09/09/14 09/09/14 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! know, it is something we saw for the first time today in all of this. it changed things, of course. it made things a little bit different. >> nfl indefinitely suspend star running back ray rice after the new video emerges showing him knocking out his then fiancée, now wife, with a punch inside a hotel elevator in february. why did it take the nfl so long to act? what did the league know and when did it know it? we will speak with sports writer dave zirin.

then, to the lobster boat blockade. >> climate change is one of the latest crises our planet has ever faced. they humble opinion, political leadership on this issue has been gravely lacking. i am heartened that we were able to forge an agreement that both parties were pleased with and that appeared to satisfy the police and those here in sympathy with the individuals who were charged. >> in a surprise move, the district attorney in massachusetts drops criminal charges against two climate activists who used a lobster boat to block a shipment of 40,000 tons of coal. we will go to austin to speak with the activists and look at one of the greatest controversies in recent emory. protesters scheded at the university of illinois and urbana-champaign today over the school's withdrawal of a job offer to professor steven he posted a series

of tweets harshly critical of israel's assault on gaza. all of that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the united nations says levels of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming have reached a record high. according to the un's world meteorological urbanization, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose by nearly three parts per million from one he 12 to 2013, the largest single year increase since teachout records began three decades ago. blaster concentration of carbon dioxide reached italy 400 parts per million, the highest level in at least 800,000 years as oceans absorb the increased, it has reached a level unprecedented at least over the last 300 million years. in a press release, the agency's secretary-general called the

data a scientific base for global action on climate change. "we are running out of time" he said. report comes ahead of the yuan, summit and the people's climate march here in new york later this month. study on climate change has warned the southwestern united states is at an increased risk of devastating drought. cornell university professor toby ault discussed the results on monday. >> the risk of a decade-long drop is normally about 50%, but with climate change, it goes up to 80% to 90%. for multiple decade-long drought, megadrought, the risk to 15%, butin 5% with climate change, goes up to between 20% to 50%. >> california is in the midst of an epic three-year drought with more than 50% of the state deemed to be an exceptional drought, the most severe category possible. iraqi lawmakers have approved a new government. the shiite prime minister will

share power with two deputy prime ministers, one sunni and one kurdish. the key posts of defense minister and interior minister have not yet been filled. speaking on monday, secretary of state john kerry hailed the new parliament as a necessary step in the fight against militants with the islamic state, or isil. >> tonight, iraq has unity government. tomorrow, i will travel to the middle east to continue to build the broadest possible coalition of partners around the globe to confront, degrade, and ultimately defeat isil. on wednesday, president obama will layout in even greater detail are coordinated global strategy against isil. >> on monday, the us military said its latest round of airstrikes in iraq or the haditha dam killed 50 to 70 islamic state fighters. the european union has agreed to expand sanctions on russia over

its role in eastern ukraine. that the eu says it will hold off on imposing sanctions right away amidst a cease-fire between pro-russian rebels and ukrainian troops, which has been disrupted by periodic clashes. a u.n. human rights official says the number of people killed in the ukraine crisis has topped 3000 and could be significantly higher. the number includes the 290 people on board malaysia airlines flight 17. in a report by the dutch safety board out today finds the plane was hit by multiple high-energy objects and broke apart in the air over eastern ukraine. the report does not assign blame. yemeni police have opened fire on shiite protesters marching on the prime minister's office in the capital. a rebel leader told afp seven protesters were killed. rebels have been protesting for weeks to call for the resignation of the government and the reinstatement of fuel subsidies. a bomb has exploded in the

subway station in chile, injuring seven people in the capital. the chilean president called it a terrorist attack. is an abominable act and therefore we will use the full weight of the law, including invoking anti-terrorism law, because those responsible for these acts will need to be held accountable. we're going to take all measures to ensure that people can continue to live their lives in peace and try quality. >> president obama has extended the more than 50 euros embargo on trade to cuba for another year. in a statement, obama said the embargo is "in the national interest of the united states." each or for more than two decades, the united nations general sibley has voted overwhelmingly to condemn the u.s. embargo against cuba. to most recent vote was 188 2. in peru, an anti-logging activist and three other leaders

