Palestinian territories. He used the law to sue some of the most powerful people in the world on behalf of some of the least powerful. In 2002, michaelatner filed the first lawsuit against george w. Bush on behalf of guantanamo prisoners. Six years later, he won a landmark case at the Supreme Court against the Bush Administration. Today we speak with his family and friends and hear michael in his own words. This is no time for compromise, no time for political calculations. Us,oward zinn admonishes the job of thinking people not to be an aside of the executioners. Remindsin nation prize us all that the job for each of us is not to be an aside of the executioners. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Brazils senate has voted to suspend president Dilma Rousseff immediately and begin impeachment proceedings against her on accusations of tampering with accounts to hide a budget shortfall. The 55 to 22 senate vote followed more than 20 hours of debate. One politician described it as the saddest day for brazils young democracy. Vice president michel temer will assume the presidency during rousseffs suspension. Temer himself has been implicated in brazils massive corruption scandal. Several of his top advisers are under investigation, and just last week he was ordered to pay a fine for violating Campaign Finance limits. Attorney general Jose Eduardo Cardozo called the vote a historic injustice. Honest, innocent woman at this moment is being condemned. A judicial pretense is being used to oust a legitimately elected president over ask which have been practiced by all previous governments. Historic injustice is being committed. An innocent person is being condemned. Amy military police fired tear gas at thousands of protesters who had gathered outside congress, the vast majority who were there to support president rousseff. Teacher and protester Celma Pereira spoke out. It is revolting. Were here defending our democracy and those in spray us with terror gas. They are cowards. Amy the pioneering human rights attorney Michael Ratner has died at the age of 72. For over four decades he defended victims of human rights abuses across the world from the prisoners. From haiti and guatemala to the iraq and the palestinian territories. Michael ratner served as the longtime president of the center for Constitutional Rights. T the first case against the george w. Bush administration for the indefinite detention of prisoners at guantanamo. The Supreme Court eventually sided with the center in a landmark 2008 decision when it struck down the law that stripped guantanamo prisoners of their habeas corpus rights. In recent years, he was the chief attorney for wikileaks founder Julian Assange and became a leading critic of the u. S. Crackdown on whistle blowers including chelsea , manning and edward snowden. Well spend the hour honoring at this looking at the life and legacy of Michael Ratner. Among those joining us, rumsfeld from Julian Assange, from exile inside the Ecuadorian Embassy. In washington, d. C. , president ial candidate donald trump is meeting with Republican Party leaders, including House Speaker paul ryan, as the party faces a growing split over whether to support the presumptive president ial nominee. Ryan has said hes not yet ready to support donald trump, whose calls to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, to build a wall across the u. S. Mexico border and to ban , all muslim immigrants and visitors from entering the u. S. Have caused widespread backlash. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi addressed todays anticipated meeting, saying that Donald Trumps platform is nothing new for the Republican Party. Since when have the House Republicans been so concerned about intolerance statements and discriminatory ideas . They appear to be shopped other candidate, not just the front presumptive nominee, but all of their candidates appear rhetoric ond by the the campaign trail, but year after year, republicans have enthusiastically turned their intolerance and discrimination into legislation. Amy wednesday marked the deadliest day in baghdad so far this year as three separate car bombs killed at least 93 people across iraqs capital. Isil has claimed responsibility for all three attacks. The largest car bomb killed 63 in a crowded market in the predominately shiite neighborhood of sadr city. Hours later, two more bombs exploded at Police Checkpoints in different parts of the capital. New government figures show the Obama Administration has resettled only 1736 Syrian Refugees over the last seven months, despite president obamas pledge to resettle at least 10,000 syrians by this coming september. In contrast, canada has resettled more than 26,000 Syrian Refugees since late 2015. While turkey, lebanon, and jordan have together taken in millions of Syrian Refugees since the conflict began five years ago. Human Rights Groups and the United Nations are accusing Turkish Security forces of human rights violations, including deliberately shooting kurdish civilians and Syrian Refugees. Human rights watch has accused the Turkish Border guards of killing at least five Syrian