Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20160812

Scott anderson, author of fractured lands how the arab world came apart. His story takes up the entire print edition of the New York Times magazine. But first, we will speak with Pulitzer Prize winning reporter James Grimaldi of the wall street journal, who has covered the Clinton Foundation for years. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. A series of bomb blasts in thailand have hit three of the countrys most popular tourist resorts killing four people and wounding dozens. There were at least 11 explosions in total. No group has claimed responsibility. The blasts comes days after the country voted to accept a militarybacked charter in a referendum. Human rights watch warned that thailand is moving toward become a military dictatorship. Brad adams, the groups asia director said instead of the longpromised return to democratic civilian rule, the w constitution facilitateunaccountabl military power and a deepening dictatorship. In campaign news, the New York Times and the gannett newspaper chain have petitioned the new York Supreme Court to unseal records from Donald Trumps 1990 divorce with ivana trump. Unsealed records could determine if ivana directly accused trump of raping or sexually assaulting her during their 14year marriage. According to the book lost tycoon, ivana used the word rape during one deposition in the divorce case. She later softened her language, saying she felt violated during an encounter where donald trump reportedly held back her arms and pulled out fistfuls of her hair. Donald trumps former North Carolina Campaign Director has resigned after being accused of pulling a gun on at least five people, including campaign staffers. The director, earl phillip is , named in a new lawsuit filed by a staffer who claims phillip pointed a loaded. 45 caliber pistol at him and then placed the barrel of the gun on his knee while they were driving in South Carolina earlier this year. Phillip remained in his position even after the staffer notified senior trump officials. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton traveled to warren michigan to outline her Economic Vision just days after donald trump spoke in detroit. Clinton accused trump of paying lip service to being on the side of average americans. Mrs. Clinton there is a myth that somehow he is really on the side of the little guy. Dont believe it. Amy a panel of federal judges has ordered North Carolina to redraw its legislative districts saying the current ones are unconstitutional and racially gerrymandered. In a statement the reverend William Barber of the North Carolina naacp said this ruling is a tremendous ruling that the Republicanled Legislature used Racial Discrimination to undermine the power of the black vote and other minority voters, which is contrary to our constitution and our democracy. Despite the ruling, the judges have allowed the current voting maps to be used in the november election. Late last month, a federal Appeals Court also struck down voting restrictions in North Carolina, saying they disproportionately affected african americans. Federal Election Commission member ann ravel has proposed a new ban on political contributions by domestic subsidiaries of foreign corporations. Ravel said the issue is no longer a hypothetical concern citing a recent report in the intercept exposing how a chineseowned firm donated money to jeb bushs campaign. Such donations can now be made thanks to the supreme courts Citizens United ruling. The intercepts lee fang talked about his reporting on democracy now we looked at some of the largest corporate donations to president ial super pacs and tried to find out their ownership structure. By chance, we found that one of the largest corporate donors to the Jeb Bush Super pac, right to rise, was owned or is owned by two chinese nationals, permanent residents of singapore, and they gave 1. 3 million to the Jeb Bush Super pac. Amy the Drug Enforcement administration has rejected requests to stop classifying marijuana as a dangerous drug with no medical use. This means marijuana will remain a schedule i drug the same as heroin. While 25 states have approved the medical use of marijuana, the department of health and Human Services maintains there is no accepted medical use in the United States. Meanwhile, in a separate decision, the government has announced it will start allowing more universities to start growing marijuana for research purposes. Currently it is only allowed at the university of mississippi. In news from los angeles, democracy now has obtained a video from the aftermath of the Police Killing of a 14 year old mexicanamerican jesse romero who died earlier this week. Police say they were responding to a call about teenagers writing graffiti in the early neighborhood of boyle heights. Police say they shot and killed fromfter he ran away police and fired a gun. But witnesses contradict the police claim. The video, which begins just after the shooting, shows officers standing over the boys body on the sidewalk, then handcuffing him. Jesse romero was a student in middle school. She would have turned 15 on august 24. He would have turned 15 on august 24. In news from florida, more information has come to light about the Police Officer who fatally shot a 73yearold retired librarian during a Police Training exercise earlier this week. The woman, mary knowlton, had volunteered to participate in a shoot dont shoot exercise as part of the Citizen Police academy. She died after the officer lee coel accidentally shot her with live ammunition. Last year, coel was accused of using Excessive Force when he let his police dog severely maul a man who was pued over for biking without a headlight or taillight. The incident was caught on video. Down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down on your face. Get down. Get on your face. I am. Corrects stop resisting. [screaming] amy the officer has been placed on administrative leave. In north dakota, 14 people were arrested thursday protesting the 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline that will stretch from north dakota to illinois. The protest was led by members of the Standing Rock sioux tribe which has been staging , nonviolent protests against the pipeline for months. [chanting] amy the tribe maintains the pipeline is being built in violation of the National Preservation act. Ecuador has announced it will allow swedish prosecutors to interview wikileaks founder Julian Assange in its London Embassy where assange has been living for five years. For more than four years. Swedish authorities want to question assange about allegations of sexual misconduct, although charges have never been filed. He has been confined to the embassy fearing if he were to attempt to leave, he would be arrested by british police. He ultimately fears he would be extradited to the United States where it is believed there is a sealed indictment against him over wikileaks release of documents. In argentina, the mothers of the plaza de mayo held their 2000th march in buenos aires on demanding justice for their thursday, children who went missing during the countrys military dictatorship. The mothers have been staging regular protests in the plaza de mayo since 1977. Hebe de bonafini is president of the groups. Children, all the 30,000 missing, 15,000 who were shot in the streets, the 8900 Political Prisoners and more than 2 million in exile who have all become our children, this is no small thing. It is a heavy burden of so many children. But it is so beautiful, so amazing, so unique. I think that are no women like us and the world with the strength and our bellies, in our hearts, in our bodies with so much responsibility for our children whom we love. Whom we love and whom we continue to defend. Amy thursdays march in argentina came just days after the United States declassified documents showing that former secretary of state Henry Kissinger thwarted the state departments efforts to stop the mass killings by instead praising argentinas military leaders in 1978. One of indias most famous movie stars has been stopped for at least the third time while entering the United States sparking new outcry over racial , profiling. Last night, shah rukh khan, who is known as the king of bollywood, tweeted to his 20 million followers a message reading i fully understand and respect security with the way the world is, but to be detained at u. S. Immigration every damn time really really sucks. And in new hampshire, republican senator kelly ayotte was confronted by an unusual type of protest. As she ran in a 5k road race in manchester, a group of climate activists began running with her wearing donald trump masks. They urged her to drop her support for trump. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan and im juan gonzalez. