People. Amy Hillary Clinton defends her handling of the 2009 coup in honduras when asked by our own Juan Gonzalez. We will play their whole exchange and get response from historian dana frank. Dennis refugees from afghanistan, iraq, syria and other wartorn countries seek safety in europe, what role should the United States play in helping them in countries the u. S. Has bombed . We will speak to stanford Professor Robert crews about americas afghan refugee crisis. Then john kerry becomes the first u. S. Secretaryry of stateo visit hiroshima. We came here anandrew f frome experience of touring in this museum h how critical it is that we all apply the lessons of thth papast to the future and thehe presenent to create and pursue a wororld free from nuclear weapo. Amy we will look at how the united date has been quietly upgrading its Nuclear Arsenal to create smaller, more precise Nuclear Bombs as part of a massive effort that will cost up to 1 trillion over three decades. We will speak to marylia kelley, author of the new report, trillion dollar trainwreck. All of that and more coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In washington, d. C. , police have arrested about 85 more protesters taking part in the democracy spring actions against corporate lobbying and big money in politics. This comes after more than 400 people were arrested after a sitin at the capitol on monday. The Corporate Networks widely ignored mondays arrests. According to a tally by the intercept, cnn did not devote any coverage to the protests. Msnbc mentioned them for 12 seconds and fox news discussed them for 17 seconds. Cnn later posted a short item online. To see our interview with democracy spring organizer kai newkirk, go to democracynow. Org. Nearly 40,000 verizon workers on the east coast have walked off the job, marking one of the biggest u. S. Strikes in years. The workers have been without a contract since august as they attempt by verizon to cut pensions and ease the outsourcing of work. Pickets are expected at hundreds of verizon sites from massachusetts to virginia. Verizon says its trained thousands ofof nonnionon employs to fill l in. North carorolina governor pat mccrory has issued an executive order regarding the states new antilgbt law. The law bars transgender people from using the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity, and eliminates local ordinances against antilgbt discrimination. The law has sparked wide protest. Bruce springsteen canceled a concert in North Carolina and paypal and Deutsche Bank said they will scrap plans for expansions in the state. On tuesday, mccrory said he would expand protections for lgbt state employees and seek legislation to restore the right to sueue for discrimination. Toyou know,w, after r listening peoples feedback during ththe past several weeks on this issue, i have come to the concnclusion that there is a grt deal of misinformation, misinterpretation, confusion, passion, and, frankly, selective outrage and hypocrisy, especially against the grereat state of northth carolinina. But based on this feedback, im taking action to affirirm the statates commitment to privacy and equality. Amy the aclu of North Carolina called mccrorys order a poor effort to save face afteter his sweeping attacks on the lgbt community. President obama meets with top aides at cia headquarters today to discuss the u. S. Campaign agaiainst isis. This comes as pentagon officials tell the New York Times u. S. Airstrikes have killed 25,000 isis fighters. Meanwhile, the wall s street journal reports the cia and its regional partners have drawn up a socalled plan b for syria to supply rebels oppoposed to syrian presidedent bashar alasd with more powerful weapons if a sixweek truce collapses. Peace talks aimed at ending the syrian conflict are set to resume in geneva today. An algerianamerican man arrested in a controversial plot that drew accusations of entrapment has attempted suicide after detailing brutal abuse behind bars. Ahmed ferhani pleaded guilty in 201212 to terrorismrelated charges for discussing attacks on new york city synagogues with an undercover officer. But the nation reports the case against him was flimsy. Ferhani had a history of Mental Illness and days before his arrest, he told the officer he wanted to flip the guns they were going to buy fofor a profi. He wrote to attorney general Loretta Lynch detailing plans to a litany of threats, denial of food and water, and targeted violence while behind bars at attica and great meadow correctional facility. He wrote if taking my life is filled away to expose the evils practiced daily by corrections officersrs, then i will be glado do it. He is now in a medically induced coma after he attempted to hang himself at attica last week. House e speaker paulul ryan n se would not accept the republican president ial nomination. Rumors have centered on ryan as a possible alternative if neither donald trump, ted cruz, or john kasich crosses the delegates, but37 ryan said he is not interested. If no m majority has enenougn the fifirst ballot, i believe we should only choose from a person who is actually participated in the primary. Count me out. I simply believe that if you want to be the nominee for our party to be the presidedent, you should actuallly run for it. I chose not to do this. Therefore, i should not be considered period, end of story. Amy new results from colorado show Bernie Sanders one one more delegate than initially reported. The denver post reports the Colorado Democratic Party admitted this week that it misreported the march 1 caucus results from 10 precinct locations. While Hillary Clintons campaign discussed