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>> host: medea benjamin, one of the books you're reading this peter schrag dares clinton cash. why? >> i am reading that book because i have been looking at saudi arabia. and why is it that there is all this talk about iran and the bad regime, but if you want to look at a really bad regime, look at saudi arabia. a country that has been responsible for spreading extremist ideologies all over the world, the country that is the largest buyer of u.s. weapons, the country invading other countries and killing lots of innocent people in saudi arabia. look again and, thousands of innocent people killed now crush

the uprising in bahrain where i have been tear gassed inside is crashing the beautiful nonviolent people's uprising. and almost the hijackers on 9/11. i could go on and on. i should say what about the internal repression of women in saudi arabia. they are not even allowed to drive, can't vote in national elections, aren't allowed to go out without a guardian. i forgot to say we've been doing a lot of work. we also take on individual cases like amnesty does of working on particular political prisoners in saudi arabia we've been working on the case that the blogger you might've heard of because of his blogging about things that he was considering might be to change in the saudi

government. he was sentenced to 10 years in jail and 1000 lashes. i was very dead in the saudi's giving money to lots of institutions in the united states, like hush money or like buying their allegiance and one of the institutions that give two is the clinton foundation. clinton foundation gets a lot of money. that is why i started reading that book. i should also day the saudi money is going to places like the carter foundation. 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 just like all of the universities. georgetown, american, they'll take saudi money. i would like to start a campaign making it a dirty thing to take

saudi money and having these and think tank and other groups refusing to take saudi money. i went to lenders in with the clintons were getting for the money they got from saudi arabia. i think the 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)748-8200 in eastern central time zone. 748-8201 and the mountain and pacific time zones. medea benjamin's most recent vote is "drone warfare." next call comes from martin in pennsylvania. call cowhide, how are you doing? thank you for being here and thank you, medea for being here. first i want to encode ink

against police brutality and the sop and the convention center in pittsburgh next sunday, august 9th everyone is welcome and i'm sure people will be glad you could make it. as an old 60s radical i want to say how difficult it is to organize besides the local police would now do with the fbi and nsa. could you comment on recent developments in the country that reflect a new consciousness and our nation regarding how people are forced to live and mass incarceration and killer cops. also, could you comment on the situation in texaco or on the 40 student teachers handed over by public officials, police and the ruling party of mexico. i appreciate your work and i know you will continue in your

after. the thing i notice i said to a friend is what you do now, we used to do every day spontaneously appeared and it's so different now because there's a few people centered around that whereas the late 60s it was every where and every of tradition, every union, every work place and every occupation, people were rising and demanding justice and equality. >> host: martin, let's leave it there. thank you very much. >> host: martin, let me go with your last comment first because it is so indicative of why it's hard to work and i've around some of these issues and that is her in the 60s there was a draft. i became involved because my friends were being drafted and

everyone in the united states had a stake in what was happening in vietnam. we were forced to get involved. the way the military has evolved these days is less than 1% of the population is actually directly involved in the military and that is why we cannot things like hidden wars where people don't even know they are happening and knickknacks that hard for people to recognize that there are wars going on. young people these days were brought up under wars. that is all they know. they feel it as part of the background noise that accompanies their lives, not attempting to have to get on the street in protest against. they don't see how it affects them but of course it does. imagine the trillions of dollars we spend on wars and have free college education for young people in the country that deserve a free college

education. said the way the military has changed has made it were difficult. that being said, i am very inspired by the organizing going on by young people of color in their own communities to address the issues of police brutality. the black lives matter move meant as not lead by older civil rights people, outsiders want to help the oppressed. it is led by people from the community themselves and if the young people of color who have been out on the streets regularly, have had meetings in cleveland. 1500 people around the country together about how they'll address these issues in a more systematic way. we had code and have been working with mothers who have lost their children to police

violence. just about every one of these mothers has their own organization or are involved in an organization. there's a lot of amazing organizing on that issue. a lot of young people are involved in the climate justice issue and we see the movement on campuses across the country. communities of color or they've had to bear the brunt of the effects of climate chaos in the immigrant community a lot of young people are risking their own status in the united state by coming out as undocumented people, challenging the system of mass deportation. so there is a lot of good organizing going on. what is important is to connect issues and keep them separate from party politics. was there anything else?

