Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20141003

Have been injured or killed so far this year. We will speak with jeremys cahill, author of dirty wars the war is a battlefield about the crisis in the middle east, blackwater on trial, and more. And iraq veterans against the war. It has been personal, we have been transformed in our own lives. Each of our stories is important and people need to understand the reality and the human cost of war and occupation. A group of veterans came back from combat to form iraq veterans against the war. A decade later, the group is now organizing against another war in iraq. All that and more coming up. To democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Australia has become the latest country to join the usled military campaign against militants from the Islamic State in the iraq and syria. Prime minister tony abbott said australian planes will take art in air strikes and special forces would be deployed. Turkeys parliament has also authorized the government to order military action against the militants. The news comes as the Iraqi Defense minister claims iraqi forces have made gains against isis. The United Nations has released a report detailing possible war crimes and an accelerating death toll in iraq. Since january, more than 9000 have been killed, more than half the isis offensive began in june. The u. N. Sperson for high commissioner for human rights unveiled the reports findings. Report,is a devastating it covers just nine weeks. Just a huge array of a appalling human rights abuses, mostly by isil. This includes rape, murder, execution, sometimes large numbers of people, abduction, recruiting of children, making them into fighters, destruction churches, amosques, litany of her in this abuses affecting minis of thousands of people. While the report focused on a license militants, it also found iraq he airstrikes had caused significant civilian deaths, striking villages, hospitals, and schools, in violation with international law. A u. S. Marine believed to have been lost at sea has become the first reported casualty of the campaign against isis. The marine and a colleague who survived ejected from their aircraft after it lost power over the persian gulf. Prodemocracy leaders in hong kong have agreed to talks with the citys top leader after days of mass protest. Leung chunying has refused to step down despite protests. Protests erupted over chinas plan to select candidates in hong kongs 2017 elections. Authorities are assessing 100 people who may have had contact with the first ebola patient diagnosed in the u. S. The partner of Eric Thomas Duncan says that she and three other family members have been quarantined in the apartment where duncan was staying under threat of criminal charges if they leave. The sheets and towels used by duncan remain inside the apartment as authorities struggle to find a company willing and able to safely take them. Ancan was sent home from dallas hospital last week despite telling a nurse he had been to liberia. He was readmitted four days later. The hospital blamed a gap in its electronic Record Keeping that prevented a dr. From seeing the nurses note about his travel. Saidephew josephus weeks that he personally called the cdc. I called the cdc again, i was concerned for his life. He was not getting the appropriate care. I feared that other people might also get infected if he was not taking care of. Liberia, a freelance cameraperson who worked for nbc news has become the fourth american diagnosed with ebola. Ashoka mukpo will be flown to the u. S. For treatment. A federal Appeals Court has allowed texas to immediately begin enforcing a sweeping antichoice law effectively gutting access to abortion overnight. 13 of the states remaining clinics have been forced to close, leaving texas the second largest state with just eight abortion facilities, all of them in four metropolitan areas. Nearly a million texas women will now have to travel a minimum 300 miles to access abortion. The court ruling requires all clinics to meet hospital style building requirements, immersing the order of a lower court judge who found the restrictions posed an undue burden. The lower judge had also allowed two clinics in texas to reopen after they and many other facilities were forced to close under a separate Provision Requiring hot will admitting privileges. But the fifth Circuit Court of appeals also reversed that decision, shuttering the clinics and leaving no abortion facilities west or south of san antonio. The Rio Grande Valley is home to many undocumented immigrants who cannot travel north due to border checkpoints and are cut off from legal abortion. The center for reproductive rights said in oklahoma, one of just three abortion providers in the state is challenging a law requiring providers to obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital. He has beenrns says unable to obtain privileges at any of 16 nearby hospitals after many refused to even process his application. In alabama, the American Civil Liberties union is suing to block a law they say could force minors seeking abortion to stand trial. The law applies to minors who cannot safely obtain parental content consent for abortion, which is required in alabama. It allows the court to appoint a guardian for the fetus and would allow them to call witnesses to testify against the minor. Brazil is Holding President ial election sunday. Dilma rousseff faces a challenge from marina silva, who served as the environment minister under Luiz Inacio Lula da silva and became a candidate after her running mate died in a plane crash. Marina silva group up in the amazon rainforest come a fought its devastation