Refugees in the past two months. Separately, the u. N. Has accused turkey of intentionally shooting at civilians and destroying infrastructure in the largely kurdish regions of the countrys southeast. Kenya is vowing to close the worlds biggest refugee camp within a year, which could force up to 300,000 Somali Refugees back into wartorn somalia. Kenya justifies the closure saying the dadaab camp has been used by the militant Group Alshabaab as a place to smuggle weapons. Human Rights Groups have decried the threatened closure. The director of Amnesty International u. K. Kate allen said forcing back to violence and persecution is as immoral as it is unlawful, and risks increasing instability and displacement in the region. The Italian Parliament has approved a law recognizing civil unions for samesex couples. The law falls short of legalizing samesex marriages and it will not allow people in samesex civil unions to legally adopt their partners biological children. President of equality italy Aurelio Mancuso heralded the move. Today is a historic day, historic what the days we had on divorce, abortion, of hadley rights. Today italy will see change. Our next objective is equal marriage rights, but today we are obviously satisfied. Amy Oil Giant Shell has announced it is abandoning all but one of its federal offshore leases for drilling in alaskas remote chukchi sea. Last summer, the Obama Administration approved shells permit to drill in the remote arctic waters, despite fierce opposition from environmental groups. Shell dropped its leases after its exploratory well in the chukchi sea showed only traces of oil and gas. On tuesday, greenpeace campaigner vicky wyatt called for further protection of the arctic saying president obama must seize this opportunity and place the entire arctic and u. S. Outer Continental Shelf off limits to the fossil fuel industry for good. George zimmerman is planning to auction off the gun he used to kill unarmed African American teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012. Zimmerman has listed the firearm on gunbroker. Com with a starting price of 5000. Bidding is scheduled to begin today. George zimmerman wrote in the listing that he would donate a portion of the proceeds to blm violence against law fight blm violence against Law Enforcement officers. A colorado judge has found Robert Lewis Dear mentally incompetent and unfit to stand trial over the november shooting spree at a planned parenthood clinic, which killed three people and wounded 9 others. Dear has admitted to the shooting, saying he targeted planned parenthood because its murdering little babies. The case is now on hold. Dear has been sent to a state Mental Hospital for treatment. In financial news, the worlds top 25 Hedge Fund Managers earned a staggering 13 billion last year. This means that only 25 men earned more than the entire economies of some countries, including nicaragua and the bahamas. Two men, Kenneth Griffin of citadel and james simons of renaissance technologies, each earned 1. 7 billion last year. Both men have poured millions into the 2016 president ial race backing republican candidates who have since dropped out. Simons is now backing hillary clinton, with more than 2 million in donations so far. Griffin has also been a major supporter of chicago mayor rahm emanuel. He was the biggest donor to emanuels 2015 Reelection Campaign and has been quoted as saying that instead of closing 50 Chicago Public schools, mayor emanuel should have closed 125 schools across chicago. In upstate new york, climate activists disrupted a power plant conference and forced the chair of the federal Energy RegulatoryCommission Norman bay off the stage. The protesters were calling for fossil fuels to be kept in the ground. Its the latest disruption targeting the littleknown federal agency, which is responsible for regulating the natural gas industry, hydroelectric projects and , oil pipelines. This clip begins with chairman norman bay. A marketbased approach to further import Public Policies as you all know, the World Health Organization and the leading scientist on the planet have said, keep it on the ground or sign the death points of hundreds of millions of evil. Amy and those are some of the headline this is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Rightsilblazing human attorney Michael Ratner has died at the age of 72. For over four decades he defended, investigated, and spoke up for victims of human rights abuses across the world. He served as the longtime head of the center for Constitutional Rights. Attorney david cole told the New York Times under his leadership, the center grew from a small but scrappy Civil Rights Organization into one of the leading human rights organizations in the world. He sued some of the most powerful people in the world on behalf of some of the least powerful. In 2002, the center brought the first case against the george w. Bush administration for the indefinite detention of prisoners at guantanamo. The Supreme Court eventually sided with the center in a landmark 2008 decision when it struck down the law that stripped guantanamo prisoners of their habeas corpus