05/17/13 05/17/13 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! you feel about comparisons by some of your critics of this week's scandal to those that happened under the nixon administration? >> i will let you guys indigenous comparisons. -- you guys go ahead and make those comparisons. you can read the history and draw your own conclusions. >> as pressure mounts on the obama administration, we will speak to a man who was at the center ofve

press freedom, 40 years ago james goodale from the new york times when the nixon administration attempted to block the paper's publication of the pentagon papers, the secret history of the vietnam war, leaked by daniel ellsberg. then, environmental activist tim dechristopher recently released from prison joins us in the studio. >> there are a lot of things we have tried, most of which have not worked, especially on climate change, on trying to get our government to do something about climate change. mostly, we need people taking action. nobody can really tell you what that action should be. >> first, we turn to a shocking senate hearing for the pentagon declared the entire world is a battlefield and the president can send troops anywhere without new congressional authorization. >> i have only been here five months, but this is the most astounding disturbing hearing i have been

here. you essentially have rewritten the constitution here today. >> all of that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the hunger strike by prisoners at guantanamo bay has entered its 100th day. the u.s. military now says 102 out of the 66 -- 166 prisoners are on strike, while lawyers for the prisoners maintain the number is higher. 30 are being force fed through nasal tubes pushed into their stomachs. three have been hospitalized. the prisoners launched their protest against indefinite detention in early february. most have been held for more than a decade without charge or trial. the u.n. refugee agency says the number of people fleeing the conflict in syria has topped 1.5 million, an increase of half a million in the past 10 weeks alone. turkey and jordan have born the brunt of the refugee flow, roughly 10% of jordan's

population is now syrian refugees and one refugee camp has become the country's fifth largest city. president obama addressed the crisis in syria thursday after many with turkey's prime minister in washington. he said the u.s. would not take uniroyal action to address claims the government of president bashar al-assad has used chemical weapons. >> there are a whole range of actions the engage -- the u.s. is engaged in and i reserve the option of taking diplomatic and military steps because the chemical weapons and said syria also threaten our security over the long term as well as our allies and friends and neighbors may go u.s. officials meanwhile say russia has sent sophisticated antiship cruise missiles to syria in an apparent show of support for the al-assad regime. president obama on thursday also confronted a number of controversies that have rocked his administration recently. he addressed the fatal attack on his compound in benghazi, libya

last year by calling for an increase in funding for embassy security. he criticized the irs for allegedly giving extra scrutiny to tea party and other right- wing groups, but defended his administration's decision to subpoena the phone records of roughly 100 associated press reporters. the justice department took the action in response to a may 2012 article that revealed information about cia activity in yemen. while the seizure has been widely condemned as a violation of press freedom, president obama said it was necessary for national security. >> i make no apologies and i don't think the american people would expect me as commander in chief out to be concerned about information that might compromise their missions or might get them killed. the flip side is, we also live in a democracy where a free press, free expression, and the open flow of information helps hold me accountable, our

accountable, and helps our democracy function. >> the justice department has released 15 pages of completely blacked out material in response to requests for information about how text messages from cell phones are intercepted. the aclu says the obama administration is reading emails and other electronic communications without a warrant, despite a court ruling against the practice. in response to recent freedom of information act request on the issue, the justice deparle released a memo with black rectangles covering every bit of text except the title, sender and recipient. aclu spokesperson josh bell told abc news -- president obama has appointed an acting commissioner to lead the irs a day after the former acting commissioner was fired over the tax agency's targeting for right wing groups. is currently controller of the office of management and budget.