along rubber tapper chico mendes. Supporters say she would become the worlds first green president but as critics worry as an evangelical christian, she would implement rightwing policies. Also note that her running mate has ties to agribusiness. Tens of thousands marched in mexico city to mark the anniversary of the tlatelolco student massacre. Days before mexico city hosted the olympics, Government Forces opened fire on students in the plaza de las tres culturas, killing up to 350 people. To date, no one has been tried. Anniversary comes as 40 students remain missing in the mexican state of guerrero following an ambush last week. Witnesses say police and unknown gunmen attacked buses carrying students from a Rural Teachers College and players from a soccer club, killing six, including three students. Enrique espinosa, who survived the massacres, says that this is a sign of the level of impunity in mexico. It seems that we are returning to the same thing that happened in those years back in the 1960s, oppression, political prisoners, persecution, and in justices. In venezuela, a lawmaker in the Ruling Socialist Party has been found murdered in his home along with his partner. Robert serra was the youngest member of the venezuelan congress. The motive remains unclear but the Justice Minister said the killings were carried out with great precision. In the gulf nation of bahrain, the human rights activist nabeel rajab has been detained after posting tweets critical of the government. Rajab leads the Human Rights Center center for human. Ights in colorado, the Jefferson County school board has passed a proposal to institute a Curriculum Review Committee despite protests by High School Students and teachers. The committee will review district courses, adding material to promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials, and benefits of the freemarket system. Democracy now asked the proposals author about the proposals mention of obedience to authority. I took those lines out of the National Republican resolution as well as texas because i when we are teaching our students, it is not to suppress them. I want to teach them that our country is a great place to live. Jpmorgan chase has disclosed one of the largest corporate data breaches in u. S. History. While the hack had been previously disclosed, prior estimates said only about one million accounts had been impacted. Now the banks says 76 million household accounts in 7 million and 7 million Small Business accounts were copper rise as hackers gathering customers names and contact information. It went undetected for two months. Streets toook to the protest austerity and unemployment as the leaders of the European Central bank met in naples italy naples, italy. Bank leaders voted to keep Interest Rates at a record low and announced plans to begin buying private sector assets that month. In missouri, the st. Louis prosecutor is investigating a possible leak by the grand jury considering whether to indict Police Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting of michael brown. A tweet posted to the account of Susan Nichols read grand jury deliberations are supposed to be secret. She has claimed her account was hacked. A 79yearold peace activist has been sentenced to three months in jail for protesting at a base in upstate new york where you us drones are piloted remotely. Jack gilroy is among several activists are face trial in Dewitt Town Court for protesting at hancock air base. He spoke before his sentencing on wednesday. We are killing people around the world and our statement was take a message. That will be primarily what i will be saying today. First amendment right, the right to take a message and not to be killed because you are the messenger bringing the information to stop the killing. The peace activist and author frank branfman has died of als at the age of 72. He unveiled the covert bombing of laos. Than 2. Dropped more million tons of bombs on the small Southeast Asian country. Branfman interviewed refugees and helped to illuminate their plight for other journalists and activists, including gnome chomsky, who traveled there in 1970. Speaking at Harvard University last year, professor chomsky praised branfmans work. He is the first man that worked, four years, on this enormous courage and effort to try to those what were called the secret wars. The secret wars were perfectly public wars which the media was keeping secret. This is in laos. He finally did succeeded in with thethrough tremendous exposure of huge wars that were going on. Branfman also worked in the mystic politics including as Research Director to california governor jerry brown. Life, he committed himself to advocating a new Human Movement against Climate Change and to cultivating what he called lifeaffirming awareness of death. Last month in his final piece for alternet, he wrote about israelss assault on gaza by directly addressing israels supporters, asking, how do you justify your support for mass misery inflicted on hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians . He continued, i answered such questions for myself 45 years ago when i discovered that civilians were well over 90 of the victims of pass bombings. I concluded then that there was never any moral or legal justification for mass bombing or shelling of civilians. Died lastman wednesday in budapest, hungary, where he shared a home with his zsuzsa. Whose a he was 72 years old. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Theears ago, six members of u. S. Military came together to break their silence over what they witnessed over the usled invasion of iraq. They form the group iraq veterans against the war. Over time they gathered likeminded veterans from across the country to form a contemporary gi resistance movement. Each member has a personal story about why they joined the military, what they witnessed when deployed, and how they came to oppose the invasions in iraq and afghanistan. Executivese vasquez, director of iraq veterans against the war. I grew up in california. As a high school student, i felt like i did not have many options. The only people reaching out to me were army recruiters. I had some experience with the military, my father served in vietnam, my uncle in the gulf war. To me it seems like something that men in our family did. I was against the iraq war from the beginning. 2004 was a turning point when the abu ghraib scandal broke. One of my friends who i was deployed with was at abu ghraib, and it brought the war home for me. For a while i was the only one opposed to the war but started to do Research Online and stumbled across iraq veterans against the war. That was the only place where i heard the voices of soldiers and veterans speaking out against it. That was the executive director of iraq veterans against the war, ivaw. The Group Celebrates its 10th anniversary, a bittersweet moment, as the u. S. Is back in iraq. Are in 48w members states and in numerous bases overseas. They have called for reparations for damages caused by the invasion. They have also called for Adequate Health care including Mental Health care for all returning servicemen and women. For more, we are joined by three of the members of iraq veterans against the war. Kelly dougherty is the groups cofounder. Membercintosh is an ivaw who served in afghanistan. He applied for Conscientious Objector status and was discharged in may 2014. Scott olsen also joins us, former marine who was critically wounded not in iraq but after being shot in the head by a police projectile at occupy oakland, where he was protesting. With ahospitalized fractured skull, broken neck vertebrae, and brain swelling. E, too, is a member of ivaw welcome back to you all. At one point or another, we have had you on. Kelly, you are gathered here for this 10th anniversary in new york . Yes, we had a fundraiser last night, a time to reflect on the work over the past 10 years, and as you said, it is bittersweet. Tohave been building this counter war and militarism and here we are bombing iraq. We are celebrating our victories and recognizing the losses both with more militarism and losses within our community of our friend jacob george, who recently passed away. Mcintosh, what are your thoughts on the current bombing of iraq and syria . I think the media has often portrayed isis as being some organization that just suddenly emerged over the last year or so , but this is the same organization that many of my allies in ivaw were fighting when they were in iraq. Nearly 10 years of going to war with isis, with several hundred thousand american soldiers on the ground, was not able to eliminate isis. It is strange to think that some limited airstrikes over the next few years will be able to destroy isis. Reports from the fbi have shown that recruitment has grown since we started bombing them. Scott olsen, how did you come to fight in iraq . Corpsoined the marine after i graduated high school. Our country was a more, i felt like it was the right thing to defend our up and freedoms and democracy. Where did you grow up . In wisconsin. After i joined, i was in iraq after about a year, after joining the marine corps. That was in 2006. I was in anbar province, a majority sunni population, where the Islamic State is making huge recruitment gains. The population that they are recruiting. Your thoughts right now on this renewed war in iraq . It is renewed, but it is really the same more. Leftbecause our military does not mean that the war was over. It is the same complex, the same bigions, that we played a part in stoking. These are the consequences of war. 10 years later, it is the same thing. The most senior military officer has said u. S. Ground troops may be needed in iraq as part of the administrations offensive against the Islamic State. General Martin Dempsey testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee Last month. My view at this point is that this coalition is the appropriate way forward. I believe that will prove true, but if it fails to be true and if there are threats to the u. S. , then i would go back to the president and make a recommendation that may include the use of u. S. Military ground forces. Kelly dougherty, your response . I find it a little ironic that, over the course of the Bush Administration, the country really turned against the occupation of iraq and wanted the troops to come home, and then last year when we saw a proposal to bomb syria, there was great opposition. Now with all the fear mongering that is going on, it seems like ofrnight, the majority people support bombing iraq, syria, and even the idea of sending more troops back into recipehich seems like a for continued longterm destruction and catastrophe. Both for the u. S. Soldiers involved and for the people of iraq that have been living generalization of a generationally in war and conflict. The people who are in isis were kids when i was in iraq, living in a constant state of disorder, violence, and conflict and occupation. We are going to break and then come back to the discussion. Our guests are kelly dougherty, brocker of ivaw mcintosh, served in afghanistan, scott olsen, twice in iraq. They are all members of iraq veterans against the war, celebrating their 10th anniversary, as the u. S. Goes back to war in iraq. [ ] singingis jacob george, soldiers heart. Jacob george is an Afghanistan War veteran