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Newly released state Department Emails are raising questions about the close ties between the Clinton Foundation and the state department during Hillary Clintons time as secretary of state. The 44 emails include exchanges between top members of the Clinton Foundation and clintons Top State Department advisers, including huma abedin and cheryl mills. Cnn reports the fbi wanted to investigate the Clinton Foundation earlier this year, but u. S. Attorney general Loretta Lynch pushed back. On thursday, state Department Spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau denied any improper communication between the Clinton State Department and the Clinton Foundation. The departments actions under secretary clinton were taken to advance Administration Policy as set by the president in the interest of american foreignpolicy. With statement the state department is not aware of any action that were influenced by the Clinton Foundation. Amy one of the newly released email exchanges is about billionaire nigerianbased developer gilbert chagoury, who contributed between 1 million and 5 million to the Clinton Foundation. The emails show a top Clinton Foundation executive writing to abedin and mills asking for help putting chagoury in touch with the u. S. Ambassador to lebanon. Abedin responded, ill talk to jeff, referring to thenu. S. Ambassador jeffrey feltman. On wednesday, chagourys spokesman said chagoury was simply passing along his observations and insights about the dire political situation in lebanon at the time. For more, we are joined by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist James Grimaldi. Hes a Senior Writer at the wall street journal and has covered the Clinton Foundation since 2014. Welcome to democracy now james, europe and covering the Clinton Foundation for years. Can you talk about what this suggestsoup of emails and how significant it is about the relationship between the Clinton Foundation under secretary of state Hillary Clinton and between the state department under clinton and the Clinton Foundation . I think this confirms what we sort of knew. There are obvious ties and relationships the key tie would be douglas band, who was a top aide to bill clinton. He helped bill clinton create the Clinton Foundation and sort of devised how he would spend his days in retirement. He was very close, of course, to cheryl mills and huma abedin. At one point he was employing a contractor to huma abedin hu as was working at the state department. Ma during this time of the lebanese elections, he sent an email, as you describe now, regarding one of their greatest benefactors, mr. Chagoury, and suggested that the state department have the person who was a lead of the ambassador to lebanon speak to mr. Chagoury. It shows how donations to the Clinton Foundation when access to state Diplomatic State Department diplomatic officials. It is sort of begging the question, if he had not given that money to the Clinton Foundation, whether he would have had that kind of easy access. I would say it would probably be unlikely. It certainly would not happen as swiftly. Possibly, the state Department Ambassador might have consulted with this person regarding that issue, but it sure shows or seems to create an appearance of conflict of interest that bought access by making this donations to the Clinton Foundation. Juan speaking of the issue of conflict of interest, you noted during her confirmation hearings as secretary of state, secretary clinton specifically said she would take extraordinary steps to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. How well do you think she has followed through on that promise . Well, over the past year, we have looked at that issue. And what i did was i went into the lobbying records to see which companies and other entities were lobbying the state department, and also looking to see how many of them had given to the Clinton Foundation. And one of our findings was that at least 60 copies of lobbied the state department, had given as much as 26 million, and many of those kind companies, 44 of the 60, had participated in are they call commitments philanthropic projects that were valued by the Clinton Foundation at 3. 2 billion dollars. So then we went to look and see if mrs. Clinton had done anything for these companies. At the time they were making these gifts. We looked at several companies electricoeing, general , and microsoft and others, walmart, who seemed to have been getting favors from mrs. Clinton perhaps for good reason promoting American Companies and american jobs. It also coming at the same time that there were donations going to the Clinton Foundation. Amy you wrote an extensive piece, james, last year about clintons complications with ubs. Can you talk about that, just as an example . That is one of our deeper dives into one of the banks that was involved. Clinton is very close to a lot of the wall street banks. In this case, with ubs. They were in a bind. They whistleblower had come forward, an american who is helping ubs fined americans who wanted to dodge taxes. In switzerland, literally recruiting them to open an account in switzerland that would then be hidden from the. Nternal Revenue Service he blew the whistle. The government, iris, doj wanted 50,000 accounts a new about in which americans were hiding ines, hiding their income the ubsswiss Bank Accounts. So they would not be taxed. In the end, ubs did not want to provide those names because there was a law in switzerland that said they could not reveal that kind of confidential information. In the end, they only gave about 5000 of those 50,000 names. And we sell the donations from ubs to the Clinton Foundation increase from a little under 60,000 to 600,000, plus they participated in a 30 million innercity loan program, and then hired bill clinton to do speeches around the country for 1. 5 million. Juan of course, ubs was not all he closely tied with the clintons, as i recall, robert wolf, the head of ubs americas, was one of the big fundraisers for president obama in fact, famously was playing golf with president obama when the Justice Department announced this deferred prosecution agreement with ubs on this issue of the accounts. So there seems to have been you also raise the issue of whether other foreignpolicy objectives of the government were not included in the negotiated deal to eventually get switzerland to give up at least some of those Bank Accounts . Right. We know this, thankfully, to wikileaks, the cables that were obtained under wikileaks happen to be the snapshot in time when these discussions were going underway. What we saw was when the swiss foreign minister came to Hillary Clinton and said we really would like to take care of this ubs problem, hillary said, well, we have a few things we would like as well. This was a time the Clinton Administration im sorry, the Obama Administration was eager to close guantanamo bay. Mrs. Clinton was pressuring switzerland to take some of the less dangerous detainees, and particular, some chinese uighers who were deemed not particularly dangerous, which they eventually agreed to do. Between the United States and switzerland regarding ubs. Evolution ofthe the Clinton Foundation. I mean, not long before Hillary Clinton announced for president , didnt they rename the Clinton Foundation the bill Hillary Chelsea Clinton Foundation . Right. She became very, very involved in the fundraising between the time she left the state department and when she announced her run for the presidency. She helped raise as much as 250 million from many of the same corporations in order to beef up the endowment to give the Clinton Foundation running in the future. In addition, she was giving a lot of speeches, as was bill clinton giving speeches, that were being paid as famously we know Bernie Sanders up the fact that she was taking money from wall street and banks to 200ng speeches up 50,000 a pop. We may hear a little bit more about that today or in the coming days because we understand the Clinton Campaign is getting ready to release the returns. St tax we already know some of this from her personal Financial Disclosure forms, but we might see Additional Information coming out of her tax returns today. Juan what about the Public Private partnership that clinton established while she was secretary of state with some major corporations, and the relationship of those corporations to the Clinton Foundation . Well, exactly. You know, there is usually never a stop in what you can do in terms of contributions you can make to the various clinton pots. You have money you can donate to the foundation. You can partner at the state department there are these partnerships between the Clinton Foundation and corporations. Some of that money in expo in china for the chinese world fair that they held their. Mrs. Clinton at the state department was very eager to see those being billed just built because under the Bush Administration, he really had reached a point where they had not raised enough money to even have a pavilion. That you can see money coming from corporations to their own personal wallet am a there purses, campaign contributions. It just seems as if there are many, many places you can make a contribution and you can partner with either mrs. Clinton at the state department or get involved at the Clinton Foundation. Amy i want to turn to a clip of Hillary Clinton on cnn in june. Anderson cooper asked her about the lack of transparency of donations to the Clinton Foundation from foreign countries. Mrs. Clinton we had absolutely overwhelming disclosure, where there are one or two instances that slipped through the cracks . Yes. But the overwhelming amount was disclosed. Amy but there you have Hillary Clinton saying this. James grimaldi, you talk about what happened when president obama tapped her to be secretary of state . And what were the rules around what would happen with the Clinton Foundation . He also respond to the clip. I was a the disclosure is underwhelming. Yes, they have disclosed more than their required to under Internal Revenue law, but when they disclose it, they dont tell you the date. They dont tell you the amount. The disclosure is very skimpy. Someone to make a donation the only way you know is if they have increased in one category to 5ay 1 million to 59 million to 10 million. Placed nextasterisk to the name that is released orderly. It is very opaque, i think him in terms of what is disclosed. Disclosure was required by the Obama Administration when she came in, but they were very vague about what those rules would be. I think also, for any fundraiser that was to be done, they were supposed to consult with the ethics officers at the state department. So far weve only seen a handful of examples were the ever said no. And in those cases, they were in sort of the extreme. Bill clinton wanted to give a speech in north korea. I think there may have been some efforts where he wanted to raise some money in china as well. We have obtained any of those. Isclosure requests in fact, there are others still coming out through some of these emails. But like i said, it does not look like amy did they change a roll around countries, that countries the Clinton Foundation would not accept contributions from countries, but