Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20160324

Attack there is impacting the u. S. President ial race. We cannot throughout everything we know about what works and what doesnt and start torturing people. What donald trump, ted cruz, and others are suggesting is not only wrong, it is dangerous. Safe. L not keep us today, Glenn Greenwald for the hour on Hillary Clinton, donald trump, brazil, brussels, and the fbi apple fight over encryption. All of that and more coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In arizona, voters are calling on Maricopa County recorder Helen Purcell to resign, following widespread accusations of Voter Suppression during tuesdays primary election. At multiple polling sites, voters waited in massive lines that topped more than five hours. Some sites also ran out of ballots. The voting fiasco comes after Maricopa County, which contains the city of phoenix, cut the number of polling places from more than 200 sites to only 60. On wednesday, dozens of voters gathered outside the county Elections Office to call for purcells resignation. Local voter virginia gallegos spoke out. What about the elderly people that were standing in line for four hours . There were two people behind me that stood there for 4. 5 hours and they were close to getting their ballots, but they could not hold out any longer. They just gave up and left. The people in front of us also did not get their ballots. Ok, so this is what you call democracy . I call it Voter Suppression. Amy more than 80,000 people have signed a petition calling on the Obama Administration to investigate voter fraud in tuesdays election. Democratic president ial candidate Bernie Sanders held a News Conference wednesday, calling the Arizona Election a disgrace. In the United States of america, democracy is the foundation of our way of life. People should not have to wait five hours to vote. What happened yesterday in arizona is a disgrace. I hope that every state in this country learns from that and learns how to put together a proper election or people can come in and vote in a timely manner and then go back to work. The Hillary Clinton one democratic primary in arizona. Belgium has entered its second day of mourning following , tuesdays bombing attack targeting the Brussels Airport and a crowded subway station near the headquarters of the european union. Isil has taken responsibility for the attacks, which killed at least 31 people and injured over 230. The bombings took place just days after authorities arrested salah abdeslam, a suspect in the november paris attacks that killed 130 people. On wednesday, authorities named two belgiumborn brothers with former criminal convictions, ibrahim and khalid el bakraoui, as suspects in the suicide bombings. The turkish president said Ibrahim El Bakraoui was deported last your from turkey and that built him subsequently ignored a warning that the man was militant. And manhunt is still underway for a third suspect. In yemen, as many as 50 people have been killed in u. S. Airstrike, making it the deadliest single attack by the United States in yemen in the last five years. The pentagon says the strike hit an al qaeda Training Camp in yemens southeast on tuesday. Local medics say the attack struck the camp as people were cued up for the dinner line. Tuesdays attack was at least the sixth u. S. Airstrike in yemen this year. The intercept has revealed that the Justice Department is investigating blackwater founder erik prince for possible Money Laundering, ties to chinese intelligence, and attempts to broker military services to foreign governments. Prince is currently the chairman of Frontier Services group, an aviation and Logistics Firm specializing in shipping in africa. But documents obtained by the intercept show that prince has also set up Shell Companies to offer Paramilitary Services to at least a halfdozen african nations, including libya. Both the u. S. And the u. N. Ave imposed a series of restrictions on military dealings in libya. Prince is also suspected of attempting to open chinese Bank Accounts to move money for his libyan associates. A former intelligence official told the intercept Money Laundering for libyan officials using a chinese bank that is the issue that pushed it over the edge. Well have more on this story with journalist and intercept cofounder Jeremy Scahill friday on democracy now facing isis in facing increasing questions about the u. S. Troop presence in iraq, following the death of Staff Sergeant louis cardin and the revelations of a newly disclosed u. S. Base in northern iraq. Unnamed pentagon officials told the Washington Post that there are currently about 5000 u. S. Soldiers in iraq, a far higher number than previously reported. The u. S. Troop level in iraq is supposed to be officially capped at 3870. But u. S. Military spokesman colonel steve warren said people come through on a temporary basis and go above and beyond the force cap all the time. The House Foreign Affairs Committee Held hearings wednesday on the Obama Administrations plans to close guantanamo. The scheduled hearing came only one day after the attacks in brussels. During the hearings, paul lewis, the Defense Department special envoy for guantanamo closure, said u. S. Allies have repeatedly called closing the military prison the greatest single action the u. S. Can take to fight terrorism. As with our military leaders, foreign leaders regularly cite the guantanamo detention facility as an obstacle to counterterrorism efforts. In my written statement, i cite several statements. Cliff sloan noted an example. As a highly wrecking security official from one of our staunchest allies on counterterrorism, once told me, the greatest single action the United States can take to fight terrorism is to close guantanamo. Amy North Carolina governor pat mccrory has signed a new sweeping bill banning local governments from passing laws prohibiting discrimination against lgbt people in public accommodations. The bill comes after charlotte, North Carolina, passed an ordinance protecting the right of transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. The new statewide law hb 2, not , only blocked charlottes ordinance, but it will prohibit all local governments from passing similar antidiscrimination measures. North Carolina Legislature convened an emergency session wednesday to push through the bathroom bill which passed both , the house and senate, despite the fact that Senate Democrats walked out in protest of the bill. Senate democratic leader dan blue issued a statement saying this is a direct affront to equality, civil rights and local autonomy. On wednesday, transgender activist lara americo spoke out. The true emergencies and North Carolina are subpar public schools, the need for clean Drinking Water. This special session is hindering my rights as a transgender woman and the rights of the lgbt community. Charlottesenry ability to govern itself. This is not how taxpayers moneys should be spent. This comes as a 32yearold transgender woman Kourtney Yochum was shot and killed on wednesday in downtown los angeles. The head of the housing complex where yochum lived said im heartbroken. Everybody loved her. She was very popular. This comes after at least two transgender women were murdered in february. Last year, more than 20 transgender women were murdered, the highest number on record. Meanwhile, a new report by Human Rights Watch says the u. S. Immigration and detention Enforcement Agency is failing to protect transgender women who are detained in ice custody as they apply for asylum in the United States. The report says transgender women have been routinely held in mens detention facilities where they face Sexual Assault and abuse from both male detainees and guards. Many of the transgender women interviewed for the report said they were seeking asylum in the United States in the first place because they had experienced Sexual Assault and transphobia in their home countries. Morocco has expelled United Nations staffers from Western Sahara. The move comes after u. N. Secretarygeneral ban kimoon used the term occupation to describe moroccos relationship to Western Sahara during a recent visit to the region. The expulsion of the u. N. Staffers puts at risk the ceasefire between morocco and the sahrawi peoples polisario front. The sahrawi demanded independence ever since morocco took over most of Western Sahara in 1975. In news from the ongoing water contamination crisis in flint, michigan, an independent panel has slammed michigan governor rick snyders administration for intransigence, unpreparedness, delay, inaction, and environmental injustice. The report explicitly accuses Governor Snyders administration of failing to respond to the crisis of lead poisoned water because flint is a majority africanamerican city. The water crisis began when flints unelected emergency manager, appointed by Governor Snyder switched the source of , the citys Drinking Water from the detroit system to the corrosive flint river. The water corroded the citys aging pipes, causing poisonous levels of lead to leach the Drinking Water. To see our recent extended interview with flint activists Nayyirah Shariff and melissa mays, go to democracynow. Org. As well as to see our documentary when we were in flint, thirsty for democracy. In new york, Brooklyn District Attorneys Office has said it will not seek prison time for former new York Police Officer peter liang, who was convicted of seconddegree manslaughter in the Fatal Shooting of 28yearold unarmed African American akai gurley. His conviction carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, but brooklyn District Attorney ken thompson instead recommended the officer perform community service, be confined to his home for six months, be on probation for five years. In response, the family of akai gurley said officer liang recklessly had his gun out and pulled the trigger that night, took no steps to assist akai as he lay dying, and because of that our family has lost akai forever. The District Attorneys inadequate recommendation diminishes what peter liang did. It diminishes akais death. Protests are planned for outside the Brooklyn District Attorneys Office for noon today. And inside the superdome in new orleans, hundreds of protesters noisily disrupted a government auction of oil and gas drilling rights in the gulf of mexico. The government was attempting to auction off 43 million acres of offshore drilling rights. Cherri foytlin of idle no more gulf coast spoke out during the protest. I am here with 200 brave souls that are saying no. Maybe 1000 people, i dont know. It is the most amazing thing to see all of these people stand together for selfdetermination. Industries, you are on your way out. It is done. It is over. Byebye. Amy and those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and , peace report. I am amy goodman with her mean shaikh. Nermeen welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. We begin in brazil, which is facing its worse political crisis in over two decades as opponents of brazilian president Dilma Rousseff attempt to impeach her on corruption charges. But rouseff is refusing calls to resign, saying the impeachment proceedings against her amount to undemocratic attempts by the rightwing opposition to oust her from power. On wednesday, former brazilian president , Luiz Inacio Lula da silva, called the impeachment proceedings against rousseff an attempted coup detat. Lula, who was indicted last month on corruption charges, spoke at a trade union event in sao paulo. The current attempt against dilma is a coup. This country cannot accept a coup against dilma. If theres one last thing i could do my life, it would be to help dilma turn this country around with the decency the brazilian public deserves. Amy last week, a judge suspended rousseffs appointment da silva to a cabinet post. Rousseff says lula will help strengthen her government but critics see his appointment as a bid to protect him from what lula says are politically motivated charges of Money Laundering. The judge who blocked lulas appointment had recently posted