of the ashaninka native committee have been murdered in a remote area near the brazilian border. was a prominent opponent of illegal logging. yet received death threats from local loggers, whom local authorities say are suspected of carrying out the killings. after fleeing human rights crises at home, migrants a faced indefinite detention, restrictions on health care access. the united states senate has voted to advance a constitutional amendment that would overturn the supreme court's 2010 landmark ruling in citizens united. the ruling cleared the way for corporations and other special interest groups to spend unlimited amounts of money on

elections. on monday, 20 republicans joined democrats as the senate voted 79 to 18 to open debate on the amendment proposed by senator tom udall which would restore congress's ability to limit campaign spending. it would still need approval by two thirds majority in the senate before moving to the house. edward snowden have revealed details about the u.s. government's secret plans to conduct economic espionage for the benefit of u.s. corporations. the obama administration has acknowledged conducting economic spying, but denies it does so to benefit u.s. companies. report from the office of director of national intelligence published by the intercept news site reveals concerns about potential challenges to u.s. corporations from foreign that -- multinationals. it suggests using cyber operations against research facilities in a foreign country and then assessing "whether and

how the findings would be useful to us industry." forrmer portfolio manager sac capital has been sentenced to nine years in prison for what the government has called the largest insider trading case in history. matthew martoma was charged with conducting illegal trades based on inside information about the development of an alzheimer's drug, netting two under 76 main dollars in profits and averted losses for sac capital. baltimore ravens runningback ray rice has been cut by his football team and indefinite suspended by the national football league after a video thend him punching his fiancée into unconsciousness. a warning to our tv viewers, the video is graphic. the footage from february was released monday by the tabloid website tmz. the details of the case have been known for months after previous video from a different thee showed rice dragging

unconscious woman out of an elevator and dropping her face first on the ground. the baltimore ravens has defended rice while the nfl's first response in july was to spend him for just two games. a massive public outcry led nfl commissioner roger goodell to apologize and change the league's to mystic violence policy. we will have more on the case after thezirin headlines. the city of ferguson, missouri is set to implement new reforms following mass protests over the police killing of 18-year-old african american michael brown. later today, the city council is expected to vote on reforms that have stemmed from activist demands, including a citizen review board for police, a cap on how much of city revenue can come from fines, and a one-month recall program for warrants. municipal court fines grilli make up ferguson's second-highest source of revenue and the city issued warrants at a rate of three per household last year. the meeting comes exactly a month after michael brown was

shot dead by white police officer darren wilson. a new eyewitness has come forward and largely confirmed the accounts of earlier witnesses who said brown was fleeing from officer wilson. the witness is a worker who did not know brown and had no ties to ferguson. he told the st. louis to " post-dispatch" he saw him being with his hands up in apparent gesture of surrender. the new york city police department is facing accusations of police brutality after a man punched, kicked, beaten with nightsticks and hit with pepper spray in the bronx. surveillance video shows about half a dozen officers piling onto 23-year-old santiago him.ndez and pummeling hernandez said he a been waiting for a friend outside a building when he was stopped and frisked by officers who said they were investigating a noise complaint. when the search turned up

nothing, hernandez said he asked why he a been frisked, at which point, the officers put handcuffs on him. he was beingd why arrested, several other officers arrived and surrounded him. told local news station abc 7 what happened next. >> they was taking turns on me. one kicks on the command other punches me. another one grabs my arm and hit me like 10 times with baton. there were taking turns on me like it was a gang. wasantiago hernandez arrested interest with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, but the bronx district attorney has reportedly declined to prosecute him. conductingys it is an internal investigation. the incident took place august 18 while the nypd was already facing protests over the death of eric garner. garner died after police in staten island wrestled him to the ground in a banned chokehold and then pay and him down, while

he pleaded that he could not breathe. he a been accused of selling loose cigarettes. an oklahoma city police officer accused of sexually assaulting eight african-american women while on duty has been released from jail. daniel holtzclaw was released on friday after posting $500,000 bond. he is accused of carrying out the alleged assaults after threatening victims with arrest if they did not comply with his sexual demands. a single mother in pennsylvania has been sentenced to 12 to 18 months in prison for ordering medication online doubt for teenage daughter induce an abortion. jennifer ann whalen pleaded guilty to breaking a state law that prevents anyone other than a dr. from providing abortions. her daughter suffered abdominal pain and went to the hospital where a dr. called the police. whalen said she bought the pills online because her daughter did not have health insurance and she could not find a local clinic near their community.

