06/11/13 06/11/13 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! bruce allen hamilton is one of the largest intelligence contractors in america employs the strategic role i would say in u.s. intelligence as an adviser to agencies such as the national security agency. midsta board stand in the of leaking a trove of documents about the government's top- secret surveillance program, we will speak with journalist tim

shorrock about "spies for hire: the secret world of outsourced intelligence." nsa director has described as a digital blackwater. then, protests at walmart. [indiscernible] rejects new safety standards proposed in the aftermath of a building collapse that killed over 1100 workers in bangladesh, we will speak with former garment worker kalpona akter. last week she protested outside walmart shareholders meeting. today, she is in new york. all of that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the obama administration is reportedly preparing to charge nsa whistleblower edward snowden with leaking classified information.

the fbi has begun questioning relatives and associates of snowden, a former cia employee who revealed his behind a massive leak of documents outlining the national security agency's surveillance practices. the guardians grin -- glenn greenwald has already published some of the documents and says are more become. snowden's whereabouts are unknown after he checked out of his hong kong hotel room monday. white house press secretary jay carney defended the ministrations policies on surveillance. >> we need to strike the appropriate balance between our national security interests and our interests in privacy. the fact that upon coming into office he assessed and his team assessed programs that existed and in some cases enhanced oversight and he believes that with the oversight that exists in the implementation of the programs as their implemented that the balance is a properly struck but it is an absolutely

appropriate topic for debate. >> a support movement for edward snowden has already taking off in the united states. and york activist was among dozens zero in manhattan on monday. >> i think a lot of us are encouraging people today wherever they're located in the u.s., would ever see their income to start their own rallies. no matter how small or large, encourage the people around you to celebrate edward snowden and what he did selflessly for us as americans and take the conversation out of the margin to prevent him from being demonized or maligned, whether in the media or government, and have a conversation that says what he did was a public service. >> a petition on the white house website to pardon edward snowden has so far received more than 43,000 signatures. a u.s. appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit against president obama and the head of the national security agency over warrantless domestic surveillance of telephone calls

and emails. the suit was initially filed in 2006 against the bush a ministration. but in a statement on monday, the center for constitutional rights noted -- meanwhile, the aclu and other groups have filed a motion of the top secret for mental -- top-secret intelligence surveillance court asking it to make public its opinions on this section of the patriot act that authorizes the government to obtain "any tangible thing" related to a foreign intelligence or terrorism investigation. that section was the foundation for the court order exposed by the garden last week demanding verizon hand over records on millions of customers. turkish police in riot gear have descended on a protest encampment taksim square in istanbul, firing tear gas and rubber bullets and forcing many to flee into nearby gezi park. today marks the 12th day of a

rise in protest movement against prime minister erdogan who stands accused of imposing religious and authoritarian rule by the protesters. today's raid came a day after erdogan's devotees of the prime minister will meet with protesters. gave inrime minister upon the two representatives of some of the groups that have been organizing these protests. he will meet some of them on wednesday upon their request and others in the coming days. >> iraq appears to be falling deeper into sectarian conflict as a wave of bombings and shootings killed more than 70 people monday. it nearly 2000 people have died since april amidst rising tensions between iraq's shiite- led government and sunni militants. officials of pakistan's elite six people are dead following an attack on a nato supply convoy that was headed to afghanistan. vehicles during militant equipment reportedly caught fire after coming under attack by unknown militants in pakistan's

kuiper tribal region. bloomberg news reports the pentagon seeking to spend nearly $23 billion on cybersecurity over the next five years including $4.65 billion in the upcoming fiscal year, an increase of 18% from occurring here. the budget outline includes more than $9 billion for defense against cyberattacks and nearly the same amount for cyber operations which include offensive capabilities. the increase spending could be a major boon for private military contractors. the news comes on the heels of obama's today meeting with president xi jinping of china during which they discussed allegations of cyber attacks on both sides. it also follows the guardian exposés on how president obama ordered senior officials to draw up a list of potential overseas targets for u.s. cyber attacks. the associated press is reporting president obama is leaning closer toward arming some syrian rebels and could

