♪ >> madea win gentleman minimum, one book you're reading is peter schweizer's clinton cash. why? >> guest: i'm reading that book because i have been looking at saudi arabia, and why is it that there's all this talk about iran and, yes, it's a bad regime in rank but you want to look at a really bad regime, look at saudi arainy. the country responsible for spreading extremist ideologies all over the world. the country that is the largest

buyer of u.s. weapons. country that is invading other countries and actually killing lots of innocent people. it is saudi arabia. look at yemen, the thousands of minute people killed. crushed the uprising in bahrain where i have been tear-gassed and saudis crushing this beautiful nonviolent people's uprisings, and where were most of the hijackers from on 9/11? so i could go on and on. i should go on and on. i should say, what.the internal rerepresentation door re repression in saudi arainarch around allowed to drive, can't vote, left-hand ray loued to go out without a guardian, and we have didn't been doing -- we take on individual cases, peter, like am necessary city does, of work -- amnesty does, like

working with particular critical prisoners inch saudi arabia we have been work only the case of the blogger, because of his blogging about things that he was considering might be good to change in the saudi government, he was sentenced to ten years in jail and a thousand lashes. so, i was very interested in the saudi's giving money to lots of institutions the united states, like hush money, like buying their allegiance, and one of the institutions they give to is the clinton foundation. clinton foundation gets a lot of saudi money. so, that's why i started reading that book. but i should also say, peter, that the saudi money is going to places like the carter foundation, and i love jimmy carter, and they have this wonderful program for helping women around the world. why would the carter center be taking saudi money?

they should refuse to take saudi money, just like all of these universities, georgetowntown, american, they all take saudi money. so i would like to start a campaign making it a dirty thing to take saudi money and having universities and think tanks and other groups refusing to take saudi money, and i wanted to understand what the clintons were getting for the money that they're getting from saudi arabia, and so i think that book is a good example of the revolving door, of the corruption in politics, and the saudi money is a big part of that. >> host: 202 is the area code if you want to participate in the conversation. madea benjamin's most book is on drone warfare. next call from martin in

pennsylvania. hi, martin. >> caller: how are you doing? thank you, peter, and thank you, booktv for being here and thank you, madea, for being here. you do make a difference. first i want to invite you and codepink to the national mobilization against police brutality and the fop at the david l. lawrence convention center in pittsburgh next sunday, august 9th. everyone is welcome, and i'm sure people will be glad if you could make it. as an old '60s radical i want to say how difficult it is to organize on behalf of the oppressed in the u.s. besides the local police we now deal with the fbi and the national security agency. can you kind of comment on recent developments within the country that reflects a new conscious in our nation regarding how people are forced to live in mass incarceration and killer cops and could you comment on the situation in

mexico? the 43 student teachers handed over to narcotraffickers by public officials, the police, and the ruling party of mexico. i appreciate your work and i know that you will continue in your efforts, and the thing i notice and the difference is what you do now, we used to do every day, spontaneously. and it's so different now because there's a few people centered around that as their life task, whereas the out going, the late '60s it was everywhere in every institution and every union and every workplace and every occupation. people were rising and demanding justice and equality -- >> host: all right, martin, thank you very much. >> guest: martin, let me go with your last comment first. it's so indicative of why it's

hard to organize around some of these issues, and that is during the '60s there was draft. i certainly became involved because my friends were being drafted. and everyone the united states had a stake in what was happening in vietnam. we were forced to get involved. the way that the military has evolved these days is that less than one percent of the population is actually directly involved in the military, and that is why we can have things like hidden wars, like drone wars where people don't even know they're happening, and it makes it hard for people to recognize that there are wars going on, and let's look at it for young people these days. they were brought up under wars. that's all they know. they feel it as part of the background noise that accompanies their lives, not as something they have to get out on the greet protest against. they don't -- on the street and

protest against. they don't see our it affected them but it does. imagine if we could take the trillions of dollars we are peopling on wars and have free college education for all the young people in this country that deserve a free college education. so, the way the military is changed has made it more difficult. that being said, i am very inspired by the organizing that is going on by young people of color in their own communities to address the issues of police brutality. the "black lives matter" movement is not led by older civil rights people. it's not led by outsiders, wanting to help the, quote, oppressed. it's led by the people from the community themselves and it's the young people of color who have been out on the streets regularly, have just had meetings in cleveland, bringing

1500 people around the country together, about how they're going to address these issues in a more systemic way. i mentioned that we at codepink have been working with the mothers who lost their children to police violence. just about every one of these mothers now has their own organization or are involved in an organization. so there is a lot of amazing organizing going around on that issue. there's a lot of young people who are involved in the climate justice issue. and we see that movement on campuses across this country. we see it in communities of color where they've been very -- had to bear the brunt of a lot of the effects of climate chaos, and we see in the immigrant community a lot of young people who are risking their own status here in the united states by coming out as undocumented people, by challenging this system of mass deportations. so, there is a lot of good

organizing going on. what is important is to connect the issues and keep them separate from party politics, and -- was there anything else that he brought up? >> host: i think you answered quite a few of his questions. >> guest: thank you for calling. >> host: kate e-mails in, thank you for having the courage to speak truth to power and say in public what millions of americans think.these failed wars in the middle east. she grew up in a military family, agrees with you 100%. i am a lawyer and would like to provide pro-bono legal assistance your group. how do i volunteer your services? >> guest: well, kate, we would love your services. would say we don't always listen but we need the help. we need help when miami get arrested. we need pro-bono lawyers to help with getting them their charges ecareer dropped or dealing with their charges. we need help with people to