photos of himself on socl media marching in an antigovernment protest. Lula and president rousseff are both members of the leftleaning Workers Party. On tuesday, brazils president rousseff said she would not resign under any circumstances. Those who called me to resign show the fragility of their conviction of the process of impeachment. Because above all, they are trying to instate a coup detat against our democracy. I can assure you that i will not cooperate with this. I will not resign for any reason whatsoever. I have not committed any crime under the constitution and law to justify an interruption to my mandate. To condemn someone for a crime they did not commit is the greatest violence that can be committed against any person. It is a brutal injustice. It is illegal. I was victim to this injustice once under the dictatorship, and i fought to never be a victim again under democracy. Amy in recent weeks, mass protests have occurred in brazil calling for president rousseff to resign. The people are tired. The people dont want this president. This Workers Party, this gang in power anymore. This gang which only steals and conceals its illicit actions. The people are tired. Lula deserves to be in jail. That is what he deserves. Amy well, for more, we are joined by Glenn Greenwald, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist based in brazil. He has been covering brazil closely for the intercept. His recent piece is called, brazil is engulfed by ruling class corruption and a dangerous subversion of democracy. Glenn greenwald writes this is a campaign to subvert brazils democratic outcomes by monied factions that have long hated the results of democratic elections, deceitfully marching under an anticorruption banner, quite similar to the 1964 coup. In a moment, were going to be talking with Wayne Greenwald about the attacks in brussels as well as the president ial elections here in the United States and the battle between apple and the u. S. Government over encryption. The right now, we are starting with brazil. Glenn, there is very little attention in the United States and the Mainstream Media about what is taking place in brazil. President obama is right nextdoor in argentina, but can you talk about what is happening in the country you live in in brazil . Definitely. It is a little odd that such extreme levels of political instability have received relatively little attention given that brazil is the fifth most populous country in the world. It is the eighth largest economy. And whatever happens there will have reverberations for all sorts of markets and countries, including the United States. Brazil ision in actually fairly complicated, much more so than the small amount of Media Attention devoted to it in the u. S. Has adjusted. The Media Attention in the u. S. Has suggested it is the people by the millions rising up against a corrupt government and sort of depicting it as the hero it population against a corrupt leftwing virtually to radical regime. In a lot of ways, that is an oversupply vacation and in a lot of ways it is simply inaccurate. Let me make a couple of key points. First of all, it is the case that the brazilian Political Class and the highest level of its economic class are rife with very radical corruption. That has been true for a really long time. What has happened is that brazils Police Agencies have matured. Brazil is a very young democracy. It only exited military dictatorship in 1985. You finally have the maturation of these institutions applying the rule of law. Or the first time, political and economic elites are being held accountable for very serious political and economic corruption. The corruption is pervasive in essentially every influential political faction in brazil, including all political parties. That includes the Workers Party, the Leftwing Party of lula d andilma the current president , but even to a greater extent, the opposition parties on the center and the right that are trying to replace it. So corruption is very real. There is a very there has been what has been until recently an impressive judicial investigation that has resulted in the arrest and prosecution of some of the countrys richest and most powerful figures, something that you would never see in the United States. Billionaires being hauled off to jail for bribery and Money Laundering and tax evasion and corruption, and sentenced to many years in prison. And virtually, every political opponent of president rousseff is implicated by this corruption, and many of the people in her party are as well. The hour any of this widespread thisption irony of widespread corruption is president rousseff herself is really the only significant politician or one of the only significant politicians in result not to be implicated in any sort of corruption scheme with the objective of personal enrichment. Everyone around her, including those trying to bring her government down an accuser of corruption and in future is implicated very seriously in schemes of corruption for personal enrichment. She essentially is one of the only people who isnt implicated that way. The problem is, at the same time as you have this massive corruption investigation, you also have an extremely severe economic recession as a result of lowering gas prices and contraction in china and a variety of other factors. Up until very recently, of until 2008, 2010, brazils economy was booming. The people of that country, including the poorest, thought that their prospects were finally improving, that the promise of brazil to become this developed power in the world was finally coming to fruition. Millions of people were being lifted out of poverty. What this recession has done has been to essentially reverse all of that and to reimpose future massive suffering, borne primarily by brazils lower and working classes. There is an enormous amount of this anger toward president rousseff and toward her Workers Party over the suffering that the people in brazil are experiencing. What you have is this corruption andme an investigation scandal at the same