make a decision as soon as the coming days. the report cites unnamed officials who said obama is considering various options during white house meetings this week. another less likely scenario, would see the u.s. enforce a no- fly zone over syria. the obama administration is dropping its opposition to the unrestricted sale of emergency contraception, allowing one type of morning after pill, plan b one step, to be sold on store shelves, just like any other over-the-counter medication. reproductive justice advocates hailed the move as a landmark victory that caps a more than a decade-long battle for access. amidst a series of legal defeats for the obama administration over the restrictions, a federal judge accused it of being unreasonable and blocking access for political reasons. drug regulators approved over- the-counter sales of emergency contraception back in 2011, but

obama's health and human services secretary, kathleen sebelius, overruled that decision in an unprecedented move, forcing those under 17 to obtain a prescription. despite reversing its stance on plan b one step, the administration says it will continue to oppose unrestricted sales of the to-kill version, in part, it says, because it is concerned adolescents might not understand how to take the two pills. the u.s. senate has passed a version of the farm bill that includes cuts to the food stamp program and an expansion of crop insurance viewed as a boon for big agribusiness. the bill passed with an amendment by republican senator david vitter to ban people convicted of a violent crime from ever obtaining food stamps. overall, it cuts the program by about $400 million a year. a version of the bill approved by house committee last month would cut food stamps by about five times that amount. a u.s. appeals court has rejected a bid by organic farmers to prevent the agribusiness giant monsanto from

suing them over its patented seeds. the court ruled monday the lawsuit was unnecessary because monsanto has already promised that it will not take legal action if a farmer's crops are inadvertently contaminated with its genetically modified seeds. monsanto has pursued more than 800 patent cases against farmers for allegedly using its seeds without paying. a lawyer with one of the plaintiff groups told reuters -- the u.s. supreme court has rejected an appeal by two u.s. citizens seeking to sue former defense secretary donald rumsfeld after they were allegedly tortured at a u.s. military prison in iraq. donald vance and nathan ertel were detained in 2006 after collaborating with an fbi investigation into gun running by their employer, the iraqi on firm shield groups security. they said they were subjected to

extreme sleep deprivation, cold temperatures and prolonged interrogation by u.s. forces before being released without ever been charged with a crime. they said rumsfeld was responsible for their mistreatment because he personally approved torture techniques used by u.s. military in iraq. but monday's decision maintains a lower court ruling that rumsfeld is not liable. in north carolina, so-called morell monday protests against right-wing extremism in the state legislature continued at the state's general assembly. nearly 100 people were arrested, including charlotte observer reporter tim funk who was there covering the action with a press id around his neck. thousands have turned out to protest cuts to social programs and attempts to scale back voting rights. monday marked 50 years since president john f. kennedy signed the landmark equal pay act to prevent wage discrimination against women. in a speech commemorating the

law, president obama acknowledged the gender wage gap still endures half a decade later. >> the day the bill was signed into law, women earned 59 cents for every dollar a man earned on average. about 70 cents. so it was 59, now is 77. it is even less, by the way, if you are african-american or latino. over the course of her career, it wouldn't -- working woman with a college degree will earn on average hundreds of thousands of dollars less than a man who does the same work. that is wrong. >> in his remarks monday, obama also made a brief reference to lgbt rights in the workplace, saying his agenda included building an economy that -- some noted obama so far has refused to heed calls to sign an

executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating against workers on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. last week michelle obama was confronted over her husband's failure to take such action by a protester who interrupted her speech at a private fundraiser in washington. >> i don't care what you believe in, we don't -- wait, wait. one of the things that i don't do well is this. [applause] >> i am leaving. you will decide. >> no, no. >> you make the choice. >> please don't leave. >> after first lady michelle obama threatened to leave, the , has been criticized for perceived racial overtones

interaction, particularly after saying she was "taken a back" when michelle obama "came right down my face," in response to the interruption. a professor of religious studies at the university pennsylvania said -- former south african president and anti-apartheid leader nelson mandela is remaining in the hospital for a fourth day with a recurring lung infection. a spokesperson for president jacob zuma said mandela remains in serious but stable condition. >> former president nelson mandela remains in the hospital and his condition is unchanged. he was admitted to the hospital and the early hours of saturday morning june 8 with a lung

infection. president zuma would like to appear to reiterate his call to south africa to pray for his family in these difficult times they're going through. >> 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. the u.s. government has begun the process of charging edward snowden with disclosing classified information after he beat a trove of secret documents outlining the nsa's surveillance programs. the fbi has already questioned his relatives and associates. snowden is a 29-year-old computer technician who reportedly turned over thousands of documents to glenn greenwald of the guardian newspaper as well as to the washington post. only a few have been published so far. his current whereabouts are unknown. he flew from hawaii to hong kong on may 20.