the error with state Party Officials last week, the Sanders Campaign apparently did not find out until monday, when they were informed by the denver post. Clinton had been projected to win the majority of colorados 78 delegates because of her support from unelected superdelegates. But the corrected tally means the worst sanders could do is a time. If he wins one superdelegate he , could win the colorado delegation. This comes as sanders and clinton prepare to face off at a debate in brooklyn on thursday. Georgia has executed an africanamerican man, despite reports of possible e racial bis in the case. Kenneth fults pleaded guilty in 1997 to killing his 19yearold neighbor, cathy bounds. His lawyers sought clemency for fults, saying he had an intellectual disability. Attorneys say his trial lawyer failed to tell about this disability and slept through parts of the sentencing. One of the jurors later used a racial slur to describe him. The George Holding investigation once he pled guilty, i knew i would vote for the Death Penalty because that is what that nword Death Penalty because thats deserved. Fults clemency petition was rejected. He was killed by lethal injection at tuesday night. 7 37 p. M. The news channel Al Jazeera America has signed off for the last time. The u. S. Focused branch of the qatarbased Network Launched in 2013 after al jazeera purchased current tv from former Vice President al gore. About 700 people are losing their jobs. Richelle carey and antonio mora said goodbye tuesday night. From our first moments on the on when we welcome you august 20, 20 13, we have tried to bring you the stories that other news organizations dont. And we hope we have lived up to our promise, to be the voice of the voiceless and to speak truth to power. To those of you who have supported us onair and online, we thank you for allowing us to tell your stories. Good night and goodbye. Amy andnd those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. With the New York Primary less than a week away, the race for the democratic nomination continues to heat up. Hillary clinton and Bernie Sanders will meet t thursday i n brooklyn for theirir first debae in over a month. We begin todays show looking at Hillary Clinton and honduras. Earlier this week, t the former secretary of state publicly defended her role in the 2009 coup in honduras that ousted democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya in the middle of the night, deposed him, and sent him and exile. Since the coup, honduras has become one of the most violent places in the world. Clinton was asked about honduras during a meeting with the New York Daily NewsEditorial Board on saturday. The question was posed by democrcracy now s own Juan Gonzalez. Juan secretary clinton, i would like to ask if i can about latin ,merica and the policies specifically that you are directly involved in, the coup in honduras. As you know in 2009, the military overthrew president zelaya. There was a time when the oas was joined isolate the regime. Was trying to isolate the regime. Some of the emails have shown that some of your top aides were urging you to declare a military. Oup, cut off usaid you ended up negotiating for a deal for a new election. But the situation in honduras has continued to deteriorate. [inaudible] just a few weeks ago, one of the leading environmental activists was assassinated in her home. Do you have any concerns about the role you played in a particular situation . Well, let me again try to put this in context. Legislature, the National Legislature in honduras and the National Judiciary actually followed the law in removing president zelaya. Now, i did not like the way it looked or the way they did it, but they had a very strong argument that they had followed the constitution and the legal precedent. As you know, they really undercut their argument by spiriting him out of the country in his pajamas were they sent the military, you know, to take him out of his bed and get him out of the country. Mixeds began as a very and difficult situation. If the United States government declares a coup, you immediately have to shut off all aid,ncluding humanitarian aid the support that we were providing at that time for a lot of very poor people. And that triggers a legal necessity. There is no way to get around it. So our assessment was, we will just make the situation worse by punishing the honduran people if we declare a coup and we immediately have to stop all aid for the people, but we should slow off and try to stop anything that the government could take advantage of without calling it a coup. So you are right. I worked very hard with leaders in the region and got oscar arias, the nobel winner, to take the lead on trying to broker a resolution without bloodshed. And that was very important to us, that zelaya had friends and allies, not just in honduras, but in some of the neighboring countries like nicaragua. And that we could have had a terrible civil war that would terrifying in loss of life. So i think we came out with a solution that did hold new elections, but it did not in any way address the structural systemic problems in that society. And i share your concern that it not just Government Action drug gangs, traffickers of all kinds are preying on the people of honduras. So i think we need to do more of a colombian plan for central america. Remember what was going on in columbia when first my husband and then followed by president bush had planned colombia, which was to try to use our leverage to rein in the government in their actions against the farc and gorillas, but also to help the government stop the advance rillas andc and gue now