this is rose. i'm president, indonesia now investigating the use and abuse of power across the globe for now, which is here. ah hello, i'm emily anglin, in durham, how these the top stories on al jazeera man, man conflict, could be about to escalate into an even greater human rights catastrophe. that's the warning from the un special raptor who fees, mass atrocities, and more loss of life. there are reports and military jente is deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and heavy weapons to the north and north west. that's where armed groups have resisted its rules since the qu, in february, italy's for my interior minister material sylvania has been in court on trial for his role in blocking

a migrant rescue ship back in 2019. he's accused of kidnapping and abusive authority. the far right politician prevented 2 vessels from docking for days. at him rainy has more from ron prosecutors in their company. civil plaintiff have submitted a list of more than 2 dozen witnesses to testify. their pretty high profile, ranging from the former prime minister who served above the ne, that's prime minister for prime minister content. and even on that list is actor richard year because he volunteered for a period on one of these ships. and he's seen as a possible witness. we also expect to see my tails have any himself appearing, although he's not currently the interior minister. he's still a very high profile politician in italy. he's a member of mario that argues governments in do activists in bangladesh have been rallying in the capital darker against outbreaks of violence. at least 6 people were killed at

a hindu festival. earlier this month. it follow claims. the muslim holy book, the koran was disrespected in a temple, if called for hunger strike, tanveer chandry is at the demonstrations indica. calling for purpose the other day i saw about sla and the capital ga gov. people from all walks of life in those muslim 1st john bought this other day to put us like i want to replace it last several days across the country again, saw him go bang augustus. they had report. that's the one justice, many of them out on hunger thought we spoke with some of the protest. this is what they have to say. to be of all isn't a mother in law. holy hindu book was banned maintained as we killed minority to women. we wrote these incidents keep happening. one after the other. yet we never go to real justice. one of the clear suspect was arrested on thursday night, but people here said that the people behind the crisper is it should be brought to justice and forbid scrolls and other key demand is that the strait religion this

lumps should be abolished from the constitution. i think we were born here with taxpayers and contributing to the country's development in every sector. yet we are being attacked and marginalized in every way. now we're here to protest and fight for a survival. people believe those politics behind all this. they want the real people who are behind the standards to be brought to justice, not just scape goat. if the justice was not met, they said they'll continue your protest. in coming days. the u. s. detained more than 1700000 undocumented migrants in refugees on his border with masked mexico in the past year. that's the highest number ever recorded. 147000 of them with children crossings began rising light steer, but significantly escalated after us. president joe biden took office the leader of an a tories alliance of 9 haitian gang says its members are not responsible for

foreign for kidnapping. 17 foreign emission rings the head of the coalition known as the g. 9 march to report a print flamed by hundreds of people in defense of the great in pakistan, members of the band political group, the l pay had begun their march from hall. the capital is amazon, one day after violence broke out at their protest. 3 police officers were killed when they were run over during clashes. and a red giant al has been photographed in the wall for the 1st time in 150 years attain from london's imperial college spotted shelley's eagle out in a rain forest in ghana. the bird was 1st identified as a species back in 18. 70 to those the headlines they to now for the bottom line. ah.

hi, i'm steve clemens and i have a question. what kind of legacy does the late colin powell we behind? let's get to the bottom line. ah, the united states lost one of its most legendary military and diplomatic leaders last week, regardless of how history judges colin powell. one thing is clear, he was an exceptional man who had a story, life and beat the odds to become one of america's most influential shapers of national security. he was one of the 1st black men in american history to become a 4 star general. and he was the 1st black american to become secretary of state, serving under president george w bush. and that position, one of his main jobs, was to make the case for the iraq war in 2003, especially since at that time, he was one of america's most trusted leaders. he did his job loyally but later regretted it. although he did stop short of admitting that his famous speech at the united nations was packed with a lot of lies. after the war he left the bush administration. he became known as

a voice of moderation in the republican party until the very end. and he endorsed democrats, barack obama in 2008, and joe biden last year. so what was he? was he upon and a much bigger game? was he a national hero? or loyal soldier or brilliant statesman? today we're talking with pulitzer prize winning journalist, karen the young, who's a veteran reporter and editor for the washington post. and she's the author of the biography soldier, the life of colin powell tracking him from his childhood in the bronx till his life after the white house. karen, it's great to be with you today. let me just open up with a question and ask why you chose colin pal. what drove you? what was the spark at that moment and said, wow, this is the person i want to profile. when you wrote this biography many years ago, i think and one of the most interesting things to me was that he came rows up in the world. busy at a particular point in american history with the confluence of