those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with aaron maté. >> welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. newsrn now to the sporting that has been new spotlight on domestic violence and its lax treatment by the country's most popular sport. the national football league has indefinitely suspended star running back ray rice over a video showing him punching his then fiancée, janay palmer, leaving her unconscious. the video from february was released monday by the tabloid website tmz. a warning as we show it to our television audience, it is graphic. race and janay palmer are seen arguing in the elevator of an electric casino. as palmer lunches toward rice, she strikes are in -- the strikes are in the face, she falls back against the elevator wall. rice then drags her from the elevator as she lays motionless. rice has also been cut by his football team, the baltimore ravens.

that is reversal from just weeks ago when head coach jim harbaugh stood by rice and praised his handling of the fallout. on monday, harbaugh said the new video changed the team's perception of the incident. know, it is something we saw for the first time today. it changed things, of course. it may things little bit different. 's explanationh may not satisfy critics who say the ravens and the league mishandled rice's assault from the start. the details in this case have a known for months. video from a different camera angle had previously been released of rice dragging palmer out of the elevator and dropping her face first onto the ground, unconscious. the tape released monday was previously known to exist. but the nfl's first response in july was to suspend rice for just two games. that sparked a massive public

outcry that led nfl commissioner roger goodell to apologize and change the league's domestic violence policy. the ravens now say they've suspended rice because he was dishonest with them about the incident. and despite reports of the contrary, the nfl claims it never saw the new video, saying law enforcement did not make it available. that in turn raises questions for new jersey prosecutors. although janay palmer, now rice, marrying ray rice, refused to testify against her husband, prosecutors apparently had this video in their possession. rice was able to avoid his aggravated assault charge by entering into a pretrial diversionary program. for more we go to dave zirin, author of severals, sports columnist for "the nation" magazine and host of edge of sports radio. his latest article is, "the revictimizing of janay rice." beginningf from the

and talking about your response to what has happened. to therd zinn wants first emotional about government is that governments live. the first thing people should know about the nfl is the nfl lies. this is a league hill don hypocrisy and bring damage. they want us to believe they are surprised that some of that violence spilled over into the personal lives of their players. the nfl treats domestic violence as if it is a public relations issue and their message in this entire story is, if you're going to commit domestic violence, do not get caught on videotape. it is a profound a cynical message. i understand why everybody is showing the videotape. i understand that because the new saw you of the videotape shows, first of all, the new jersey prosecutors who arrested ray rice and janay palmer when this incident took place, saying both were at fault, the nfl and the baltimore ravens, which advanced the narrative both were

tofault, the video gives lie that. that is important for people to see. that being said, i think one of the reasons the tape is so powerful is we are conditioned in the society because of this incredible sexism in society to think in cases of domestic violence, the woman must have done something. be aideotape shows that to lie. i don't understand why so-called progressive sites like the huffington post are showing the video while also talking about women's beach bodies on the side. i don't understand why chris matthews and harbaugh showed the video on a loop while they were talking about it. that is why i wrote the article about how this revictimizing is janay rice because counselors talk about have read time it is shown without her consent, it serves the purpose of hurting her. the one thing it does is it exposes profoundly the hypocrisy of the national football league and how it deals with the mystic violence.

>> what you make of the claim the nfl did not see the video until it was released by tmz? >> people should understand the nfl has an entire security operation populated by people who used to work for the secret service of the united dates. -- you hadconsidered to ask yourself, either the former secret service officers who work for the national football league decided there were not going to pursue this videotape so the nfl has plausible -- had plausible deniability and could sweep this case under the rug like they always do with issues of domestic violence, or the nfl saw it and they are lying. i would actually been toward the latter. i find it is strange could julie to believe the nfl did not see the videotape. the nfl has handled this worldly either way from the very beginning. the first time roger goodell met with janay rice, he met with her right next to ray rice. they came together to his office

to plead for his job and speak about what happened. think about that. that goes against every possible practice the people who deal with to mastech violence talk about, the idea the perpetrator in the person victimized sit side-by-side and bake for the economic life in front of a boss figure or authority figure. it is absolutely repellent. this is something about how the nfl thinks about women and how they think about the issue of domestic violence. >> the baltimore ravens tweeted in may -- "jana that tweet has since been deleted? >> yes. that tweet was deleted yesterday. that is when it was deleted. they kept that on the website for this entire time. staged a press conference where janay rice and ray rice sat next to each other so janay rice could take "her responsibility" for what took place. so much of this was stage