meanwhile, another top irs official has announced his departure. joseph grant says he will retire next month as acting commissioner of the agency's tax exempt and government entities division. the obama administration took another public hit thursday when a justice department inspector general's report found gaps in record-keeping for terror suspects to enter the federal witness protection program. according to the report, the program failed to disclose participants' new identities to the agency that maintains the government's no-fly list. that meant an unknown number of people who changed earnings may unable to fly despite being on the list. only two people were suspected with terrorism connections have joined with this protection program in the past six years. cbs news is reporting boston marathon bombing suspect dzhokhar tsarnaev left a note describing the attack as a response to the u.s. wars in iraq and afghanistan. tsarnaev reportedly scrawled the note on the inside wall of a boat in the boston area driveway

where he was found hiding from police days after the attack. in the message, he reportedly referred to the victims of the bombing as "collateral damage" riveting -- suicideh toll from a car bombing in afghanistan capital of kabul thursday has reached at least 16. the blast targeted u.s. military vehicles, six of the dead were reportedly americans, nine afghan civilians were also killed. an insurgent group claimed responsibility, saying it has launched a new cell in response to reports u.s. troops could remain in afghanistan far beyond next year. officials of us to getting the cause of the deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant in the town of west, texas said they still have not ruled out the possibility the fire was caused intentionally. possible triggers under investigation include a problem with the plant's electrical system, a battery powered golf cart, or arson. a pair of blasts that happened

simultaneously killed 14 people and leveled a residential area around the plant exactly one month ago today. many of the dead were first responders who reacted to the initial fire. a third u.s. military official whose job was to prevent sexual harassment and assault has been accused of carrying out precisely the type of behavior he was supposed to stop. on army lieutenant-colonel. haas ran the sexual harassment and assault response program at fort campbell in kentucky. he turned himself in late wednesday and charges of violating a protection order and stalking his ex-wife. just one day earlier it was revealed the army corps banner of sexual assault prevention at fort hood, texas is being investigated for sexual assault. there were reports sgt first class gregory mcqueen had also been running a small-time prostitution ring. just days before that, a lieutenant colonel jeffrey krusinski, head of the air force sexual assault prevention and response office, was arrested for allegedly groping a woman in

a virginia parking lot. president obama met with defense secretary chuck hagel and top military leaders to address what he termed the scourge of sexual assault in the military. his remarks guinness and lawmakers, including new york senator kirsten gillibrand, introduced legislation to strip military commanders of the ability to prosecute sexual assault, instead placing decisions about whether to try such cases in the hands of independent military prosecutors. according to last week's pentagon report, the conviction rate for sexual assault in the military was less than 1% in the last fiscal year. senator gillibrand cited the report's estimate report of 26,000 service members were assaulted last year. >> congress would be derelict in its duties of oversight if we shrug our shoulders and did nothing, did nothing for these 26,000 sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers. when a person in charge of preventing she

ranks is himself arrested on charges of alleged sexual assault, clearly, we have a strategy in place that is not working. >> president obama's picks to lead the epa and never to permit both included -- inched closer to confirmation thursday. a senate panel voted with no republican support to advance gina mccarthy's epa nomination, while another senate panel backed the nomination of thomas pérez for liver secretary -- again, with no republicans voting in favor. both nominees face uphill battles before the full senate. house lawmakers reportedly have reached agreement in principle for immigration reform the plan to introduce next month. the house bill is expected to be even more restrictive than the senate's with a path to citizenship that could take 15 years. seven people are still missing after a series of tornadoes ripped through the texas town of granbury, killing at least six. dozens of people were injured. the area hardest hit by the storms included many homes for

low-income people built by the nonprofit habitat for humanity. in britain, for computer hackers have been sentenced to jail terms ranging from 20 months to nearly three years for carrying out cyberattacks as part of the global network known as lulzsec. the four, who range in age from 18 to 26, pleaded guilty to at targets including the cia, sony, and rupert mourdock's news international. another will set hacker, jeremy hammond, has been jailed in the u.s. or he faces a potential life sentence for allegedly hacking into the computers of the private intelligence firm stratfor for and giving the files to wikileaks. authorities in florida have dropped the criminal case against an african-american teenager who was arrested for conducting a science experiment that caused no injuries or damage. the case of 16-year-old kiera wilmo have provoked national outrage after she faced two felonies for mixing together toilet bowl cleaner and aluminum