and peace activist the took his own life earlier this month. Againstnded the afghans the war committee. Jacob very well. We met a few months after i got back from afghanistan, we cofounded the afghanistan brothers against the war committee. After that we went to afghanistan again as civilians. We met with a group called the afghan peace volunteers, which have been doing wonderful organizing against the occupation of afghanistan, organizing for an end to were in general in their country. We also went to several schools, orphanages, displaced persons camps. Jacob son about those experiences. Talk about what happened to jacob. Jacob deployed to afghanistan three times. First climate in 2001, which was 13 years ago. Why did he go, where did you come from . Inhe grew up in arkansas, the watchdog mountains, a proud hillbilly. Returning to afghanistan was a powerful experience for him because he got to meet afghans who are also from the mountains of afghanistan. They count they call themselves mountain boys. Afghans talk about the unfortunate reality of sending farmers to kill farmers while people are starving. There are several people starving in afghanistan because of war for 30 years and drug. Talk about jacobs struggles when he came back to the country. He saw a lot of killing in afghanistan and also talked about seeing fear in the eyes of afghans, and the idea that he could put here in someone kind of haunted him. He had lots of nightmares when felt isolated, did not really tell his story. Over the last few years, he has had the opportunity to tell historian build longlasting relationships, not only with other veterans who are likeminded, but also with afghans. Jacob had this philosophy of what he called a warriorhood. Can you play with that is . A soldier is a career professional. They go to work and then can come home and permanent allies the job of going to war and then coming home. Being as someone warrior is a way of life and they are driven by empathy. They see injustice and they want to do something about it and fight, but that is not just is not limited. They have empathy for the people that they are fighting as well and that is part of what makes a good in battle but also why they bring so much pain home because they begin to understand the enemy in a different way. He able to seek help from the Veterans Administration for posttraumatic stress . I know he had been seeing a counselor for some time but was having a lot of difficulty because this counselor would push back and sort of question him, about whether he was right about his interpretations of war. He did not believe he had ptsd but moral injury is. That he was justified in being able to recognize that it and to be able to tell people about the story. When we went to chicago to cover the nato protest in 2012, when we covered so many of you who were throwing your medals back at the gate at the nato summit. Jacob did that, we played a clip of that. How important was the protest to him . How far thatabout metal was like throwing his pain away, a symbolic moment. He believed a lot in rituals. For that, for him, that was a way of shedding that aspect of his identity. Scott, i rammer seeing you there with a helmet on. You wore a helmet for a long time after occupy oakland, after you were hit by a police projectile. A andou talk about the v your experiences with it . I first tried applying for Health Coverage within months after i got out after two tours in iraq. I have been out for five years and i have yet to see a doctor from the va. How could that be . I have something called other than Honorable Discharge which makes me in eligible to receive care from the va. There are thousands of veterans with other than Honorable Discharge. How did that come about, the other than Honorable Discharge . I was accused of using drugs in the military. I didnt. The process to award any other than Honorable Discharge there are no rights. You could not appeal what they decided. Yes, just three officers who made the decision. There was no oversight, no way around it. Once the decision was handed down, you cannot go through the va system . Toi am working on a process get my discharge upgraded for them to recognize the character of my service. Explain what happened to you in occupy oakland tom and the kind of health care you got after that, if you could not go to the va . To a private going hospital. I was hit october 5, 2011. You were there protesting because was wrong that the police evicted occupy oakland from this public space in front of city hall. Tohought it was important support occupy oakland as a veteran and to say that veterans support these rights, that we thought we were fighting for. Thatplain what happened night not a you can remember much of what happened. The Incident Commander from the police gave the order to disperse. Were you wearing your fatigues . I was wearing my jacket, next to another veteran in full uniform. The officer gave the order to deploy gass. That, i wasfter shot in the head by a beanbag round. It was their policy to protect tear gas canisters using beanbag rounds. Anybody that they thought would pick up and throw back a tear gas canister, they would shoot beanbags at them. So what happened as you laid on the ground . Another officer through a flash bang grenade at myself and at the people who were trying to rescue me, evacuate me. This officer was terminated last year but was recently retired with back pay. Are being carried by people, they do not know who you are. I remember them shouting, what is your name . I could not answer. Not realize the extent of my injuries in those seconds. Them, thatd answer helped me to except that i needed their help. So you ended up not at the va . Went to highland hospital, the Public Hospital in oakland, and received care from them. I have received zero care from the va. We are talking to scott olsen who sued the city. Exley would have been in your lawsuit. Aprilsettled this past for a total of 4. 