>> guest: i think you've answered quite a few of his questions. kate e-mails than, i apologize for the mispronunciation. thank you for having the courage to speak to power. think about failed wars in the middle east as she grew up in a military family. i am a lawyer i would like to provide pro bono legal assistance to your group. how do i volunteer my services? >> guest: k., with other services. we don't always listen but we do need help when people get arrested. we need pro bono lawyers to help getting their charges dropped or dealing with charges. we need help with people to think creatively how they could wring some of these issues to court challenges. for example, we had the only act of court case coat and in the united take on behalf of an

iraqi woman trying to sue the united states for what happened to her and her family because of the u.s. invasion. there's lots of creative things we would like to do and talk about so kate, send us an know. you can write to info sign code pink.org or send a or send it to read or write something on her face that page are anyway you would like to communicate. we're looking forward to talking to you. >> host: how are you funded? >> guest: we are very clean organization. our 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. some detractors say you're only doing this because you get paid for it we turn around i ever

when he was doing this not only not being paid, but they apply themselves to washington d.c. and most of them do not have money. they raised money, do crowd funding to come here. we have a house where we put people out. we have wonderful and terms that come from universities and stay with us for a semester. they're always bragging about the amazing time they are happening because they learn so many different issues and experience has i get to live in the house that they have their board covered here in washington d.c. the money we make us all from individuals. because we have several hundred thousand people on our list and we want to sign drawn to dems in

yemen and we will get the money from our supporters and it's a wonderful thing, one of the great things about the internet or you are able to raise money online people who don't have the time or ability to go with us or come to washington can support people, particularly young people who need the financial help. >> host: you don't take a salary from code pink as well? >> guest: no, i don't. i worked for many years. even though one of the colorsync thank you, young lady, i am in my 60s so i consider myself retired. i did have a salary from any other organization i work with. i am in a privileged position of being able to work without a salary. >> host: do you have in washington? >> guest: i live in washington

d.c. >> host: marie is in san diego. >> caller: hi, thank you so much for the program. i'm fortunate enough to hear ms. benjamin speak several years ago. i'm a proud volunteer with the community radio and was an organization or independent voice networking for social justice. i wanted to ask ms. benjamin about community radio. they've opened up the specter of subcommunities can reflect the grassroots level. it is proving something different than politicians and stories just to make such a difference. do you have any of ice and make

a difference by providing the information you give us that we don't hear from media conglomerates. we can help people make informed decision and get the bigger picture that you have mentioned previously to other callers. san diego loves booktv. thank you. >> guest: thank you for colin and bringing up the issue of the media. at such critical issue and we haven't talked about it. community radio is absolutely essential. i'm constantly doing community radios stations, interviews, love to have an opportunity to be on community radio because it combines my love of education and activism, people who listen to community radio are people who want to be educated to go out and do something about it in thank you to activist san diego

at end of the wonderful work in the community as well. i think it's a terrible problem we have in the united states to the mainstream media is controlled by corporations. and i don't enjoy watching mainstream television. i find it to be so partisan that i have to look for my news elsewhere. i also go to places like al jazeera, art scene which is russia today, bbc. i read "the guardian" online, the newspaper. i have a lot of places i go to, both radio and the tv channels. i like a lot of online websites. i mentioned about them before like alternet or common dreams

of the nation magazine is fantastic celebrating its 100th anniversary. it is important for people to seek out information in places that are part of the mainstream media that gave viewpoints that are outside the two-party duopoly in community radios one of the best places to get that information. ..

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 dish know you just had ralph nader on, on booktv. i loved his book unstoppable, and the notion in that book is to get left and right coalitions

together to deal with things. 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 -- i know that grover nordquist would like to see the pentagon audited and into would ralph mader and so would codepink and the tea party. so interesting things 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 only that doesn't allow for other voices, those kinds of things. >> host: bridging the global gap. a handbook to linking citizens of the first and third world. don't be aggrade gringo --

atrade greening go, no free lunch. the peace corps and more is another one of he books. desilva, came out in 1997. cuba, talking bat revolution, also in 1997. the greening of the revolution, which we have not talked about. and how to stop the next war now. came out in 2005. her most recent book, drone warfare, killing by remote control, 2013, and medea benjamin, your next book is about, again? >> guest: i'd 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 -- it's hard to go back into the i, i, mode but there are a lot of stories i would like to tell and lessons i've learned so i'm toying with that idea as well.