foil in a plastic bottle, causing a tiny explosions. nearly 200,000 people had signed an online petition that the case dropped. today marks the 45th anniversary of the landmark anti vietnam war protest carried out by activists who came to be known as the catonsville nine. on may 17, 1968 father daniel berrigan, his brother philip, and seven others went to the draft office in catonsville, maryland where they removed hundreds of draft records and torched them. they were sentenced to three years in prison. there action helped ignite a wave of direct actions against the draft and the vietnam war. old woman in el salvador has asked the supreme court to save her life by granting her access to abortion which is an in el salvador, even when the mother's life is in danger. more than 600 women have been jailed there for having abortions over the past 15 years. the woman, who uses this it did them beatriz, suffers from lupus

and kidney problems that her doctors say could kill her if she cannot in her pregnancy. moreover, the fetus is missing major parts of the brain and would almost certainly die after birth. the case of beatriz has drawn international attention with tens of thousands petitioning the government of all salvador to save her. this is beatriz. i want to live and ask them to do it for my heart. the doctors and hospitals have been very nice to me. they are also worried for my life. they want to do they can because they are afraid it would be arrested. >> those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. >> welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. a pentagon official predicted thursday the war against al qaeda and its affiliates could last up to 20 more years. the comment came during a senate

hearing revisiting the authorization for use of military force or aumf enacted by congress days after the 2000 -- 2011 attacks. at the hearing the pentagon officials claimed the aumf gives the president power to wage endless war anywhere on the globe. senator angus king from maine describe the hearing as the most "astoundingly disturbingly" 1 he had been to as a senator. he accused the administration of rewriting the constitution. >> an a moment we'll hear senator angus king and his own words, but first, lindsey graham questioning pentagon officials, the assistant secretary of defense in charge of special operations and the acting general counsel to permanent defense. this is senator lindsey graham >> do you agree with me the war against radical islam or tear or whatever description you like to provide will go on after the

second term of president obama? >> by j on beyond the second termthe president. >> and beyond this term of congress? >> yes, sir, at least 10 to 20 years. >> from your point of view, yet all of the authorization and legal authorities necessary to conduct the drone strike against terrorist organizations in yemen without changing the aumf? do you agree with that? >> i do, sir. >> general, do you agree? >> i do. >> can we send military members into yemen to strike against one of these organizations? does the president have that authority to put boots on the ground in yemen? before, therened is domestic authority and international law authority.

basis forent, the putting boots on the ground in yemen we respectfully -- the sovereignty of yemen we respect and it would -- >> i am saying, does he have the legal authority under our law to do that? >> under domestic authority, he >> i hope the congress is ok with that. i'm ok with that. does he have authority to put boots on the ground in the congo? he does.ir, >> do you agree with me when it comes to international terrorism we're talking about a worldwide struggle? >> absolutely, sir. >> the battlefield is wherever the energy chooses -- enemy chooses to make it? >> yes, sir, from boston to the fattah. >> i could not agree with the more. >> yes, sir, i agree with the

enemy decides where the battlefield is. >> and we have to be aware and able to act. do you have the ability to act when you are aware the threats? >> yes, sir, we have the ability to react and we are tracking globally. >> from my point of view, i appreciate all of your service to our country. gentlemen, i've only been here five months but this is the most astounding and astoundingly disturbingly and i've been to since i have been there. you essentially have rewritten the constitution here today. the constitution of recall clearly outclass the congress has the power to declare war. the aumf iszation very limited. you keep using the term associated forces. you use it 13 times in your statement that is not in the aumf. at one point said, it suits us pretty well. you are reading it to cover

everything, so it does city well. the set at another point, even if the aumf does not apply, the general law of war applies. and we can take these actions. my question is, how you possibly square this with the requirements of the constitution that the congress has the power to declare war. this is one of the most fundamental divisions that the congress has the power to declare war, the president is the commander in chief and prosecute the war. but you're reading this aumf is such a way as to apply clearly outside of what is says. senator mccain was absolutely right. it refers to the people who planned, authorized, or aided terrorist attacks on september 11. that is the date. it does not go into the future. then it says, or harbored such organizations -- past tense. date.ablished a

i don't disagree that we need to fight terrorism, but we need to do it in a constitutionally sound way. i am just a little old lawyer from brunswick, maine, but i don't see how you can possibly read this to be in part with the constitution and authorize any acts by the president. you testified to senator lindsey graham that you believe you could put boots on the ground in yemen under this document read that makes the war powers a nullity. i am sorry to ask such a long question, but what is your response to that? anybody? >> that may take the first response. i am not a lawyer of any kind, but let me talk -- take a brief statement about al qaeda and organization that attacked us on september 11, 2001. in the two years prior to that, that organization attacked as in east africa and killed 17