time is great economic suffering. In brazil, there are really rich and powerful factions who have long hated lula and dilma and the leftwing Workers Party who have not been able to defeat them at the ballot box. The Workers Party has won quadra Street National elections going back to 2002 when lula was first elected. Theyre using extremely powerful medium dust Media Institutions, by far and away the dominant most powerful Media Institution in brazil r by extremely concentrated wealthy families, are using this Corruption Scandal or using the anger toward the government to try and rile up people and essentially remove the Workers Party and president Dilma Rousseff from power. Really, because they cannot beat her at the ballot box, but theyre trying to latch on this Corruption Scandal to the discontent that people feel because of the economic suffering. So there is a validity to the Corruption Scandal into the investigation even aimed at the Workers Party, but at the same time, what you are now saying is, unfortunately, the judiciary working with the plutocrats of brazil to try and achieve a result that really is a subversion of democracy, which is exploiting the scandal to remove president rousseff from power through impeachment, even though there really are no grounds of impeachment that would be legal or valid as a means of removing her from office. Nermeen one of the points you make in the article is that, and i am quoting you, brazils extraordinary political of people shares some similarities with the truckled political chaos in the u. S. Could you explain what you mean by that . What i essentially mean is in the u. S. , there is political of people in a sense of the political order has been largely overturned. The people who have been in control of and running the republican party, which are largely moneyed interests, have completely lost control of the political apparatus. They pour huge amounts of money first into jeb bush and then marco rubio. Typically, those factions get their way. And in this particular instance, they have not, and you have this kind of political outsider who has been rejecting all kinds of political orthodoxies, breaking every political rule, who is looking closer and closer to becoming the nominee of the republican party. And potentially after that, the president of the United States. And done so in a way that has unleashed all kinds of instability and very dangerous and dark sentiment in the United States. In brazil, the instability is far greater. I was just writing for an american audience, trying to get them to understand the level of instability by saying that what is happening in brazil is much greater in terms of the disruption than what is happening as a result of Donald Trumps successful candidacy, because it pervades a must every economic and Political Institution almost every comic and Political Institution. What you see is this young democracy in brazil that is now being threatened as a result of this really opportunistic and explicate of attack on the part of the countrys richest Media Outlets and richest factions to essentially undo the results of four consecutive democratic elections by trying to remove democratically elected president. She was just reelected in 2014. On totally fictitious grounds of pretext. It is quite dangerous once you thet sort of undermining fundamentals of democracy in the way that is currently taking place in brazil. Amy this is interesting that today president obama is in argentina and it was as cabal who won the nobel prize, peace prize, who said he welcomed obama but thought that the american president should not be going to argentina on march 20 arch 24th because that day in 1976, 40 years ago, the military staged a coup, human Rights Groups estimate Something Like 30,000 people were killed or disappeared in that coup that followed for the next seven or so years. Quivel said i am a survivor of the death and torture, the. Risons of the exiles and he said, when you analyze the situation and debt, the u. S. Was responsible for the coups in latin america. What parallels, if any, do you see . Petrobras inout the role it is playing in all of this comes the state oil company in brazil. You cant really understand latin american politics in general and the ongoing instabilities and difficulties that almost every country in south america is still plagued by without talking about a central role the United States has continuously played for desk at last decade and trying to control that part of the hemisphere. In brazil, like in so many other countries, that a democratically elected government. In early 1960s, which the United States disliked because it was a leftwing government, not a communist government but a leftwing government that was devoted to the distribution of wealth or social welfare, for opposing the United States capitalistic interests and attempts to interfere in brazil. In 1964, they staged a coup that overthrew the democratically elected government. It proceeded to impose on brazil a really brutal military dictatorship that served the interests of the United States, without light of the United States for the next 21 years. Of course, the time, the u. S. Government, u. S. Officials before congress and in the public eye, vehemently denied that they played any role in that coup. It is happened so many times in the past. Documents ultimately emerged years later that showed that not only was the u. S. Supportive of that coup, but played a direct role in helping to plot it and planet and stage it and then profit that dictatorship for 21 years. That dictatorship used very extreme torture techniques on the nations dissidents, on the brazilian citizens who were working to undermine that rightwing military dictatorship. Among whom was the current president Dilma Rousseff, who in the 1970s, was a guerrilla essentially working against the u. S. Supported military dictatorship. She was detained and imprisoned without trial, and then tortured brother severely. And the documents have revealed that it was the u. S. And the u. K. That actually taught