a lot of things and civil rights movement, the desegregation of the military. and the, you know, immigrant parents, ah, the ah, the ability of people who came from a background such as his, who went to a, a sort of populist college, not ivy league by any stretch. and he, you know, he used all of that and he had the intelligence and the, the manner to use it. and so he, he was a guy who was in the right place at the right time, at many junctures in his history, but also had the personality and the intellect and the ambition to, to utilize that. now i don't know exactly how to ask this, but i know that that i know of his general power sector pals was his colin powell,

when he joined the army, he joined right after it became des, segregated. and, and i'm always interested in whether or not at that moment whether he began to rise above the racism and division that used to exist in the military. or whether he became the star token or to to where other leaders were trying to show that they were in fact, trying not to be as racist as they were. do you have any sense of that? i think arguably, it's both of those things. i think that he, i, you know, that harry truman desegregated the military officially in 1948. but there were still black only your nets until the mid fifty's actually when pal came in, you know, it was at the beginning of the 60s. and i think that there was no official segregation in the military, but he once said something that i think he meant in

a sort of sarcastic way, which was, i ain't that black. he said, you know, he was relatively light skinned. he grew up not in an african american community, but in an inter immigrant community. and he could, he could exist in a lot of different worlds. and so i think he was well aware of the fact that white people and white people of power felt safe around him. if i can, can use that word. and again, whatever one might say about his race and his attitude to his race and attitudes toward his race by others. and he was consistently very good at what he did. and therefore he made it easy for people around him to want to promote him . what was the moment? why i guess what was the breakout moment for colin powell? what was the moment that everyone said, aha, we want to make him our chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. we want to make him

national security advisor. we want to consider, we want to make him secretary of state, we want to consider him. and i mean people who may not recall this, but he was a potential candidate for president united states running in a 3rd party or as an independent. and i remember president bush's team being nervous about that prospect. yeah, i think that he, you know, i was sort of a gradual thing where he basically succeeded in a series of the usual sort of stops along the line. were military promotion and was probably promoted faster than others. she had a very good record in, in vietnam. he was wounded, he rescued his commanding officer from death. and so by the time he at was a went, it went to george washington university and got a master's degree there. and he then applied to be a white house fellow, and that took him into the upper essentially is 1st step out of the military

hierarchy and into the bigger political world. he was assigned as a white house fellow to the office of management and budget. wouldn't seem a natural fit for him, but that's nevertheless, where he ended up. and he and his boss was caspar weinberger, who was the head of that agency at the time. and the other person high up there was frank carlucci. and so when wine burger became ronald reagan's secretary of defense, he thought of bringing pal still in the military to be his, his mila chief military aid. every secretary defense has a mid level officer who, who is his, essentially for day to day life. his liaison, the military, his, his eyes and ears in the military. and so he became very close

to weinberger. he was very astute, politically. and by the time that carlucci became reagan secretary of state and was looking for someone to be his deputy, he went back to pal and said, come and be my deputy carlucci later left that office and brake power became reagan 6. the last national security advisor and i think acquitted himself well. he was still a military officer on page military and that was sort of an unusual thing. but i think that he was seen as someone who sort of at the, at a time when great it was in the view of many people starting to lose it a little bit, kept him on the stage straight and narrow and was viewed as kind of keeping that institution that afloat at that time, but just keeping it organized, you know,

it's a very, very organized guy. he kept the national security council very organized. and you know, meetings started on time options for presented to the president and things work the way the radically they were supposed to work. so after he finished that, he went back into the military, had several commands. and then when, when george bush senior was president, and he was looking for someone to to be his chairman of the trenches staff. it was actually dick cheney who had, who had suggested jenny, with the defense secretary at the time suggested power, which required power to jump over several other 4 start generals. he was the most junior at the time and, and then there he was. and of course then the persian gulf war came out,

which is where empower, really became known to the american people. you know, he was the guy standing at the saw at the press conferences every day. he was the guy speaking crisp, military language, all of which he learned in military schools, where he excelled in briefing, which is actually a skill right now with the terry bike. another dimension of, of secretary powell was his time overseeing and working on conflicts. and so one of these was the 1st iraq war, and then you had later the 2nd iraq war during the 1st iraq war on the team with president george h. w bush. he was a, he was largely a hero of that along with other other general sort of looking at it and then pulling out us forces. when then later, the 2nd walk war came in after 911. and you know, the debate in 2003 doors, w bush brought him into that. and i think it's one of the most controversial moments in colon power life was being used to sell that war to sell that war to

