also drove this. And that is something you see replicated across Subsaharan Africa are met is why did the rise of why the rise of boko haram is been so dangerous. Unemployment all over the world has been the highest since they started taking measurements. In the wake of the invasion in libya, arms floating around across the sahara to the south nowali and chad and northern nigeria, you have a really dangerous combination. Grouparam was an islamist that ash the name is often misconstrued. It is not antireligion or im sorry, antiwestern, but mostly about the western educated elite who ran nigeria for many years and who disenfranchised the north of nigeria, which still has high rates of poverty and illiteracy and unemployment. Since 2009, as a result of the Nigerian Government overcorrection, they killed the leader in a very bloody and public fashion and killed more than 700 folks. It was a crackdown that radicalized the group beyond what wed seen in the past. Since then, it has been one series of attacks after another. In a part of nigeria that is incredibly poor and lots of weapons, so it is a difficult problem to solve. The root causes of force are the same as everywhere, under unemployment, lack of education. Were talking to dayo olopade who has written a new book called, the bright continent breaking rules and making changes in modern africa. Were also joined by video stream by carl levan, assistant professor at America University school of international service, author of the forthcoming book, dictators and democracy in African Development the political economy of Good Governance in nigeria. Last week, wrote an oped for the Christian Science monitor headline, six way sto bringbackourgirls in nigeria. , carl. To democracy now are thetalk about, what six ways, but also whether you see what is happening now, the crisis being used to further militarize africa . Thank you for having me on the show, amy. I wrote this oped with one of organizesbackourgirls because we felt the response to the kidnapping of the girls was becoming politicized on both sides of the atlantic, and there were some really important and urgent steps that could be taken right now that did not require new laws or expensive new policies or even largescale international cooperation. One idea was to establish what we described as solidarity schools in the north. And that is in addition to these girls who have been kidnapped, there are tens of thousands of girls who would like to go to school but it is too dangerous for them were too complicated for them. So we proposed the idea of solidarity schools in the northeastern states where they could go to nearby places that are safer. And this would also facilitate national integration. One of the wealthiest men in africa has proposed a similar idea recently. Also, we proposed that the Political Parties are gearing up for a major election next year in february 2015, could simply invite more women to run for office. In some parts of the country, there are actually no women who are officeholders, for example in the northeast, in six northeastern states in 2011, not a single woman was elected to state assemblies. A third issue was the widespread problem of internally displaced persons and now refugees. This is not solely a problem to be blamed on boko haram, although they certainly bear the brunt of this problem. It is also the risk bonds it is also the governments heavyhanded response to boko haram. This is the situation in Nigeria Emergency Management Agency nema a couple of days ago, outlined or hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced. This is a problem that has been neglected somewhat by the International Community on the domestic front with the nigeria, really needs an urgent and politically neutral humanitarian response. So those are some of the ideas we were outlining. The last one i will mention briefly because it is very relevant to Development Since yesterday, is the government could do much more to coordinate its information simply hold a press conference every day. The Nigerian Government since yesterday has not even send signals about whether it is negotiating through back channels or otherwise with boko haram. You were in nigeria when these girls were abducted . Yes, for my second trip there in april. Even before the protests erupted, it was clear there was a shift in the public and. That for a long time, people were angry and scared of boko haram and frustrations were actually building toward the government where they said, where people were starting to say, how is it possible we have this much insecurity in three states that are under a state of emergency . How is it possible that nearly 300 girls can be driven down rural roads. Are about 1000 kilometers paid. This is a state that has been under a federally declared state of emergency for over a year. How do you move that many people in a state that is under federal military state of emergency . Your response to this . Isthe Nigerian Government characterized by a lack of capacity and a lack of willingness on so many levels. With respect to the makeup of the military, some of the reasons i described. Youre very right to point out the nigerian elections next year feature prominently in a sort of looking the other way. I think the need to build coalitions amongst the traditional powersharing of north and shout, christians and muslims, certainly drives the light touch that the military and the jonathan government has taken with respect to the states under emergency. I think it is really frustrating that citizens taking to the street which i would like to underscore it is very unusual in nigeria. It is very unusual to see theres been no african spring, i think for a. In our reporting for the book, people are much more likely to go about their daily business to try and fill holes the government has up with her own ingenuity, with her own networks. The occupyeople in nigeria movement, in response to rising petrol prices, which is sort of the neoliberal Government Strategy at this point, as well as this more. Ecent bringbackourgirls i think it represents a hopeful reclamation from boko haram at the extreme end again, to a shared complaint. The government does not provide the most basic services to the 170 million citizens of nigeria. So to the extent these protests are a civilsociety movement that may have more lingering effect in terms of the ling the sort of building the sort of enough is enough amongst the population, then i would count it as a positive thing. For the most part, nigerians have been like, what have you done for me lately . And the answer is very little. In this case, more responses. Carl levan, on the u. S. Militarization in africa . This is very important the unitede, when states pentagon organized its Africa Command starting around 2007, 2000 eight, there were all of these grand promises that it was going to be a different kind of command and that it was going to show a kinder, softer, gentler side of the