on monday reportedly checked out of his hong kong hotel one day after the guard in posted a video of him explaining his decision to leak in formation. >> response to snowden's actions of the next. senator dianne feinstein accused snowden of committing treason. meanwhile pentagon papers whistleblower daniel ellsberg called snowden a hero writing -- the founder of wikileaks, julian assange, has also praised edward snowden. >> edward snowden is the hero who informed the public about one of the most serious events of the decade, which is the creeping formulation of a mass surveillance state that has now coopted the -- corrected the courts in the u.s., made them secret, made them produce orders that violate u.s. constitutional protections to nearly the entire

population. if that was not enough, has embroiled u.s. high-tech companies like google, yahoo, facebook, is a track to extend the surveillance all across the world. the amount of collections from the u.s. alone reveals the more than 2.4 billion in the month of march alone, and that is something that's i and many had been campaigning on for a long time. it is very pleasing to see such a clear and concrete proof presented to the public. >> julian assange speaking on sky news. up until a few weeks ago, edward snowden worked as a systems administrator inside the nsa's office in hawaii. his employer was not u.s. government, but a military contractor called booz allen hamilton. over the past decade, u.s. intelligence community has relied increasingly on the technical expertise of private

firms such as booz allen hamilton, the bond industry and northrop grumman. former nsa director michael v. hayden has described these firms as "digital blackwater." according to the journalist tim shorrock, about 70% of the national intelligence budget is spent on the private-sector. >> the leaks by edward snowden has also raised questions over who has access to the nation's biggest secret. according to the washington post, authorities are unsure how contract employee at a distant nsa satellite office was able to obtain a highly classified copy of an order from the foreign intelligence surveillance court. edward snowden claimed get the power to spy on anyone, including the president. >> an analyst at any time can target anyone anywhere. where this communications will be picked up depends on the range of the internet works and the authorities that analyst is empowered with, which not all have the ability to target everything. but i sitting at my desk

certainly have the authorities to wiretap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if i had a personal email. >> to talk more about edward snowden and the protest world of intelligence, we're joined by tim shorrock, author of the book, "spies for hire: the secret world of outsourced intelligence." he has just written a piece for salon.com titled, "meet the contractors analyzing your private data: private companies are getting rich probing your personal information for the government. call it digital blackwater." in fact, tim shorrock, explain who exactly called it digital blackwater. >> this was said by michael v. hayden, fees to be the director of the nsa and was the director of the nsa when president bush began the warrantless surveillance program back in 2001 right after 9/11. he has moved on from intelligence agencies to become an executive with chertoff group, a large consulting

company in washington, that works very closely with intelligence agencies and corporations advising them on cyber security and advising them on basically security issues. he has cast himself in and making lots of money himself in this industry. >> let's go to the former nsa and say director michael hayden who you say oversaw much of the privatization of the nsa from 1999 to 2005. this is him speaking in 2011. >> we may come to a point where defense is more actively and aggressively to find even for the private sector and what is permitted there is something we would never let the private sector do in physical space. let me really throw out a bumper sticker. how about a digital blackwater? we have privatized certain defense activities even in

physical space. and now you have got a new domain in which we don't have any path to travel down in the forest in which what we expect the government or will allow the government to do. in the past when that has happened, private-sector expands to fill the empty space. i'm not quite an advocate for that. but these are the kinds of things that will be put into play here very quickly. >> that was the former head of the cia and nsa general michael hayden. boozhorrock, talk about allen hamilton and edward snowden and what this relationship is all about between booz allen hamilton and the nsa. >> the most astonishing thing i found in the articles in the guardian and the revelation he was from booz allen hamilton, in fact, booz allen hamilton is involved basically at the