5 million. This was voted on by the Oakland City Council . Yes, they approve it. Through their city attorneys office, we arrived at that. Have that good to lawsuit over. It was a very stressful period. Thatt is still not over, officer is still working for the Oakland Police. Oakland police still have poor disciplinary measures and processes. How are you feeling . Im not feeling good about Oakland Police or about going back into war, but i am feeling ready to resist that and to keep fighting for to write these injustices. Of posttraumatic stress disorder and the return to iraq and syria, not a lot of discussion in the Corporate Media about the soldiers. There has been this whole discussion about boots on the ground. The top generals are very much talking about that, not to thosen those that fly who do the bombing in iraq and syria. Drone pilots, people who operate usually it involves a team of four or five different people. They are not immune to being mentally troubled when their experiences in war. Just to go back to what scott was talking about, there are studies that show soldiers come home with ptsd are more likely to commit crimes. That means they are more likely to be dishonorably discharged. In some ways, these are the people that need help the most in the va. s you know what jacob george reaction was to the u. S. Military going back into iraq and now syria . I last talked to him in june, and at that time, isis was tardy to take over iraq he towns, and he was troubled by the prospect of going to war. He was also troubled when bowe bergdahl, the p. O. W. From afghanistan, came home, and not only did not receive a welcome, but the opposite, nothing but hatred. I wanted to ask about the use of depleted uranium. The center for Constitutional Rights submitted a freedom of act information request to the state department, and the state department itself, seeking the firing coordinates of weapons used in iraq containing depleted uranium. If a person ingests or is exposed to the radiation of depleted uranium, Radioactive Material can be absorbed into the body. Kelly dougherty, you are one of the heads of ivaw. We have been working with the center for Constitutional Rights and organizations in iraq around issues of depleted uranium use. They are seeing skyrocketing numbers of birth defects and Health Problems in areas where depleted uranium rounds were used. Also the issue of returning veterans, health impacts, similar things. We want to see where those weapons were used so that we can start to build a case to support reparations for the iraqis, as well as guaranteeing that our u. S. Service members coming back with depleted uranium exposure, get the proper recognition and treatment. Has iraq veterans against the war come out with a statement on the u. S. Bombing of iraq interior right now . We are working on a statement right now. We have seen the human casualties of war. These are inevitable consequences. More and more people will have their lives destroyed and more people will be radicalized to join organizations like isis with our continued militarism in the region. Thank you all for being with us. Kelly dougherty, brock mcintosh, and scott olsen. All members of iraq veterans against the war. When we come back, jeremy scale on dirty wars the war is a battlefield. [ ] a member of iraq veterans against the war, she wrote the song after seeing the Yellow Ribbon magnets that people have been putting on their cars. She served as an Army Public Affairs specialist from 2002 until 2008. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Vice President Joe Biden said thursday it will take a hell of a long fight for the u. S. And its allies to stop the advance of militants from the Islamic State in iraq and syria. During the same speech, he admitted the Islamic State poses no existential threat to security. Australia has become the latest country to join the fight even he said australian planes will take part in the air campaign and that special forces would be deployed. Certainly haves quite a substantial special forces component on the ground already. My understanding is there are u. K. And Canadian Special forces already inside iraq. On a much operating smaller scale, but in an entirely comparable way to the u. S. Special forces. Meanwhile, Turkeys Parliament has ordered the government to authorize action against the Islamic State and also allows troops to launch from turkey. Turkish centere for humanitarian rights, 300,000 people have been displaced. Talk about the crisis, we are joined by jeremy scale, who first reported inside iraq before the 2003 invasion. He is cofounder of theintercept. Org and author of dirty wars the war is a battlefield. Welcome back. Congratulations on the book being published as a paperback. Talk about the war in syria and iraq. First of all, it is sort of like the terrorist flavor of the month that we are dealing with here. First it was al qaeda and then the course on group. My understanding is it was a term used in the u. S. Intelligence community and is not really the name of the people they claim to be attacking. What the policy boils down to is that the Obama Administration has come in a very orwellian way, changed the definition of commonly understood terms. Primarily the term imminent. They say the group represents an imminent threat to the u. S. , but we know from a leaked paper that was put out in advance of John Brennans confirmation