the military leaders that best types of torture techniques to use. And so what you have now is not really a repeat of the 1964 coup. It is that really responsible to say it is identical to what is taking place because the impeachment against dilma is proceeding under the constitution which does provide for the impeachment. Theres an independent judiciary involved in the proceedings. If you go back a look at 1964 with that coup, the leading Media Outlets in brazil that also hated the leftwing government because it was against their oligarchical interest, justified and supported back to and if he did it as just depicted it as necessary to uproot corruption in this leftwing government. Yet the same media factions, global and the families who own it and other Media Outlets that still persisted today, agitating in favor of the coup and ultimately supporting the military dictatorship. So you have similarities in terms of the antidemocratic processes that work that prevailed in 1964 and throughout latin america and so many other years where the United States was at the center of. As far as petrobras is concerned, it is the brazilian owned oil company. It has become crucial to brazils economic growth. Because as oil prices increased and as brazil found huge amounts of oil reserves, it was anticipated that petrobras would essentially be the engine of brazils economic growth. It started being drowned in profits. The scandal, the Corruption Scandal has put her bra the center because it largely paying bribesbras to various Construction Companies that they would essentially hire private Construction Companies to build various platforms and other infrastructure for petrobras for Oil Exploration and that would essentially pay far more than what the contract really called for and they would then be there would be kickbacks to the company and to the politicians who control petrobras. And that really is what this Corruption Scandal was triggered by, was the discovery of huge numbers, huge amounts, talking about millions and millions of dollars in kickbacks and bribes to the politicians in virtually every significant party in brazil that controlled petrobras. Virtually, nobody is unaffected by it will stop and the more they have investigated, the more people have turned states evidence, the more corruption has been discovered to the point where even if you do impeach dilma it is a must impossible to envision somebody who could take her place to is not far more implicated in a corruption than she is. Werelenn greenwald, going to break and when we come back, were going to move from brazil to brussels to the attacks there and the response by the u. S. President ial candidates. We are talking to the Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist Glenn Greenwald, cofounder of the intercept. We will link to his piece and the segment brazil is engulfed , by ruling class corruption and a dangerous subversion of democracy. We will be back with him in a moment. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Belgium has entered its second day of mourning following tuesdays bombing attack targeting the Brussels Airport and a crowded subway station near the headquarters of the european union. The attacks killed at least 31 people and injured over 230. The bombings took place just days after authorities arrested salah abdeslam, a suspect in the november paris attacks that killed 130 people. On wednesday, Hillary Clinton asked for silicon valleys help, calling for intelligent search to help track online activity. Our enemies are constantly adapting, so we have to do the same. For example, brussels demonstrated clearly we need to take a harder look at security protocols, at airports and other sensitive socalled soft sites, especially areas outside guarded perimeters. To do all of this, we need an intelligent search and so do our allies. We also have to stay ahead of the curve technologically. Nermeen that was Hillary Clinton, democratic president ial candidate speaking wednesday. In response to tuesdays attack in brussels, texas senator ted cruz said we need to empower law force me to patrol and secure muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized. Republican frontrunner donald trump called for closing up u. S. Borders and doubled down on his vow to bring back waterboarding and other forms of torture. Amy for more and the election, the attacks in brussels and more, were still with Glenn Greenwald. Start off by talking about what happened in brussels and the response in the United States. Well, we have seen in brussels the same exact pattern as we have seen essentially for the last 15 years each time there is one of these attacks. There is never any sense at all that there is some balance needed between security on the one hand and Civil Liberties and privacy and a constrained budget for our military and intelligence on the other. Every single time there is a terrorist attack, every single time, politicians like Hillary Clinton, ted cruz, we need more of everything we have been doing. We need more money for intelligence, more surveillance authorities, more military presence, more security. Imagine if every single time there were a fatal car accident come every single time come in response someone said, not to welcome a we accept the fact in exchange for having roads, we know theyre going to be some totalitys stuff and instead said, we need more safety regulations for cars, we need to lower this be limit even further. The reality is, in an open society, especially if you have a government that is constantly bombing people around the world, there are going to be people who want to bring back violence to you and who are going to succeed in doing it. You cannot stop people in every case. And it is not necessarily the case that each time there is a terrorist attack, it means you need more security measures, more intelligence gathering, and more security and military adventures in the way that politicians just almost callctfully for. Brussels, number one, the brussels attack is now the fourth straight attack after