managed by the baltimore ravens to make ray rice look as good as possible and to make the team look at supportive of him as possible. once again, this is not the baltimore ravens in a vacuum. this is how the nfl deals with domestic violence league-why. a player and ray mcdonald for the san francisco 49ers was arrested after his pregnant fiancée was found with bruises on her body after a party and she called the police. ray mcdonald still played this past week and despite those charges against him. why? because he was not caught on videotape. if he was, he probably would not have been playing. this is about the national football league that treats violence against women as a public relations crisis, not a crisis about the ways in which the violence of the game spills over into people's families. >> this is nfl insider adam schefter speaking to the is been monday night, reacting to the video showing ray rice knock his piazza and conscious.

>> this is arguably the biggest black eye the league has ever had. we heard pete roselle talk in the days after in the years after jfk was assassinated, his biggest regret was playing games the sunday after the president of the united states was assassinated. roger goodell will look back on his time as the commissioner of the nfl and say, this is easily the biggest regret. >> that is adam schefter speaking monday. i have to point out after ray rice was suspended for two games initially, schefter said on the air, suspension that will get a lot of discussion. was the commissioner lenient enough? >> i think that is a shameful phrase by adam schefter. i don't know if democracy now! listeners may realize that adam schefter is considered the ultimate nfl insider, clearly very upset that he was lied to about the nfl throughout this will process about what they

knew and when they knew it. he is responding, sounding more like keith olbermann then adam schefter. that being said, to call this nflbiggest black eye in history, it is shameful for him to say that because the nfl has a history of horrific moments of violence against women. ofes of serial rape, cases murder. just two years ago, a player for the kansas city chiefs killed the mother of his child and then took his own life and front of his coach in the parking lot of the stadium. yet that is not the biggest black eye in nfl history? what makes this so much worse? because it was caught on is a publicd it relations crisis for the national football league. as long as we look at this through the lens of public relations, we're never going to get to the bottom of this issue, which is, how do you deal with the fact you have an incredibly violent game that causes had

injuries, causes all kinds of financial pressure on families, and then how do you deal with it without violent spills over into the personal lives and families of players? for decades the nfl has treated it as something you pushed under the rug, yet in an era where everyone has phones and everything is digital, video cameras everywhere, that is much, much more difficult to do. rayave, san francisco 49ers mcdonald was arrested august 31 on felony domestic violence charges in san jose. despite the arrest, he started in the opening game sunday the 49ers. the team is coached by jim harbaugh, the brother of ravens coach john harbaugh. can you talk about this, the two rather's, the ravens, the 49ers -- the two brothers, the ravens and the 49ers, the two rays. >> jim harbaugh, interesting

enough, as someone for a long time has had -- i've talked to people involved in that organization. violence against women is the one thing he will never tolerate on this team. he is said that the players enclosed your meetings, something he rarely believes very strongly. although, if people know jim harbaugh, he faces those kinds of declarations with the same kind of masculinist verve that so often colors how people respond to domestic violence. you have to have a much more manly approach to it. and that is the only way you're going to actually squelch it. harbaughow jim approached it. even though he is that rhetoric for so long, there was ray mcdonald on the field to play in san francisco. once again, i said this earlier, but it really does expose how videotape has played a role in this. and because people don't believe victims in this country -- i mean, it is the same thing we're

talking about with ferguson. the assumption among the majority of the united states the somehow michael brown must have been at fault, even though he is the one who ended up dead, is so similar to the rhetoric around janay rice and ray mcdonald in san francisco. somehow, the woman must have been at fault. believe whether it is the police are there nfl heroes, that maybe, just maybe in these very violent jobs, that violence leads to accept power and injustice. >> we also ran that video, this new video that shows what happened inside as you were talking. you've said you think it is wrong to read this video. i know there's controversy around this an overnight to get listeners, viewers, readers responses. you can e-mail us, tweet, facebook, whatever to let us know what you think. that video has certain he changed everything here. i do wonder, what do people think actually happened in that elevator?