we are in the middle of peace talks. It took a number of years, but i want to see a much more conference of approach towards it shall america because it is not just honduras. The highest murder rate is in el salvador and we have guatemala with all of the problems you know so well. I think in retrospect, we managed a very difficult situation without bloodshed, without a civil war, that led to a new election. And i think that was better for the honduran people, that we have a lot of work to do to try to help stabilize that and deal with corruption, deal with violence and the gangs and so much else. Amy that was democratic president ial hopeful Hillary Clinton responding to a question from democracy now s Juan Gonzalez on saturday during a meeting with the New York Daily Newsws Editorial Board. Juan later wrote about thehe exchange in a column for the New York Daily News titled, clintons policy was a latin American Crime story. Well link to it t on our websi. For more on honduras, we are joined by Hillary Clinton and the legacy of the 2009 coup, dana frank. She is a professor of history at the university of california, santa cruz, and an expert on human rights and u. S. Policy in honduras. Professor frank, it is great to have you with us. Hillary clinton said a lot in this fiveminute exchange with Juan Gonzalez. It is breathtaking that she would say these things. I think we are reeling that she would b both to enroll role in supporting its stabilization in the aftermath. First of all, the fact that she says they did it legally, the did thisjudiciary legally, is mindboggling. The fact that she then is going to say that it was not an unconstitutional coup, it is incredible. When she actually had a table that we have in the u. S. Ambassador of honduras said it was very clearly in illegal and unconstitutional coup. She even amidst and are in statement that it was the honduran military that she says, well, this was the only thing wrong, it was the military that took zelaya out of the country, as opposed to somehow he was a legal thing we did that the honduran government did deposing a president. Amy i want to try to that wikileaks cable on honduras. The u. S. Embassy, the capital of hundreds, sent a cable to washington on july 24, 2009. Less than a month after the coup. The subject line was, open and shut the case of the honduran coup. The cable asserted there is no doubt that the events of june 28, 2009 constituted an illegal and unconstitutional coup. The embassy listed arguments by supporters of the coup to claim its legality and dismissed each of them, saying none has any substantive validity under the honduran constitution. The embassy went on to say the honduran military had no Legal Authority to remove president zelaya from office or from honduras. The embassy also characterized the honduran militarys actions as an ababduction and kidndnappg that was unconststitutional. Again, this was the u. S. Embassy memo that was sent from honduras to washington. Sure listenerske understand how chilling it is that the leading president ial a leading president ial candidate in the u. S. Would say this is not a coup. The second thing is, she is lying when she says we never called it the coup, because that would mean we have to suspend aid. First of all, they repeatedly called it a coup. We can see state department statements for months calling it a coup and confirming, yes, we call it a coup. She refused use the word military coup show she split hairs. Very clearly sasays coupit it is a signifificantly evolving the military, we have to immediately suspend all aid. They decided to have this interpretation that it was a coup, but not a military coup. Hillary clinton and obama for that matter, i want to make clear, i in violation of u. S. L, cleaearly said if there is a cop they have to cut the military to the all other aid country, she violated the law, decided, well, it wasnt a military coup which it was. Amy the memo is very clear. Cable is clear. Even what she said on saturday, she said, well, the military put him on a plane and that is the only problem. She is admitting it was a militaryled coup. Therefore, she some violation of the law, so is obama by not immediately suspending aid. Then she is saying, well, we never called it a coup. Hello, we have so Many State Department statemements that thy call it t a coup. Amy in march 2010, she traveled to meet with the honduran president whose election was boycotted by opponents of the coup that overthrew cilia. Hillary clinton urged latin american countries at the time to normalize ties with t the cop governrnment. W we think hondurasas has tan imimportant and necessary steps that deserve the recogognition n ththe normalizatioion of relati. I have just and a letterer to te congress of the united hates notifying them that we will be restoring aid to o hondurasas. Other countries in thee region. Ay ththey want to wait a while i dont know what theyre waiting for, but that is their right to wait. Amy that was Hillary Clinton in 2010, professor frank. What t she did at the time ws she played out the strategy, obama and clinton played out the strategy, that they would delay negotiations. They treated the post coup dictator as an equal partner to themdent zelaya, moved into a sphere the could control and elated until the already scheduled elections in november. The problem is, as you say, this almost all most all of the opposition had pulled out of that election. All International Observers had pulled out, refusing to observe that election. The only observers were the u. S. Republican party and saying this was not a legitimate election. That day, even beforore the pols closed