think creatively about how we can bring some of these issues to court challenges. for example, we have the only active court case open in the united states on behalf of an iraqi woman who is trying to sue the united states for what happened to her and her family because of the u.s. invasion. so there's lots of creative things that we would like to de -- to do and talk about. so kate, write to info at code binge.org or go to our facebook page. we look forward to talking to you. >> host: how are you funded? >> guest: we are a very lean organization, pete. our actual budget is less than $400,000. imagine the national and international impact of a group that is such a tiny budget, and

that is because most of the people are not paid. it's funny because some of our detractors say, look, you're only doing this because you're getting palleted for it, and we turn around and say, just about everything is doing this not only not being paid but on their own dime. they fly themselves to washington, dc. and most of them do not have money. they raise money. they go online and do crowd funding, to raise money to be able to come here. we have a codepink house where we put people up. we have interns, for example. we have wonderful interns that come from universities and stay with us for a semester. they have the greatest internship, always bragging about the amazing time they're having because the learn so many different issues and so many experiences, and they get to live in the codepink house so they have their room and -- well, at least their board covered here in washington, dc. but we -- the money that we make

is all from individuals, and because we have several hundred thousand people on our list, if we put out to our group we want to send a delegation to meet with drone victims in yemen, we'll get the money from supporters, and it's a wonderful thing. it's one of the great things about the internet that you're able to raise money online and people who don't have the time or the ability to actually go with us or come to washington, can support people, particularly young people, who need the financial help. >> host: so you don't take a salary from codepink? >> guest: no. >> host: how do you fund your life? >> guest: well, worked for many years. even though one of the callers said, thank you, young lady, am in my 60s, so i consider myself retired. i did have a salary from my other organization, global exchange, that it worked with

for many years, i used could work for the u.n., and i am in the privileged position of being able to work without a salary. >> host: do you live here in washington? >> guest: i live here in washington, dc. >> host: marie is in san diego. hi marie. >> caller: hi texas to you much for this program. i was fortunate enough to hear miss benjamin speak in san diego. i am a proud volunteer with knsjfm and is community radio, a front profit called activist san diego. we're an independent voice networking for social justice. i might ask miss benjamin about community radio. the fcc opened up the radio spectrum so that communities can reflect their towns at a grassroots level. her personal stories at that grassroots level, hearing something different than our politicians going in and coming

back with stories, is -- just makes such a difference. i wonder if she has worked with any community radio stations? do you have any advice for us? we're trying to make a difference by providing the kind of information you give us that we don't hear from media conglomerates. so we can help people make informed decisions and get that bigger picture that you've mentioned previously to other callers. and san diego loves booktv. thank you. >> guest: thank you for calling in, marie and, bring upping the issue of the media. it's a critical issue and we haven't talked about it. i think community radio is absolutely essential. i am constantly doing community radio stations, interviews. i love to have an opportunity to be on community radio because it

combines my love of both education and activism. people who listen to community radio are often people who want to be educated so they can go out and do something about it, and thank you to activist san diego but that i know does wonderful work in the community as well. think it's a terrible problem we have in the united states that the mainstream media is controlled by corporations, and that whether it's fox news or, frankly, msnbc, i don't enjoy watching mainstream television. i find it to be so partisan that i have to look for my news elsewhere itch do love c-span, but i also go to places like al ya jazz, rt -- al american league al-jazeera, the guerin guardian line, democracy now,

both radio and on many tv channels. i like a lot of online web sites. i mentioned some of them before, like alternet or common dreams. but i think it's important for people to seek out information in places that aren't part of the mainstream media, that with viewpoints that are outside the two-party duopoly and community radio is one of the best places to get that information. >> host: madea benjamin if a tom steir or choose koch came along and offered code pink ten million dollars would you take it? >> guest: i am not -- at codepink we'd have to talk about it as an organization, i doubt we would take it because if we took it -- first we would never take it from the koch brothers thaws the other things they do. if was coming from a source that

was doing other things that we appreciated, we might think about how that money could be used to build a strong coalition of groups. i don't think we would want to take any large amount of money as code pink. we like being light on our feet. we like being an organization that doesn't have a heavy administrative role that has to be played because it sucks up so much energy and so much time. we like being an organization that is mainly open to volunteers. so, i would say that any big money, if it was coming from good source, should be used to build up the coalitions that bring together the issue is mentioned, whether it's immigration reform, police accountability, demilitarization, climate issues, it would be nice to have a space, an ongoing way for

people involved in a lot of those activities to talk together. but i should also say -- i know you just had ralph nader on. i loved his book "unstoppable" and the knowing in that book is to get left and right coalitions together to deal with things. so maybe we want those two individuals to come together and give their money to coalition efforts that would bring together people on the left and the right that wanted to see things like audit of the pentagon. i know that grover nordquist would like to see the pentagon audited and should would coat pink and the tea party. there could be some interesting things that could come out of those kinds of coalitions. and i like thinking outside the box on the kind of things we can do together that would actually get at the issues of too much money in politics, corrupt