the first video that we all played was the video of rice dragging his unconscious, then fiancée and now wife, out of the elevator. he admitted he assaulted her in the elevator and that is exactly what the video shows. >> what it exposes, first of all, is the degree of complicity among the prosecutor's office who originally charged both ray rice and janay rice, the national football league which when the commissioner roger caddell said both rices take responsibly for what took place, and the baltimore ravens staged the press conference where janay rice "took responsibility" for what happened is they advanced's narrative that said, you don't know what happened in that elevator but this idea that somehow she provoked ray rice punching her, the video shows that to be a lie. what is so tragic about the united states and how we view violence against women is that we assume that is what happened.

the assumption is not with the person who was knocked unconscious, it is she must have done something to deserve it. that is the thing that really makes me shake my head. i think we have to get beyond this idea that the oppressed are somehow only vindicated if we see it with our own eyes. they never get the benefit of the doubt. >> if tmz had this video, then august the, the prosecution likely had it, too. does this raise questions about prosecute?tors >> there's no question about it. just of people understand, the importance of the videotape from a prosecutorial standpoint is that they did not need janay rice's consent to go forward with the prosecution. want toce did not cooperate with the prosecution. she made that choice. in some states, if the person who is assaulted does not cooperate, industry-standard for the prosecutor to drop the case.

if you videotape, that goes out the window because you have objective proof of what took place. yet the prosecutors still decided is not know forward. every legal expert i've spoken to the last 24 hours say this is profoundly unusual and it certainly does look like ray rice's fame, money, connections to the national football league are all things that there is no other explanation, played a role in the fact they went for pretrial diversion program and not for prosecuting him for the assault itself. >> wasn't ray rice applauded when he came back after his suspension? applauded by the baltimore faithful when he came out on the field. that reflects a couple of things, our attitude nationally about domestic violence and also the narrative the national football league and the baltimore ravens pro forward through these last several months. and that is the thing they're going to have to live down. the slogan for the national football league for all of these

crisis has always been, hate the player, don't hate the game. in other words, all the criticism should go on the miscreant player in the game itself is protected at all costs. this is the first time in my reporting lifetime that it feels like the scandal of the individual player is having a massive blowback effect on the league itself, and that makes this very newsworthy and very different. >> the new policy on domestic violence announced after the ray rice suspension generated so much outrage when he was given for suspension was that now the players will get six games suspension. how does this compare to how the league handles drug offenses? >> it is interesting because the drug offenses is carefully planned out in a collective bargaining agreement with the nfl players association. first offense, you get x amount of games. second offense, x amount of games. there are different penalties for different drugs. their programs you can go into. domestic violence has been a

blank slate in the nfl for decades. and to roger goodell said first offense six games, second offense lifetime ban, it was still a blank slate. this idea that somehow roger goodell is only bound to give ray rice two games is a joke because there were no guidelines around domestic violence so the two games only spoke to how serious we -- seriously the nfl takes to mystic violence. that being said, i've spoken to advocates who work in domestic violence shelters about the whole six-game in a lifetime suspension from the sort of big hammer approach the nfl is clearly going to adopt now going forward. one of the things he creates, according to people who work on this for a living, increased a disincentive for women to come forward and speak about situations of abuse, especially if the entire economic security of their family is at stake in a career and league were the average career lifespan is only 3.5 years.

if any time the nfl create something to do with the mystic violence that distance and devices women coming forward, that is something that needs to be looked at carefully. >> in july, riccardi of the carolina panthers was convicted by a district judge in north carolina of assaulting his ex-girlfriend. he exercised his right to a jury trial, likely to take place after the season. he also played sunday. according to espn, he faces a six-game suspension by the nfl if his guilty verdict is not overturned on appeal. not caught on videotape, so he plays, just like ray mcdonald. there are players in the nfl hall of fame who have been convicted and arrested on domestic violence issues. one wonders if they would be there if they had been caught on videotape. is sodeo aspect of it troubling in this case because i still stand by what i wrote in "the nation," that the showing and racial in the the videotape revictimizing's janay rice

because it is being shown without her consent. if it was a sexual assault, we would not be showing up. that being said, the videotape is also the only thing that is making people believe janay rice. this is why people want police officers to have video cameras now on their lapels because this idea that nobody really trusts the process that happens unless they can see with their own eyes . this is certainly a wake-up call, if no other reason, than that when people are seeing how the nfl actually deals with --people arehe recoiling. >> should good deal resigned? >> absolutely. nunnelee for this, but because of the way he is handled concussions of head injuries on the jobs, resign for the way he is handled the washington slur names here in the nation's capital, defending its use.