then that changed . Courts right. What they did was, they said we dont only raising money from foreign governments because she is going to be, obviously, dealing with foreign governments. So they stop doing that. What we realized when theyre very quiet. They did not announce it. They posted on their website 2015 for the Previous Year that we saw that, immediately, the clintons had gone back to many of these middle eastern countries, the united arab emirates, saudi arabia, and others, that would have raised some questions. So in other words, in this time in between when she was at the state department and when she ran for announced her run for president , they ended up going back to the very countries that some people had raised a lot of questions about. Many have raised questions about raising money from these governments and many of these sheikhs in saudi arabia and countries that have questionable human rights and certainly do not have equal rights for women. Juan to your knowledge, this issue of foreign governments donating, philanthropy, is there any other philanthropy in the u. S. That has comparable donations from foreign governments as the Clinton Foundation . Well, probably not at this scale. But i do know there are certain Government Entities that make contributions must sort of like we do with usaid. I know switzerland, you know, well have come i think, a donates. Hat the Canadian State Department was making contributions, coming from the same agency that was lobbying the clinton im sorry, lobbying the state Department Regarding the xl pipeline. Obviously, canada wanted that pipeline to come through. It was eventually stopped. But there were donations from that same Canadian State Department that went to the Clinton Foundation around the time that that is one that slipped through in terms of a government donation, around the same time that they were lobbying Hillary Clinton to accept the keystone xl pipeline. Amy how to saudi arabia fit into this picture, james . Sheikhs and others that have made the donations. They are big donors. As is all be dobby. There is a story that talked about abu dabi donating around the time, their upstart airline wanted to receive a u. S. Customs facility in their airport. It was like , friendly, not a very common route, and it was sort of a plum get for them to get this preclearance facility for their airline. Amy you write that bill clinton received 1 million for two appearances sponsored by the abu dabi government, the united whilemirates, Hillary Clinton was secretary state. The tourism run by abu dabi, but one of the big participants was the very airline that wanted this special facility, the preclearance facility, at their airport. Juan you have written about the clintons relationship to the Energy Pioneer solutions. Could you talk about that company and what it was seeking . It is an interesting company. It was founded by scott clip, a candidate for congress in nebraska. One ofe happens to be the big opponent of the keystone xl pipeline, so very well known in nebraska. But interesting, this company which weatherized homes and put in insulation, had as its coowners, the treasurer of the Democratic National committee, mark weiner, an official close to bill and Hillary Clinton going back to the 1970s and to their 1992 campaign. He recently passed away during the Democratic National convention and bill clinton mentioned him in his speech at the convention. Bill and hillary both went to his funeral. He was a coowner, as was a woman who lives about three miles from bill and hillarys house in new york. This Company Received a 2 million commitment that was arranged at the Clinton Foundation, and the clinton global initiative. And bill clinton called the Energy Secretary steven chu and order to get them an 840,000 grant. That has raised some questions about whether the Clinton Foundation is being used to sort of feather the nests of many of their friends. Amy this is a forprofit company. It is. Very unusual for forprofit company to get a federal grant from the department of energy. The company is not doing too well, as i understand it. They are reconfiguring their business plan. It is not worked out as i think they had expected, but i think it may still be incorporated in nebraska. Amy a big issue that has been raised, the relationship of the close advisers to Hillary Clinton in the Clinton Foundation cheryl mills who goes back to being bill clintons attorney, defending him during the impeachment hearings in congress. Now the righthand person of Hillary Clinton, and one of the issues raised in this email in the emails is she went to new york on her own dime, theyre saying, took a train up to help choose the new head of the Clinton Foundation. Many issues here with that, james any issues here with that, james . Shes at the center of anything involving Hillary Clinton at the state department. She is basically hillarys consiglio re . She is the keeper of the clinton secrets. She would be the enforcer at times when clinton mightve been pushing too hard for some of these questionable donations. Theres no question she was sort of in the middle of every major decision that has ever been made by the clintons, very, very close advisor to bill and Hillary Clinton and very close to hillary and effect had an official position in the state department. Amy could the Clinton Foundation exist as it is now if Hillary Clinton is president . Well, bill clinton was asked that question. He is not really answered it. He says he does not want to chat his chickens before they are has. I think all of the people around bill clinton including people in the Clinton Campaign say is really no way they can continue to operate. And i think that will is pushing back on that, from what we understand, that he wants to continue to do some of the good work that they do for example, helping to negotiate aids drugs in africa a better prices, the Clinton Health initiative i think really was to continue to raise money. Many of these foreign donations are actually going to the Clinton Health initiative. I think there is a tension between the Clinton Campaign for president and the Clinton Foundation about what exactly will happen. Just negotiations are well under cover. Theyre not transparent. We do not know what they are a what will happen. I do not for close the possibility the Clinton Foundation will continue to operate and they will raise my from some of the same places. Questionseally, these need to be asked of the Clinton Campaign if she plans to continue, whether bill plans to continue to run the Clinton Foundation as it is, what it will look like and how it will raise money. Amy James Grimaldi, thank you for being with us, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. Senior writer at the wall street journal and has covered the Clinton Foundation for many years. We will link to his articles at democracynow. Org. We will be back, looking at trumps latest claim that president obama and Hillary Clinton are the founder of isis. We will go way beyond that, remarkable full issue of the New York Times magazine is coming out this weekend with one author. We will be speaking with him, Scott Anderson, looking at the wars of the middle east since the u. S. Invasion of iraq in 2003. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan we turn now to the wars engulfing the middle east, a topic which has resurfaced as part of the 2016 president ial campaign. Speaking at a Campaign Event on thursday, republican president ial candidate donald trump said barack obama and democratic candidate Hillary Clinton created the islamic state. Our government is in giving us good protection. Our government has unleashed isis. I call president obama and Hillary Clinton the founders of isis. They are the founders. In fact, i think we will give mostry clinton the valuable player, m. V. P. , you get the m. V. P. Award will step isis will hand her the most viable player award. Her only competition is barack obama, between the two of them. Juan on thursday, conservative video talkshow host hugh hewitt asked trump to clarify his comments. Questions. O more last night said the president was the founder of isis. I know you meant. He created the vacuum mr. Trump he is the founder of isis. He is the most viable player. Valuable player. Killt he is trying to them. Mr. Trump he was the founder. Amy there you have donald trump sswering to hewitt questions. This comes as a report by the Syrian Center for policy Research Finds the death toll in syria has reachenearly half a Million People. In april, president obama announced the deployment of 250 more special operations troops to syria in a move that nearly doubles the official u. S. Presence in syria. Syria is only one of a number of ongoing conflicts in the middle east. Last year, a record 60 Million People around the world were forced to flee their homes, becoming refugees. Well, reporter Scott Anderson examines all of this and much more in a remarkable report published in this weeks new New York Times magazine called fractured lands how the arab world came apart. It examines whats happened in the region in the thirteen years since the u. S. Invasion of iraq in 2003. It is told through the eyes of six people. In egypt, libya, syria, iraq, and iraqi kurdistan. The report also includes a photographs, a virtualreality video that allows the viewer to embed with the iraqi fighting forces during the battle to retake fallujah. Scott anderson is also the author of the book lawrence in , arabia war, deceit, imperial folly and the making of the modern middle east. Welcome to democracy now it is great to have you with us, scott. The entire issue of New York Times magazine. First, respond to a donald trump is saying again, for those going around saying this is a metaphor. She hewitt said, you mean they created a vacuum. He made it very clear, he said, no, barack obama and Hillary Clinton are the founders of isis. Talkingis a Republican Point that is enough for couple of years which is a withdrawing american troops from iraq in 2011, the obama and administration created the vacuum