Collection of phone records is illegal. We will speak with Jameel Jaffer. What will congress do . Then to guantanamos child. Public has been so much better than anticipated. Amy the 28yearold canadian born omar khadr has been freed on bail. He was detained when he was just 15. He became the first person since world war ii to be prosecuted and a war crimes tribunal for acts committed as a juvenile. With the Obama Administration asking congress to increase funding for Charter Schools by him is 50 , a new study by the center for media and democracy finds the federal government has spent 3. 3 billion feelings a Charter School industry already. Where has the money gone . All that and more coming up. Amy welcome to democracy now democracy now. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The court of appeals has rolled the nsas collection of bulk phone records is illegal. In a unanimous decision on thursday, a threejudge panel called the phone records collection unprecedented and unwarranted. The ruling comes as Congress Faces a june 1 deadline to renew the part of the patriot act that authorizes the nsas bulk data surveillance. We will have more on this story after headlines. The Justice Department has confirmed it will investigate the Baltimore Police department for a potential pattern of unconstitutional policing in the wake of the death of freddie gray. It comes one day after a request from such a probe by Baltimore MayorStephanie Rawlings blake. Six officers were indicted on friday. Attorney general Loretta Lynch said the federal government has a responsibility to look into potential abuses. When there are allegations of wrongdoing made against Police Officers and police departments, the department of justice has a responsibility to examine the evidence and help them implement change. Amy Justice Department reviews of other Police Forces nationwide have led to consent decrees that mandate change. Nike will create 10,000 jobs in the United States if the Transpacific Partnership trade deal is approved. It is being negotiated in secret. Critics say the deal would hurt workers, undermine regulations and expand corporate partner power. Nike says it would allow the company to invest in domestic production. Workers rallied against the tpp in portland, oregon. The group public citizens said that is obama tries to sell impact that many will leave believe foot lead to more u. S. Jobs off shoring, why would he honor a firm that produces an offshore sweatshops with rockbottom wages and terrible labour conditions . Britains conservative party has won an unexpected victory for an overall majority in parliament and a second term for david cameron. Pulls expected a tight race, but conservatives scored a series of surprise wins. Labours ed miliband is widely expected to step down. The Scottish National party won seats. Saudi arabia has proposed a fiveday ceasefire in yemen to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid. The saudi kingdom said it will only comply if Houthi Rebels also comply. The saudi bombing has helped worsen the humanitarian crisis in yemen. Secretary of state john kerry welcomed the proposal. Today, we particularly welcome a new Saudi Initiative to try to bring about a peaceful resolution through the announcement of their intent to establish a full, fiveday renewable ceasefire no bombing, no shooting, no repositioning of troops. Amy houthi sources they say they will comply. The senate has approved legislation that would give congress a say in the final nuclear deal with iran. The measure calls for a Senate Review of a final agreement and a potential congressional vote on blocking the listing lifting of sanctions. Democratic senator ben cardin praised the bill. Senator cardin we understand that we are stronger when we find ways to work together. We did. The proper role for congress. We are one step closer to getting this bill done. I believe we are closer to being able to prevent iran from becoming a Nuclear Weapons state. We would like to do that through diplomatic means. That is a much more likely result is a result of the action the United States senate has taken. Amy president obama is expected to sign the bill if the house gets final approval. The u. S. Has begun training syrian rebel fighters as part of a program aimed at confronting the selfproclaimed islamic state. A group of 90 rebels are training at a base in jordan to be followed by similar efforts in turkey, cutter qatar, and saudi arabia. We are announcing that combat training has begun for a companysized group from new syrian forces. This program is critical and complex. We expect a second group to begin training in the next few weeks. They are being trained and equipped to fight isil. That is the purpose and the basis upon which they are being vetted and trained. Amy omar khadr has been released on bail from a canadian prison. The torontoborn khadr was detained in 2002 in afghanistan before being transferred to guantanamo at the age of 16. He became the first person since world war ii to be prosecuted and a war crimes tribunal for acts committed as a juvenile. After eight years at guantanamo he confessed to throwing a grenade that killed an american soldier. The lawyers his lawyers say his statements were illegally obtained. Khadr briefly spoke with reporters after his release. Omar khadr i would like to thank the canadian public for trusting me and giving me a chance. It might be some time, but i will prove to them that i am