he should resign from the myriad ways that he is put the interest of the leak at of the interest of players, in the general culture. >> college football, not just the nfl, people like eric washington, can you talk about that? >> people should read the work college football and to mystic violence and sexual assaults. the connective tissue is so particularly egregious on the collegiate level because the players are "student athletes" and not workers. what is created is this gutter economy where women are basically held up as the perks of playing. the perks of supplying your college with no means of dollars in revenue and all you get for it is an education that you don't have time to attend or classes you may not even be educationally prepared to attend. this is the problem in the ncaa and why this problem is replicating itself in the ncaa, they very dangerous connective

tissue between football, particularly amateur football, and sexual violence. >> we want to thank you very much, dave zirin, for being with us, sports columnist for "the nation" magazine and his latest piece is, "the revictimizing of janay rice." we will link to it online. he's also author of many books, among them his latest "results dance with the devil -- "brazil's dance with the devil." we will be right back. ♪ [music break]

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with aaron maté. as the fall school term begins, an illinois college campus is embroiled in one of the nation's biggest academic freedom controversies in recent memory. the university of illinois at urbana-champaign has sparked an outcry over its withdrawal of a job offer to professor critical of these really government. steven salaita was due to start work at urbana-champaign as a tenured professor in the mayor canadian studies. after posting a series of tweets harshly critical of the summer's assault on gaza, steven salaita was told the offer was withdrawn. the college has come under pressure from donors, students, parents and alumni critical of his views, with some training to withdraw financial support. the move has been criticized both in and outside of the school, with administrators accused of political censorship. thousands of academics have signed petitions calling for steven salaita's reinstatement,

and several lecturers have canceled appearances in protest. the american association of university professors has called to schools actions inimical academic freedom and due process. a number of urbana-champaign departments have passed votes of no-confidence in the chancellor, phyllis wise. today, students will hold a campus walkout and a day of silence in support of steven salaita. he's expected to make his first public comments. >> in a public statement, chancellor phyllis wise said her decision to un-hire salida was not influenced in a new way by positions on the conflict in the middle east nor his criticism of israel. she goes on to write -- the school has now reportedly offered steven salaita a financial settlement for his troubles.

the schools board of trustees is expected to take up the controversy at a meeting on thursday. for more we're joined by two guests. kristofer petersen-overton is an adjunct lecturer of political science at lehman college. in 2011, brooklyn college initially decided not to hire kristofer petersen-overton is an adjunct professor for seminar on middle east politics. but the school reversed its decision after criticism that the decision was politically motivated. joins us,ine franke professor of law at columbia university and the director of the center for gender and sexuality law. she recently canceled a lecture series at the university of illinois at urbana-champaign in protest of steven salaita's un-hiring. talk about the facts of this case and now you got involved. >> professor steven salaita was previously professor at virginia tech university. he had a well-known dossier of books and articles thinking

critically about the relationship between native people in the political environment in which they lived. hard questions about his possession, belonging, state violence and identity and because of that important scholarly record, the university of illinois when after him. .n a frilly way unlike what they're doing now. he was hired by an overwhelming vote by the american indian studies program there in a normal way that we hire faculty at universities. him, he was offered to accepted it, they paid for his moving expenses, he quit his tenured position in virginia. he has a small child in a family and wife. he was ready to move. his course books had been ordered. he a been invited by the university to the faculty welcome luncheon. then on august 1, he got a letter from the chancellor saying, we're sorry, we're not going to be able to employ you here. because i haven't taken last up

to i have not informed you about before, if taking your candidacy to the board of trustees. he had accepted job offer. he relied on that offer. at his peril, he now doesn't have a home or job. what we now have learned through a foia request, there was enormous pressure put on the chancellor and the board of trustees by large donors at the university who said, i will take my six-figure donations away if you hire this guy. this is a result of some tweets the professor made over the summer during the heat of the assault on gaza. he was very upset about it. he himself is palestinian. he was watching children die in the destruction of villages. like many of us, he was quite impassioned and used colorful lingwood on twitter.