to be the cia director, that the Justice Department actually has officially changed the definition of the word imminent so that it does not need to involve an immediate threat against the United States, that it could be a perception that one day these individuals could possibly attempt to plot not even carry out a terrorist attack against the United States. That flimsy justification has been used to expand this war from iraq to syria, potentially beyond. The Obama Administration, in engaging in this policy, is continuing a Bush Administration outcome of the decision to invade iraq. That is they are empowering the very threat they claim to be fighting. Who is isis, what is this group made up of . Is it just people that are radical islam is to want to behead american journalists . This is almost never mentioned in Corporate Media coverage. Is thethe top commanders leading bathist on a deck of cards that the u. S. Has not captured. He was one of saddam husseins top military commanders. He was not just some ragamuffin. He was a hardcore general in the iraq he military and he was a secular bathist. Why is he fighting with isis . When bush decided to invade iraq, and then when you put paul charge, one of the first things that he did was to fire 250,000 iraqi soldiers because they were members of the baath party. Said, its. Official was a day that we made quarter of million enemies in iraq. All of them had been jerked around by the u. S. For a very long time. There was a time, the socalled surge, where the u. S. Paid sunnis not to kill the u. S. Soldiers. In the u. S. Turned around and put in power a shiiteled government of her under nouri that effectively operated a network of death squads thats in the systematically attacked sunnis. Yes, there is an element of isis. I dont know how dominant it is in the group ellen that is trying to establish the caliphate. And they are beheading people fear they are imposing a strict interpretation of sharia law. And i would suspect that also their best military figures, there is a large contingent of people that are fighting the same battle that they were fighting when the United States originally invaded. There was no al qaeda presence in iraq before george bush made the decision to invade, except in the kurdish region in the north of iraq, which was not under saddam husseins control. It was under the control of u. S. Backed entities. Saddam husseins forces were fighting that group. So what am i saying here . The u. S. , through its policies, created the very threat that it claims to be fighting now, and in continuing this policy, what president obama is doing, is embracing the very allies that made the cheneybush iraq war possible, and in the process is creating yet another generation of people in the islamic world who are going to grow up in a society where they believe their religion is being targeted, where they believe the u. S. Is a gratuitous enemy, and so this is an epic formula for blowback. According to yahoo news, the administration has acknowledged a policy calling for near certainty forcasualties in drone strikes will not apply to the current bombings. The admission came in response to queries about a strike that killed up to a dozen civilians in a syrian village. This is kind of kabuki drone theater. Even in their strikes that are supposedly done with precision, every precaution taken not to kill civilians, the reality is, they have created a mathematical process for turning out the number of civilians killed in drone strikes that will always result in zero. If they killed a socalled jackpot, the target they are aiming for, and they kill other unknown individuals, the system that the military and cia have developed, anyone that is in any killed in action been someone that we do not have proof that they are innocent. In other words, it is a reversal of the idea that you are innocent until proven guilty. If you are near someone that the u. S. Was intending to kill, the presumption is you are in any killed in action, unless someone can prove that you were not. So in a way, the fact that they very littlehis, has meeting, except that they will have even less regard for civilian lives than they already do with their existing program. Let me ask you about leon panetta. Writesok coming out, he this is a clone show with these guys. Leon panetta was the director of the Central Intelligence agency and had enormous influence. The fact that the Obama Administration adopted what was effectively the u. S. Policy in iraq when bush left office says a tremendous amount about how little the administration understood the disaster in iraq. Had the u. S. Kept in this strikeforce, which wouldve been cia, paramilitary, special operations forces, it would have exacerbated the problem. The problem is not whether the u. S. Wouldve been there to stabilize iraq. The issue is how much worse we are going to make iraq with these policies. It is almost impossible to imagine that this couldve been handled in a worse way. Having more troops there, all of these guys when they write their memoirs, have is brilliant vision looking backwards, that they were the ones that do, they wouldve done this differently. The u. S. , since 9 11 and you could argue that this has been policy for many decades has been its own worst enemy in one sense. We created the very threat we claim to be fighting. On the other hand, if you look at who benefits of this war, beyond entities like isis, because they do benefit from this. Al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula becomes stronger in the sense that they have a greater Propaganda Movement they can roll out. The weapons industry is making a killing. The next generation of drone