more than what they thought of me. I am a good person. What do you want the American People to thank . To think . Omar khadr um. I am sorry for the pain i might have caused the families of the victims. There is nothing i can do about the past, but i hope that the future i hope i can do something about the future. Amy he will remain free while he appeals his war crimes convictions in the United States. The global level of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere has topped 400 parts per million for the longest time in recorded history. The milestone was reached on average for the entire month of march. The 400 parts per million threshold has been an important marker in u. N. Climate change negotiations, widely recognized as a dangerous level that could drastically worsen humancaused global warming. The news comes as the republicancontrolled House Science Committee has voted to cut over 320 million in funding for the study of climate change. The money would come out of the budget for nasas Earth Science research. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has unveiled a plan to raise the pay of the states fast food workers. He said taxpayers are subsidizing the industrys low wages through public assistance to its low workers. I announced today, as the governor of the state of new york, that i want to get out of the hamburger business. I dont want the taxpayers of new york subsidizing the profits of mcdonalds anymore. This has to end. [applause] i think the fast Food Industry should live up to the spirit of the law and pay him minimum wage that is truly a minimum wage and a livable wage. I think the situation is a fraud. I think their profits are made on based on unpaid wages and employee expenses and costs that have been improperly transferred to government. And if the Republican Senate does not want to hear it, then i will use the power i have. Amy the jailed Army Private Chelsea Manning has proposed legislation that would help future whistleblowers follow in her footsteps. The National Integrity and free speech protection act would amend several laws, including the freedom of information act and espionage act, to protect soldiers journalists and their sources. Chelsea manning is serving a 35 year sentence for leaking cables do wiki links wikileaks. Welcome to all of our viewers and listeners around the country and the world. A federal Appeals Court has ruled the National Security agencys phone records is illegal. Collection of phone records is illegal. The aclu filed its lawsuit based largely on snowdens revelations. In a unanimous decision, a threejudge panel called the bulk phone records collection unprecedented and unwarranted. Judge gerald lynch wrote that the government does not even suggest that all of the records sought our rep relevant to anything. In a concurring opinion, judge robert sack wrote that considering the issue of advocacy in the context and the leak by Edward Snowden that led to the litigation, calls to mind and disclosed Daniel Ellsberg that gave right to the legendary pentagon papers litigation. Amy thursdays ruling comes as Congress Faces a june deadline. Another measure called the usa freedom act would lead to limited reforms of some nsa programs if asked. For more, we turn to Jameel JafferDeputy Director of the aclu. His new article for slate is called, flip the patriot acts kill switch let the worst parts of the law die. Welcome back to democracy now talk about the significance of the court ruling. Jameel it is a very important ruling. It is something that we have been working for for two years. This is a lawsuit under which the nsa is collecting information about every phone call made in the United States. The nsa has a record of who you called and how long you spoke to them and at what time you called. It is an immense amount of information. They are collecting and not only about suspected terrorists and criminals, but everybody in the country. We challenged that program right after the first snowden disclosures in june 2013. It has been winding its way through the courts. Yesterday, we got this decision from a unanimous federal Appeals Court in new york and the opinion says that the call Records Program is not authorized. The patriot act is very broad but even that has its limits. The government has gone beyond the limits. It is significant, not only because of the ruling stands, if it is not overturned, it will end the call Records Program. The same program it is relying on to justify the call Records Program, it is using to justify other programs. This will require the government to reconsider other programs. Juan isnt this a major vindication by a federal Appeals Court of the actions of Edward Snowden . If snowden had not come forward this court case would not have even possibly reached this level. Jameel that is exactly right. We would not be having this debate without the snowden disclosures and we would not have been able to get the ruling. There were judicial decisions, even before the snowden disclosures, relating to the disclosures. The programs. It all happened behind closed doors. Because of the snowden disclosures, we were able to have adversarial review of the programs for the first time. That is one of the things the court noted yesterday. They said that the ruling was based, in part, on the fact that there was adversarial review. Amy this is Edward Snowden in the first video interview he did with Glenn Greenwald at the guardian. Even if you are