06/07/13 06/07/13 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> on the morning of october 15, we got the telephone call and they told us he was blown to pieces by the drone. he recognized his cousins had from the back. he knew he was really dead. >> for the first time since

president obama confirmed the was killed four american citizens in drone strikes overseas, democracy now! exclusive. we will speak with nasser al- awlaki. his son was assassinated some timber 30, 2011, that is anwar al-awlaki. two weeks later, his grandson was killed and another drone strike. the killings are central part in a new documentary "dirty wars: the world is a battlefield." we will speak with investigative reporter behind the film, jeremy scahill. >> the port city was nothing like kabul. in afghanistan, life was defined by war. everything revolved around it. in yemen, there was no war -- at least not officially. cometrike seemed to have out of the blue and most yemenis were going about life. >> we will also speak with saleh

bin fareed. he was one of the first people to arrive at the site of the attack on the yemeni village of a mujala. first, the national security agency has obtained access to the servers of microsoft, google, facebook, apple, yahoo and other internet firms giving the government the ability to collect emails, search history, and live chats of users around the world. we will speak with journalist glenn greenwald, the reporter who broke the story. all of that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the national security agency has obtained access to the systems of google, facebook, apple, yahoo and other internet corporations giving the government the ability to collect emails, search history, and live chats of users around

the world. the tells about the prism program were first published in the guardian in the washington post. the disclosure came one day after the guard in reveal the obama administration is conducting a massive surveillance program of verizon business customers. according to a new report, the scope of the nsa program also includes customers of at&t and sprint. in addition, the journal reports the nsa is collecting details about credit card transactions. on thursday, senate intelligence committee chairman dianne feinstein defended the government's actions. >> as far as i know, this is the exact three-month renewal of what has been the case for the past seven years. bys renewal is carried out the fisa court and to the business records section of the patriot act. therefore, it is lawful. >> we will speak with glenn

greenwald on the story after the headlines. fighting between syrian rebels and government forces has approached the israeli-occupied golan heights. austria has announced it is withdrawing nearly 400 u.n. peacekeepers from the golan heights after syrian rebels briefly overran a crossing point near the border with israel. protests continue in turkey despite a call from the turkish prime minister that they must end immediately. thousands of protesters remain in istanbul's taksim square. some chanted for the prime minister to resign as the watched a broadcast of his address. the british government has agreed to pay out a total of $22 million to a group of over 5000 veterans of kenya's's mau mau resistance movement. more than 100,000 kenyans are believed to been killed by british colonial forces between 1952 and 1960. british foreign secretary william hague announced the deal. >> the british government recognizes that kenyans are

subject to torture and other forms of the treatment at the hands of the colonial administration. the british government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place and that they marking his progress toward independence. torture and ill treatment are a porn violations of human dignity which we unreservedly condemn. >> the head of the mau mau veterans association says the compensation is too low. survivors on average will get under $5,000 each. >> enough? it cannot be enough. we were detained for 10 years for it i was detained for seven years with my father who raised me. so the issue, 300,000 shellings, is far below the amount i should have been paid for my father or anyone else was there during the fight. >> the international monetary fund has admitted it had failed to realize the damage austerity would do to greece as the

country tried to recover from its economic crisis. the imf and european union forced greece to slash public spending and benefits in exchange for an economic bailout of the country is now mired in a much deeper recession. the unemployment rate increase is 27%. president obama is meeting with chinese president at a summit in california today amidst a growing dispute between the two countries over cybersecurity. washington has accused china of cyber spying, including snooping on advanced u.s. weapons designs. but the white house said little publicly about its own hacking abilities. bloomberg businessweek recently disclosed how a secretive unit inside the national security agency called tailored access operations conduct cyber espionage on overseas computer networks. the pentagon hackers harvest nearly 2.1 million gigabytes every hour. that is the equivalent of hundreds of millions of pages of