political system, the due on hilet thant allow for other voices. >> host: bricking the global gap. a handbook to linking citizens of the first and third worlds. her first book. don't be afraid, gringo. we talk about that. came out in 1989. no free lunch. food and revolution in cuba today. the peace corps and more is another one of her books. desilva, came out in 1997. cuba, talking bat revolution, also 1997. the groping of the revolution, she i coeditor of that book, and how to the stop the next war now, came out in 2005. her most recent book, drone warfare, kill big remote controlled, 2013, and your next book is about, again? >> guest: well, like to do a book on the peace economy. i have a publisher who has been pushing me to do a kind of memoir back, but i've been fighting against that because i

just do not -- it's hard to go back into the i, i mode, but there are a lot of stories i would like to tell and lesson i have learned so i'm toying with that idea as well. >> hugh, virginia. hi. >> caller: hi. thank you so much for c-span, and peter for being an alternative to media that's controlled and also madea, thank you for being alight -- being a light for the world. i was in cuba -- used to vacation there for the second year running. one of the last families to get out an emergency flight. we one on the beach, so my -- the people there are fantastic so i hope our relations will normalize in a way that freedom can really be for everyone in the world, that what i think

you're working toward. i wanted to ask if you have ever heard of james perloff. you can put him on youtube. he documents what the elites have been doing for far too long, but we can reverse all that it withtoday's technologies. the pen that was mightier than the pen. the interit in is mightier with video and i hope your organization is capitalizing on the ultimate strategies that can be achieved that way, and i want to just give one quick little statement that i hope everybody listening will just put in their hearts and mind, that was said -- i don't know by mom but an indigenous woman who said to a man, there are two wars raging in a man's heart. one is fear and the other is love. and the man asked the woman, which one wins? she said, the one that you give the most attention to.

god bless everyone. >> host: any comment for hugh? >> guest: well, thank you nor that sentiment, and the last thing you mentioned, i so agree with. i think we're all good people at heart, and good people do bad things, and they feed the bad often times. our society often feeds the bad, and our job as peace-loving people is to feed the good, and i do try in the stories i tell through my writing, to feed that good, to give people inspiration and examples. one of the biggest problems we have today, and even in this country, is people feeling powerless. feeling they don't have agency over their lives and certainly not over bigger issues than themselves. and so when i give a story of a

peasant woman in honduras who will never in her life probably have a cell phone much less a computer, but is able to organize communities to take over land that allows them to then feed their families. that's tremendous inspiration. when i tell the story of ben diet to desilva, a brazilian woman who lost two children to malnutrition, and then started organizing in her community. that is inspirational. when we see the mothers who have lost their children to police violence, and they start organizing so that this doesn't happen to other mothers, that's inspirational. so i think we have to feed the good in people, and we have to feed the idea that we do have power, and that our power comes from our own determination but it also comes from working

together, building communities, and that's what i have spent a lot of my life doing, and look forward to doing for years to come. >> if you can't get through on the phone lines, contact madea benjamin by social media. @book tv is the twitter handle. facebook dom/booktv. if you want to make a comment there. and finely, booktv c-span.org our e-mail dress. kelly in new york city, you're on booktv. >> caller: yes, thank you. ma tia, thank you for all you do -- madea, thank you for all you do. like millions around the world my husband and i strongly promotessed the unnecessary invasion of iraq ump my sympathies went out to the brave cindy sheehan who was demon rised when he protested the war in iraq after the her son was killed. i support the agreement with rain. many in congress keep saying return is a state sponsor of terror, as you said earlier 9/11 was carried out by mostly saudis

and on the same day the bush administration gave saudi officials in the united states safe flight out of the united states. also, isis was fueled -- funded -- i'm sir -- funded earlier by the saudis. now netanyahu says that israel and the saudis are in agreement against the iran negotiations. i find that a linement very disturbing. -- alignment very disturbing. >> guest: it's interesting that john kerry says that the saudi government is in favor of the deal, and we haven't heard directly from the saudi government about this. what we know is that they want something from the u.s. in return, and that usually tends to be more weapons or the u.s. turning a blind eye to what the saudis are doing in other places around the world. the u.s. is actually helping the saudis in their barometerring campaign inem -- their bombing campaign in yemen that is

killing thousands of innocent people and creating a tremendous humanitarian crisis in the entire country in yemen. i also wanted to thank you for bringing up the issue of cindy she hap, woman who -- sheehan, woman who lost her killed in iraq and camped out outside of george bush's ranch in texas, asking for a meeting with george bush, which she geoff not, but being ridiculed in the media and being an aggrieved mother who was absolutely right her child should not have died and nobody's child should have died in a wrongful invasion of iraq. and it is unfortunate that so many people who have spoken out against war, and if you just look at the case of the iraq war, those of us, including yourself, who spoke out, were vilified in the press at that time. we had so much hate mail you want believe it. bomb threats into our office.