United States military and would engage in a lot of nonkinetic missions and a lot of humanitarian and development. This may the Development Community quite nervous in the u. S. And elsewhere. Theres a debate about whether it was an effort to build military bases. President bush in one of his more eloquent moments call this baloney. So now with the recent revelations by eric schmidt has excellent reporting that the United States has been secretly expanding military assistance to niger andmali and whereby the United States last year established a separate dronebased it has been using for overflights into molly all of this confirms that expandingis was about military operations on the continent. To some extent, some of the governments, as i have written about and researched, are open to this kind of cooperation, especially with this sort of crisis. That presents a real problem or you have governments of questionable legitimacy. This is where the Grassroots Organization that your guest is outlining are so important. And the only other time in recent memory that this happened in a significant way other than occupy nigeria was in 2010 from just before the 2011 elections. And the government at that time was very responsive as well two grassroots pressure. There is a new wave of grassroots pressure among the organizers, the original organizers, of the bringbackourgirls. For example, they have a change. Com petition. We want peace not bombs. If you really want to address boko haram, you need to demilitarize the solution to address the longterm issues that you have already outlined. I just want to point out that when i was living in kenya, it is so often african prisons were bearing the blowback from the u. S. Footprint in africa. Theyre prosecuting the war in somalia, but the Westgate Mall attack, as among many attacks, was an example of African Citizens paying the price for extension of the american run terror. [indiscernible] has beenited states supporting the invasion into semi with everything but troops. It is african troops that are in some idea. It is somalis attacking africans and retribution because theyre on the ground there. The Westgate Mall attack was a direct fact that smalley militants retaliating for a war on their soil funded by the United States the prosecuted by african troops. I want to thank you for being with us, dayo olopade. Her book is, the bright continent breaking rules and making changes in modern africa. Carl levan, thank you for being with us, assistant professor at american university. That does it for this segment. We will move to another part of africa, egypt, in a moment. Sharif Abdel Kouddous will join us from a polling place in cairo. Not many people are turning out. Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. We turn now to egypts president ial election, which is been extended for a third day in an apparent bid to boost voter turnout. The result of the election is believed to be a foregone conclusion with former army widely expected to win. At the low voter turnout threatens to undermine the credibility of the election. For more we go right to egypt where were joined by Sharif Abdel Kouddous, democracy now correspondent, joining us from a polling place in cairo. Can you describe where you are and the significance of the extension of the election and making yesterday a National Holiday so people would turn out . Thats right. And speaking of front of a polling station in the district in cairo. As you can see behind me, there are very few people lined up. In fact, theres no line outside the polling station. This has been the case for the past two days. There was a much lower than expected turnout for this election, which had the authorities desperate to boost people coming to the polls. Initially, they extended voting hours on monday by an hour. Then they declared tuesday a holiday for both state and private employees. They closed stock markets, suspended fares for the train in the metro to facilitate people getting to the polls. Justicen had the ministry same people would be fined if they did not go to vote. And also spurred many of the hosts onomilitary television were in hysterics last night, criticizing people for not turning out, having a lot of disdain for the egyptian people. One host calling people traitors for not voting. Another telling Business Owners to check their employees hands to see if there was ink proving they voted. There was, i think, a lot of shock by the authorities at the level of turnout. Some of the reasons for this lowerthanexpected enthusiasm for this, there are many, but one may be voter apathy. We have seen seven elections. This is the seventh poll in egypt since the ouster mubarak three years ago. None of the people in office have been elected by any of those polls. When we did have elected officials, much of the political elites spent their time discussing identity rather than issues that the deep social and economic problems that plague egypt. The electoral process has been increasingly dissatisfying and alienating for many egyptian voters. Another reason is the insurgency of the outcome of this election. Polls, which had candidates from across the political spectrum, this election just tested of candidates, alsisi and hamdeen sabahi, both of which is bounced different brands of the same ideology. Alsisi is a candidate backed by the state, backed by the business elite, and widely expected to win. The insurgency of the results may have played into people not bothering to come. Certainly, there is an active boycott. We have to remember the largest Political Group in the country, the muslim brotherhood, is not taking part in this election. Theyve been the subject of an incredibly harsh crackdown. Many of the rankandfile have been killed. Their leaders are jailed. They have refused to take part. As groups like the april 6 movement. Officials are saying the turnout is somewhere between in the mid 30s, but that is a much lower turnout than we saw in the runoff that elected Mohamed Morsi in 2012, which had 52 . Alsisi is still guaranteed to win, that he is even made one public appearance during his campaign . Im sorry, could you repeat it . That alsisi hasnt appeared publicly once himself during this campaign, even though his images are ubiquitous threat the throughout the country . It is cutting out, but from what i understand your question, alsisi has run a very controlled campaign. He is not had any public appearances, preferring to meet people and officials at his Campaign Headquarters or do events by video link to other parts of the country. He has done very few media appearances, and 07 very managed with very easy questions. He has made very clear he will have no dust when he was asked bluntly this question, he refused to answer the question about the military. His Electoral Program is shrouded in mystery. We have to leave it there. That does a for the show, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, reporting from cairo. Democracy now