text. the pentagon recently promoted the deputy chief of the secretive nsa unit, rear admiral willie metts, to become director for intelligence of u.s. pacific command. mexican authorities said they rescued 165 migrants who were apparently kidnapped for ransom as they tried to cross into the u.s. most of the migrants were from el salvador, guatemala, and honduras. according to ernest international, more than 26,000 people of gone missing in mexico since december 2006. the remains of dozens of palestinians killed during the war of 1948 have been discovered in israel. renovations at a muslim cemetery unearthed six separate chambers full of skeletons. the victims were killed when israeli forces conquered jaffa, a palestinian city now part of tel aviv. in media news, a massachusetts high school runner and his track coach have filed suit against the new york post after the paper published a front-page

article that made them look as if they were the suspects in the boston marathon bombing. the new york daily news is reporting glitches and repeated crashes in new york city's new 911 computer dispatch system that cost $88 million. it appears to a delayed emergency responders during several life-and-death situations this week -- possibly even in a crash like a 4-year- old named ariel russo. according to a report by juan gonzalez in the new york daily news, she died tuesday when a 17-year-old unlicensed driver who was fleeing police rammed his parents as tv into the girl and her grandmother. emergency responders took an unusually long four minutes 18 seconds from the time of the first request from the ambulance from please set the scene to a 911 operator until the time in ambulance was finally dispatched. and those are some of the

headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. news of theh national security agency has obtained access to the central servers of nine major internet companies including google, microsoft, apple, yahoo, and facebook. the guardian and the washington post revealed the top-secret program on thursday -- code- named chrism -- after they obtained several slides from a 41-page training presentation for senior intelligence analysts. prism allowsow them to access emails, documents, audio and video chats, photographs, documents, and connection logs that allow them to track a person or trace their connections to others. one slide lists the company by name and date when each provider began participating over the past six years. but an apple spokesperson said it had never heard of prism and added --

"we do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers and any agency requesting get a court o" for more we're joined by glenn greenwald or he broke the story that was headlined "nsa taps in to internet giants' systems to mine user data, secret files reveal" in the guardian. this comes after he revealed wednesday in another exclusive story that the nsa has been collecting the phone records of millions of verizon customers. according to a new report in the wall street journal, the scope of the nsa phone monitoring includes customers of all three major and phone networks, verizon, at&t and sprint, as well as records from internet service providers and purchase of permission from credit-card providers. glenn greenwald is also author of, "with liberty and justice for some: how the law is used to destroy equality and protect the powerful." byis joining us now

videostream. welcome back to democracy now! lay out this latest exclusive that you just reported in the guardian. >> there are top secret nsa documents that barry excitingly described and even boast about how they've created this new program called the prism program that has been in existence since 2007 that enables them direct access into the servers of all of the major internet companies which people around the world, hundreds of million, use to communicate with one another. you mentioned all those names. what makes it extraordinary, in 2000 congress enacted a new law that says essentially except for conversations involving american citizens talking to one another on u.s. soil, the nsa no longer needs a warrant to grab, each stop on, intercept whatever communications they want. when those of us at the time said the nsa would be able to

obtain whatever they want and abuse that power, the argument was made, though wary, there is a great check on this. they have to go to the phone and internet companies and ask for what ever is they want. what this program allows is for them either because the companies have given over access to their servers as the nsa claims, or the nsa has simply ceased it as the company's claim. the nsa can go in at any time and either read messages that are stored in facebook or in real time surveil conversations and chats that take place on skype and gmail and all other forms of communication. it is an incredibly invasive search. >> there is a chart prepared by the nsa and the top-secret document you obtained that shows the breadth of the data it is able to obtain -- email, video and voice chat, videos, photos,