that allowed isis to step in. What is conveniently forgotten and that whole issue is that it is in fact the bush and administration that negotiated the withdrawal of american troops in the spring and summer of 2008. They negotiated with the regime to have american troops extend on, pretty substantial military presence in iraq going forward. What that found it on, the malaki resume when i get give Service Members american servicemembers immunity from any crimes they might commit in the country. On that basis, the bush and administration, not the Obama Administration, announced they were pulling all troops out of iraq by 2011. So this trump idea i think is a carry on from this talking point that his been floating for the past couple of years. In 2007 withrump wolf blitzer on cnn when he said, what you want to happen here come out against the war in iraq. In 2007, he said the u. S. Should just get out now. Of course he did. It doesnt surprise me at all. He seems to be taking both sides of the issue for a number of years. Epic i want to get to your piece. I think what is important to me, in this country, we sever so much from historical and leisure. In a newspaper or magazine piece, you attempted to the history before the unit is they even began to get involved in the middle east to lay the base problems in the most failed european andck to colonialism. Thats right. If you look at the 22 nations in the air world and if you look at the three that have been torn apart, and the socalled arab, syria, iraq, and libya. It is not coincidence those are also three of the very small group of countries that were created from whole cloth by the western colonial powers. In each of those countries, what you have is a very weak sense of National Identity. Juan and this is from the remnants from the theyre all part of the Ottoman Empire. Fragile sense of National Identity. In all three cases, you had these very brutal to tell a terry and dictators totalitarian dictators come in. They were trying to forge a sense of National Identity. Spring, summer saying Muammar Gaddafi overthrown, what peoples primary loyalty goes to is not to the state often, but to the tribe, to their clan. Amy explain, though, for people who do not understand how countries get created especially, younger people, now what you lay out so well in this hes, how these countries were carved up. [nonder the Ottoman Empire audio] the very weakness of the ottomans, they turn to their strength. It was a very weak central empire. They gave a different provinces in different regions major taxes and military conscription rates. Your kind of free to run yourself as you saw fit. Very little came down from constantinople. Germansorld war i, the on the losing side. The winners from world war i, especially Great Britain and france, they saw the Ottoman Empire they called it the great loot. Theywas the spoils of war could divide up. They came to the middle east and they formed these artificial states. Iraq is essentially joining the other three autonomous ottoman provinces. And kurdish component in the north. Syria, the opposite. Greater syria encompasses enormous area that today would be lebanon, syria, israel, jordan. Kind of this greater syria region, they divided it up into sort of more manageable parcels. In the case of libya, you had three provinces under the ottomans that were very distinct. In that case, the italians joined them together in creating this colony of libya. Juan in the arab spring, you have convulsions across the middle east, but you note those nations that had more historical development, like egypt, managed to somehow survive intact without this kind of civil war. But the ones created artificially are the ones who of sever the most . Thats right. Theres a commonality to the countrys that a fractured apart. Egypt is a sad case in his own right. For different reasons. But i dont think theres ever been a realistic fear in egypt that it is going to somehow fracture apart because certainly in egypt theres a sense of National Identity going back thousands of years. These six figures he used to illustrate. Take us through the crises in these countries and in egypt, talk about the young woman that you profiled. In egypt. Of this matriarch political dissident family that she has been active in resistance against the dictatorship going back to the 1970s. She was against an orthodox and then under anwar sadat, and she and her husband, who is now deceased, she was in thetahrir quare, at the forefront. She has children who all became activists. Amy we have talked to for grilling her son who has been imprisoned and her daughters. And two of the three children are in prison for extended periods. The interesting thing about leila, very early on, even before mubarak was overthrown in shet a 12 day revolution, showed signs of the revolution being subverted. She was lobbying for the Political Leadership in the country, to essentially seize power. She was basically telling women, do not let the military step into this. She was not listened to. Really, what has happened in egypt over the last four or five it is the disaster foretold. Amy we have to go to break and we will come back to this discussion. We are talking to Scott Anderson a contributing writer for the magazine. simes article is the entire issue without any advertisements, of the magazine called fractured , lands how the arab world came apart. This is democracy now we will be back in a minute. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. We are talking with Scott Anderson, and the New York Times did something unusual. The entire issue of the New York Times magazine is devoted to one article, which is divided into a number of parts, called fractured lands how the arab world came apart. Scott andersons most recent book is called lawrence in , arabia war, deceit, imperial folly and the making of the modern middle east. Juan i want to ask you, one of the people you profiled, a former isis fighter in iraq stuff you also interviewed about 20 other former isis fighters. What did you learn from those interviews and from his story . There is an amazing pattern. As you say, i interviewed just around 20 basis fighters, all in prison either in a rack or incurred a stand now. The one pattern i found over and over again was these were all young men was very bleak futures , either unemployed or underemployed from working class families. , and not religious at all. Not religious at all. According to them, they were not from religious families. They did not know the koran very well. In a couple of cases, i knew the koran better than they did. They were not recruited in mosques. They joined because their buddies join. They saw stuff on social media. Theyd had all seen the isis videos. I think it was this decision that young men make that better to live large for a couple of years, you know, the power and socalled glamour the power that comes of carrying a gun. And worry about what happens in the future to our three years down the road. Two or three years down the road. Certainly my experience, in these kind of foot soldiers, the grunts, primarily the isis members i have talked with, they innercityin to an gang or anarco gang in mexico. Impulse. T in polls adventure. Juan a different perspective than what we get, these are religious zealots are willing to die for islam. It is very different. And like a lot of cults you mentioned a character on the subject of the article, he was brought in by his older brother. He was 19 at the time and his brother was 26. Part of his basic training was to execute six different prisoners of isis on six different occasions. There was this brutalizing process where they brought them out of the barracks and he was told he at issue summit in the back of the head six different times. At this point, he is in. It is like being in a cult and now you are there. In his view, there was no way to get out once he had signed up. Amy you have an amazing part of the end of part one of your article, october 2002 at right around the time the u. S. Congress voted to authorize war was to Hillary Clinton voted to authorize the invasion of iraq. You interviewed Muammar Gaddafi and ask them who would benefit of the iraqi invasion actually occurred. You write, the libyan dictator had a habit of theatrically pondering before answering my questions, but its reply to that one was instantaneous. Bin laden, he said, theres no doubt about that. And iraq could end up becoming the staging ground for al qaeda f sedan classes, it will collapse. These are the words of the libyan leader who ruled for 42 years. Talk about that. Prissy andbsolutely what was going to happen in iraq. Ive been trying to get an interview with Muammar Gaddafi from was three years. I finally get it, im convinced, because by october, automotive 2002, the drumbeat for war in iraq was really building. It seemed pretty clear the antiwar demonstrations were going to have an effect were not going to have an effect, we were going in. Muammar gaddafi was worried he was going to be next, after the Bush Administration overthrew saddam hussein, they were coming after him. The bush and ministration were floating that out. They had a hit list and gaddafi was on it and assad. I would inspect and spent three weeks in libya. Muammar gaddafi was right. Everything he predicted came true to a tee. Amy did he talked about what would happen to him . , andvery interesting thing one of the interviews, it was honest my last question to him, cut a platitude i said, how would you like to be remembered . He was so arrogant about his position in libya. I hopeted saying, well, to be remembered as selfless, that i gave to my people, these kind of throw away answers. Then he paused for a second, he chuckled and leaned remain and leaned hope this is just towards me and said, i hope this is true. He had i dont think he had overlue what was coming, and over again, i dont think posting the correct, up until mubarak had toi resign, i dont think he thought he was going to go. But there are so inoculated, that they just really lost touch with reality. Juan i went to ask