-- language on twitter to express his views. job, described even in the --up, withdrawn or somehow what happened is, he has been fired. he is no organizing, along with the rest of us, a response to what is a deliver it campaign by number of political operatives put pressure on universities like the university of illinois to censor critical scholarship for critical comments, critical research about israeli state policy. >> let's show some of the tweets. after the three teens in the west bank went missing, kidnapped and murdered, he said -- he was saying it is israel

better perverting any summit is him. anti-semitism. what did you do after the controversy broke out? >> i been working on this issue on the complex legal questions. i'm a human rights lawyer and have done work in what we call paint washington how the israeli government has touted as a rebranding campaign, it's pro-gay laws as a way to tarnish the palestinians. for being anti-gay, which i think is a questionable proposition itself, but more important, to distract attention from what the israelis have been doing in terms of human rights violations. i have been working in this region for some time in my own scholarship. recently, received funding from the foundation to think hard about how we might generate complicated questions on campuses in an academic context around the issues that are

trying to be censored by various political outsiders to the university. there's a kind of political correctness, almost a witchhunt, going on and universities to stop these hard conversations which there are not obvious right answers. they are complex answers. if we can't talk about them in the university setting, where can we? that is why i'm interested in this issue, not because i particular ideology i want to impose in place of what these are interested in, but because i'm interested in the region and the ideas and the complexity of longing.d the -- belonging. >> talk about what you decided to do, your invitation to the university of illinois and what you're doing. >> as soon as we learned in early august of the termination a professor salaita from his appointment at the university of illinois, a call when a from the faculty there and from those who supported professor salaita that

would not agree to visit university of illinois outside faculty to give talks were lectures until the problem was resolved. inoincidentally been invited june to go down to urbana-champaign later this semester and give a series of lectures, which i was happy to do. i am from illinois. i have wonderful colleagues there by the court to working with. incidentally, the university of illinois at urbana-champaign -- wonderful faculty there, so we're missing something by not being able to participate and work with them. i decided i would not go. i surly would not go on their nickel. i would honor the call for a boycott of participation in lectures in speaking, but i would do more. i think all of us who think about boycotting injustice in the world need to think about doing boycotts but more. how you engage affirmatively the injustice generated by the boycott in the first place?

i'm going to urbana-champaign on my own nickel next week, and my own expense, to hold a teach-in. students are now saying it is a term from the 1960's and we should find another one, so if you can help me generate a more with it term for these events, that would be great. i'm going next week to meet with students, faculty, and members of the community to think and talk about the academic freedom issues at stake but also the underlying issues these tweets gesture.com 11 a colorful and blunt way. instead of talking about the heart issues of palestinians right in the gaza war, we're talking about these tweets. there such an awful way to really say anything. >> what was the university's response? >> they have not responded to any of us. we've sent many, many letters. it is not just a few of us that said we would boycott the university, it is hundreds and hundreds of us.

from thehurting thing university -- i have not heard anything, but the faculty is thrilled. >> were also joined by kristofer petersen-overton. you have spoken out on the middle east. you are a scholar yourself. you went through something similar at brooklyn college. >> their points of contact between my situation and professor salaita's case. i was hired in 2011 as an adjunct lecturer. i am a doctoral student. many of us also teach courses in order to support our education. i was hired to teach one semester course on politics but before i could arrive in the classroom, a student complained to the department that she googled me online and found my point of use that she took issued with -- issue with is that i would be slanted. the department asked her to hold off and she turned around and went to new york state a silly press who issued a plac

statement. unfortunately, the political science department, while supporting the administration to intervene and canceled my appointment. were it not for a large mobilization of students, faculty, activists and independent organizations around the world, i would not have gotten my job back five days later. >> what did they do? >> they put a spotlight on the injustice of canceling my appointment. not only because of the controversy of the general tab and place on criticizing israel's occupation, but also issues related to really adjunct labor rights and the two-tier system we have a universities across the country, which is a major point of contact between my case and professor salaita. >> they wrote letters? there was a campaign? >> a number of very well-known

scholars wrote letters on my behalf. professor salaita is much more high profile than i am. quite a want to read an excerpt from the letter by the chancellor of the university of illinois at urbana-champaign. explaining the university's position on steven salaita. --er send a decision was after saying that the decision "was not implicit in any way by his positions on the conflict in the middle east nor his criticism of israel," chancellor wise goes on to write -- >> what we see in that letter is