skype chats, file transfers, and social networking details. talk about what this chart reveals. >> i think the crucial thing to realize is hundreds of millions of americans and hundreds of millions of and even billions of people around the world essentially rely on the internet exclusively to communicate with one another. very few people use landline phones. when you talk about things like online chat and social media messages and emails, what you're really talking about is the full extent of human communication. with the objective of the national security agency is, as the stories thus far have demonstrated and the stories we are about to reveal into the future will continue to demonstrate, the objective of the nsa and the u.s. government is nothing less than destroying all remnants of privacy. it they want to make sure every single time human genes interact, things we say to one another, do with one another, places we go, that they know

about it. they can watch it and store it, and access it at any time read they are very explicit about the fact that since most communications are coming through these internet companies, it is vital in their eyes for them to have full and unfettered access to it, and they do. >> as you reported, the prism program, not to be confused with prison, is run with the assistance of the companies that participate but all of those responding to a garden request for comment denied knowledge of any of the programs. this is what google said -- >> right. first of all, after our story was published in the washington post published a similar story,

several news outlets including nbc news confirmed with government officials they in fact have exactly the access to the data that we described. the director of national intelligence confirmed to the new york times by name that the program we identify and the capabilities we describe actually exist. you have a situation where someone seems to be lying. the nsa says these companies volunteer the access. the company said they never did. this is the debate we should have in the open. what is the government doing and how it spies on as an reads our emails and how it intercepts our chat. let's have that discussion in the open to the extent our companies -- these companies and in is that a conflict in cannot but their story straight, let them resolve that conflict in front of us. apparatus having this be built in the dark without as nine anything going on, we can then be informed about what kinds of surveillance the government is engaged in and

have a reason to debate of whether that is the kind of world we want to live in. >> on thursday, senate intelligence committee chaired by an feinstein told reporters in the senate gallery that the government's top-secret court order to obtain phone records on millions of americans was "waffles'." >> as far as i know, this is the exact three month renewal of what has been the case for the past seven years. this renewal is carried out by the fisa court and to the business records section of the patriot act -- under the business records section of the patriot act, therefore it is lawful. >> glenn greenwald? >> first of all, the fact something is lawful doesn't mean it isn't dangerous or tyrannical or wrong. you can enact laws that are tyrannical. when you look at a look atcts, that is what the war on terror

has been about. i would differ too to the senators who are her colleagues, ron wyden and mark udall, there are good democrats that a spent two years now running around trying to get people to listen to them as they have been saying, look, with the obama administration is doing and interpreting the patriot is so radical and so distorted and worked, that americans will be stunned to learn -- their words -- what is being done in the name of these secret legal theories in terms of the power the obama administration has claimed for itself on how can spy on americans. when the patriot act was enacted, nobody thought, even upon its of the patriot act, that it would be ever used to enable the government to gather up everybody's telephone records and communication records without regard to whether they've done anything wrong. the idea of the patriot act was, when the government suspects someone being involved in serious crimes or terrorism, the standard of proof is lord for

them to get these documents. but that the patriot act enables mass collection of the records of hundreds of millions of americans said the government can store that and know what we're doing at all times even when there is no reason to believe we have done anything wrong? that is ludicrous and democratic senators are saying it has nothing to do with that law. >> on thursday, the director of intelligence said he stands by woody 70 said the national security agency does not wittingly connected on millions of americans. >> does the nsa collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans? >> no, sir. >> it does not? >> not wittingly. there are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect but not wittingly. >> that is the questioning of

the head of the national intelligence james clapper by democratic senator ron wyden. glenn greenwald? , not know that to be a lie a misleading statement, not something that was sort of parsed in a way that was a little bit deceitful, but an outright lie. they collect data and records about the communications activities and other behavioral activities of millions of americans all the time. that is what the program is that we exposed on wednesday. they go to the fisa court every three months getting the order to compel communications providers to turn over this information. the same is true for what they're doing on the internet with the prism program and what the nsa does in many ways. we are going to do a story coming up shortly about the scope of the nsa's spying activities domestically -- i

think will shock many people because the nsa likes to portray itself as interested only in foreign intelligence gathering and in targeting people they believe are guilty of terrorism. yet the opposite is true. it is a massive surveillance state of exactly what the church committee warned was being constructed 35 years ago. we intend to make all of those facts available so people can see how the vast it is. >> let's go back to senate intelligence committee chair dianne feinstein. speaking on msnbc, she said the leak should be investigated and the u.s. has a "culture of leaks." >> there is nothing new in this program. the fact of the matter is, this was a routine three-month approval under seal that was leaked. >> should be investigated? >> i think so. i think we have become a culture of leaks.