americans. a year prior to 9/11, the same organization with its affiliates in yemen almost sunk the u.s. ship, the uss cole, a billion dollar warship, killed 17 sailors in the port of aden. the organization that attacked as on 9/11 already had its tentacles around the world with associated groups. that was the nature of the organization then, the nature of the organization now. in order to attack that organization, we have to attack it with those affiliate's that are its are operational arm that have previously attacked and killed americans at a high- level interest and continue to try to do that. >> that is fine, but that is not what the aumf says. we made theying is, new authority, but if you expand

this to the extent you have it is meaningless and the limitation in war powers is meaningless. i am not disagreeing we need to attack terrorism wherever it comes from and whoever is doing it, but i'm saying, let's do it in a constitutional way, not by putting a gloss on the document that clearly will not support it. it just doesn't work. i am just reading the words. it is all focussed on september 11 and you guys have invented this term associated forces that is nowhere in this document. as i mentioned in your written statement, that is the key term. you use it 13 times. it is the justification for everything and it renders the war powers of the congress now and void. i don't understand. i do understand you're saying, we don't need change because the way you read it, you can do anything. but why not say, come back to us and say, yes, you are correct,

this is an overbroad reading that renders the war powers of the congress banality, therefore we need authorization to respond to the new situation? i don't understand -- i do understand because the way you read it, there is no limit. but that is not what the constitution is. >> and and senator angus king speaking thursday, the senate hearing on the war powers under the authorization for use of military force. journalist jeremy scahill discussed the same topic on democracy now! last month. he is the author of the new bestseller, "dirty wars: the war is a battlefield." the concept the world is a battlefield is not something i thought up. it is a military doctrine called operational preparation of the battle face. it's as if there are countries where you predict conflicts are likely, or that war is a possibility, you can forward

deploy troops to those countries to prepare the battlefield. under both bush and obama, the world has been declared the battlefield the authorization for the use of military force passed after 9/11 is technically the law that president obama and his administration point to when they say they have a right to drone strike in yemen because these people are connected to the 9/11 attack. in reality, one of the enduring legacies of the obama and ministration, he has this dick cheney-esque the that says when it comes to foreign policy, the executive branch is effectively a dictatorship and congress only has a minimal role to play in oversight. obama's administration plays the game of congress. certain people can go into the padded room and look at this document, but not this one and it cannot ever tell anyone what it said. that is the congressional oversight. they double down on this all-

powerful executive branch perspective. that is why we see this stuff expanded. >> jeremy scahill, author of the new bestseller, "dirty wars: th a battlefield." his film of the same title is coming out in june around the country. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. back in a moment. ♪ [music break]

a shout out to the students

from ethics community college who are here today. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. >> we turn now to the growing concern over the justice department's secret efforts to attain a says it pressne records. some analysts are drawing comparisons between the obama administration's actions in the probe and those of the nixon administration when it attempted to block the new york times from publishing the pentagon papers, the secret history of the vietnam war leaked to that paper by whistleblower daniel ellsberg. two days after the times first published excerpts of the pentagon papers, the nixon government asked for and received a supreme court injunction against the newspaper, arguing that publication of the documents posed a -- immediate danger to the security of the united states." >> a band is being compared to

president nixon. how does he feel about that? >> i don't have a reaction from president obama. i can tell you people who make those comparisons can check their history because what we have here with one issue in benghazi is so clearly as we're learning more and more a political sideshow, to politicize the tragedy the president feels strongly about that. >> that was tuesday. on wednesday, the question was raised again on whether the open administration's probe of the emails of associated press reporters and editors recalls nixon's targeting of the press. this time the question was posed directly to president obama. >> i want ask about the justice department. do you believe the seizure of phone records from the associated press journalists thatweek was an overreach, you still have full confidence in your attorney general? should we interpret yesterday's renewed interest by the white house in the media shield law as a response to that?