people sending us the most disgusting messages and threatening us over the phone, calling us traitors to the united states. well, we were right and they were wrong. unfortunately, they still have power today. they tend to be in our congress, pushing for a war with iraq or they are heads of think tanks -- for war with iran. they're heads of think tanking pushing to quarterback the nuclear deal -- to quash the number deer deal the same people who drove abuse a war with iraq are trying to draw us into a war with iran. i if you want to see the u.s. live agent peace with the world, got during the recess period go visit your congress person. if you can't visit them, pick up the phone and call their office. we have to make our voices heard because otherwise it's the moneyed interests, it's those

who have a stake in perpetual war whose voices get heard. >> have you attended another armed services committee since john mccain called you a low life scum. >> guest: yes. i did. i was just at one of the armed services hearings this week. in fact where ashton carter was there, and john kerry was there and john mccain said we didn't even invite you to this hearing, you just came on your own so we will welcome you here and i it was fascinating to be in that hearing to hear the people like john mccain, grilling john kerry, ashton carter, martin dempsey, about why -- how terrible this deal with iran is, and i said it now three times on this program. i hope your listen arees don't get tired of hearing it. he was wrong on iraq. he wanted to bomb iran back in 2006-2000.

remember he made the joke, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, iran. it's not funny then ask and isn't funny now. and i distresses me that people like him are in such powerful positions when they're responsible for the destruction of iraq, the deaths of thousands of our soldiers, and let's say it, and say it clearly, the creation of isil. >> host: donald on our facebook page presents you with a choice in your opinion which would be more previousable, the u.s. using several bunker buster bams to dry iran's nuclear bam missile program or new york city being entirely destroyed by a single nuclear tipped missile sent by iran's dictateor snooze it's just a stupid choice. the second one is just not going to happen. iran, first of all, does not have, nor according to this deal, are they going to get a nuclear weapon, and even if iran

had a nuclear weapon, they're not trying to bomb the united states. so, the question doesn't make any sense. really what we should be saying is how do we move towards a nuclear-free world? that is the question that should be upper most on our minds when we look at this iran deal. yes, let's go with this iran deal, and then let's say, what about a nuclear-free middle east? that means israel's nuclear weapon, that israel won't admit it has, much less sign the nonproliferation treaty or allow any kind of weapons inspectors into its nuclear facilities. let's talk about the u.s. not abiding by its obligations according to the nonproliferation treaty, which is we're supposed to get rid of our nuclear weapons. instead pour pouring money into modernizing our nuclear weapons.

so there's a lot we should debeing globally to move towards a nuclear free world but this deal with iran is one positive step in that direction. >> host: next call for madea benjamin -- benjamin from susie in berkeley, california. >> caller: hi. thank you for taking my call. it's an honor to speak with you, madea, and thank you for c-span. i'm a budding activist in any fives 50s, and what want to focus on in asking you is about your future looking. what you see in terms of a peace economy. and my background is psychology, and i'm very interested in the study of human nature, violence and human nature, so i was struck by your comment of good people doing bad things and you want to feed the good and not feed the bad. well, i'm wondering, while it's

not maybe a forfront issue but all of these issues that connect with whether they're raising issues, environment, worker's rights, food justice, and i'll add animal rights to that. and i'm wondering as you look into our future of the world that you would want to live in, does it include more of a plant-based diet? i just don't see how we can foster nonviolence and peace, given our present animal agriculture system. >> host: susan, before we get a response, you call yourself a budding activist in your 50s. what have you been doing up to this time? >> caller: i was psychotherapy ist, working for their court wiz domestic violence u-issues and sexual abuse issues. >> guest: well, thank you for that wonderful call, and i love the budding activist in the

50s, and i love the things you brought up. my partner, is a vegetarian, and so we tend to eat vegetarian at home, and i am trying to be much more of a plant-based diet and in fact code pink is supporting the meat-free month as part of our push for a peace economy. so, we totally agree with you on that weapon also think it's better for us healthwise, better for the planet, better for us as peace-loving people. we really believe in a locally based economy, and especially around food. for people who have what has unfortunately become the luxury of eating locally, we know that the food tastes better. when you travel overseas you recognize that most people overseas are eating locally based food and organic food. we have this corporate based

food economy where the food is not only ridden with pesticide but also not very tasteful. so, locally based food system. we support people growing their owner begannic gardens. -- organic garden. we support people buying locally -- part of a peace economy, and as somebody who -- you are who has debt with people from the psychological issue, i think you know how important it is to connect what we eat, how much we exercise, how we live in our own physical bodies, to the way we behave mentally, and it all is very much connected. so we want people, especially

young people in the schools, like michelle obama to have healthy diets, to have healthy lifestyles, and that is part of living in a community where people are dealing with each other in more positive ways. >> host: you said mr. berry was a vegetarian but you didn't say you were. >> guest: i was a vegetarian for many years when i was younger. but as i traveled over seas and lived in other countries i found it very hard to maintain a vegetarian diet. for example, when i was pregnant and living in cuba and a vegetarian, i had several fainting spells and was anemic and finding it hard to get enough protein, so i started eating meat again. so, i eat very little meat but not 100% vegetarian. i don't eat red meat. i eat some fish and chicken. >> host: global exchange, kevin

danaher. >> guest: kevin is a man i was married to. we started an organization together. part of the festival in the book "bridging the global gap" which is that the american people -- because our country is so big and because people are very focused on the u.s., we are number one kind of thing, the exceptionalism, most americans don't have passports, most persons don't travel outside the united states. so most americans don't have an opportunity to see the u.s. from a different vantage point, and so when we started global exchange, it was the idea, let's try to take people to other parts of the world to see what -- how people live, and how they think of the united states. and as we started organizing trips to south africa, to central america, to vietnam, we