>> that was the senate intelligence committee chair diane feinstein being questioned by msnbc reporter. your final response to this, glenn greenwald? most orwelliane political official in washington it is hard to imagine having a government more secretive than the u.s., virtually everything the government does of any significance is conducted behind an extreme wall of secrecy. the very few weeks we've had in the past decade are basically the only way we have had to learn what our government is doing. what she is doing is channeling the way that washington likes to threaten the people when they exercise power, which is, if you expose what we're doing it and inform our fellow citizens about all the things we're doing in the dark, we will destroy you. this is what their state of prosecutions of whistleblowers have been about, trying to threaten journalists to criminalize what they do is about, too great a climate of fear so nobody will bring

accountability -- to create a climate of fear some of it will bring accountability. i think it is backfiring. it shows why they cannot be trusted to operate in secret and with power. we're not going to be deterred. those that will be investigated are not the ones reporting that people like diane feinstein and her friends at the national security agency who need investigation and transparency for all the things they've been doing. >> glenn greenwald, thank you for being with us. this threat of you being investigated, will it deter you in any way as to continue to do these exclusives? >> no, it will embolden me to pursue the story is even more aggressively. >> glenn greenwald, thank you for being with us, columnist for the guardian newspaper. we will have a link to your exposés on our website democracynow.org.

this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. when we come back, democracy now! exclusive. president obama just announced the u.s. did kill over the last years, four americans. we are going to speak with the father of anwar awlaki. his name is nasser al-awlaki. we're speaking to him in yemen. he is the grandfather of another of the victims, 16-year-old abdulrahman al-awlaki, who was born in denver and killed by a u.s. drone in yemen. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

we turn today to a major

democracy now! exclusive. for the first time since the white house confirmed in may that it killed four u.s. citizens in drone strikes overseas -- three of them in yemen -- we will stick with a father and grandfather of two of them. nasser al-awlaki is the father of the muslim cleric anwar al- awlaki, a u.s. citizen born in las cruces, new mexico, and killed by u.s. drone in yemen september 30, 2011. two weeks later, his 16-year-old son, abdulrahman al-awlaki, was also killed by a u.s. drone while having dinner with his cousins. abdulrahman al-awlaki was born in denver, colorado. his story was told by his grandfather in the new film, "dirty wars: the world is a battlefield." it opens today. this is a clip of nasser al- awlaki in interviewed by the investigative journalist jeremy scahill. >> he said he was going to look

for his cousins. he left from the kitchen window and took a bus. killed, hisher was grandmother told him there is no use for you to stay any more. he said, yes, i will come back in two weeks. on the morning of october 15, we got the telephone call and they told us he was blown to pieces by the drone. his relatives, his cousin knew his head from the back and he recognized it and new abdulrahman al-awlaki really was dead. they could not recognize his face or anything else. >> that was nasser al-awlaki in the film, "dirty wars: the world

is a battlefield." the obama administration's assassination of anwar awlaki and the killing of his 16-year- old son is a central part of this film, "dirty wars: the world is a battlefield." it is based on years of reporting by a secret operations in yemen and somalia and afghanistan by jeremy scahill. the new york times reviewer called it utterly routing. it premieres tonight in new york, washington d.c. and los angeles and will soon play throughout the country. for more we go directly to yemen in this democracy now! exclusive where we're joined by nasser al- awlaki, the father of anwar awlaki and grandfather of abdulrahman al-awlaki. we're also joined by saleh bin fareed, yemeni shake in trouble later, one of the first people to arrive at the site of another u.s. attack, this on the yemeni village of al-majalah.