basically a page from the playbook of the david project. the david project is a boston-based pro-zionist, pro-israeli project dedicated to shaping the way in which israel and israeli state policy is discussed on college campuses in a way that is friendly toward israel and their recently issued a report where they said, our technique now will be in approaching the critics of israel in campus to describe what they say is uncivil. if you read the chancellor's letter and the strategy memo, you see -- i don't know if it has been formed by the memo, but it reflects it and influenced by it. civility as not an academic norm. it actually runs contrary to what we do in an academic setting. in my teaching and writing, i try to unsettle peoples -- my students control notions about what law can do. sometimes law as part of the

problem is much as it is part of the solution. other parts of my work make us think hard about sexual identity and sexual orientation race identity. i'm one of the biggest critics of the gay right movement in a marriage campaign, marriage equality campaign. that doesn't make me very popular with some parts of the gay rights movement. in unsettles the a d is a many of my students. semi-say what i do is uncivil. civility norm is not really the right norm to appeal to in academic context because it really undermines what it is we do as academics, which is think hard and often think in uncomfortable ways about our settled ideas and settled notions of what we think of the world. israel andabout how palestine are addressed. your once told not to use the word "palestine" and one of your courses. >> i have done work in ramallah and palestine with women lawyers there, working to try to build a

legal community, a bar, within palestine. i've been working with women parts ofo be important the palestinian bar. i came back from when my trip someone a dispute at columbia about palestinian women lawyers. we have this administrative thing we have to do a columbia, put our posters through the dean's office for approval. i was told i could not have any "palestine"he word in the title because there was no such thing as palestine. i ignored them and did it anyway. we can think a lot about of places in the world, tibet, where he could say there is no such place as to bet. to censor the idea of or conjuring palestine in an academic setting is something that is happening across campuses across the country. what happened to me so mild to what is happening to professor kris.ta or happen to

>> talk about what you call the corporate university and how you think that ties in. >> he spoke about this in his expense as well. what we're saying in this incidence, and i would call it the catastrophe, at university of illinois, the corporatization of the university where the case, the-- in this chancellor -- sees herself as responsible to investors or donors more than she does to the constituency on campus, the academic students. the university is not just a business where you have to have a bottom line that satisfies your board of directors. we have a particular mission in the university, perhaps to do things that are unpopular, that challenge what your donors think is the right way in which you should be thinking about particular problems. if we're not doing that, then we are not running the university, we're running some other kind of ideological chain. columbia is the same problem.

we're not going to single out the university of illinois. but it is a bear example of an executive of the university seeing herself as accountable to scholarly, not to its mission and intellectuals. >> katherine franke, thank you for being with us, professor of like lemieux university of the director of the open university project. kristofer petersen-overton, budget lecturer of political science at lehman college, doctoral student at the cuny graduate center. this is democracy now! stay with us. ♪ [music break]

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with aaron maté. show innd today massachusetts were two, activists were set to go on trauma and a for blocking a shipment of 40,000 tons of coal. they used their lobster boat to block a delivery of the coal to the brightpoint power station in somerset, massachusetts. they face charges stemming from their act of civil disobedience. in a surprise move, the bristol theyict attorney announced dropped colonel charges and reduced three other charges to civil disabilities -- offenses.

robert,ision that kissed him and i, the assistant district attorneys who handle this case, reached today was a decision that certainly took tnto consideration the cos of the taxpayers in somerset, but was made with our concern for their children, the children of bristol county and beyond in mind. climate change is one of the gravest crises our planet has ever faced. in my humble opinion, the political leadership on this issue has been gravely lacking. i am heartened that we were able to forge an agreement that both parties were pleased with in that appeared to satisfy the police and knows here in sympathy with the individuals who were charged. i am also extremely pleased that we were able to reach an agreement that symbolizes our commitment at the bristol county

district attorney's office to take a leadership role on this issue. >> that is very inspiring to me and i will carry that with me in my heart. thank you. >> [indiscernible] >> i will be in new york in two weeks, how is that? [cheers] with billg around mckibben. >> that is bristol district attorney sam sutter. as he spoke outside the courthouse, the protesters also spoke. coaley are still burning over there. they're burning twice as much lasted in the air before. phasingsupposed to be out. that is the problem. isjust found out the i shelf

in collapse. nothing we can do about it. in that context, it seems to me the only thing one can do is for yourself in the way. >> that was climate activist ken ward. we will be joined by both the bristol county district attorney sam sutter as well as the activists tomorrow on democracy now! that does it for today's broadcast. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

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