also realized that people aren't seeing a lot of what is happening right here in the united states. so we started organizing trips to appalachia, trips to washington, dc, to see how the lobby system worked and why it was soso corrupting of our government. so, we -- global change still exists. i'm still on the board, as is kevin, and we continue to do things like these trips. we also help to bring the fair trade label to the united states. we had seen in europe how there were label ons free and coffee and chocolate around fair treat and we didn't have that in the u.s. so we help create the system here people could choose to buy things where the coffee producer were getting a fair wage or a fair price for their product, and we continue to think as part of this idea of a peace economy,

that, yes, you buy local when you can but when you really want to have your chocolate or your tea or cover fee or bananas, it should be through a fair trade system where there is some monitoring system set up that allows us to know that the producers are being paid fairly, that the environment is being treated in a sustainable way and that's part of the reason we create global exchange. >> host: are your children activists. >> guest: i have two girls. one is a lawyer that has been doing a lot of wonderful work as a lawyer, like immigration rights work, or working in the school system, in new york state, to help students that have disabilities have access to the facilities they need. my younger daughter is just entering law school as well, and they both have political views

that are similar to mine but they're not out there on the streets. they're not organizing protests. they're much more the he background. >> host: how recognize able on you on the street, in on an airplane or by name. >> guest: not really. people come up and say i know you from somewhere and look at me and say, oh, yes, aren't you the activist? or i was just in congress the other day, and somebody came up and said, aren't you madea benjamin? and he was somebody who had flown in to lobby for the aipac lobby group against the iran deal, and i thought, uh-oh, maybe he's going to hit me because i've been hit many times. hit in the face, i've been pushed, i've been shoved. i suffer a lot physically, often time bid larger men who don't like my political views. so i suddenly got very

defensive, and he said, no, i just want to tell you that while i disagree with about 90% of what you say and do, i appreciate how much you care about these issues, and i was just very relieved about that. so, sometimes people recognize me but most of the time they don't know why they recognize me. >> host: you have been hit or pushed or shoved by larger men? >> guest: oh, on a regular basis it is unfortunate. during the day's the iraq war, there would be protests and counterprotests, and we would always be peaceful, and we would be attacked by counterprotesters that would physically attack us, including me, as a very petite 5'0", 100-point small woman, and they would hit us, they would spit on us. when we are outside the annual lobby meeting of aipac, the --

what calls itself a pro israel lobby, i think it's actually bad for israel. almost every year i would get hit, usually by an elderly gentleman that would come over and just shove me, and then i've been beaten up in other countries. when i went to egypt over a year ago, i was held at the airport, detained for 17 hours, and in the morning pulled out of the detention cell i was in and thrown to the ground, stomped on, my hands poked so violently to be put in handcuffs that my arm popped out of its socket, and was dislocated. they would not even let me go to a hospital to have it reset, and threw me on a plane ask detorted know turkey in that condition, and i've been suffering ever since. it's over a year now -- from dislocated shoulder and still in physical therapy. so, yes, i've been hit and beat

up quite a lot over the years. >> host: this e-mail from a viewer: how do you decide where to buy consumer goods? for example, do you buy a shirt made in china, india, sold by whole foods, and how do you view whole foods and their stated commitment to whole trade sustainability and immoved working conditions and environment? >> guest: one thing my kids never liked about growing up is i wouldn't by new clothes. almost all our clothes were from second hand stores, and there's so many wonderful second hand stores around, and i love shopping in second hand stores, and i love the whole idea of things being recycled. that's why i like so much of the way now through the internet we can find things that people are throwing away, and i think this kind of recycling another goods is a very positive thing. i like to bring people to my house because ty is an artist. we have a wonderfully colorful, beautiful house, and beautiful office, and just about

everything in the house is recycled. we just went yesterday and got four chairs somebody down the block was getting resulted of and we're going to sand them down and paint them and they will be absolutely gore because we love scholar taking old things and making them pretty. so, i believe in a lot more of that. food, ty is growing food in our backyard and we eating a lot of salad we have grown locally. so as much of that as possible. we're also starting to do trade things, like outside of our codepink house we put up a free library, and it says, take a book, give a book, and so we're in a residential area in brookland and people are constantly going back and taking books and putting things in, now not just books. they're putting things they want to get rid of and we're putting things in and it's a wonderful kind of sharing, and that kind

of sharing what we have, also part of building communities. >> and c-span has been inside the codepink house. we interviewed the gyrocopter pilot who landed on the capital grounds. >> guest: i forget about that. i wasn't home. >> host: could not come down here to our studio, had to be at the codepink house where he stays when he is in town, and into you can see the inside of the house via that interview. charlie in new york, thank you for holding. >> caller: hi. i want to thank you for having her on. she is a beautiful woman. she is fighting for a humanity. she fights for everybody and that's one thing that strikes her -- that is striking about her, compared to like other show that you have when you have black nationalism or feminism, where they fight for their own group. here is a woman who is fighting for everybody. i wish i could hear more of

this. with other people. she is -- when it comes to being hit by people, political opponents, why doesn't she get, like, some body guards? >> guest: well, we actually do a lot of training about how to try to stay safe and one of hour best protections is singing. we have found over the years. in fact you played that clip of ted cruz. so we came up to that group of women, and we were there with our signs saying iran, peace deal, and being there quiet. an older woman came up to me and took my sign and grabbeddibility out of my hand and ripped it up, and i said, ma'am, that's not nice. that's my property. and she said, get out of here, and you stupid jerk, and so i took another sign, she grabbed the other sign and he ripped it up. so i said, what do i do?