boston, the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the paris attacks, were siblings, brothers, were at the heart of the plan. Just like in those three previous attacks, the attacks record up by people who live in the same committees, who live very close to one another, and you almost certainly met in person in order to plan them. Mindsetthe exploitative of western politicians is to say, every time there is an attack carried out, we need to wage war on encryption, we need greater surveillance, we need more police in these communities. But the reality is, people are meeting in person. If youre talking about siblings and family members and people who go to the same mosque, meeting in person to plan the attacks, none of that will help detect the attack. What is amazing is that if you listen to the media narrative about how these attacks get discussed i had the misfortune of listening to hours of cnn coverage and msnbc coverage because im traveling about these attacks, the one question that is never asked is, what is the motive of the attackers . Why are people who are in their 20s and 30s willing to sacrifice their lives to kill innocent people in this really horrific way . Ultimately, it is not hard to figure out. They say what it is. It is not that difficult, which is the countries that are targeting france, belgium, the u. S. And others are in iraq and syria bombing isis. Of course, it is just natural to expect, does not mean it is justified, it is never justified to target civilians, but natural to expect that countries that go and bomb isis, isis is going to want to bomb an attack back just as the u. S. For 15 years has been declaring itself at war and bombing multiple countries and then asked surprise when people want to come and attack as back. I think it is more saying more than saying we need more intelligence coming corruption, bombing, we need to ask if there are things that we can be doing that reduce the incentive for people to want to kill us and in the process kill themselves and especially the support infrastructure that they get because of the entire merrick at an antieuropean sentiment that gets generated when we engage in all of this violence in the world. Nermeen what the Islamic State has revealed explicitly about its own motivations, which was revealed in a newsletter circulated after the paris attacks in november, included weakening their objectives, weakening unity across the european continent and exhausting european states economically. What do you make of that, glenn . Well, were seeing the same type of announcements and rationale very early on from al , who and Osama Bin Laden talked about the ultimate goal of the 9 11 attacks been to provoke the United States into this Endless Campaign of spendingm and military that would essentially weaken and ultimately bankrupt the United States, much like the soviet adventures, military adventures in the 1980s helped to bring down the soviet union. We seem to be happy to play into their hands. I mean, the goal isnt just to make us engage in military adventures that because economically, it is also, as isis has said, to drive a wedge between western muslims and the western societies in which they live, to essentially eliminate what isis refers to as the great zone, which are western muslims, firstgeneration or Second Generation immigrants who are born in this country come to feel alienated from the western governments and the western countries in which they live and to essentially have to choose between either isis and those governments, and to feel so alienated by their own countries that theyre driven into the arms of extremism. Ironically, again, the best friend of isis used to be western politicians like you heard ted cruz, like you hear from donald trump, who essentially every time there is one of these attacks, want to declare muslims or islam the actual culprit, which does nothing but serve to exacerbate the very wedge that isis is trying to drive into the heart of these muslim populations in western societies. Amy lets go to the two men you mentioned, following the belgium attacks, republican president ial contender ted cruz issued a statement saying we need to immediately halt the flow of refugees from countries with us at the get out heide or isis presence and empower Law Enforcement to patrol and secure muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized. Later on tuesday, senator cruz spoke to cnn. The neighborhood where there is a high level of gang activity, the way to prevent it is you increase the Law Enforcement presence there and you target the gang members to get them off the streets. I am talking about any area where there is a higher incident radical islamic terrorism. If you look at europe, europes field Immigration Law has allowed a massive flux of radical islamic terrorists into europe and there now in isolated neighborhoods where radicalism festers. Amy that was ted cruz. On the day of the attacks, donald trump was asked on nbc today what belgium officials should do to get information from salah abdeslam, who was captured last week. Im not looking for breaking news on your show, but frankly, the waterboarding, it was up to me and if we change the laws or have the laws the waterboarding would be fine. If they wanted as long we work within loss. They dont. They have no laws. We werent with inlaws. The waterboarding would be fine. If they could expand the laws, i would do a lot more than waterboarding. You have to get information from these people and we have to be smart and we have to be tough and we cannot be soft and weak, which is what we are right now. Amy in fact, he said we have to torture them. Donald trump said that this week. At least he called it what it was. A talk about the significance of what donald trump is calling for, the man who could be president trump, and cruz before him. First of all, i do get a little disturbed by this widespread notion on the part of a lot of wellintentioned people that donald trump is somehow so far outside of what we regard as what had been previously acceptable within