more broadly, how do you feel about comparisons by some of your critics of this week's scandal to those that happened under the nixon administration? >> i will let you engage in those comparisons. you can go ahead and read the history, i think, and draw your own conclusions. my concern is making sure if there is a problem in the government, that we fix it. that is my responsibility. that is what we're going to do. >> for more return to a gas to as a rather informed opinion on whether president obama has been worse than president nixon and they're targeting of the press for published leaked information. joining us here in new york is james goodale, the council, was the counsel for the new york times in the pentagon papers case, a leading legal expert on the first amendment and has just published a new book called, "fighting for the press: why the pentagon papers case still matters." we welcome you to democracy now! >> thank you very much for

having me. >> you say president obama is worse than president nixon. >> more precisely, i say that if in fact he goes ahead and prosecutes julian assange, he will pass nixon. he is close to nixon now. the ap example is a good example of something that obama has done, what nixon never did. so i have him presently in second place behind nixon and ahead of bush ii. he is moving up fast. if he goes ahead on assange, he will at least be even. >> i want to go back to the pentagon papers. we have a clip from a documentary that was made about daniel ellsberg. the documentary is called "daniel ellsberg: the most dangerous man in america."

he leaked the pentagon papers symmetrically led to the downfall of the knicks in administration. this is a clip. >> it was october 1, 1969 when i first smuggled silver hundred pages of top-secret documents out of my safe at the rand corporation. contained 47 williams, 7000 pages. xerox the steady and reveal the secret history of the vietnam war to the american people. >> the fbi was trying to figure out who gave the new york times a copy of the pentagon's secret study. >> like a thunderclap you get the new york times publishing the pentagon papers and the country is panicking. >> this is an attack on the integrity of the government the whole fire cabinets can be stolen and made available to

the press, he cannot have order in the government any more. >> the possible source name has come out, dennis l. -- daniel ellsberg. >> i think it is time in this country to quit making national heroes out of those who steal secrets and publish them in the newspaper. >> in the first year of marriage, we're talking about him going to prison for the rest of his life. >> [indiscernible] >> we felt so strong we were dealing with the national security crisis. henry kissinger said dr. daniel ellsberg was the most dangerous man in america and had to be stopped. >> this is another clip of daniel ellsberg or he focuses on how the nixon white house responded to daniel ellsberg's leak of the pentagon papers. it begins with john dean, former white house counsel to president

nixon. >> i think there's probably some good justification for the strong feelings nixon had. he would make a decision in the national security council in the next they would read it on the front page of the new york times or some other newspaper. this makes it virtually impossible to govern. >> just because some guy is going to be a martyr, we cannot in a position of allowing a fellow to get away with this kind of wholesale thievery or it will happen all of the government. we have got to keep our eye on the main ball, which is the ellsberg. we have to get the son of the [beep] >> the leak changed the nixon white house. it really is what some of us have called the beginning of the dart period. it was rough and tumble before, but it got down and dirty. it is a defining event for the nixon presidency. >> james goodale, how the new york times came into this story and the decisions it had to make at the time when nixon tried to

stop the new york times from publishing? >> how did they come into it? well, because he brought the new york times into it. what the pentagon case is about is censorship. lawyers call it prior restraint. after publishing for three days, all of this sudden, we were in court. several days later, really, we were in the supreme court. so the times came into it because, i believe and those at the time is believed, this was an outrage. and the first amendment protected us and that the government had no ability to come in and tell us what we should not print or what we should print. we put our troops together and beat him. >> in your book, it is a gripping account of the inside story of what happened, but you actually start with what happened a year earlier with

earl caldwell in the nixon administration after that. >> i am so glad you asked me that because the subtitle of the book is "other bottles." the other battles are always called reporters privileged battles, the ability of the sources fromeep being disclosed. and today, we have the ap. earl caldwell was a black reporter who tried to keep this information secret from nixon. it started right there. a quick see it in writing articles about the black panther party in the nixon administration wanted -- >> he was virtually the only black reporter at the new york times at the time and gained access, perhaps because he was into the black panther headquarters, and gain their trust so it was important for the public to have someone who