i started singing -- peace, shalom, peace, salom, shalom, a song by a group, emma's revolution, and the other colorado pink people started joining in, and it just so diffused the situation. so we do that a lot. we sing a lot. and we find that it is actually our best protection. >> host: lambert, sacramento, good afternoon. >> caller: good afternoon. i would like to say to madea that as a black man in america, i find you very fascinating. i'm based in the capital of california, and i have met you and cindy sheehan and i'm a social entrepreneur, and i won't say my business over the air but i will send you something to identify that i -- i find it troubling that you have been

abused like that by people, considering your size, but i wanted to say that the '60s, which is was heavily influences by, is refreshing to see someone that still has that spirit, still does not want to join the system, still wants to put the light on it and as a self-proclaimed jewish person, i find it fascinating that you put the light on aipac. okay? ... things over. >> just wanted to ask you one question. do you think president obama handled netanyahu correctly regarding the iran deal and when he was allowed to come speak to congress, and i'll take your

response off the air, and i just wanted to say, god bless you. >> guest: well, first let me say i love social entrepreneurs. i think that some people who consider themselves left or progressive think that busin bad will first let me say i love social entrepreneurs. we need business, we need to create jobs for people and i love people who have to create businesses and jobs for people and it's not just about the prophet so i'm looking forward to getting whatever it is in the mail. in terms of president obama, i think it is good that president obama has set for example, that he is against the building of the settlement, i think it is good that he is not listening to

him as far as the iran deal goes, and i really think those members of congress who refuse to go to hear him address the u.s. congress as if it was his own country. i am glad there some light now between the u.s. government, the israeli government. on on the other hand, when israel is killing thousands of palestinians and the iraq invasion of gaza killed 551 children, imagine if one children, imagine if the palestinians had killed 551 israeli jews, all hell would have broken out. given what the israelis are doing on a regular basis in terms of violating international law, building of the settlement,

the apartheid system that exists there, i think the president and the congress should be cutting off the u.s. taxpayer money that is going to israel. unfortunately in the system aipac has so much power that that is actually a nonstarter, in fact if anybody took that position they would be so attacked by aipac, aipac would make sure there was a primary challenge against that person and make sure they did everything they could to take that person out of congress. we still have a long way to go to have the administration enter congress take the position that is a fair, nonbiased one toward israel that i feel would be in the best interest of the israeli people, perhaps not the aipac one but certainly it be better for israel in the long one. host: who is your favorite

conservative or right-winger? guest: conservative or right-winger, i guess i'll say my stepmother. i'm not sure she is listening. i'm debating whether to tell her about it because the more she hears about it the more she hears my position the more she doesn't like, but we love each other, she has been very good to my father who has passed away. she is very, very good to my children, my granddaughter, she is someone who has done a lot to bring our family together. we laugh hysterically at our differences. i walk into her house on fox news is on all the time. she she lives near bill o'reilly, she loves bill o'reilly. the fact that it's been positive because i have been on the bill o'reilly show a couple of times, he's always telling me call bill, get on bills show. thanksgiving dinners and family

occasions we have a lot of interesting political discussions, she makes me realize there are a lot of republicans, fox news lovers, people, people who hold values different than mine who are lovely people, they have different views than mine and i'm glad that i have her and other conservative people in my family to constantly remind me of that. host: next call is from carmel valley, california. >> caller: high, it is an honor to see you and talk to you. you said you travel in different country, you mention the saudi women, what about the iranian women who are under the depression in the last 30 some years here. you said 40 million people are women. it seems the less progressive

governments like the iranian government or taliban, or is really government when it comes to the religious belief, why don't you just come and say you are for the rights of all women regardless of the religion of the government they are under. if they would apply the pleasures and rules today, mohammed would probably end up in prison because he copied all the jewish rules and he just created a new religion. so these governments, they are suppressing their own population under islam, it seems unless it misses this point, i was wondering, how you address supporting the iranian women and the iranian men actually during

the election-during the election his opponent who is having a debate who ended up in house arrest. he was the winner but ended up in the house arrest and still is. we have the letter from the israeli official and it's that seems to the birth of israel no person has ever helped us more than he has. he was right. there's a relationship between the clergy and iran and the clergy in israel. the iranian regime uses the

position as collateral damage. host: thank you very much. you have a response to that call. guest: thank you for bringing that up. i can i can say very clearly that i support the rights of women everywhere in the world no matter what regime they are living under. i think it is important you brought that up because i can say clearly that i do not support the government of iran. i do not support the oppression of women anywhere. i. i resent personally when i go to iran or when i go to afghanistan or anywhere that i have to be subject to local laws that define and constrict what i'm able to do. on the other hand i do want to say to listeners who may not know, and iran, while women have to wear head coverings women are involved in all aspects of society. there are very well educated women who have their businesses, who are lawyers and doctors and the majority of university students are women.