>> host: hugh, venezuela, hi. >> caller: thank you so much for c-span and peter for being an alternative to media that's controlled and also medea, thank you for being a light for the world. i was in cuba when castro -- used to vacation there for the second year returning, i was one of the last families to get out on emergency flight. we were on the prettiest beach i've ever seen on my life so my -- and the people there just fantastic, so i hope our relations will normalize in a way that freedom can really be for everyone in world and that what i think you're working toward. i want to ask if you have ever heard of james perloff. you can put him on youtube and he documents what the elites have been doing for far too long, but we can reverse all

that with today's technologies. the pen that was mightier then the sword. the internet is might 'er with the pen and the sword with video. so 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 everyone listening will just put in their hearts and mind, that was said -- i don't know by whom 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? >> guest: well, thank you for 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 and -- 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, even in this country, is people feeling powerless. feeling that 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, brazilian woman who lost who children to malnutrition and started organizing in her community, that's inspirational. when you see mothers who have lost their children to police violence and they start organizing so 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 comps from our own determination but also comes from working together, building community, and that's what i have spent a lot of my life doing, and look forward to do doing for years to come. >> host: if you cap get through on the phone lines youen come tact medea benjamin by social

media. @book to tv is twitter, facebook.com/become tv. kelly, you're on booktv. >> caller: thank you. medea, thank you for all you do. like millions around the world, my husband and i strongly protested the unnecessary invasion of iraq. my sympathies went out to the brave she lan whoa what demon highed against the war in iraq after he son was killed. i support the deal with iran. many in congress say iran is a state sponsor of terror, and as you said earlier, 9/11 was carried out bit 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 sorry -- funded earlier by the saudis. now, netanyahu says that israel and the saudis are in agreement

against the iran negotiations. i find that alignment very disturbing. >> guest: well, it's interesting that john kerry says that the saudi government is in favor of the deal, and we have not 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 bombing campaign in yemen that is killing thousands of innocent people and creating a tremendous humanitarian crisis in the entire country. i also wanted to thank you for bringing up the issue of cindy sheehan, woman who lost her child in iraq and camped out

outside of george bush's ranch in texas, asking for a meeting with george bush, which she never got, by the way, but, yes, being red called in the media, but of course being an aggrieved mother who was absolutely right that 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 couldn't believe it. we had bomb threats in our office. we had 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 tends to be in our -- tend to be in our congress, pushing for a war with iraq or they're heads of -- for war with iran, of. they're heads of think tanks pushing to quash the nuclear deal. the same people that drove abuse the war in iraq are trying to drive is in a war riff iran. let's not let them do it, and i really appeal to the viewers of this program, i you want to see the u.s. living at peace with the world, get out during the recess period, go visit your congress person. if you can't visit them, at least pick up the phone and call their office. we have to make our voices heard because otherwise its the moneyed interest, those who have a stake in perpetual war, whose voices get heard. >> host: have you attended another armed services committee since mccain called you a low life scum? >> guest: yes, i did. i was at an armed services

hearing this week where ashton carter was there, and john kerry was there, and john mccain said we didn't invite you, john kerry, to the hearing you. came on your open so we'll welcome you here, and it was fascinating, actually 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 the program. i hope your listeners don't get teared of hearing it. he was wrong on iraq. he wanted to bomb iran. back in 2006, 2007. he met the jobe, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, iran. it wasn't funny then. it's not funny now. it distress 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 we more preferable, the u.s. using several bunker buster bombs to destroy iran's nuclear bomb missile program or new york city being entirely destroyed by a single nuclear tipped missile sent by iran's dictators. >> guest: well, it's 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 are 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 weapons. that israel even 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 and instead wore pouring money into modernizing our nuclear weapons. so there's a lot we should be doing globally to move towards a nuclear-free world but this deal with iran is one positive step in that direction. >> host: next call comes from susan in berkeley, california. >> caller: hi. this is susan.