you a bigger question that you try to tackle here to what went wrong with the arab spring . Were in a situation right now where people are famous for this enormous one refugee problem out of the middle east and two, these failed states. Made [inaudible] destabilization the less, and how you get out of that situation . It is very hard. Inthere is any consolation the current situation, i think were kind of near the bottom of how bad it can get. It is hard to see how places get much worse. Libya is going to get worse next year because along with the kind of division between the different militias, youre also headed for economic crash coming to libya next year. They are just running out of money. It is hard to say how syria and iraq get worse. It is hard to see what an intervention looks like. Ive often thought, what is the Obama Administrations Foreign Policy the region . I dont think it really has one. It is utterly reactive. But then it is hard to imagine what a proactive policy would look like. I mean, what do you do in a place like syria . At least in iraq, there now seems to be an operating coalition against isis, but i think i personally feel militarily, isis is going to be pretty much destroyed in the near future. Is isis is not just it not a Guerrilla Group anymore. It is an idea. I was talking about these young men. Yet millions and millions of young men throw the middle east with no economic futures who are not necessarily religious or even political in any way, but also what you have dropped the region is a kind of builtin resentment against the west. Breeding ground is when to continue on. I dont see how you deactivate that. Amy well, we want to thank you for being with us. Thank you. Amy any word to the wise on how to read this entire issue, which also has a Virtual Reality tour . I dont know. Isis hard to say how it been my baby for your and a half. I dont know how to suggest how to treat it. The it is the story six stories are interwoven and i think maybe to find the stories different stories will resonate with different people. Amy thank you, Scott Anderson, who has written this remarkable total issue of the New York Times magazine called fractured lands how the arab , world came apart. That does it for our broadcast. A very special congratulations todave enders and his wife monica. Sophie grace, welcome to the world. Democracy now is hiring a news producer. Go to democracynow. Org. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ] [soothing instrumental music] [peaceful folk music] we bought 40 acres in 1993 and decided it would be a great place to finally build a home and retire. I am fifth generation. My greatgreatgrandfather homesteaded here. Hup lets go. Lets go. The gates that way. Lets go. What are you waiting on, maya . Hup sara, go on. Go on. We have 300 head of elk that come down out of the high country. Theyre incredibly beautiful. Im a fourthgeneration rancher. When i was little, dad would let me have two cows out of the herd so i could have my own herd. One of my favorite things is the redwing blackbirds. And then its usually, honey, honey, the redwing blackbirds are back, you know. This has been my favorite place ive ever lived in my life, i must say. This, representatives, is on your watch. People have called and complained to every regulatory the house and Senate Considered legislation today directing president bush todays witnesses represent Oil Companies that have made more than 36 billion in profits. 120 a barrel. Now is not the time for there she is. [laughs] we call it our new neighbor. Neighbor 907. We are in a split estate situation where we own the surface and someone else owns the mineral rights. And what happens in colorado, and i think in most western states is, the mineral rights are dominant. The law on mineral extraction goes back hundreds of years thatays the neral owr has a rit extracthat minel and to certainxtent, can exact it and imct the sface withoucompention. We have 70 acres here, and i cant convince them that they need to drill somewhere besides 200 feet from our house. The Energy Policy has been to drill, drill, drill, andrill so more. Theyre a vy stro indust. Theyve got aremendouamount of pitical iluence d an awf lot of ney. As a civil servant, i spoke out, but its difficult to do so, because you feel constantly that youre risking your b and youramilys future oh, yeah, it burns. Yeah, id say. As i sat there and looked out my window into my backyard, l i coulthink wa treno way ian stay o of th. m siing here wh all ofhe rig resources these ople neehelp th is bere any pblems, before wlived inifle. D thenverything anged. [gans] theyre motivated by profits, and unfortunately, theyre motivated by shortterm profits. They dont take the long view. A couple of times i said, you come out here and live. You come out here and live in my house for a week. I have no rights. [sniffles] the Rocky Mountains are seeing an unprecedented boom in oil and gas drilling. Montana, wyoming, colorado, new mexico, utah, thboom is ppening l over theountry there isil and g operatis 32 stat right n, but the Rocky Mountain states are really seeing the vast majority of the expansion. And its overflowing into communities where people are seeing this right in their backyards. Ill show you where they wanted to put this location, one of the first places that they wanted to put it. They just surprise you and say, we have to put a well out there, and you dont have any say in it. A split estate situation is when somebody who owns the surface of their land does not own the resources that are underneath their land, for exame, oil and gas or oer miners. Private rson cou own a use with ld, and e federagovernment or anoth private iividua might own the resources under it. The person who owns the oil and gas has rights to access that oil and gas, which mes that wever ownthe surfe probab cant controwhat happenon their own property. All of a sudden, id just find new stakes out in the middle of my alfalfa field. I believe this stake represent their outer boundary of their pad. Just guessing it would be about 200 feet from our house, which is awful close. cause we say, we dont want the smell, and they say, well, id rather smell a gas well than livestock. And i said, youre crazy. I said, you cant get sick from smelling livestock. You feel so helpless, you know. The split estate is a concept that dates back to when the english king reserved his rights to gold and silver deposits, despite who owned the land. As america was homesteaded, the government continued the tradition of this kind of separate ownership. Dont believe for one minute that anything is offlimits. 150 feet away from your house, one and a half times the length of the derrick, so if it falls over, it wont hit your house. We see this look on peoples faces. They get that look and they say, well, wait a minute. That cant be right. Thats not fair; that cant be. But it is. Thats the way it is. This is an active drilling rig near a small house showing just how close the two can be and how large the pad is. During drilling, a site can cover several acres before it is reduced to a smaller pad for the producing well. For decades, the oil and gas industry has lobbd to cree a regutory clite which s paved e way for thcurrent illing bm. Back in 2000, after the bushcheney election, there was a dramatic acceleration in drilling activity. Both had received large contributions from oil and gas interests, and the vicepresident had been the chief executive of halliburton, a major player in the drilling industry. In 2005, the administrations energy bill passed with support from members of both political parties. It provided the gas and oil industry with billions of dollars in subsidies, tax breaks, and research money. 65 of the current subsidies go to gas and oil, and you have this imbalance. We oughto have 6 or more 80 oughto be going to altertive renewabltechnolo, to energy efficiency. The energy bill makes practical reforms to the oil and gas permitting process to encourage new expration. After years of debate and division, Congress Passed a good bill. Orlyn and i were married in 1988. I was a pharmaceutical chemist for many years. My husband is a Civil Engineer with a specialty in water, and he is retired. A few years ago, we ran into some real problems with the oil and gas industry, because they have begun drilling here. Encana oil and gas contacted us in the early spring of 2004 with the proposal that they would put wells on our land, and the bulldozers showed up one day and began ripping and tearing before we had signed a surface use agreement. We were told that they didnt owe us anything. We were just finished. I suppose you want to go too, huh . Once they bonded on, they began putting a pipeline in across about five of our hay fields. They drilled four wells. These are the two condensate and produced water tanks. The natural gas is immediately piped into a pipeline that goes across our fields, and so its sent off into the pipeline off to either chicago or los angeles. Garfield county, located high in the colorado rockies, was always a quiet, rural area for its resents. But the 199, thingstarted tchange. Gas d oil drling begato boom and development has expanded dramatically each year. When i first came to colorado 27 years ago, thenergy pduction was r o, and athe time at thereas the nthetic els corpation, and was allbout oilhale. Naturagas, thedidnt have pipenes for , and so they were trying to figure out what to do with all the natural gas. They knew there was a lo but there was use fort at the te. Now, naturalas is theiggesthing thatgoing on westernolorad right wherwere standin we had a spill. You can just see over my head here. Weve got the neighbors wells, i dont knowthree, four of them over there and that stack closest to us blew one day. It looked like old faithful had shot off over there. The separator spewed paraffin out all over the pad and on over into a good number of acres of our pasture, and that paraffin was laced with btex chemicals, hydrocarbons of various kinds. We were concerned that it would contaminate in the