he is the uncle of anwar awlaki. in new york, jeremy scahill joins us. book andhor of the central figure of the film, "dirty wars: the world is a battlefield." we go first to nasser al-awlaki in yemen. i want to begin by asking you to respond to president obama. in may, president obama delivered the first major counterterrorism address of a second term. i want to turn to his comments on targeted killings, specifically the case of your son, a u.s. citizen anwar al awlaki. the war against america and it is actively plotting to kill u.s. citizens. and when neither the united states nor our partners are in any position to capture him before he carries out a plot, his citizenship sent no more serve as a shield and a sniper

shooting down of an innocent crash to be protected from a swat team. was.is to anwar awlaki he was continuously trying to kill people. he helped oversee the 2010 plot to detonate explosives onto the u.s. bound cargo airplanes. he was involved in planning to blow up an airliner in 2009. bombere christmas day went to yemen in 2009, al- awlaki's hosted him, approved a suicide operation, helped him take a martyrdom video to be shown after the tax read his last instructions were to blow up the airplane when it was over american soil. have detained a prosecuted awlaki if recaptured him before he carried out the plot, but we cannot. >> that was president obama. nasser al-awlaki, he is talking

about your son anwar al-awlaki. your response to what president obama announced? amy.od morning, i am glad to be on your show. speech byn the president obama. really, i am surprised about what he said in his speech. wrote president obama 2011 around april. i sent it through another news channel. i asked mr. obama that it is -- it is illegal and against the

constitution of the united states of america to target my son who is an american and was born in america. and i got no response. then obama went ahead and ordered the killing of my son and they killed him of september on 2011 -- killed him september 30, 2011 and a small village in yemen. and by the way, anwar was in a village with only 10 or 15 houses. obama claims there were not able to capture him, neither him, his forces, -- nor the yemeni forces. i think this is a big lie.

if they wanted to capture anwar, they could have done it easily. sure, i am against capturing him, but anyhow, they could have done it easily because they have surveillance on anwar for more than a month. they knew exactly where he was. they could have captured him if they wanted to do that. but it was decided by the american government and by mr. anda himself to silence awlaki and kill him. againste did anything the nine states, i want -- against the united states, i want mr. obama's said that in court. but they made allegations against anwar. anwar is already dead and then never indicted him for any

wrongdoing. so i cannot believe what mr. obama said. what i believe they killed him in cold blood, they killed him because they want to silence him forever because of his influence on muslim youths all over the world. , presidentl-awlaki obama did not directly refer to the drone attack on your grandson, 16-year-old abdulrahman al-awlaki, but last october former white house press secretary and then obama campaign adviser robert gibbs, was asked about the drone strike on your grandson. anwarresponded by blaming awlaki for his son's assassination by u.s. drones. take a listen. >> do you think the killing of anwar awlaki's american citizen

is justified? >> i'm not going to get into his son but i know anwar awlaki renounced his citizenship. >> his son was still an american citizen. >> he did great harm to people in this country and was a regional al qaeda commander, hoping to inflict harm and destruction on people that share his religion and others in this country. >> but it is an american citizen being targeted without due process of law, and he is a minor. >> i would suggest you should have a far more responsible father if you're father if-- concerned about the well-being of their children. i don't think becoming an al qaeda jihadist terrorist is the best way to go about doing your business. >> i would like to respond, nasser al-awlaki, to president obama's former press secretary saying your grandson should have a far more responsible father.