thank you so much for taking my call and i'm just -- it's an honor to speak with you, medea, and thank you for c-span. i'm a budding activist in my 50s and what i 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. i was -- your comment that 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 forefront issue but all of these issues that connect with whether they're environmental, worker rights, food justice, and animal rights, and just wondering if as you

look into our future of a world that you'd 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 in. what have you been doing? >> i was a psychotherapist, working for the courts with domestic violence issues and sexual abuse issues. >> host: thank you, ma'am. >> guest: well, thank you for that wonderful call, and i love the budding activist in the 50s in. and i love the things you have brought up. my partner is a vegetarian, and so we tend to eat v vegetarian at home, and i'm trying to be much more of a plant-based diet

and in fact codepink is supporting the meat-free month as part of our push for a peace economy. so, we totally agree with you on that. we 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 the food tastes better. when you travel overseas you recognize that most people overseas are leading locally based food and organic food. we have this corporate-based food economy where the food is not only ridden with pesticides but also not very tasteful. so, locally based food system, we support people growing their owner begannic gardens.

we support csa where you can get a monthly basket of organic goo goods from your farmer and support your farmers. all of those are element wes consider part of a peace economy. and as somebody -- you are who has dealt with people from the psychological issue, i think you know how important its 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, and 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. barry 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 overseas and lived in other countries issue 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 and so i started eating meat again. so, i eat very little meat but i'm not 100% vegetarian. i i don't eat red meat. i eat fish and chicken. >> host: global exchange, kevin, who are they. >> guest: kevin is a person i was married to. we started a group, global exchange, together. it was part of the whole philosophy 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 americans 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 so corrupting of our government. so, we -- role in change still exists. i'm still on the board. as is kevin. and we continue to do things like these trips. we also helped to bring the fair trade label to the united states. we had seen in europe how there were labels on tea and coffee and chocolate around fair trade and we didn't have that in the u.s. so we helped create that system here. so that people could choose to buy things where the coffee producers 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 coffee or bananas, it should be through a fair trade system where there is some monitoring system set up that a

lot of -- allows to us know that the producers are being paid fairly, the environment is being treated and with sustainable way and that is part of the rope we created global exchange. >> host: are your children activists. >> guest: my -- 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 in the background or participating rather than in the front. >> host: how recognizable are you on the street, on an

airplane, by name? >> guest: not really. there's people who will come up and say, know you from somewhere, and they'll keep looking at me and then 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 medea 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 is going to hit me because i have been hit many times. hit in the face, pushed, shoved. i suffer a lot of physically often times by 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 190% of what you -- 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 days of the iraq war, there would be protests and counterprotests, and we would always be peaceful, and we would be attacked by course protesters that would physically attack us, including me, as a very petite, 5'0", 100-pound 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, thrown to the ground, stomped on, my hand poked so vie left-handily to be nut handcuffs and my arm pulled out of its socket and was dislocated that would not let me go to a hospital to have it reset and threw me on a plane and deported in the turkey in that condition, and i've been suffering ever since. it's over a year now. from dislocate 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? do you by a shirt made in china, india, sold by whole foods and how do you view whole foods and they're stated commitment to

whole trade, sustainability, improved working conditions, environment. >> well, one of the things my kids never liked about growing up is i wouldn't buy 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 why i like so much of the way through the internet we can find things that people are throwing away, and i think this kind of recycling of goodded -- good is a very positive thing itch like to bring people to my house because ty is an artist and we have a wonderfully colorful house, and beautiful office and just about everything in the house is recycled. we just went yesterday and got four chairs that somebody down the block was getting rid of and we're going to sand them down and paint them and they'll be gorgeous, because we love colors and love 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're eating a lot of salads we have grown locally. so 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 residential area in brockland and people are constantly going by and taking books and putting things in, and now not just books. they're putting things in they want to get rid of, and we're putting things in, and it's a wonderful kind of sharing, and i think that kind of -- building up those kinds of ways of sharing what we have also is part of building community. >> host: and c-span has been inside the codepink house. we interviewed the gyrocopter pilot wholand on the capitol grounds. >> guest: i forgot.