darkest ls,eepest levels of u.s. intelligence. if mr. snowden had access to these kinds of documents such as these prism documents about surveillance on the internet as well as his -- the fisa court orders, practically anyone who is an intelligence working for the nsa ads booz allen hamilton as the same access to the same documents. american people should know we have conclusive proof these private sector corporations are operating at the highest levels of intelligence in the military. i think that is the bottom line. it is not -- the question is not why this low level person at booz allen hamilton got these documents, the question is, why is booz allen hamilton involved at this level of intelligence? >> tim shorrock, according to the new york times, it has gone so far that even the process of granting security clearances is often handled by contractors. can you talk about the duties that contractors are performing

for the government on these intelligence matters? >> first of all, i want to comment on some of the stories in new york times and other newspapers. that is an old story. everyone knows the security clearance is done by contractors. it is been true for a decade or more. booz allen hamilton has been around for years and years. the question is, why have these newspapers cover this? they cover intelligence as if there's no private contractor involved at all. suddenly, we of all of these streams of articles about privatize intelligence. welcome to the world of digital blackwater as michael hayden calls it. specifically on booz allen hamilton and what these companies do, as i wrote in my book, they do everything from cia intervention in other countries, jsoc when it does raids contractors are involved in finding out where people they attack our in determining the

mapping and all that, the imagery to mixture pilots and drones can hit the right people or the wrong people. they are involved in the defense intelligence agency, involved in all military agencies that to intelligence. they do everything that the government does. >> what is wrong with that? >> what is wrong with that is it is a for-profit operation. many times you have inside these agencies contractors overseeing other contractors. contractors giving advice to the agency about how to set its policies, what kind of technology to buy. they relationships with all the companies they work with that they suggest to the leaders of u.s. intelligence. i think it's terrible example of this is a few months ago i wrote a cover story for the nation magazine about the nsa

whistleblowers you have had on this show a few times, william binney, tom drake, and they blew a whistle on a huge project called trailblazers that was contracted out to saic that was a complete failure. this project was designed from the beginning by booz allen hamilton, northrop grumman, and a couple of other corporations who advised the nsa about how to acquire this program -- project and decided amongst themselves to give it to saic who then -- who never produced anything. the project was then canceled in 2005. it is ironic michael haynes says he is not sure about privatization. he is the one who set this whole privatization in place. he is the one who did it. he pulled the trigger on a. he is responsible where is vast privatization of the nsa -- which i have to say, began before 9/11.

>> can you talk about booz allen hamilton in terms of its other clients? here it has this remarkable access to information. as edward snowden said in his video statement which we ran yesterday on democracy now!, he could wiretap almost anyone at his level and that a lot of people could. the information that people like snowden's get, can booz allen hamilton then share this with other corporate clients it has? >> i don't know that for sure because it is very difficult to penetrate these companies, but i don't think so. i think they operate just like the intelligence community does, the nsa shares the information with other agencies. the nsa is the main collector for the government in terms of signals intelligence, what comes over the internet and telephone and cellphones and all that.

they pass that on to other agencies their request it. it goes to the president of the u.s., it goes to all the high levels of the state department and other agencies that need to know what is going on around the world and inside the united states. i doubt it would pass it to other corporations, but they certainly have their hands in it. i think if booz allen hamilton is doing this and has access to such high-level documents, then you know these other companies do, too. saic, a northrop grumman, all of the company's unit at the top of the show have the same kinds of access and you very much the same kinds of work that booz allen hamilton desperate like a said before, it is just about time we recognize this is really 7%elligence inc, you know, is for-profit organization, a joint venture between government agencies and the private sector. the private sector makes money off of it.