ditch, and the grasses were heavy and dry and what not, so we just burned the ditch and the hydrocarbons along with it so we wouldnt get it in our ditch water. I think theyll go straight over e hillporque you n see ere they hey, re gng that y we put em south of t po. Ce you g on toof the hl, ba a ver ande esta las otra myreatgrafather ce this vaey probly about845. Anthe ute dians had caured thiyoung gi. Whoa. Sele dow my greatrandfath bought ts girl d later maied her. She s cochit ich woulmake us lf spani and lf nativamerican have over 0,000 acs of ran land ony permit en i useto come here withy dad in the late 40s, early 50s, there wasnt a single not even oneoil and gas well. Now theres i mean, you cant even count them, theres so many. Noco phiips operes about0,000 wes here in the ban, whh is an crediblenumber os to trynd mane a dailyasis. Anso, as simplexample,we dwels anlook at at our wls ould be livering if we spd five mutes per we, takesbout nine nths to gthrough at proce. Everytng belows down he isrmenta canyon. So if you get up on the big harris mesa benches, those benches are just littered with wells, approximately 500 all total. And now with the new well spacings that they approved, they will go from about 500 to about 1,500 within the next 20 years. We drill, it averages about 350 new wells per year. When you take the colorado side and include that, we think that Conoco Phillips has probably another 10,000 wells that wwill dri in the basin overhe next years, y. The shply incrsed drilng on gbert armentas ranch is typical of what has happened to vast expanses of northern new mexico land. A satellite image shows the crisscrossing patterns of access roads and wells extending for hundreds of miles across San Juan County and northwest new mexico. The land surface has been scarred up so bad that i cant recognize it from the first time i saw it. The ranchlands of San Juan County arent the only areas inundated by drilling rigs. In the towns near gilbert armentas land, there are wells everywhere, in neighborhoods and near schools. The gas industry has been here for 50plus years, and we do drill in populated areas. U can gout here couple hundd yards om this fice and fi a produng well. Conocohillips the larst oducer ithe san an bas. Whenou look the tot tween ouworkforcdirectly and then indectly, peopleorking f us, its about ofhe localopulatio so re aery largemployer the basinere. Instry hasrought js and money to the county, but for gilbert armenta, the price has been much too high. This gate would be the gate to enter into my property. The oil company had me completely locked out for 2 1 2 years. The only way they would give me a key to enter my own property is if i agreed to keep the gate locked at all times. The industry has the mentality that its all theirs and dont belong to nobody else. D thats whathey tells when ty come o to drilhere on ourands. s ou. Uren our wa we justhink thgood neibor progm is something that was somewhat elementary. And its just respect, because if you dont, two things will happen. First is t governmt ll regule you, and lot of tes gulate y out of siness. And send is nemexico bomes an unfendly busiss envirment, d oil angas induries go elshere. I dt thk the ste wants at. The oil d gas industry doesnt want that. We have a very large emphasis with our 325 Member Companies about being a good neighbor, about talking to people, about ing the ings thayou would in youreighborhd withour nextoor neigor. When they were doing this pump jack, i wasnt home at the time, and anyway, they brought in this huge rig to put that machine on there. They had already agreed several years before to fence off the old cemetery. My greatgrandfather is buried here and his son, filomeno armenta, who probably died about 1914. When i came down, i saw the portapotty. The portapotty was i said, well, they kind of put the portapotty a little bit too close. And there was a huge pile of gravel right on top of the cemetery. The first thing when we saw it, we were in shock. The markers were sandstone, and one of the markers was an old cedar post. And i havent been able to locate the cedar post or what the heck they did with it. I dont know if they hauled it off as trash. They totally wiped out the cemetery. At my own expense, i came in, and i put this pipe fence to make sure they dont do it again. When i put this fence up, they sent me a letter telling me they were going to sue me. They wanted me to furnish proof that it was there. They had reneged on protecting the cemetery as they promised, and now i dont know where none of the markers are. In the u. S. , in the lower 48 onshore, the boom that is currently going on is dven a lot by tecology. There have beea lot of tecologicaldvances withorizontadrilling th fracture stimulation. One of the key elements to finding and getting the resource out of very tight sand or hard rock is frackinprocess. Rackings just ahort word for fracturin hydraulifracturi, or fracking as its commonly called, is a Drilling Technique first commercialized by halliburton in 1949. It comes in with very highpowered water and sand, and slightlyoapy mixre, and alit does , it goes wn, and it just fractures little tiny fractures in the rock, and then the sand goes into those fractures and allows the gas to escape. And then the gas flows into the pipe and up to the surface and to peoples homes. Hydrlic fracring is larly respoible for the domestic drilling boom. Because of its high cost, it was not widely used until recently, in the 1990s, when the price of natural gas shot up high enough to make it affordable. And really what was not economical over the last 50 years or so is now economic, and it should continue, partularly iprices stayhere theare. This i he are theeserve ps here. Dr. Th colborn one of e worlds ading auorities on eocrinedrupting emicals inhe envirment antheir imct on huns. Do in here the ucks are cong all t way frodelta, whh is 30 les to he. She habeen stuing the emicals ed by thindustry r drilli and extction and domenting eir effes. Basilly our rst listof the cms thatere beg used was th very, vy short and intert that e put togher. Certain wasnt comprehensiv we knew. We fnd out vy rapidl that it s no sma list. Theyont tellou everying thats in product you y only g 5 of whs inhat prodt, and threst of is pprietary or ty just dgive it. They dot ve to. Itwater, a itsand, and its surfacta in oer words buit is so proprtary, beuse eversingle fracng compa, whetr ita slumbej or its a service or its a haiburton, th sell th theirs ishe best oduct, anso its propriary. It would blike dulging, you ow, why yo chocola is bett thanomebody sechocolat beuse you ve those inedients. Oil and s deposi low grou contn toxic mpound thatre broug to the rface ring dlling. Thescompound polle the enronment and n cause heth probls. T the imcts of dllingare ma ee by thehemical oductshat are jected ding thprocess. Colborhas domented over 200 products used in colorado drilling. Over 90 contain chemicals with Adverse Health affects. In each fracking incident, they use approximately 1 million gallons of fluid. Each well can be fracked as much as ten times. Theyre fracked at different depths as ty come hher and gher towardhe surfa. Much owhat are beininjected underground are coming back up and sitting in these huge open pits, almost in peoples backyards. This is condensate produced water. Its the water that comes out of the bottom of the wells that they keep telling us its only water and its safe and it wont hurt you, and its not water. I mean, look at the film it leaves on the plastic, the liners, after they pull it out. This ones been here for three years. And for two years, they misted off of it. They ran a Sprinkler System over the top of it all the time. Thats an attempt to evaporate the water. When they clean it up, they wont take this stuff, all of it out. Theyll just take a track hoe and just start ripping it, put some of the soil in it, thellring in me soilbond and miin it d bury i right ere its settg. There not anyroof tha theres beennything rmful in the fcking flds that are us to fracre the wls. You kn, our flui are notoxic. I know wget a loof i thk theres a lo misundetanding of what actuall in tse fluid i haveracking uid take right ouof a fraing truc in my office. Ive had it in my mouth, ive tasted it, and im just fe. For ople w are telng you thathese products e safe, fit, ask tm at they ve been ained in two, fd out whos pang their sary, and third, actually hand them a real glassful of something thatou have ken from aevaporatn pond, and ask them to drink it. I think its just so important for people to understand that we live here and love it also. So why would we mess in our nest . [laughs] e and hald hoffmster live aoss the ad om the bl farm, surround by an everincasing nuer of naral gas lls. Were ined, acally, slping, and we hrd this p, and en our s called. He said that the well was on fire, and my husband went to try to go outside, and it was too hot on the deck, so he couldnt. The wind was was bwing rig that wa towards r house. And th the fire tcks came but th waited y down, cause the was thing they cld do. Had wait fomost of to burn t d then fmed the rest oit. Yeah so i tnk they re there basicay for ouhomes, you ow, if ty caughtire somethi, u know, one ofur strucres. Indurial accents and spills e common these communies. Tween 20 and 200 its estimad thathere wer1,435 spls in colado. Arly a qrter of ese spills e believ to have ntaminat eith ground surfaceater inhe state evertime, weear this s fi. Itfine. Waiand see. Letwait and see and th some hoible thi ppens, y know . A ttle farer down dryollow ro is the dide cree okay, he we go. Ths ere lisaracken anher fami live. Is is ba ere it w first discored. We got aall one y, april 1s from a ighbor, steve thpson, and heaid, ou know, found se stuffdowneree that dont ok right i thk you shld come lookt d he sai its not normal. See all them bubbles in that water up there, bob . Looks like little fish jumping . Jesus, yes. Thats all gas coming up there. On both his and our properties, there was the evidence of bubbling in the creek. We didnt know what it was. It