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 so 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 humanity. she fights for everybody. and that's one thing that strikes her, and -- that is striking about her compared to other shows that you have when you have like black nationalism or feminism, where they fight for their own group. here's 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 some bodyguards?

>> guest: well, we actually do a lot of training about how to stay safe and one of our best protect is singing. 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, we were being real quiet. an older woman came up to me and took my sign and grabbed it out of my hand and ripped it up, and i said, ma'am, that's not nice. that's my property. and some said, get out of here, and your stupid jerk. and i took another sign, she grabbed the other sign and she ripped it up. so i thought, what die do? and i started singing, peace, salom, shalom. and it's a song by a wonderful group, emma's revolution, and the other codepink people started joining in, and it just

so diffused the situation. so we do that a lot. we sing a lot and find that it is actually our best protection. >> host: lambert, sacramento. good afternoon. >> caller: good afternoon. i would like to say to medea that as a black man in america, i find you very fascinating. i'm based in the capitol of california, and i've 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 find it troubling that you have been abused like that by people, considering your size, but i want to say that the '60s, which i was heavily influenced by, it's refreshing to see someone that still has

the spirit, still does not want to join the system, still wants to put the light on it, and as a self-proclaimed jewish person, find it fascinating that you put the light on aipac, okay? and that's a brilliant thing bus they're doing some terrible 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 business is bad. we need business.

we need to create jobs for people. and i love people who want to create businesses and jobs who are socially responsible, who understand the triple bottom line, it's not just about profits. it's about people and the planet. so, thank you for your work, and i'm looking forward to getting whatever it is in the mail. in terms of netanyahu and president obama, i think that it is good that president obama has said, for example, that he is against the building of the settlements. i think it is good that he is not listening to netanyahu as far as this iran deal goes. and i really thank those members of congress who refuse to go to hear netanyahu when he was addressing the u.s. congress as if it was his own country. so, i'm glad there is some light now between the u.s. government,

the obama administration, and the israeli government. on the other hand, when israel is killing thousands of palestinians. in the last invasion of gaza, killed 551 children. imagine if the palestinians had killed 551 israeli jews? all hell would have broken out. and given that the -- what the israelis are doing on a regular basis, in terms of violating international laws, the building of the settlements, the apartheid system that exists there, i think that the president and the congress should be cutting off the u.s. taxpayer money going to israel. unfortunately, in this system, aipac still has so much power that that's actually a nonstarter. in fact if anybody took that position, they would be so

attacked by aipac. aipac would make sure that there was a primary challenge against that person, and make sure that they did everything they could to take that person out of congress. so, we still have a long way to go to have the administration and our congress take a position that is a fair, nonbiased one, towards israel, that i feel would actually be in the best interests of the israeli people, perhaps not the line that aipac wants but certainly would be better for israel in the long run. >> host: who is your favorite conservative or right-winger? >> guest: i guess i would say my stepmother. i'm not sure she is listening. i was debating whether to tell her about it. the more she hears about is it, the more she hears my positions, the more things she doesn't like.

but we love each other. she has been very good to my father, who bassed away. she is very good to my children, my granddaughter. and she is somebody who really has done a lot to bring our family together, and we laugh hysterically of our differences. i walk in her house and fox news is on all the time. she lives near bill o'reilly. she loves bill o'reilly and that's been positive bus i've been on bill o'reilly's show a couple of times, and she is always telling me, call bill, get on to his show. so, thanksgiving dinners as you can imagine, and family occasions, we have a lot of interesting political discussions, but she makes me realize that there's a lot of republicans and fox news lovers and people who hold values very different from mine, who are lovely people, who are wonderful people, who are loving family members, and i'm glad i have her and other very conservative people in my family to constantly remind me of that.