could explain the black panthers to the public. his position was, if he had to say what he saw and tell what he knew, his credibility would be ruined. what is interesting about this case and also it is parallel to the pentagon papers case, when it went to the supreme court or i would say he won but others would say it was a tie, but he had to be taken back to court. guess what? they soon forgot about him rid why did nixon bring him in the first place? you know why because it was a political case. and i would suggest the pentagon papers case is not a real case, but a political case. i have one message in the pentagon papers part of the book, which is when you look back at the so-called secrets, which the audience heard about in the clips, is all a bunch of

malarkey. there are no secrets. -- the pentagon papers is a bunch of hot air. therefore, when we hear today the attorney general saying, this is the worst secret i have ever seen disclosed, beware. invariably, the secrets turn out to be non-secrets. they are the ability of the government to protect themselves in their own information and their own political power. >> one thing you also raised in your comparison to the day with the joy in assange case and bradley manning is the government not only went after daniel ellsberg, but one after the reporter to whom ellsberg leaked the information to just as now the government is trying to go not only after manning, the leaker, but assange, the receiver. >> after the pentagon papers and censorship, mitchell nixon's

attorney general, got very excited about prosecuting the new york times. so he convened a grand jury in boston because there was some evidence the pentagon papers had been circulated in the anti-war community before the were published by the new york times. the theory was the new york times reporter conspired with those anti-war protesters and he was going to indict them for conspiracy. fast forward, what is obama doing? he has convened a grand jury -- i think it is still there although we've not heard about it. i think he may have invited assange and secrecy. what is the charge? conspiracy. we don't expect our listeners to be lawyers and jump up and down when they hear the word conspiracy. i just want to tell you and the audience, it is very easy to prove conspiracy. it is very hard to prove as in

-- and the best in osh act. -- itis doing in and run is very hard to prove espionage under the espionage act. my book is meant to be a clarion call to the journalist community -- wake up. there is danger out there. he may not like assange, but wake up. the first amendment is really going to be damaged if obama goes forward. if he succeeds, he will have succeeded where nixon failed. >> let's play a clip from julian assange when he was on democracy now! last november. he warns about the consequences of the has been lodged act being reinterpreted. >> the new interpretation of the s.b. knowledge at the pentagon is trying to hammer in to the legal system, in which the department of justice is

complicit in would mean the end of national security journalism in the u.s. and not only the u.s. because the pentagon is trying to apply it extraterritorial it, why would it be the end of national security journalism? because the interpretation is that any document the u.s. government claims to be classified is given to a journalist who then makes any part of a public, that journalist has committed espionage and the person who gave the material has committed the crime communicating with the enemy. >> julian assange was speaking to us from the ecuadorean embassy in london, where he is holed up. he got political asylum in ecuador, but the british government will not allow him to come out of the embassy to make ecuador.to th

he is worried about being extradited to the u.s., were you say, you think there is a sealed indictment against him brigit we know there's a secret grand jury. >> i don't know, it is a secret. but that is why he is holed up. his lawyers are convinced one step out, he is in sweden and he is right through sweden over here. he is quite right about talking about the threat to journalism with respect to the way obama is going about prosecuting. what lawyers like to say, if in fact the prosecution goes for it is joining assange has said, criminalizes news gathering because i talk to you and ask you to give me a secret or anything but in fact about anything that may be classified, we're both going to go off to the hoosegow and, if you know, obama has classified i

think 7 million documents in one year. everything is classified. that would give the government the ability to control all this information on the theory is classified. if anyone asks for it and gets it, they are complicit and they're going to go to jail. that criminalizes the process and it means dissemination of affirmation, which is inevitable out of the classified sources of that information, will be stopped. it is very dangerous. that is why get excited when i talk about it. >> what about the irony of the obama administration after the news of their surveillance of the ap comes out, then going to chuck schumer and saying, we need a strong shield law? >> i have this whole history in my book and i just thought that was quite ridiculous because the

bill that obama asked chuck schumer to put into the house has an exception for national security. in other words, if you are a reporter and you're talking about national security, the law does not apply. what is the whole controversy to ap,oday with respect it is about a national security exception to the privilege that you would think reporters would otherwise have. so obama puts it out thinking the public does not know what i know, and it will be good to reporters but it does to protect the metal in the ap situation. >> bill keller, the former executive editor of the new york times who partnered with wikileaks founder julian assange on several major releases, has since written critical columns about him read one in it with the line --