allies, to sell that war to the american public. because he had a very vol. there's one of the most trusted americans in the world, and i'm just interested if you ever talk with him deeply about that moment in which we now know. in hindsight, the material that he presented at the united nations was deeply flawed, deeply wrong that they've been duped. by a, an intelligent story. name, cur, ball i'd be interested in, and what your thoughts are about that, that i'm trying to figure out how this guy became such a pawn in that moment. well, let me go back just a little bit to when he was term of the joint chase, which was under bush senior burge h w bush. that's when he, as i said, 1st came sort of to national prominence. and he that was where he was known for what came to be called the pal doctrine, which was if you're going to go into or go big, make sure you know what your mission is and what,

what your exit strategy is and really have the support. and, and the body politic needs. so i think that the years later when he became, when george bush george w bush went to him a secretary of state. it was no secret that that bush, one of his liabilities and his campaign was that he didn't know much about foreign policy or national security. and so pell, who at the time, as you said, was really the pulls for years was the most admired person in the united states. and he brought pow in on the campaign trail really to sort of give him sort of foreign policy credibility. but power was not part of the inner circle. he was not part of this group noticed the vulcans who were basically rumsfeld cheney condi rice,

poll for whips. and so power came began as an outlier. and his role was very different than it had been when he was a general. he was the diplomat. he was not independent and he was not making military strategy. so, as the bush administration started to in the summer of 2002 started to make its plan for invading iraq. he went to bush and he said, look, you know, i've looked at the plan for this. i don't think it's right. i don't think you have enough troops and i don't think you should do it unless you have support, not only the american public, but from our allies, excuse me, to do it. and so he, he did persuade bush to take it to the united nations, to the security council and tried to get, try to get support where,

where cow was not very successful. the bridge certainly were on board but, but not many others were none of the none of the big players in the european in the european alliance except for britain at that point. and so they, they were worried they. busy they wanted a un resolution to support the invasion. and so in january of 2003, they said wait a minute. here we've got this incredibly popular guy. and if we sent him to the united nations and, and make the case, people will believe him. you know, cheney and rumsfeld them, bush and rice had been talking for months about mushroom clouds and weapons of mass destruction. and they weren't getting a whole lot attraction. but the decision was that power was the most credible sort of weapon they had. ah, and i called palin and said we want you to do this and, you know,

power chain of command guy agreed to do it. but said, i, you know, i will say what i want to say. and i will examine the, the evidence cheney's folks sent over a script for him to read. and he thought it was completely over the top. it was every bit of questionable and ambiguous evidence. they had all put in the worst possible light and pal and his team went over to the, to the cia and sat there for several days. i mean, they, i had about 2 weeks to organize this whole thing and, and cut it back a lot. and pile, i think felt like he had done due diligence. he had come up with the speech for which the. ready evidence was very solid, and he went to the security council and he gave this speech, and i didn't convince too many europeans who were against it, particularly france, that was running the security council at the time. but it did by and large,

convincing american public. editorial writers across a country, people who work at been very opposed. mary mcgrory, great liberal column as for the washington post. the next day wrote a column and said, well, i was against this. i didn't believe the bush administration, but i do believe colon pell. and if paul says it must be true. and so of course, they invaded and went to war. and once they had pretty much taken over iraq by the end of 2003, all the inspectors and the u. s. military did not find any weapons of mass destruction. they did not find any biological weapons laboratories. they did not find hidden stores of uranium and plans to build nuclear weapons. they did not find ties between saddam hussein and canada. all of which had been,

had been part of the, the case, the cow present. and i think that he did watch few people in the political realm would do. which is to come out and say, this was wrong. i was wrong. never said i lied because he didn't believe he had lied. he believes that he had presented what was given to him. and again, what he had done due diligence and examining it turned out that there was a lot of skepticism at some levels in the cia in the state department. and those were never pursued. and they were so convinced they wanted to do that. you know, it's hard to say people were lying, but they believed what they set out to believe in the 1st place. well, i remember that time, i remember when richard perle came out after colon pow, convince president bush to take this to the united nations richard pearl, who was a very leading defense intellectual,

a very strong presence in republican circles called him a traitor, a traitor to the united states and i, and i know that during that time we also saw afterward many americans, you know, and many people around the world saw colon paul, how after that gesture, as part of the machine that led to this many called him a war criminal. in fact, after this, and i, and i would often arguing these things, i said, you know, he, he was not in the same boat as some of those that crafted this. but i know his chief of staff, i know his deputy, both were there, but i guess my question is as he digested it later, one of my criticisms of colon pallet the time and i'm wonder where you're at with. i was surprised. he was silent for so long that it took him a while to say that he regretted that and that it had been wrong. and it raises the question of whether we should have generals in that role of secretary of state with some principle in this great man. last because he couldn't resign at that moment or