>> host: next call from has san in carmel valley, california. hi, hassan. >> caller: hi. it's an honor to see you and talk to you. you said you traveled in different countries, you mentioned the saudi women. what about the iranian women who have been under the repression for the last 30-some years, like you said, 80 million people, 40 million of them are women. it seems that the left and the progressive appease governments like iranian government or taliban or -- when it comes to the religious beliefs. why don't you just come and say, you are for the rights of all women, regardless of the religion of the government they're under. so, that's -- like, christopher

hitchens said, if they would apply the flaggerrism rules today muhammad would probably end up in minimum because he copied all the jewish rules and then just created a new religion. so, these governments are suppressing their own population under the jude judaism. and the left is miss thing point. i wonder how you address supporting the iranian men and wimp actually during the election, when i was in -- actually stole the election, he was -- his opponent, who was having a debate, his opponent, who actually ended up in house arrest. the official winner but he ended up in a house arrest, still is, he took out a letter from an

israeli official and he said, he read the letter, i don't know the name of the official right now -- and he said, since the beginning -- since the birth of israel, no person has ever helped us more than mahmoud ahmadinejad and he is right. there is a symbiotic realization between the clergy in iran and the clergy in israel. and the iranian regime uses the iranian population as collateral damage. >> host: all right. hasan, thank you very much. a response for that call? >> guest: thank you for bringing that up so i can say very clearly that i support the rights of women anywhere in the world, everywhere in the world no matter what regular anytime they are living under, and i think it's also important you brought that up so i can state clearly i do not support the government of iran. i do not support the oppression of women anywhere. i resent personally when i go to iran or when i go to afghanistan

or anywhere i go, 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 might not know that in iran, while women do have to wade head covering, women are involved in all aspects of society, and there are very, very well-educated women who have their own businesses, who are lawyers and doctors and the majority of the university students are women. but that said, also am against religious governments. i think there should be a separation between government and religion. so i don't support any kind of religious government. and then you asked how can we support the women in other countries? and the way we do that at codepink is to be looking to them and asking them, how can we support you?

and when we talk to women overseas they say support the more liberal elements of our society. recognize, rue -- rouhani is a more liberal regime than those with ahmadinejad. when the governments talk 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 ridged members of the hamas and strengthen the more moderate elements. the way we help women is by talking to them, by listening to them, by helping them in their own organizing that they're doing. many organizations that codepink supports are women overseas. and by stopping our government from intervening militarily because that only strengthens

hardliners on all sides. >> host: you talked quite a bit about your travels. this is from september 5, 2004. you'll see what it's about in just a minute. but let's show this video. >> well, i was just in iraq in july, and unfortunately i don't get to go back until october because the security situation for both iraqi ands foreigners is very tense. you leave your house in the morning to go and have a meeting, and there's a car bomb. so there's tremendous traffic, and there's tremendous difficulties in trying to work. many iraqis are very, very nervous. they don't want to send their children to school. they don't want to go into their work places because of ongoing violence and car bombs, and the situation is very, very, very tense. >> guest: wow. i've never seen that clip.

marla was like a daughter to me. she showed up in our offices that global exchange when she was 16. and said, put me to work. she ended up living with us. she got married. her and her husband lived with us. she was just a precious, amazing, wonderful, compassionate, young woman. she ended up being blown up by a car bomb in iraq. to this day i think of her all the time. my heart goes out to her mom and dad who are good friends, to her twin brother so her -- to her family. to this day we still miss her and love her. at an age of 25, she left 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 in afghanistan. she worked with us to get the testimonies of people whose loved ones have been, quote, accidentally killed by u.s. bombs. and we were demanding that they be compensated, and thanks to marla's tenacious work, they were. >> host: thomas, pennsylvania. hi, thomas. >> caller: hello. thank you for taking my call. medea. i have a two-part question for you. currently right now hillary clinton is the front runner on the democratic party for the presidential campaign. i was wondering if you felt she aligns with codepink?

your opinion, and the second question is, if you are comfortable with any of the republican candidates for presidency? i'll risen to your call on the tv. thanks. >> guest: i feel that hillary clinton is a hawk. i would love to have a woman president. that would be wonderful. it's funny, as we -- so many americans think the muslim countries are so backward, there's so many muslim countries that have women as presidents. i was in indonesia many, many years ago, when they elected a woman president. benazir bhutto, a president in pakistan. the u.s. lags far behind and we haven't had a woman president, and it's certainly past time that we should have. but my views don't align with hillary clinton's on major