aircraft is going to be coming out. They are working on jet propelled drones that can stay in the air for a long time. The war industry is in its mr. Ight right now under transformative presidency barack obama. His administration has been a great friend to the war industry. Outside of some small groups of loony bins in syria and iraq, the war industry is the greatest beneficiary of the policy. Isis killing the journalists and the beheadings . This has haunted me, as a journalist that has worked in the area, who has friends in those countries. I was horrified. In watching the videos, in the case of james foley and stephen selloff, they are so calm in the statements they are giving. It is impossible to imagine that they know they are going to be killed in that moment. My suspicion i have done some reporting on this is that they had been put in that position repeatedly and told, you have to say the statement. In other words, they were subjected to mock executions over and over again. If you notice in the videos, you do not see their heads being cut off. Was nk its possible that from james foley, and may have been killed in a the time context. They have them in the origin jumpsuits. We know that they have been waterboarded. Where did this come from . This is inspired by what we did to muslim prisoners around the world when we put them in poland, thailand, in the socalled black sites, when we took them to guantanamo, or we threaten their families, or we put them in small boxes where they could not lay down or stand up. And then we brought in psychiatrists to investigate and exploit the fears of the prisoners that we took under the auspices of fighting terrorism and we would stick people in boxes and if they had a fear of spiders, we would put them in a box and tell them that there was a tarantula in there. Aoc ran a torture factory at camp in iraq. Torturing people, trying to find the next target. These militants are adopting the very tactics that the u. S. Used, and continues to use against the muslims it captures. There has never been a more intensely dangerous time for journalists. On the one hand, you have episodes like this, where journalists are being beheaded. In mexico, they are being gunned down by narco cartels or proGovernment Forces. Orelancers, mostly of arab muslim journalists, are being killed in record numbers. And then here at home, in the u. S. , there is a war against journalism and whistleblowers. Intent onovernment is tracking who is giving information to journalists that is not officially cleared by the white house, and the message we are sending is we only want the official statement to be out, or our official leaks. When that group popped out of nowhere and we were told we on nbc news, Brian Williams, when he was announcing the latest threat, he had a graphic next to him that just said the new enemy. If we could just take a picture of that apparently now it is every month we could just have Brian Williams there with the new threat. It can become an annual holiday where we celebrate whatever new war will give Lockheed Martin and boeing and these companies tremendous profits. Nowage we are living in where there is this war on journalists abroad by every possible force and then this war at home where journalists are being surveilled, there are sources are being threatened with prosecution under the espionage act, the book the Obama Administration is in the league of some of the most ruthless human rights violators in the world with the press. Possible president ial contenders, hillary clinton. You wrote dirty wars the war is a battlefield when she was secretary of state. I think she is actually more hawkish than barack obama. Obama has emerged as a pretty significant hawk with his policies. He can talk about how he was to reset relationships around the world, but this has been a militarized presidency. Hillary clinton, when she was secretary of state, acted as if she were sort of secretary of defense. Her state department was deeply involved with plotting covert actions around the world, using the state department as cover for cia operations, and the clintons, bill and hillary, are two of the fierce most fierce projectors of the policy of the american empire. They also have very Close Relationships with some of the most the various characters from the bush family. Those two families together, the bushes and the clintons, it is almost like a monarchy in the country. Jeb bush may well run. Bush said the other day he is putting pressure on his brother to run. Hillary clinton is a fierce neoliberal who believes in backing up the socalled hidden hand of the free market with merciless, ironfisted oteri policy. Let me ask you quickly about blackwater and the trial going on. Jurors have been deliberating in a trial of the former operatives allegedly involved in a 2007 massacre. The suspects are charged with the deaths of 14 civilians who died when their unit indiscriminately opened fire. This was the worst massacre of iraqi civilians at the hands of private contractors that we know in iraq. I do not know how the verdict will turn out, but i know that the person who should be on trial is erik prince, the founder who ran blackwater when it was essentially Murder Incorporated in iraq. There was an environment where they were encouraged to view every iraq as the enemy and they committed many massacres beyond that. This is a microcosm of what happens all the time. It is always the people down the chain that face the consequences. I believe these men should be convicted for what they did and should be imprisoned. But the leadership of blackwater should also be there. Stop we as a society cutting off who is held accountable at the lowest