i already talked about this, but i really think that a man like mr. gibbs who used to be the white house spokesman for the president of the united andes to say stupid ridiculous statements like this -- i mean, what is the relationship of killing abdulrahman al-awlaki by a drone strike and that he is the son of anwar al awlaki? by the way, my son took care of raising abdulrahman al-awlaki for many years, so he was not even with his father for mr. gibbs to say what he said. feel about what mr. gibbs said is it is very astonishing and surprising for a man like him to say something like this. abdulrahman al-awlaki did nothing against the united

states. he was only 16 years old. he is an american citizen. he was born in america. he was killed by his own government. i when mr. gibbs to explain to me why he was killed -- i want mr. gibbs to explain to me why he was killed. this is what i really wanted to know from him and president obama and the rest of the american ministration. but to say something like that ridiculous statement is really outrageous. saleh binto bring fareed into this conversation and ask you to respond to president obama's same -- saying the wanted to prosecute anwar awlaki but could not get him so they had to kill him. saleh bin fareed, you're the head of the tribe.

did the u.s. ever ask you to hand him over? >> i have approached -- i had been approached several years ago and asked if i could come to aden. to in a differentg territory, peacefully, in a small village. in fact, they said, please, we want him to come live [indiscernible]

i meant anwar and spoke to him and [indiscernible] he said, i'm afraid if i go back, they will put me in jail again. he said, i want to be alone here in this peaceful village. please, assure them i have nothing to do whatsoever with the al qaeda. i know nothing about ait. i hope they don't force me to go --i tried to convince him he would be in peace, but he said, i don't trust the american yemenient nor the

government for my safety. just tell them i had nothing whatsoever to do with al qaeda. u.s.leh bin fareed, if the government had presented you with evidence, would you have turned anwar awlaki over to u.s. forces or to the yemeni government? i would have done it. i'm sure his father would have done and. i've known anwar for a long time, since he was a child. to be honest, born to be a leader. was a very promising young man. he was loved by the people all over the country, but the

tribesmen, by the village people, by the politicians. anywhere heme to would go, but i assure you he had nothing whatsoever to do with what they claim. i am sure i could have handed him over, me and my family, but they never, ever asked to do that. >> nasser al-awlaki, you are the father of anwar awlaki. if the u.s. government had presented you with evidence and you're convinced, would you have handed your son over? well, if we go back, when i note tet him sentiments against the united states of america or any other country, yet i got no response from the u.s.

government. on thee was no effort side of the united states government that they wanted to toture anwar and put him trial. believe me, if the united states government gave me concrete evidence against anwar, i would have done my best to convince anwar to come to sanaa or even to the united states and paid a price. but it was on the allegations. for example, mr. obama in his speech claimed anwar was the former director of al qaeda operations in yemen. al qaeda never claimed

the organization. he had an office or any official standing in that organization. even anwar himself never said anything regarding that he is a member of al qaeda. so it is a complete lie. i am really astonished that the american president who made an oath that he would protect the american constitution would say something like this against an who has neveren been linked to any crime and was not given the chance to come to court and defend himself. >> we require to continue this

conversation after a brief break of just about 30 seconds. we are bringing you this democracy now! exclusive. nasser al-awlaki is joining us from sanaa, yemen where he lives, the father of anwar al- awlaki, grandfather of abdulrahman al-awlaki -- two of the four people u.s. government admits it kills in u.s. strikes. saleh bin fareed is also with us, yemeni travel leader, uncle jeremyr al-awlaki scahill will respond to what they said. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in this democracy now! exclusive, we bring you nasser al-awlaki, the father of anwar al-awlaki, grandfather of abdulrahman al-awlaki. inh of these men were killed u.s. strikes over the last two years, now admitted after something like 600 days by u.s. government that they were responsible for their deaths. saleh bin fareed also joins us, a yemeni tribal leader and uncle of anwar al-awlaki. jeremy scahill is with us, investigative reporter who has written the book, "dirty wars: the world is a battlefield." thes the central figure in

film by the same name that is being released today around the country in new york, los angeles, washington and beyond. you have spent a good deal of time in yemen with the al- awlaki's family investigating the various attacks. >> i want to make clear that abdulrahman al-awlaki, the 16- year-old killed in the drone strike, was not with his father at the time he was killed. he was killed two weeks later was sitting in an outdoor restaurant with his teenage cousins and other youths from their tribe. he had run away from home to try to find his father and his father was killed before he could find him read the father was still nowhere near where you was. abdulrahman al-awlaki went where there have been repeated drone strikes aimed at killing his father. his father gets killed and abdulrahman al-awlaki is stuck in this village because of the time of the arab spring uprisings were happening in our protest against u.s.-backed dictator of yemen. he was not able to return to his