looked like a pepsi can. There was just an eruption of bubbles fizzing all over the place, in the reeds and in the water. Its percolating all over this field. Theres just thousands. This field is just covered with them. Weve been here 18 years, and this is the first time ive seen anything like this. And its funny. It just started happening the day they started fracking. We notified the epa, dow, the health department, and then we called and notified the state. D so mdad wentown, black cloud, hes of native american heritage, and decided, okay, theyre not listening to us. He waded into the water, and when he did, a cauldron of bubbles just erupted all around him. In an effort to convince authorities that the bubbling was not occurring naturally, lisa and her family demonstrated that the gas would ignite. Oh, yeah, it burns. Yeah, id say. Keep your face out. Yeah, i am. So he lit some of these vents on fire and demonstrated a flame a foot high, a sustainable flame, from some of the things that were coming up in the creek. Water samples taken from the groundwater in the divide creek seep area showed levels of the carcinogen benzene, 48 times government standards. Gas was released into the creek for 55 days before the well believed to have caused the seep was resealed. After they remediated the well, evidence of the seep largely disappeared. Here, went aw. And peps ple, onangegges, itiminishesignifictly, and thes stl me evidee of it ere, t its the ly lingerinpresence this da s contins to bube up at t seeps main et point onepi langgerland. So whathey arerying too containverythin the ntaminatn, ght in aertain aa here. But the is sti benzene toluene in the, and body kno how lon s ing to te, or iever, really, evything is gng to beleared u accordinto a stament prided b thencana cporation nhing thaencana d was out of compliance with the regulations in place at that time. Extensive monitoring following the incident indicates there was no contamination of residential water sources as a result of the seep. An air convection system is in place to remove benzene from the groundwater in the plume area. They come in and they put into the creek a sparging unit, okay. Now, what a sparging unit does, according to what encana says, is it takes the water and it roils it up and it mists it, and e benze, whichs the canccausingngredien it takeshe benze t of theater, and puts in the air [laughs] problem solved. So the people downwind cabreathe stead ofhe peopl downream driing it. They h lost 11million bic feet ogas intohe groun it rs down tthe rive and wn to whe silt pickup its dnking war and whe rifle cks up its inking wer. Yeah, atwhere itoes. Enna was oered to p a fine 371,20 its a pretty spot and, like say he, this ipristineand, basicay, would for somody if someby want toave a lile hideay. Who do you think i uld sellt to . Say, we, yeah, nice, t theres a lile benze ming outf the grnd. [laughs] yeah. Spil and grodwater contamation caoccur anywre theredrilling instry repsentativ often y toownplay their enronmenl impact there s not be e instan in t state onew mexi whe water wacontamated our opetions thatctuall we into a nsumers placof busins or a he. We tk about ining thwater. There hasnt been one drop of water delivered to a consumer for consumption in the 100,000 wells that we drilled in 90 years, ever been polluted or contaminated. The fact that ive heard, and, bob, correct me if im wrong, is that the oil and gas industry has selfreported 900 instances of groundwater contamination since the 90s. Thats selfreported. Are you saying that there has never been an instance where Oil Exploration in new mexico has actually resulted in the contamination of our water supply . That was delivered to the consumer . Yes, thats what im saying. But that wasnt delired to the consumer, that is there underground, youre acknowledging that there has been contamination in those cases . Im not sure if theres been contamination. Im acknowledging that there has been some cases of a concern at oil and gas that has gotten close to a water table or in a water table, but not in a water table thats delivered for consumption. This is colorado matters. Some coloradans who live near oil and gas wells say drilling is making them sick. The recent spike in oil and gas drilling in colorado is having big impa. But thes little infoation out the fect of l at drillg on hum health. 2004, se resides in gareld coun began to complain that they were getting sick as a result of the drilling activities in their neighborhoods. A young woman from silt, laura amos, was one of the earliest and loudest voices. As everyone in this room probably knows, my groundwater has been contaminated with methane, williamsport gas. Theres a lot of people in this room with contamination and pollution issues. So who then is responsible to me for that loss of my welfare if its not you, the Gas Commission . If a well is drilled next to your residence or near your residence within the legal setbacks and theres a perceived or real impact on your property value, we dont address that. In 2001, gas wells were drilled using the fracking technique a mere 500 feet from the amos home. Underground, the drilling breached their water well, causing their Drinking Water to fill with gray sediment and fizz like soda pop. The colorado oil and Gas Conservation Commission tested the water well and found methane but said it was safe. But they warned the amoses to keep a window open so the methane gas wouldnt build up and cause an explosion in their home. The amoses stopped drinking the water but continued to bathe in it. A young woman called me from Garfield County and said that she had developed a rare adrenal tumor, th she hadad thiincident with her well. That was the beginning. I mean, when she called, it just sent chills up and down my spine. She had been breastfeeding her daughter through the period en they re usinghe water th they we told wasafe. Shwas baing her ba the wer in thr home. They were breathing this stuff that was coming into their house. She later found out that a chemical that had been used in the 2001 fracking has been linked to adrenal gland tumors. When she went to encana, they denied using it on that well or any other. Months later, the oil and Gas Commission admitted that it had been used after all. Laura was told her water was safe, but we found out later, they neverested itor 2be. Theyaited unl four yrs after thincide to go ck to e if posbly they cld find me. At wasong gone okshe e to oth people her neiborhood. Shbegan to s anybodylse was hang the kd of heal problemshe had, and th otherbegan teing me aboupeople they hearabout, and i s just amazed at theumbers opeople that re invold. And i thght, th is mayb serious oblem. What igoing on or there . After ars of mnting mecal bis, valuedroperty, andiminiing option lauragreed a monetarsettleme with enca corporion, the coany responble foher proble. Thsettlementtipulad shstop telli her storpublicly whh is w she wasot intervwed for is film. Ny familstories li hers will ner be ld becae of comny settlemts that ruire sence. Anas i sathere a looked out my wdow intoy backrd, l i coulthink wa m tting inlved in is. Ereno way i can st out of is. Anisitting re wi all of e right sources. Ese peopleeed help letgo over onhe trampine. In ste of thwell explion and re, e hoffmeter has ayed in r house, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. Thisind of hps me. It giv me littleore steaness til i cagrab somhing. U know, ey were ing okay as long the rigand that went ere and itas just thworking ll, and u still t whiffs ofmells anthat, ani just cldnbe outsi. Itasnin the hse. Buthen ty broughin the tempary rig, cause th were having pblems withne of thholes, ihink, d thenhe smell l starteup again becausthey we doing thfracking d it alllows ght overere. We h one bacthere bend us. We had t on the de here that we all woing, younow, fling withas, and i t much me ill after thfire. Whater was tre just rned and ca right ame. You kn, it wasike somedy hajust dumd chemicalon me. Filly, iouldnstand anyme, and moay my huand tooke to themergencyoom the hostal. And said, ll, were goi do somelood wor and thenello some xays and cascan. D i said ou know,his is cmical. Thesare chemals. I id, i dt ink youre ing to fd anythi. D he camback, said, ll the tts are incolusive. And i said, i kw. My bodis full chemica, and thas whim ck. Ere is nway a phician can trultreat wh heseeing. Ey have t beeniven the st of thesehemicals at are bng used. En someo comes tohem with me of the look le clinic, ordina disorde, theyeed to d little qstioning becae it cou very we be that it a chemil at they re expos to, anthere mabe a way to tat. But theyangive prer treatnt ifhey not awa of what thesp. Can yoget down i have1 grandks d one grt. Oa oh. [lauing] yeah, theyve bn pretty sk. Thve had colds, asth. The rls havell had lung inftions, nus infeions. Amasthmas real bad. Hs onour different medines. Basically we found that iyou wereo take alof the cmicals thatre used in aarticulastate, alwayshere youee the hight percenge of posble alth effts, is alys skin ritation eye irrition, istering sinus, asthm coughin and thenhis effe called sensitizing, itchy skin, burny skin. Yoknow, is yo health, buiteverythi. Ithow you ve. Youruality olife is jusgone. [laughs] yeah. T i hope i nt ve to mo away. Destill lis on dryollow road shory after is interew, deeson and ughterilaw and thr four cldren moved t of thetate. Whenhey move their spiratorproblems sappeare in004, theush chen administtions Environmental Protection agency asserted that fracturing does not threaten Drinking Water. This was challenged by a 30year epa environmental engineer, weston wilson, acting under protected whistleblower status. The former chairman and ceo of halliburton, dick cheney, wiin a fewonths ofoming into oice as ve present, was preuring thadministtor of e, christieoddwhitma to empt hydrlic fracng fromhe safe inking wat acregulati. From my n point view a technian, i ju thoughtt very arming at epaechnical hadescribe ow toxichese matials are toxiat the pnt of jection, d still me out with summary th says ey dont need toe report