issues. i think she is very tied to wall street. when she tries to talk like a populist, it seems like she is reading from a teleprompter and it's not coming from her heart because she is so tied in with wall street. and she is somebody who could have challenged the military industrial complex in her role as a senator and in her role as secretary of state, and she didn't do that. she was really like an appendage to the pentagon as a secretary of state. so, i don't support hillary clinton as much as i would love to have a woman president. i love joe stein, who is a green party president. she has tremendous, wonderful views, medical doctor, she is a very accomplished woman, but then we go back to this terrible system of ours that doesn't -- that discounts people who aren't part of the two-party system. there's not any republican of the -- what it is -- 19 or 20

now -- that are in the lineup that i would like. at one point i liked rand paul's foreign policy, but he has moved far from the policies of his father, ron paul, who had a very good policy of nonintervention overseas and rand paul, at one point, was very much against the u.s. military interventions. he even at one point had said he would be for stopping u.s. funding of the israeli military. he has gone back from that position and many others as he tries to position himself in this lineup of so many republican candidates. i like bernie sanders. i wish he would talk more about foreign policy issues. he has come out supporting the iran deal but you barely hear him talking about it, and he could do so much good right now while he is out there on the

campaign trail of telling people to call their senators and congress people and tell them to support this deal help doesn't do that at all. he is actually -- actually his policies towards israel and palestine are not very good. he has not, in his campaign, walked about things he has talk about as a senator, like the bloated pentagon budget, and all of the social program. s that he supports, where is that money going to come from? it should come from the bloated military. close 800 overseas bases and you'd have many, many hundreds of billions of dollars to use for all kinds of social programs. so, i wish he would talk more about foreign policy. and i certainly do love elizabeth warren. she is not running for president, but i think that her policies have already had an impact in the way thatber denny sanders has been received and to get hillary clinton to at least

talk like a populist. >> host: ten minutes left with our guest. medea benjamin, in this month's "in depth." lynn cheny is our guest in september. mark in ocala, florida. hi, mark. >> caller: hey, peter, and hey medea. i want to thank you both for working on sunday. i'm a union carpenter so we pay attention to stuff like that. medea, i am also an 11 year veteran of the marine core 's and i'd like to thank you on behalf 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 in addition to other types of courage, and as a brave male, i want to thank you for your brave physical courage. i would also like to thank you for your successful work of getting the truth out to americans and when the call screener asked, what question i

would ask you, i have a thousand things i could talk to you about but in my experiences on a permanent note, voted for president carter and i served in the united states state department as marine security guard in central america in the '70s and there is was also edkated. when i saw the difference between the haves and have-notes it was astounding to me as a kid who goo up in the midwest, 0 whose father came out of the projects because of organized labor's ability to help all americans and so those are my values that as a young marine i thought when enjoined the corps at 18 and at 19 a secret clearance and was advanced nco, promoted marine, and everybody felt like -- and a lot of americans kind of did at that time, and then along came another administration and as a marine, on -- saw the tremendous difference between president carter and the reagan administration.

i would just ask, i had a question -- die have a question for you and then i want to comment to the person who made a comment about iran's weapons my question is i you could please not leave the show today without re-mentioning the potential for war with iran and how catastrophic that would be for the american armed forces. it's not just a few jets flying over. they have a very legitimate military army air force, navy and marines, just like we do, and my observation to the young man who made the comment, through social meta, just got off the internet for the global institute for peace, the robbans hardly have a missile that will go over a thousand miles without a capacity to put a nuclear warhead on it and if the person check their map, we're 6500 miles away. but met da, i'm looking just as

an enlisted marine, i'm looking at easily 25,000 americans would be killed in a very short period of time if we put boots on the ground. >> host: mark in ocala, florida, we'll leave it there and get a response. >> guest: first, i'm just delighted during this three hours to get so many military people calling in, because i think there's a misconception among a lot of people that i in codepink are against the military, when the fact of the matter is our closest allies in this worker people in the military. we work very closely with veterans for peace, iraq veterans against the war, military families speak out, my favorite colleague is a retired colonel, ann wright so we work very closely with military people because who but the military are going to recognize how disastrous, not only have the last 13 years of war been, but as you say, the potential of a war with iraq, that is -- has