an it can political discourse. I mean, if you look at what ted cruz has actually been saying and what he has been doing, you can subtly make the case and i would be someone who agrees with this that ted cruz is in many respects, maybe most respects, more dangerous than trump. Ted cruz is this true evangelical believer who seems to be really eager to promote this extremist religious agenda. You have him constantly expressing animosity toward islam and toward muslims in a way that almost a religious type war. He holds himself as a constitutional scholar and small government conservative, yet advocate some of the most extremely unconstitutional measures you could possibly imagine like targeting American Communities filled with muslims, with Additional Police patrolling and monitoring and surveillance and scrutinizing. As far as donald trump is concerned, when he comes out and says, i want to do waterboarding and worse, and we all act so shocked, as you just said, he almost deserves credit for what he is saying in a sense he is being more honest. The u. S. , for 10 years, did engage in torture. We did use that only waterboarding, but techniques far worse. And the reason why that is still part of the debate is because the Current Administration under president obama made the choice not to prosecute any of the people who implemented those techniques and who used to them, despite the fact we are parties their,ties requiring prosecution. When he did that, he turned torture in a nothing more than just a standard partisan political debate. And that is why people like donald trump are able to stand up without much repercussion and advocate that we use those techniques. But we should not act all that shocked. U. S. Government did exactly what donald trump is advocating is recently as seven or eight years ago. Amy did president obama say, we tortured some folks . Right. I think if you look at the reaction of donald trump and this kind of poor that even republican elites and conservatives are expressing when reacting toward him, to call it hypocritical is really to be generous. It is true he does not use the language of political diplomacy, does that really use euphemisms. He speaks like ordinary people pull speak dutch people speak when talking at their dining room table, which is one of the reasons for his appeal. And that since coming provides an important value, stripping of what thetense american political system in American Political Culture have become an describing it in a much more honest way. And that is the reason that so Many Republican elites and media problem withave no republican politicians or even democratic politicians who advocate similar policies, why they are so offended by donald trump because he sort of renders the entire system nakedly candid about what it actually is. Amy were going to go to break and come back to this discussion. Were spending the hour with Glenn Greenwald, Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist. His piece for the intercept is headlined, brazil is engulfed by ruling class corruption and a dangerous subversion of democracy. He lives in rio de janeiro, brazil, but he is in tucson now. He will be participating in a major event with edward snowden, who cant be in this country but will be joining through some kind of video situation, and noam chomsky as they talk about the state of america. We talked about ted cruz and we have talked about donald trump, we will also talk about Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. He is in arizona where a major voting scandal is unfolding around the democratic primary that took place on tuesday. People waited hour after hour. Fter hour at voting polls is it because the response was so enormous on tuesday or is it because they quartered the third, the number of polling places in places like Maricopa County, from 200 to 60. Stay with us. [music break] amy waters of march this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. I like to turn to an ad produced by the Emergency Committee for israel which alleges that trump supports dictators. The ad started airing last month. The world would be better off with Saddam Hussein and could often power . 100 . Maybe is better than the kind of people were supposed to be backing. I think russia can be a positive force and an ally. You know, whether you like Saddam Hussein or not, he used to kill terrorists. Andeen Glenn Greenwald, one of your articles come he suggested her clinton has demonstrated comparable support for what you call the worlds worst despots. Article ings, that wrote about Hillary Clinton grew out of the debate or she attack Bernie Sanders for comments he made in the 1980s in which he said positive things both about fidel castro and also the nicaraguan government and she very self righteously said, how could you possibly praise a government that is oppressive into radical and yet if you look at the clintons record, not in the 1980s, but for more recently in the last five to six years, she has embraced and expressed extreme levels of support for some of the worlds most brutal and horrific dictators and call president barak of egypt president mubarak of egypt a close friend of her family and expressed support for them at the time the government was arming and funding him. She did the same with the saudis. The Clinton Foundation has raised money from some of the worst and most oppressive dictatorships in the persian gulf, including the saudis and bahrannis. The clinton, essentially, her record has been one of supporting in all kinds of ways the worlds worst tyrants. The other aspect i would add is not just those persian gulf regimes, but one of the things Hillary Clinton has done with very little notice has been to make a central part of her campaign embracing, not just the rightwing israeli government, but Prime Minister netanyahu himself. She has written of beds in jewish journals and in the forward, talking about the need to get even closer to israel, if you can imagine that, and then the speech she just gave to aipac was about the most disgustingly militaristic