you were the general counsel for the new york times. we of gone the full circle. when the pentagon papers came out, it was said was a new era. the government will not be allowed to keep secrets anymore, which they are not secrets anyway, in my opinion they're not going to be a little hold back the information. we had this great victory. here are some years later and we have obama who indicted six journalists. i said that is terrible in my book. >> look at the ap situation. he is trying to find a source who will be the seventh. secrecy has increased in the obama administration. we have gone nowhere in terms of that.

what we do have a very good precedent that obama cannot stop the press before printing. that was good. but let's face it. in the digital age, no one cares about that anymore. in the digital age, the action is what the government will do after publication, after assange has published. what are the rules there? this is a new chapter in the history of the pentagon papers. >> we want to thank you, james goodale, for being here. >> you are entirely welcome. his book is, "fighting for the press: why the pentagon papers case still matters." is the former general counsel of the new york times when president nixon tried to stop the times from publishing the pentagon papers. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. when we come back, tim dechristopher, just out of jail after 21 months there for protesting a public auction of public land in utah.

stay with us. ♪ [music break]

>> he played outside the relic of our next guests sentencing hearing. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. >> we turn now to climate justice activist tim dechristopher who was released last month after 21 months in federal custody. he was convicted of interfering with the public auction in 2008 when he disrupted the bush administration's last-minute move to auction off oil and gas exploitation rights in utah, where he was a student at the time. he posed as a bidder and won

drilling lease rights to 22,000 acres of land in an attempt to save the property from oil and gas extraction. >> the auction itself was later declared illegal, a fact that his attorneys were prevented from telling the jury. there were also barred from informing jurors that tim dechristopher had raised money for the initial payment to the bureau of land management, a payment the blm refuse to accept. tim dechristopher's case is the subject of a new documentary opening in new york city today called, "bidder 70." >> they said, are you hear from the auction? i said, yes, i am. they said, are you here to be a bitter? i said, yes, i am. throughvironmentalist an auction into turmoil. >> he says he is willing to go to jail and it is possible that

is where he will and up. >> i think it is fair to say your and repente -- unrepentive. >> that would be fair to say. the united states of america versus tim dechristopher of the formal charges. >> to you feel outnumbered? >> a little bit. 3 million to one. >> when you take courageous action, you have people stand with you and beside you and follow in your footsteps. >> this is not the first time we have had 10,000 people in one room reminding us we're not alone. >> to all citizens like you or i ought to be able to hear what the evidence is -- 12 citizens like you all are i thought to be able to hear what the evidence is.

and know this land there is not going to be an oil rig in the way or there's not one to be a road cut through the middle of it, there is no way i could ever regret what i did. is not toisobedience live in one's principles, but be willing to suffer for those principles. >> they do not open up until they decide to let you go. >> [indiscernible] moment!that >> the environmental movement is like a football game. our team is getting slaughtered. the other side is plan with dirty tricks. it is now longer acceptable for us to stay. it is time to rush the field.

it is time to stop the game. >> that is the trailer for "bidder 70." we are joined by tim dechristopher who was in new york for the film's release tonight. he is an activist and founder of the climate justice group peaceful uprising. welcome back to democracy now! how did prison change to? >> i think it deepened by perspectives on social justice. i think it matured me to some degree. it was two years i spent with really one of the most depressed populations in our society. i saw the people who were struggling with that, i live with them for two years. i think that really broaden my perspectives on many things. i think it will influence my activism moving forward. i don't have any intention of

slowing down or backing down at this point, but i see myself as much more than a climate activist. i think i will be involved in a lot of different issues moving forward. >> to talk not only about the inmates he met, but the correction officers you had to deal with as well and what you learned during or 21 months. >> that was a learning experience as well. i was in the time i was locked up, and probably met maybe 50 people that should be locked up that really should not be on the streets. of those, about 54 inmates. the rest were all guards. those, about five were inmates and the rest were all guards. an of the rules i think is plomb service for military veterans who are too psychologically damaged to work in the private sector. that was an eye opener for me.