he didn't speak out after he was secretary, that he was still playing the general, but not the person, the civil servant, if you will. who supposed to offer is advice, supposedly to be loyal the president states. but at the same time, not lie to the american public. well, again, i'm not sure i do totally disagree with totally agree with you. i mean, i don't think he believed and never believed that he had lied. he believed that he was misinformed, that he was lied to me. and that, that, you know, if you want to say that, that then continuing that live made him a lawyer, i guess technically it does. but i don't think he saw it that way. i think that he did fairly soon, certainly in 2000 or when he was still secretary of state. he said, much to the dismay of the, of the bush administration. i believe this was even in 2003 said look,

if i knew then what i knew now, should we have gone to war? i don't think so. you know, and as the evidence came out, there were various investigations, you know, the investigation. the military did an investigation and i think that as those things came out, he, you know, perhaps he didn't said strongly enough for you and some others, you know, he said i, you know, i regret this. i know it will always be a blot on my record, you know, but i a well, yeah. again, they didn't believe that consciously, you know, just as you know, to, in part wrap up a discussion about his life and role. another thing he did, and i haven't seen many raises, but he was very, very important in creating the eye on what to call it the infrastructure. they could track that got the mirror american military to reverse don't ask,

don't tell which is the service of gay, lesbian, transgendered people in the us military by overseeing a study with, with former senator sam nunn and through don't ask, don't tell creating again, this is after the iraq war, but lending his legitimacy to a process under president obama that ended one of my views, one of the most outrageous barriers to service in the united states military. and he did do that, and i'm just interested in, in that moment too because that's where he really did try to change the turn. you know, the change the tide so, so dramatically. i think he became part. i think he became eventually proud of where that went. well, you know, one of the, one of the raps against pedal is that he was in many ways the author of don't ask, don't write. he was when he was here. when he was chairman of the joint chiefs and into the clinton administration, clinton was under

a lot of pressure from both sides, certainly by some democrats in congress to, to eliminate the ban on homosexuals being in the military. he was under equal pressure inside the military. and i think clinton was sort of stuck in the middle and, and had a lot of irons in the fire at that point and didn't want to offend conservatives and congress and didn't want to offend the military. i think it's no accident that if you look at the senior people in the bush administration, the 1st bush administration who were seen right. rightfully as responsible for what became the debacle in iraq. pow was rehabilitated by far more than anyone else. i think that he, you know, when he left government, i mean bush basically discarded him at the end of the 1st administration and had to

andy cards, his chief of staff call him up and say, never mind, we don't need join anymore. right? you know, can have your resignation letter tomorrow. so, you know, he spent the rest of his life working on things like this. don't ask, don't tell commission. he went around the world around the country, giving speeches on leadership, american values, the military, and virtually every stop. he would go to the local boys and girls club or some other organization that dealt with trouble viewed. that was a, became a very big part of his life, right. as i said, he started the institute at city college in new york, which is still, which is still going very strong. and i think that at the end of the day, more than anyone else, certainly embedded administration. he did, you did regime himself and then when he, when he died was,

was pretty admired america. well, karen, the young associate editor at the washington post biographer of the late secretary of state colin powell. i really appreciate these insights into his character and how he mattered. you're very welcome. so what's the bottom line? what a mix legacy that colin powell leaves behind when he retired military after the 1st gulf war. he was one of the most trusted people in america. the son of jamaica immigrants was also an inspiration to countless young men, not just black americans. so why did he lend his credibility to folks like dick cheney and george w bush and others who took advantage of 911 to launch an endless war with iraq, a war that continues till today, with hundreds of thousands of innocent lives last books could be written about the possible motives suffice to say that he didn't walk out and he didn't stand up to the president when he needed to, if that's what he believed. but in other points in his career, like in his work on, don't ask, don't tell in the military he did stand up for what he believed. either way he did

matter. we're going to debate how for many years to come. and that's the bottom line. ah, in the next episode of planetary swiss ahead of the upcoming un climate conference will be heading deep on the ground and up into the air. get a new perspective with the changing face of the coal mining industry and pony. will report on illegal logging in romania and explore health catastrophic wall flies in greece since created you problems that all feed into the destructive cycle of extreme weather joined us for planets or to us on al jazeera. when an ethiopian mother put her daughter up for adoption, she knew little of what was to come. with family bon severed,

a traumatized child, torn between 2 worlds, struggles to return home in a profoundly human story, exposing deep floors in denmark's adoption system. a girl in return, a witness documentary on al jazeera. ah, hello, i'm emily anglin. in dough harvey's, the top stories on al jazeera in mass conflicts could be about to escalate into an even greater human rights catastrophe. that's the wanting from the un special repertory who fears, mass atrocities, and more loss of life. there are reports. the military jointer is to point tens of thousands of soldiers and heavy weapons to the north and north west. that's where armed groups have resisted its rule since the crew. in february, italy's former interior minister mateo is sylvania, has been in court on trial for his role in.