with that said, i am also against religious governments. i think there should be a separation between government and religion. i religion. i don't support any kind of religious government. and then you asked how you we can support the women in other countries and the way we do that at code pink is still looking to them and asking them, how can we support you? we talk to women overseas one of the first things they do is that they support the more liberal elements of our society, recognize rehana he is a more liberalized element in iran. when you talk, when the government talks to each other it strengthens the more liberal elements in society. if the u.s. government would talk to hamas or the muslim brotherhood, that would alienate the more rigid members of hamas and the muslim brotherhood and it would strengthen the more moderate elements.

i think the way we help women is by talking to them, by listening to them, by helping them in their own organizing that they are doing, many organizations that could support our women overseas. also by stopping our government from intervening militarily because that only strengthens hardliners on all sides. host: you have talk very much about your travels, this is from september 5, 2004. you will see it is about just a minute. let's show this video. >> lives in iraq in july and unfortunately i don't for see going back until october because the security situation for both iraq is in for you and foreigners is very tense. you leave your house in the morning go and have a meeting, there is a car bomb.

there is tremendous traffic, tremendous difficulties in trying to work. many iraqis are very nervous, they don't want to send their children to school, they don't want to go to their workplace because of the ongoing violence and car bombs. the situation is very tense. >> wow. >> i have never seen that clip. marlo was like a daughter to me. she showed up in our offices of global change when she was 16. she said, put me to work. she ended up living with us, she got married and her husband lived with us. she was a precious, amazing, wonderful, compassionate, passionate young woman. she ended up being blown up by a car by in iraq.

to this day i think of her all of the time. my heart goes out to her mom and dad who are good friends, to her twin brother, to her family, to this day we still miss her and love her. at the age of 25 she led an amazing legacy including having gotten passed through congress, a multimillion dollar fund for innocent victims of u.s. military. we worked together for many years and in afghanistan she worked with us to get the testimonies of people whose loved ones had been accidentally killed by u.s. bombs. we were demanding they be compensated, thanks to marlys tenacious work they were. host: thomas, and pat

pennsylvania. >> caller: hello, thank you for taking my call. i have a two-part question for you. currently, right now now hillary clinton is the front-runner in the democratic party for the presidential campaign. i was wondering if you felt she aligns with code pink in your opinion? the second question is if you're comfortable with any of the republican candidates for presidency? i will listen to your call on the tv. thanks. guest: i feel that hillary clinton is a hawk. i would love to have a woman president. would that be wonderful. it is funny we think the muslim countries are backward, there so many muslim countries that have women as president.

i was in indonesia many years ago when they elected a woman president, a president in pakistan. the u.s. legs behind in the fact that we have not had a you woman as u.s. president. it is is past time that we should have. my views do not align with hillary clinton's on major issue , i think she is very tied to wall street. when she tries to talk like a populace it seems like she is reading from a teleprompter and it is not coming to her heart because she is so tied in with wall street. she is somebody who could have challenge the literary complex in her role as senator and that in her role as secretary of state and she did not do that. she was like like an appendage to the pentagon as a secretary of state. so i do not support hillary clinton as much as i would love to have a woman president.

i love jill stein who is a green party president. she has tremendous, wonderful views, she is a medical doctor, she is a very accomplished woman. then woman. then we go back to this terrible system of ours that discounts people who are not part of the two-party system. there is not any republican of the are we at 19 or 20 now in the lineup that i would like. at 1. i i liked ran paul's foreign-policy but he has moved far from the policies of his father, ron paul, who had a very good policy and nonintervention overseas. rand paul, at one point was very much against the u.s. military interventions. he even at one point said that he would be for stopping u.s. funding of the u.s. military.

he went back and forth from those issues as they try to position himself in the lineup of so many republican candidates. i like bernie sanders. i wish he would talk more about foreign-policy issues. he has about supporting the arena deal but you barely hear him talking about it. he could do so much good while he was on the campaign trail telling people to call their senator in congress people and tell them to support the steel. he doesn't do that at all. this policy is actually towards israel and palestine is not very good. he has not, in his campaign talked about things that keep talked about as a senator. like the bloated pentagon budget and all the social programs he supports. where's that where's that money going to come from? it should come from the bloated military. close 800 military overseas basis and you would have money

to use for all kinds of social programs. i wish he would talk more about foreign-policy, i certainly do love elizabeth warren. she is not running for president but i think her policies have already had an impact the way bertie sanders has in pushing hillock clinton to talk more. host: about ten minutes left with our guest, medea benjamin with this month in depth. lynn cheney as our guest in september. mark in florida. hi mark. >> caller: hi peter. hi medea, how are you? i want to thank you both are working on sunday. on my union carpenter so we pay attention to stuff like that. i'm also an 11 year veteran of the marine corps and i would like to think on behalf of most of the other callers and all veterans that feel like i do that your courage as an american

has a lot of physical courage to it and other types of courage, as a brave male male i want to thank you for your brave courage. i'd also like to thank you for your success of getting the truth out to americans. the question i have for you i have 1000 things i i could talk to you about. in my experiences, on a personal note i voted for pres. carter and i served in the united states state department as a-there is also educated, i saw the difference between the have and the have-nots it was astounding to me to someone who grew up in the midwest whose father came out of the projects. so those are my values as a young marine and i thought when i joined the core and i have