>> is interesting to say that because you take someone like the prison guard from boomylvania who was in a mumia jamal's prison and have been involved with assaulting his wife and ultimately was sent to iraq and there he was involved with or was part of the story of the abu ghraib photos. to a clip from the documentary "bidder 70" that is being released today. orpretty much every democrat progressive and utah is pretty much fed up with our congressman jim matheson who calls and seven democrats but is more conservative than most republicans. pretty much all he cares about is just protecting corporate profits. some went out of frustration, i put a help wanted ad on craigslist.

must have solid moral values and the count -- it took on a life of its own. people started sending in their resumes and started going far on twitter and facebook. i pulled together these progressive groups and said, we have this opportunity to wage guerrilla campaign year and -- wage a real campaign here and do it in a way that gets people's attention and reminds us of what our role is supposed to be in a democracy that we are supposed to hire a representative who actually represents as. a >> that is tim dechristopher in the film "bidder 70." matheson is ti still there. before you went to jail your time to get someone to run against him. to believe political organizing elections are the way to go? >> i don't think it is the way to go, i think it has to be part of social movements strategy.

i think we need to be building power as a social movement. i think one of the weaknesses for the climate movement, even though we made a huge amount of progress in the past few years in building a stronger movement, we still have this huge divide between the political side of the movement that focuses on washington and the grassroots side of the movement that has been building real power in front line communities in places like west virginia and places like that. there really don't talk to each other and i think that is why we end up with things like the wax markey bill -- waxman markey bill. people in grassroots the movement are not behind them. i think there has to be that connection there to make both sides of that more powerful. i think that is the next up for one of the next ups for the climate movement. what we did in utah against jim matheson, that was an

experiment. we were just trying to engage with the political system in a different way. that is something i hope we have more of, just the creativity and experimentation. i think there have been too progressive approach is to electoral politics in the past generation and that is either voting for the lesser of two evils or not voting. both of those strategies have been disasters. i think those two that represent a pretty small range of what is possible. not that a craigslist help- wanted ad is the answer, but it got people to think about it and engage with the system in a different way. >> talk about how you initially got involved in the climate movement in utah and what drew you to it, and also what you see are some of the challenges for the grassroots movement to move forward in this age of obama. >> i have been loosely involved

as an armchair activist in the environmental movement for a while. 2007 andcourse of 2008, was becoming more and more concerned about climate change. that was kind of a step behind in the scientific community was realizing most of their worst- case scenario projections for climate change were overly optimistic. that was the kind of thinking to be a step later. at the same time, i was studying economics. i was lucky enough to be involved in a progressive economic program setting things like corporate personhood and how change really happens. >> at the university of utah? >> yes, and ironically, they're one of the more progressive economic programs in the country. i was also studying social movement history and learning how change happened historically in this country and realizing civil disobedience and things like that have been an important part of diverse movements.

and it took those kinds of sacrifices in order for people outside of the official power structure to create change. i was building that kind of commitment over the course of 2008 to take that kind of action and looking for an opportunity, and did not know what that might be. then this auction rolled around and it turned out to be a way i could actually have an influence on. >> so you disrupt the auction. you just put up your bidderpaddle. then they arrest you. i want to ask you about what assistant u.s. attorney general said -- tim dechristopher, as you have just come out of 21 months in prison, your response? >> i thought that was kind of an overly simplistic view because

if the rule of law is the bedrock of our society, then we have to understand the bedrock of the rule of law is our shared moral values as a citizenry. throughout history, is in civil disobedience that has aligned the two whenever the grow apart. especially in this country, civil disobedience is part of why we have the rule of law today. even the revolutionaries who instituted our system had previously been engaged in civil disobedience. they set up this legal system where the core part of our legal system, the foundation, which jury trials. >> are you sorry you did what you did? >> not at all. it has worked out better than i ever expected in the consequences for something i could deal with, and were not as bad as i have been afraid of. >> tim dechristopher, released after 21 months in prison for

bidding to a public auction of will and gas drilling on thousands of acres of public land in his home state of utah. 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.