rights. Ratner began working on guantanamo in the 1990s when he fought the first Bush Administrations use of the military base to house haitian refugees. Michael ratners activism and human rights work dated back to the 1960s. He was a student at Columbia Law School during the 1968 student strike. Michael was a clerk for the legendary federal judge motley. When he graduated from law school, she was the first africanamerican judge and protege of thurgood marshall. She wrote Michael Ratner was an rest respect the a list law clerk ive had in my tenure on the bench. Amy Michael Ratner joined the center for Constitutional Rights in 1971, his first case centered on a lawsuit filed on behalf of prisoners killed and injured in the attica prison uprising in upstate new york. Michael ratner was deeply involved in latin america and the caribbean challenging u. S. Policy in cuba, haiti, nicaragua, guatemala, puerto rico, and elsewhere. In 1981, he brought the first challenge under the war powers resolution to the use of troops in el salvador as well as a suit against u. S. Officials on behalf of nicaraguans raped, murdered and tortured by u. S. Backed , contras. In 1991, he led the centers challenge to the authority of president george h. W. Bush to go to war against iraq without congressional consent. A decade later he would become a , leading critic of the george w. Bush administration filing lawsuits related to guantanamo, torture, domestic surveillance and the 2003 invasion of iraq. , he also helped launch the group palestine legal to defend the rights of protesters in the u. S. Calling for palestinian human rights. In recent years he was the chief , attorney for wikileaks founder Julian Assange and became a leading critic of the u. S. Crackdown on whistleblowers including Chelsea Manning and , edward snowden. He also served as democracy now s attorney for many years and was the husband of karen ranucci, a longtime member of the democracy now family. Today we will spend the hour looking at the life and legacy of Michael Ratner. Later we will be joined by three lawyers who worked closely with michael over the years but we begin with a speech he gave in 2007 when he was awarded the puffin nation prize for creative citizenship. Over the last few years, ive become a coin it with a man, a french held syrian in his 80s algerian and his 80s who was water tortured, or is this administration says, waterboarded by the french. Heres how he described his water torture. A practice that goes back to the inquisition. The run was soaked rapidly. Water flowed everywhere. In my mouth, in my nose, all over my face. I tried by contracting my throat to take in as little water as possible and to resist suffocation by keeping air in my lungs as long as i could. But i could not hold on for more than a few minutes. I had the impression of drowning and a terrible agony, that of death itself, took possession of me. Think about this man when you hear the cia talk about enhanced interrogation techniques. Or think about a terrible agony, that of death itself, that of death itself taking over you when you hear our new attorney general refuse to condemn waterboarding. Or when you hear that some of our Democratic Leaders were briefed and made not a peep of objection. [applause] let there be no doubt, the Bush Administration tortures, it disappears people, it holds people forever and offshore penal colonies like guantanamo will stop it renders them to be tortured in other countries. This is what was done to a man who was rendered to syria for torture. And sadly, a majority of our congress, our courts, and our media have given bush a free hand and in fact worse, have been the handmaidens of the torture and detention program. Given a freet been hand by the senate for Constitutional Rights. It is not been given a free hand by the nation. It has not been given a free hand by jeremy or naomi. Today we are in the midst of a pitched battle. A pitched rattled to put this country back, at least ostensibly, on the page of fundamental right and moral decency. The battle is difficult and the road is long and hard. On occasion, i get pessimistic. Sometimes i and my colleagues feel like sisyphus. Twice, not just once, twice we pushed the rock up the hill and won rights for guantanamo detainees in the Supreme Court. And twice the rock was rolled back down by congress over those rights. O we pushed it back up again five days ago we were in the Supreme Court for the third time. It was difficult, more difficult than before because the justices have changed. Four are antito libyans. Lost forever to humanity. [applause] but before i get is all depressed, we have had our victories. We have gotten lawyers to guantanamo, stop the most over torture, and freed half of the guantanamo detainees. Over 300. We have gotten arar out of syria. Canada has apologized for his torture, given him a substantial recovery in Canadian Dollars which is no embarrassment anymore. [laughter] they said he was an innocent man, but he remains on the u. S. Terror list. We have slowed, but not yet stopped remarkable grab for authoritarian power. Lose hopet look because i think about the