Difficult to ignore the topic of refugees. This is an image of a refugees experience fleeing communist vietnam in 1975. In many ways, it reminds us of images that we might see on the news today. Its hard to ignore the human stories of families perishing at sea. Refugees are suffocating in meat trucks. Theyre crowding onto leaky boats. Theyre drowning the bodies of those unable to cross to safety are washing up on mediterranean beaches. Refugees have been in the news for the past few years, particularly related to the crisis in syria, but refugees are being uprooted by conflict all around the world. So were not just talking about refugees coming from syria, but from other wartorn regions. Especially in the last couple years, it has been very difficult to ignore the public response to refugees. Refugee resettlement has become a polarizing topic. On one hand, opposition to refugees has been fierce and even hostile. Politicians at the local, state, and federal level have linked refugees to
The Bush Administration pursued a policy of detainee mistreatment that since has been acknowledged to include torture of detainees. And the process that got the United States of america into a place where it was torturing detainees was a Legal Process that was full of mistakes and failures by the office of Legal Counsel at the department of justice by mr. Bybee, by mr. Mr. Hugh and by following them mr. Bradbury. Lets start with just a word on the office of Legal Counsel. Within the department of justice, the office of Legal Counsel is seen as being the best of the best. The department of justice prides itself on attracting and training and perfecting the skills of the best lawyers in america. And as a United States attorney, i had the privilege of serving with a lot of absolutely spectacularly skilled lawyers and trial advocates just in the small rhode island u. S. Attorneys office and of working with others from the department of justice. And i have just a very, very high opinion of
Ukraines foreign mip bester is denying any pressure took place during the july 25th phone call between donald trump and the president of ukraine emphasizing that ukraine prizes close relations and open lines of communication no matter who the american president is. That should not surprise you since ukraine relies on the u. S. For military aid. Picking a fight with the american president , no matter who that is, would not be wise for them. Also ukrainian president zelensky is going to meet on the sidelines with trump this week. Were going to talk more about that. First i want to take you back. I want to take you back a year ago last july when abcs Andrea Mitchell had a conversation with dan coates who was the director of national intelligence. I do want to say we have some breaking news. The white house has announced on twitter that Vladimir Putin is coming to the white house in the fall. Say that again. You Vladimir Putin did i hear you . Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thats going to be spec
rendered our democracy dysfunctional. they have made it so compromise any republicans who tries to do what elected officials in a democracy must do which is making compromises and give some and take some. they made that her sayhersay. when john boehner left, he says the kamir rouge is in charge now. the most he said they re radical libertarians, i hate those people. that s when he was primary by the koch network. he came around and vent to their will as we saw mayor garland refusing of the hearing of the supreme court. this is a long game operation.
figures who we believe are stonewalling us about a possible and imminent new attack on the homeland. are these legal? how many people knew these practices were going on? they were authorized, vetted to the most senior levels of the national security community. secretaries of state and defense, the attorney general, and, of course, the vice president and the president. they knew, the vice president and the president? yes. they knew about the program. in fact, the bush administration takes the position that the exquisite torture techniques of the kamir rouge and the japanese and the koreans during world war ii are not torture when done by americans after 9/11 specifically because americans studied these techniques and