a developed military is a country of 80 million people and is a major force in the region, and could certainly lead to really even another world war. so, it is so important that we make sure this nuclear deal goes through, and that we work towards peace with iran so that we can work towards peace in the entire region. so i thank you for your call. and i thank you for having come to the same conclusions that we have, that we have to not only try to stop wars we're already engaged in but what we can really do now is prevent another one. >> host: laura in troy, michigan. hi, laura. >> hi. medea, i want to applaud you for your courage. i think what you're doing is a wonderful thing. not only for our country but for the world. bringing attention to things that really need to be said and

done. i just recently came back from a trip to russia and the ukraine, and also we stopped off in estonia. i was absolutely appalled at the difference in what is going on there and what we hear in our country. poroshenko, the president of the ukraine now, has appointed a former president of georgia, were he to go home he would be put in prison for his misdeeds, and i'm -- also, went to estonia, and i met a young man who worked in norway but his family lives in estonia, and they are of russian background, although they lived there about 40 years. in the stores, they do not have any of the signs or anything in

russian. even though in this particular town there are 40 percent of the people there that are russian. this young man i guess became an activist because he started having signs put up saying, we want russian, and estonia cut a train track that allowed 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 in. >> host: all right, laura, thank you. medea, ukraine. well, you see that somebody who gets a chance to go to the region comes back with a very, very different view. when i traveled to europe and i've met with people who have been involved in peace issues, they say that nato is so aggressive that in the deal that was made with gorbachev, nato promised it warrant move

its-for-s closer to border with the former soviet union, and it has done that in poland in in the former czech republic, now moving even closer, and that is seen as very aggressive by russia. so i think it is -- goes back to this whole idea of we have to see things from other people's points of view, and when you see how russians in that region have been oppressed, how the -- there are neonazis who have been involved in this movement, and fortunately we have had congress recently pass a legislation saying the u.s. would not give weapons in support to neonazis. so it 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 where it's

supposed to be, and also we should open the conversation of do we need nato? why do we have nato? it's a relic of the cold war, and many of us think it's time to disband nato. >> host: susan in revere, massachusetts. you may be the last word. hi. >> caller: i have waited a long time. i'm so grateful to be able to just commend miss benjamin for all she does for democracy. i'm an unlikely complimenter. i'm actually come from a very conservative family. i was raises at the alter of william f. buck here and milton free morning et cetera. but i was vehemently opposed to the iraq invasion. i knew exactly what kind of debacle it would be. i studied history as an undergraduate, and i could have predicted the chaos that would

ensue from that ill-fated -- offended me deeply. the whole freedom fries frenzy really insulted me. i do descend from colonial -- my father was a world war ii veteran. i i wish you would align yourself with grover norquist and the visible of the pentagon budget ump just cannot believe the lack of transparency and the other issue that you would support -- and i know you do but i wish it were a top priority -- is the participation in this -- low voter participation in this country and you would find alliances on the conservative side. our voting rates rarely exceed 30%, and i just -- the stranglehold of the lobbyists culture, of wall street, d.

>> host: suit san, apologize. if we want to get a response, we have to -- almost out of time. >> guest: those are area where the left and right have to come together. the corruption of money in politics getting big money out off politics i'm all for term limits. i'd like to see a left, right, center, whatever, coalition, because we all have this horrible view of our government. the view of congress of throw the bums out is something that crosses all ideologies. i say, let's get together and change the regulations that allow the democrats and republicans to jerry where planter their own districts to keep themselves in office to a lifetime and let's get some fresh blood and fresh idea in our government. >> host: the coach brothers are active in judicial reform, prison reform. >> guest: yes, and also they do a lot of negative things to put the corporations above the needs of the environment and the

workers. so i'm not sure i'd put them forward as the greatest example but i think there's a lot we can do left and right together. >> host: meds deah benjamin's most recent books are: stop the next war now. and drone warfare, killing by remote control. and for the past three hours, she has been booktv's guest on i "in depth," thank you for being with us. >> guest: thank you so much for a wonderful three hours, peter. >> lynn cheney next month.

>> now we're live with author and former active lady, lynne chaney. she will be answering your questions from now until 3:00 eastern. ms. cheney has written several books including her most recent, a biography of james madison. ..