home or u.s. living with nasser al-awlaki and his wife because there was fighting in the south of the country. so he is waiting and stay with relatives and then is killed in this drone strike an anonymous u.s. officials claim he was a 21-year old that he was somehow with al qaeda figures or may have been a militant himself and all of this was being litigated anonymously and the family produced his birth certificate showing it just turned 16 and was born in august 1995 in denver, colorado. i've spent the past year or more trying to get to the bottom of why this young man was killed. i spent time this family, friends, people who knew him well. there's been a shred of evidence to indicate this boy had anything to do with terrorism whatsoever. he was being raised by his grandparents and had dreams of going to the university in the united states. the answer to me of why he was killed says a lot about how --

and who we are as a society. the obama administration is reduced to come forth and say why the 16-year-old u.s. citizen was killed. eric holder use the phrase to is not specifically targeted. what does that mean? is a hybridke there legalistic terms. was he killed and a signature strike? drone strikes and the people whose amenities we don't know and against whom we have no evidence they participated in criminal or terrorist activity? this is sort of a pre-crime like "minority report." a former senior official in the white house said john brennan, current director of the cia, believe abdulrahman may have been intensely targeted, perhaps based on bad intelligence. i think this administration has an obligation to the american people to explain. ,n the case of anwar al-awlaki

i think many americans would watch sermons of anwar al- awlaki and find them deeply offensive. toward the end of his life, he was openly calling for armed jihad against the u.s., was calling on moslems within the military to attack other soldiers -- similar to nidal hasan in the fort hood attack. but what is in part for people to understand, this man was never indicted, never charged with a crime. i am willing to concede he may have been involved in plots against the u.s., the president obama is sincere in saying he wouldn't refer to prosecute him, why didn't someone call saleh bin fareed, one of the most influential tribal leaders, an international businessman, who would have a serious stake in this, and say, here's the evidence and we won him handed over. it gives lie to the klan a president obama they would have preferred to put him on trial -- it gives lie to the claim

that president obama would a preferred to put him on trial. this is not so much about who anwar al-awlaki was, but who we are as a society. we have a constitutional law professor asserting openly that the in an states has a right to assassinate its own citizens of a declared battlefield without presenting evidence they are involved in a crime, and i think we of a serious problem in this country. >> i want to go to a clip of your new film opening today, "dirty wars" when you interviewed senator ron wyden. >> when there is a lethal operation and high profile person is killed, the president acknowledged the killed -- >> [inaudible] >> has there been any legal review? is a classified? >> it is in form for the

american people to know when the president can kill an american citizen and when they cannot. if theret is almost as are two laws in america. and the american people would be extraordinarily surprised if they could see the difference between what they believe the law says and how it is action being interpreted. >> you're not permitted to discuss that difference publicly. >> correct. >> that is democratic senator ron wyden who sits on the senate intelligence committee in question by jeremy scahill and his new film "dirty wars." >> the state of oversight today for senators like ron wyden today go into a secured classified intelligence facility, provide it with only some memos the white house has determined they're willing to share with members of congress, and are not allowed to bring writing utensils and, no paper

or anything with a battery. they read the administration's justification for conducting these strikes, that are not allowed to tell anyone what they've seen when they're in that room. for me, the stakes are very high because we have an assertion openly and publicly by the president of the united states that he believes we have the right to conduct these operations in any country where there's a potential threat against u.s. persons for it i believe president obama should be required to present evidence that american citizens are involved in criminal or terrorist activities before sentencing them to death. remember, the vast majority of victims are not u.s. citizens, of yemenis and pakistanis in somalia's from around the world. >> you are suing u.s. government right now, nasser al-awlaki, for the deaths of your son and grandson. what are you asking for? the first time we suit the