not doing anything wrong you are being watched and reported. The storage capability of the systems increases every year, consistently, by orders of magnitude, to where it is getting to the point that you dont have to have done anything wrong. You simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody, even by a wrong call and then they can use the system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you have ever made. Every friend you have ever discussed something with. They can attack you on that basis to derive suspicion from an innocent life and taint anyone in the context of a wrongdoer. Amy that is Edward Snowden. Judge gerard e. Lynch wrote that the sheer volume of information sought is staggering, while search warrants and subpoenas for Business Records may encompass large volumes of paper documents or electronic data the most expansive evidentiary or he demands are dwarfed by the volume of records obtained pursuant to the orders in question here. Jameel jaffer, can you comment on this. Section 215. Does that include section 215a . Jameel it is the same thing. Amy what does this mean . As early as yesterday morning, the Senate Majority leader was talking about how they were not going to change this. Jameel i think he is still talking about that. We get this decision in the middle of this congressional debate. The reason we are having the debate is that three provisions of the patriot act, they will go away unless congress does something. We think they should go away and that the provisions should never have been enacted in the first place. At the very least, congress should make strong reforms to prevent the kinds of abuses we have been talking about. In congress, there is a real split. Some legislators, including the Senate Majority leader, want to extend section 215 in its existing form and to allow this kind of mass surveillance to continue indefinitely. There are pro privacy legislators who would like to scale back section 200 15 in some ways. As i said, we have been calling for a son that of 200 and sunset of 215. The reforms on the table now do not go nearly far enough. Juan the court not only ruled this illegal, but said that congress is free, if it so chooses, to enact laws that would make this legal. Jameel that is right. The court said we had argued both on statuary grounds and constitutional grounds. We set, this is not authorized by the statute and even if it is the constitution does not allow it. The court basically said this statute does not allow it. Congress, if you want to pass a statute that allows it, go for it, but we will have to consider whether it is constitutional if you do that. Amy republican president ial hopeful marco rubio addressed the nsa surveillance. Perception has been created that the United States government is listening to your phone calls or going through your bills as a matter of course. That is absolutely categorically false. The next time any politician, whatever it may be, stands up and says the u. S. Government is listening to phone calls or going through your phone records, they are lying. It is just not true. Amy lying . Jameel this is very frustrating. What senator rubio is doing is creating a straw man. Nobody is saying that the program is about listening to phone calls. It is about tracking phone calls, who you call and when you call them. That kind of information is very sensitive. It is one of the things the Second Circuit acknowledged. The government says it is not content, but that does not mean it is not sensitive. The government can track your political beliefs, your religious beliefs, your medical history, your intimate relationships. There is very little the government cannot find out by tracking your phone calls over a significant period of time. Juan what is the likelihood of the Obama Administration seeking to appeal this to the Supreme Court . Jameel it is difficult to know. It is so tied up with what is going on in congress. I think what happens next in the litigation is going to turn in part on what happens in congress. If they reauthorize section 215 i would expect that the Intelligence Community would want to appeal this and asked the Supreme Court to review the decision. It is a little bit hard to say. Amy how does this relate to the usa freedom act. Jameel the usa freedom act is a response to the june 1 sunset that is impending. Usa freedom is an effort to scale back section 215. The bill includes many worthwhile aspects. There are many good things about it. Its reforms are very limited. Its proponents concede that the reforms are limited. Its champions include senator leahy and senator wyden who have been privacy reformers from the beginning. They have had to make a lot of concessions to the Intelligence Community to keep the administration on board. The bill is now fairly weak. We are hoping the decision we got yesterday will change the dynamic on the hill and create the possibility that that reform bill become stronger. Juan i want to ask you about president obamas comments in 2013, shortly after president obama reveal that the nsa was engaged in this collection. Obama refuted snowdens claim at that time. When it comes to telephone calls, nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That is not what this program is about. As was indicated, what the Intelligence Community is doing is looking at phone numbers and durations of calls. They are not looking at names and they are not looking at content. But by sifting th