hawkish proisrael speech i think that you could ever possibly here without the slightest even pretense, concern for people in palestine or in libya where she supported a war that has caused great instability war in iraq where she supported a war that has imposed huge amounts of suffering. It is easy to talk about donald trump being close to dictators were being dangerous, but there has been a huge amount of Hillary Clintons record that has spawned immense amounts of tyranny and violence in the world that democrats of aggressors are steadfastly ignoring. Amy lets go to a clip of Hillary Clinton addressing aipac, the American Israel Public Affairs committee. People here today are on the front lines of the battle to oppose deal arming boycott homage investment, and sanctions movement known as bds. We must repudiate all efforts to malign, isolate, and undermine israel and the jewish people. Amy that was Hillary Clinton. Glenn greenwald . What she is doing there is affirming one of the most vile slanders that currently exists. There is a campaign in the United States and israel to literally outlaw in the Boycott Movement against israel, somewhat to the boycott and divestment and sections campaign that brought down israel and the United States as the closest ally, which was the Apartheid Regime in south africa. Now you can surly raise objections to the tactic of boycotting israel, and lots of people have, but to render it illegal depends upon this grotesque equating of an advocacy of a boycott of israel with antisemitism, and insane because antisummit is him should be banned from universities and private institutions, that it should be literally outlawed to ban advocating the boycott of israel as well and people in europe are being arrested for advocating a boycott of israel. Students in american universities are being sanctioned and punished for doing so. What Hitler Clinton did was go before aipac and pander as grotesquely as she typically does by affirming this line that if you malign the government of israel, and support a boycott of it in opposition to their decadelong occupation of the palestinians, it means essentially your guilty of aligning the jewish people. She is conflating the government of israel with jews. It is just part of her moving to the right in order to position general election by affirming some of the u. S. Governments worst and most violent policies. Amy from a senator Bernie Sanders was the only one to skip the aipac conference earlier this week. He did address the issue on the campaign trail from utah, calling for an end to israels occupation of palestinian territories. It is absurd by elements within the net done government to suggest netanyahu government is a just building more settlements is the appropriate response to the most recent violence. It is also not acceptable the netanyahu government decided to withhold hundreds of millions in tax revenue from the palestinians, which is supposed to collect on their behalf. Amy that was Bernie Sanders in utah. When greenwald, i believe he did offer to address aipac by video stream or skype, as did romney in 2012, but we heard he was told no. A couple of months ago, donald trump on msnbc program said, when asked about israel and palestine, he thought the u. S. Should be neutral in order to be a more effective arbiter, which until 20 years ago, was a standard mainstream u. S. Position, but now has become very shocking. Same with what Bernie Sanders just said. Dear prominent american politician to stand up and criticize israel in such stark and blunt terms, calling them andpiers essentially criticizing how theyre treating the palestinians is always shocking to the ear. Hillary clinton would never do it, nor would leading republican politicians, yet it is really a very mild way to talk about israel. It shows just how far to the right the discourse has shifted in the u. S. When it comes to israel, and how much a part of that rightwing right shift is part of Hillary Clinton. When you think about how shocking it is to hear mild criticisms of israel coming from sanders or mild proclamations coming from trump. Amy the issue of encryption raised in the aftermath of the brussels attacks, but the whole battle between the government, the fbi, and apple. The governments a tip to make sure that nobody can use encryption to keep them out of private communications is based on continuous deceit. They falsely claim the paris attackers used encryption when they had no idea it was true. There also already making the claim about the brussels attackers. The whole campaign against apple turned out to be a total lie, which is they needed apple to help them break into the San Bernardino phone when all along they could have done it themselves. It is up to the media to check these claims on the part of the government and, of course, the media has been lacks in doing so. Amy we want to thank you for staying with us. We will talk to for a few more minutes after this broadcast and we will post it online at democracynow. Org. Glenn greenwald pulitzer , prizewinning journalist. His piece for the intercept is headlined, brazil is engulfed by ruling class corruption and a dangerous subversion of democracy. Another recent piece, the rise of trump shows the danger and sham of compelled journalistic neutrality. we will link to these and many others at democracynow. Org. Democracy now has three job openings. 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 ] on this episode of eat drink italy , well learn a great pizzadough recipe using ash flour. 1, 2, 3. Ill help make a simple but terrific crostini, and we talk to some of campagnas youngest and most dynamic winemakers. My name is vic rallo, and i eat, drink italy. Follow me, and ill prove it. Eat drink italy is brought to you by. Wine enthusiast magazine and catalog for wine storage, glassware, and accessories. The historic count Basie Theatre in red bank, new jersey. The Atalanta Corporation importing authentic italian products and more for over 50 years. Coffee afficionado artisanal roasters of sustainably sourced coffee