united states government was in august 2010 when we tried with the aclu.ccr and we had the case against the government and we wanted them to stop the targeting of anwar al- awlaki. unfortunately, the judge did not really rule on this. i mean, he said i was not the suit to make against the government. then we tried again after the killing of anwar and abdulrahman and, thankfully, aclu and ccr helped me again to

put the case against the united states official. what am looking for is really justice from the u.s. system of justice. what am looking for is accountability. you see, the american newsnment is making this by peace now. before they set this is a secretive government documents. now they're releasing and talking about the killing of anwar and his son and the others. ,ell, what we're looking for and there will be a court hearing in july, what we are asking for is just that we know exactly why abdulrahman was killed.

>> i want -- >> wasn't intentionally or not? i believe it was intentionally. regarding anwar, we want to know why they killed him before they had a chance to capture him or convince him to, for a trial -- to come for a trial. wejeremy scahill, before end, want to turn to another attack and that is the case of al-majalah. >> the first time president of a not authorized any strikes against him was december 2009. -- the first time president obama authorized any strikes yemen was december 2009. attack,first missile the u.s. used christmas balls

and cluster bombs on a small bedouin village -- the u.s. used cruise missiles and cluster bombs on small bedouin village same or targeting and a, a leader in a training camp. it turned out the bombing killed 46 people -- 14 women and 21 children. the yemeni government took responsibility for the strikes and set its own air force had conducted it and it was a successful attack against an al qaeda base. the u.s. began conspiring with the yemen regime to bomb yemen and have the money is take responsibility for it. general david petraeus was revealed in the wikileaks cables to have hatched this plot with the yemeni dictator but this was one of the most gruesome attacks that has been conducted over the past three years in yemen, shredding human beings -- women and children -- in this strike they say was aimed at and a pedicab. >> saleh bin fareed, you were among the first to get to the site after the attack.

can you describe what you saw? >> allow me first for a minute to explain about anwar. when i asked our president if get anything against him, he said, no bread i said, wanted to keep them for almost two years ago he said we kept him in jail because the americans asked us to do that. againstto have anything him? he said, no. said, have the americans given you any proof? he said, no. they will not give us even one line against anwar. >> saleh bin fareed, we only have one minute left in the broadcast.

>> ok. anyway, [indiscernible] it was a big shame and a big blame on the americans and the american government and on our government in yemen. i was one of the first people to arrive there. what i saw i have never seen in my life. it was like a third world war. in a people were living small valley only 2 kilometers [indiscernible] are interior minister at that time asked, why did you not capture them at that this said, they live in the high mountains and cannot reach them. which is a big falls.

there were hundreds and thousands of people. we saw the bodies mixed with the meat of the cows and sheep and goats. honestly, we could only find a that we could recognize. there were hundreds of sheep and goats. they were all mixed together with blood. >> saleh bin fareed and nasser al-awlaki, thank you both for being with us. we're so sorry the broadcast has ended. we will continue the conversation and can -- put it on democracynow.org "dirty wars: the world is a battlefield." " opens today. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

>> this is democracy now!, andcracynow.org, the war peace report. we are asking you to go to the phone. there is this exclusive broadcasting from yemen, from as wen, bbc studios brought you. the people at the target end of u.s. policy, and the award- winning journalist whose film is just out today, has just been released all over the country to rave reviews from the new york times, the los angeles times. the new york times calls dirty wars: the world as a battlefield, utterly riveting. we urge you to call right now.

the film is now out at the same time as jeremy's cahill -- skahill's book was published. we urge you to call 866-359- 4334 and you will get a copy of this book for a contribution of $150. if you pledge $150, you get this book. he just won a major literary prize from yell university. this is his second book. his first was blackwater. , explores dirty wars with united states is doing around the world. the book and the double dvd -- of the dvd is jeremy