or reguted. Thated me, inhe fall o04 to object on technical grounds. Then the Inspector General of epa began an investigation of my complaints. D severamonths io that, congressook the port om epa ying thafracking did nopresent risk, along with oer infortion, and expted hydulic fraing om regulion unr the safe driing water act. That leaves you and i as the American Public in this position we cannot know what the industry injects our lan is exem om beingeported. There e federal ws that ptect our eironment like t clean a act, e clean ter act, the sa drinkinwater ac anit turnsut that e oil and gaindustrys exempt fr very portanprovisio of tse laws. Some othese exptions dateack for cades. Hasnbeen a paisan thi. Therhave been ficials om diffent parti th have suorted exptions for thoil and s indust. What hapns is, liticis from stes wher thes large engy indusy ofn suppormeasureshat are beficial tthe indury. Down the Colorado River about 9 miles to the west of silt is the town of rifle. [speakindistinly] this is en we lived in glenwoo th is befo anythin any prlems, beforee lived rifle. Thiss 1993. ve bn marrie li, 100 year [laughr] im 54, d shes 59. Shes chand. Ss changed souch. Theres a traditional chris picture. Heres a traditional steve picture. In 1993, chris and steve mobaldi decided to leave california to move to colorado. We both got laid off from our work becae we botvolunteed to be la off cause weanted to g out of lifornia move to colorado where it was beautiful and clean air and clean water. They found themselves in Garfield County looking for a new home. Theres chris. Hi hi in 1995, they bought their dream house, a fixerupper in a rural neighborhood outside rifle. It was shortly after chris and steve moved in that drilling rigs began to appear on some of their neighbors land and in the surrounding hills. And then everything changed. Chris would get in the shower, and her skin turned bright red. I think it was in 96. And it hurt. Her skin, it was burning, on fire. She would swell. Steve began to develop symptoms well. d fe dizzy. Id get bloody noses. Why would anyone think that something happening a cole milesown the ad uld possly be caing this hlth chan their by . You e blood sorders, whats called idpathice. Soou get body eyes bldy noses and so bloodn the ure. And number opeople who lled me saidhey had is condion. I waafraid s was nna bleeto dea. Shewake up the morng, anshe woulbe coved in blo. Her se would bbleeding just le crazy, anthe pill was cored withlood. Thsheets were coved witblood. Well aroun50 the chemils cause ch thing kidney mage, cardiovaular proems. Anthen theext and very troublesome are the neurological effects. Chris health began to deteriorate rapidly. She ben losing h sight, had sere headach, and had in in h hands a feet. There were two surgeries to remove a pituitary tumor, and she developed a rare neurological speech impairment. Became creasing difficul for her speak carly. Ive had seral patnts who haveeen havi symptom nce thtime that they re expos to oilnd gas elorati ne their hes. These are all people in a small cluster around rifle. Last year, epa got several citizens requests from Garfield County, and the citizens were saying, gosh, my Drinking Water might be contaminated by this practice, or the air we breathe might be affected. Epa, can you look into it . Epshould he. Myself a anoth staff pson, we hadrepared e letter anwe were ady to wte to the corado oi d gas coission that we lt thathis praice caed emine substtial ris to publidrinking wer srce, and th epa wasonna take ovethe inveigation. Hover, as on as we g that o our potical pointee supeisors, theyancelled th investition. So epa d not invtigate the gitimateomplaint om citens in gareld coun. When thewere drillg, we cou feel itrinding undernth theround, y know, undeour hous d then wed fe these plosions d it wou shake dhes and ttle picres, and itrilled for e longestime. And the pit was even closer, and theyd burn it. They would just flare it off. The wind blew right to our house. If you lived in a rural, residential area and you were in a lowlying area, your hou was in a lowying are that cou accumule ese gase when ty comeff e tank btery ando forth, you may be breathing those for 12 hours a day. Those chemicals again, neurotoxicants. People complained when they stepped out of their automobiles or out of their homes that they got a whiff of some air, they collapsed. They shook. They seemed to have loss of memory, dizziness. In 1997, as chris symptoms were getting worse, a water well near the mobaldis was blown out and contaminated by drilling. According to state records, on september 15, 1997, barrett resources lost well control while drilling the bernklau gas well. Then the Gas Companies came out and told everybody not to drink the water, and they actually started delivering water to us. Then they came back and told us that, your waters safe to drink. So we started drinking the water again. When the exposure is through a water pathway, peop are usuly givenn alteate drinng waterupply. You dont think of it, but there are a lot of sources of water vapor in the house your dishwasher, every time you flush the toilet. And you breathe it i and yoabsorb i rough yo skin. Yourose of the volale organ compoun from t shower ter will be veral times the dose you would have gotten from the Drinking Water. After we started thinking, hmm, somethings not right, put a glass of water out and left it sit overnight, and there was, like, a little oil slick on top. And then [laughing] it burned. And this is the water that they said was safe to drink. She had a high thirst, d it mak her expure quite dierent thaner husbans. T only w she at e house a ch larr fracti of the te he wou go off work but e had a ch higheuse ofhe well ter. Th was furer expose for r. In desperation, chris and steve moved to grand junction, colorado, abandoning their home and a place that had been their dream. We just up and left, you know, the place, and it was valued at 440,000, and we just walked away from it. And she reported that she was somewhat better, byo means od, but, oh,erhaps0 or0 improd beinaway frothat hom anif she wld go ck to retrie some bongings or go visit nghbors thatheyd d in that evious he, e would el sick anfairly qckly. I thk almostll of ou ighborhave mov away, and all the people that occupy the houses now are all people that work for the wells. Crowd noil noas noil youre notbout to compeate peop forull valuof lossof tir p. Ananybody in thiroom that this theres a growg resistce on the pt of peoe who li in the th of drillg. Thereying to us objecto any compy whwill ce in and drive peop ouof the hes at we but with ourwn hands and mes thate have everright toxpect to live ouour daysn. [cheerand applse] i ve to sathat ling with is develment has affeed our les in nrly everway imagable. Th no otherecourse me landowns ha become tivists. Myell was own out in july. Last summer, while you folks probably had air conditioners going on, i had to stay in my house with a respirator on. Well, i was offered a motel for myself, you know, and some food. It doesnt help the situation. We all cant just move into a motel. Theres a lot of us. Its clear that those who do the mineral extraction know the risks of mineral extraction. They dont know the specific health effects, but they know that this is an activity which impacts both the environment and humanity. Theyve known it for many, many years. Its unbelievable that someone says toxic. I mean, the federal government the federal government and the State Government will tell you, that stuff in the pit is not hazardous and not toxic. Well, thats not true. A lot of the chemicals used are proprietary. We dont know. Isnt that the case . No, what is in that pit . What is in that pit is sand, wood chips, drill bits, water, and gel that came out of the hole. And not any of the fracking chemicals . Well, the fracking chemicals go in here. The fracking chemicals are in there and when the fracking much of that waste isnt dredged right back up and put in the pits . Its put in the pit, and its not hazardous by definition of the federal or State Government. Our goal is zero incidents and zerompact on thenvironme, and wre n there, viously. Do havenjuries. We do ve spill buwe try a preventhem, anwe do thbest thawe can. Itnot any re danrous thanalking aoss the ad ywhere. I me, you knowitnot , its not anmore danrous. Is is naral gas. reot talki oil or oil slls. Its naral gas. No, its not y moreangerous [appuse] use bill341 may one of the mt signifant thin at we acmplished in thilegislate sessio reorganed the corado oi and gaconsertion comssion, and we bieve it ings a better bance to e commison so that its not donated by a one interest group. But reonna be sponsibl as we moveorward. We gonna bmindful ofhe impact as the number of drilling applications climb and as the number of impact complaints climb as well. [crowd murmuring [applae] hey, h are youoing . m ok. Yes, i uerstand. Halff the ate of corado or more sits ave a gasearing ze, anso this an issu at wilbe with r manymany yea to come anthe decions that wmake today e going define hothis wilall tranire over theext 20 yrs. Am ioo much on you . Ohno, i coulcarry yo no, wre fe. He come strs, chris. Steps. [sbing] do youeed help to get your gs in, or can y get thein by yoursf . Ails] aww. Williams is going to have to respectfully decline to participate in your project. We struggled with this decision, but we feel like i need to let you know that we transfer all video and radio Media Contacts over to well, i think at this point, no, im not interested, and at this particular point, i dont think there is a story. We do wish you the best in your endeavors, and thank you for your consideration. [soothing instrumental music] seems like a good time to stand up for love in other forms we would do fine to be still in the quiet of our hearts we would do great to come together and listen for the smallest voice and welcome her home with us to safe haven we can be all this and more we can be what we have always dreamed of we can be all this and more we can be what we have always dreamed of yes, we can