they make big profits from it. >> and wondering if you can talk about these companies and more. norris is a company that basically makes technology that allows agencies as well as corporations, telecom companies, inintercept traffic coming from the outside, from other countries, on fiber-optic cables. they have this incredible capacity to process information. when the story started blowing up after the new york times blew the story on surveillance, war on surveillance, there was this was a blower at at&t, this technician, who found nor a secret and had been attached to at&t's switching center in san francisco and were using this equipment to divert the entire

traffic, everything that was coming in they diverted ta secret room and that went right to the nsa's servers. that is what norris technology does. byand norris is owned boeing? >> it was bought by boeing rid the company originated in israel. israel has been very powerful equivalent to the national security agency and it came out of israel and then they brought their technology here and are very involved in the wiretapping right after 9/11. and then boeing bought them. boeing itself as a major intelligence contractor. they own a company that used to transport a lot of these prisoners around that the cia captured overseas. >> and the other? >> it is a silicon valley

company that basically does data mining and mapping out relationships. as i said in the salon article yesterday, all of this information, all of this data comes into the nsa has to be analyzed and that is what these companies do that they hire. the nsa stores all this data. we know the story about this big utah datacenter that is just about to open. they download it there and then they can go back to it a day later or months later or years later. that is one of the things that mr. snowden talked about in his interviews, how they go back and analyze this data. about theto ask you garden in its reports calling the nsa contractor edward snowden who fed them information at a whistleblower. but this does hit a press says it would instead use terms like "source" or "leaker."

in a memo sent to reporters it said -- what do you make of what the ap hossein? theirrse, they change definitions over time. we just saw them drop the word illegal when it comes to describing people. >> i think it is kind of semantics. he has blown the whistle on some actions the nsa is doing, programs the nsa is doing that may be unconstitutional. i think that is why daniel ellsberg has a much praise for

every dish on the underside of the surveillance state. i think in that sense he is a role whistleblower. perhaps the difference between him and say the nsa four is not leaknsa four did information. the reported it through the chain of command, or tried to. what is unfortunate, they tried to do this and then were caught up in an investigation of who leaked to the new york times about the nsa surveillance program and were persecuted and investigated and tom drake was actually indicted under the espionage act and charged with being a spy. those charges were ridiculous and the case completely collapsed, but nevertheless, that is what happened to them. snowden may be looked at that and decided, why go through channels? i think if we of a system where people actually expose wrongdoing without fear of being persecuted, that he may not have

broken the law. i think we need to look very carefully at that because we need to protect people like this who want to expose wrongdoing. >> is it harder for snowden as a private contractor to try to blow the whistle that would been had he had been working directly for the government? >> perhaps so. i'm not sure what the difference in how they might prosecutors on like this, but, clearly, from what is being said today in what was being said yesterday, they're going after him rid i have heard they may charge him under the espionage act. that is what it would do to a government official as well or intelligence officer who leaked the same kind of thing. i don't think it is that much difference. like i said, we are really amazed booz allen hamilton the allen hamilton as a corporation is involved at this level of intelligence, it is not just that this guy was a low-level employee. it said his company is involved

and have the private sector at the nsa. >> what do you think should be done differently? one issue is the level of privatization of the military and intelligence and the other is what edward snowden has actually revealed about what the u.s. government is doing with our information. what should we do specifically about what? >> in terms of these private intelligence contractors. >> there's been a process under way or the agency's response to be doing inventories of to the contractors are and what they do. there was a report recently saw from the inspector general of the pentagon that looked at the special operations command, which is the jeremy scahill has been writing about, the most secretive part of the u.s. military doing rates all over the world.

they found a lot of jsoc and special operations contractors were doing inherently governmental work, in other words, doing things by law should only be done by the government. at that level, there is very loose oversight. i think we need to look as a country and the government certainly needs to do this and so does congress, you know, it is fine to buy technology from corporations if they need it, but using corporations to fill your ranks, to provide personnel, i mean, you go to these agencies and it is that exactly like this but it is very much like a nascar race where they have corporate logos all over themselves. that is what is like inside the nsa. we need to have the private sector doing all this analysis? i think that is very critical question to be asked.

do we want to have private corporations at the highest levels of? if that is -- that is something i believe congress should really look at. in the time i've been covering this, as far as i recall, there's only been one single hearing in congress on this issue of intelligence contractors. and it was three years ago, and it was a pathetic hearing. they called me and for some advice and called tom drake in for advice, too. i did not know it at the time. they did not use any of our suggestions. >> the man they charged with espionage who ultimately those charges were dropped and has been called by many it whistleblower. >> right. he is a true whistleblower. i said, you have to call in the chief executives booz allen hamilton hamilton and his other companies of the american people can meet the secret leaders of the intelligence community. we know who clapper is.