secret clearance, everybody felt like i did. a lot of americans at that time and then along came another administration and as a marine on active duty as of the tremendous difference between president carter and the reagan administration. i would just ask, i had a question for you and that i want to make a comment to the person who made a comment about iran's weapons capacity. my question to you medea, if you could please not leave the show today without re- mention the potential for a war with iran and about the american armed forces, it's not just a few jets going over, they have a very legitimate army, and navy, air force and marine just like we do. my observation to the young man

who made the comment to social media, the iranians would just turn off the internet, via a radiance hardly have the capacity to put a nuclear warhead on it. if you are to put a map on it it's 55 miles away. as an enlisted marine i'm looking at easily 25000 americans would be killed in a short amount of time if we put boots on the ground. host: thank you mark. guest: first off i've been delighted in this three hours to get so many military people calling inches i think there's a misconception among people that i, and code pink are against the military. the fact of the matter is our people in the military. we work very closely with veterans for peace, iraq, iraq veterans against the war, military

families speak out, my favorite colleague is a retired colonel. we work very closely with military people because who but the military will recognize how disastrous, not only have the last 13 years of war been but as you say, the potential potential of a war with iraq that is and has a developed military is a country of 80 million people and is a major force in the region. they could certainly lead to really even another world war. it is so important that we make sure this nuclear deal goes through and that we work through peace with iran so we can work towards peace in the entire region. i thank you for your call, i think you for having come to the same conclusion that we have,

that we have to not only try to stop worse we are engaged in, but what we can really do now is prevent another one. >> laura is in michigan. >> i want to applaud you for your courage. i think what you are doing is a wonderful thing not only for our country but for the world, i just recently came back from a trip from russia and the ukraine and also we stopped off-i was actually appalled at the difference of what is going on there and what we hear in our country. the president of the ukraine now has a pointed the former president of georgia, if he was to go home to be put in prison for his misdeeds.

i met a young man who worked in norway and they are of russian background, although they they have lived there about 40 years. in the stores they do not have any of the sides or anything in russia. even though this particular account there 40% of the people that are russian. this young man, i guess i guess became an activist because he started having signs put up saying we want russian. estonia cut a train track that allow people to go to st. petersburg to visit their

family and friends, i'm so disappointed in our country getting involved in things that we have no business being involved. host: okay laura, thank you. medea benjamin your feedback. guest: you see someone who gets a chance to go to the region comes back with a very different view. when i travel to europe, i've met with people who have been involved with peace issues, they say nato is so aggressive that in a deal they made with gorbachev nato promised it wouldn't move its forces closer to the border with the former soviet union and it has gone ahead and done that. in polling, and now moving closer. that that is seen as a very aggressive by russia. i think it goes back to this whole idea that we have to see things from other people's .. of view. when you see how russians in that region have been oppressed, how there are neo-nazis involved in this movement and

unfortunately we have had congress recently passed the legislation that said the u.s. does not give weapons and supported neo-nazis. it'd is important to recognize that we too can do a lot to move back from the brink, in terms of hostilities with russia by bringing nato back from where it is supposed to be. also we should open the conversation of doing nato these days. why are we doing nato? it's a relic of the cold war. many war. many of us think it is time to disband nato's b1 susan and massachusetts, you may be the last word. >> caller: though i have waited a long time. i'm grateful to commend ms. benjamin for all she does for democracy. i am unlikely complement her, i come from a highly conservative

family. i was raised with buckley and freeman, i was vehemently opposed to the iraq invasion. i knew what kind of debacle it would be. i studied history as an undergraduate and i could have predicted the fact and chaos that would have been ensued. it really insulted me. i do descend from colonial settlers, my father was a world war ii veteran so i know what i'm talking about here. secondly, it would warm my heart if you could align yourself with the global and pentagon budget. that is is an issue that i'm passionate about. i just cannot believe the lack of transparency. the other issue of support, and

i wish was a top priority is the low voter participation in this country. i think you could find alliances on the conservative side, our boating rates rarely exceed 30%. the stranglehold, the lobbyist culture, of wall street. host: susan, i apologize if we want to get a response were were almost out of time. guest: i think those are where left and right have to come together. corruption corruption of politics and getting big money out of politics. i am all for term limits. i would love to see a left, right, center, whatever coalition because i think we all have a horrible view of our government. the view of congress could throw the bums off, i say let's get together and change the

regulation that allowed the democrats and republicans to be in their own districts and keep themselves in the office for lifetime. let's get some fresh ideas into our government. host: and the coke brothers are active in reform. guest: yes, but also they also do a lot of negative things to put the corporations above the needs of the environment and the workers. i'm not sure i would put them forward as the greatest example but i think there's a lot we can do, the left left and right together. host: medea's most recent books, stop the rest now, and drone warfare. for the past three or she has been book tvs a guest on in-depth, thanks for being with us a. guest: thank you so much were wonderful three hours. host: lynn cheney next month. >> and that was three hours with

mother the benjamin in august. she is the founder of code pink and author of several books. now coming up in the next two months on book tv in-depth program, walter williams will be our guest in november, he has a new book out as well. and in december, abc's cokie roberts. she has written several books on history and women. that is what is coming up on in-depth. but tonight, from last month we want to show you lynn cheney, her best-selling book on james madison was the focus of a lot of our discussion during this interview. >> now book tv where live with author and former second lady, lynn cheney. she will be answering your phone calls via phone calls, text, tweets, until 00