when hayden was director, we knew who he was, but we don't know these people running the corporations. michael mcconnell used to be the director of natural intelligence and before that he was the nsa director. in between, he was at booz allen hamilton and now he is back at booz allen hamilton. there's this continuous flow in and out of government and private sector. it is a spending door, not even a revolving door. we have an intelligent ruling class public and private that hold secrets. i think when william binney talks about the east german police that listen to everybody, look, we have hundreds of thousands of contractors was secured clearances. with hundreds of thousands of federal workers in homeland security and intelligence. we have a massive number of people that are monitoring other americans. i think it is a very dangerous

situation. >> tim shorrock, investigative reporter, thank you for being with us. his most recent piece that salon.com is, "meet the contractors analyzing your private data: private companies are getting rich probing your personal information for the government. call it digital blackwater." he is also author of, "spies for hire: the secret world of outsourced intelligence." when we come back, we will look at the walmart shareholders meeting and what happened outside and in. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with aaron maté. the annual shareholders' meeting of the retail giant

walmart was held last week in the company's home state of arkansas. thousands of walmart workers were flown in for a week-long celebration of the world's largest retailer. --some ways it represented resembled a major hollywood event. he actor huge -- hugh jackman served as master of ceremonies. to the cheers of thousands of spectators, the actor tom cruise took the stage to praise walmart's global reach. >> i truly admire your company. the more i learn about everything you do, i am inspired by what you all create every day. because your company, i'm sure you all know this, is a role model for how business can address some of the biggest issues facing our world in ways big and small print all around the world, walmart is taking the lead and making a difference. that is something i really admire. [applause]

what this company does is it is using its size and scale to improve women's lives across the world. >> but in its the celebration of walmart, there also came protest. the group our walmart brought its demand for the company to commit to giving workers full- time employment in a minimum salary of $25,000 a year. a around 100 striking workers staged a series of actions after arriving in a caravan from across the country. they have walked off the job in florida, massachusetts and california to protest what they allege to be worker retaliation against those seeking to change company practices on wages, worker safety, and unions. it is wal-mart's largest strike today. inside the meeting, the workers and activists took advantage of a brief window to present non- binding resolutions before thousands of their colleagues as well as the company's top executives. the measures were all defeated because the founding walton family still owns more than half the company's stock. janet sparks, a louisiana

walmart employee, drew applause when she compared the wages of struggling u.s. workers to ceo mike duke's 27 -- $20.7 million paycheck. >> we all know times are tough for many of our customers. but i want you to note that times are tough for many walmart associates, too. we are stretching our paychecks to pay our bills and support our families. so when i think about the fact that our ceo mike duke made over $20 million last year, more than 1000 times the average walmart associate, with all due respect, i have to say, i don't think that is right. [applause] >> also speaking out was kalpona akter, and workers' rights activist from bangladesh. she urged walmart to stop

rejecting new safety standards after the dhaka building collapse that killed over 1100 workers in april. kalpona akter made a direct appeal to walmart chairman rob walton. >> mr. rob walton, i am sure you buildings would cause too many frictions [indiscernible] i and 40 you, please, help us. you have the power to do this very easily. don't you agree that the factories where walmart products are made should be safe for the workers? for years, every time there is an accident, walmart officials have made attempts to improve the terrible conditions of my garment factories, but the tragedies continue. with all due respect, the time for empty promises is over. >> walmart is one of only a few major retailers that have

refused to sign on to the new safety standards after the dhaka tragedy. for more we're joined by kalpona akter, just back from attending the walmart meeting. she's executive director of the bangladesh center for workers solidarity. she started work in garment factories when she was 12. shias in the u.s. to call on retailers like walmart, the cap, and disney to take the lead on improving working conditions in bangladesh. scott nova.ined by , what about the response to what you had to say at the walmart shareholders meeting? >> i would say the response was 0, which is what was expected because the waltons will not get back to you. it has come the time to pay the workers, improve the working conditions. they did not respond at all. but our plan was, the people

need to be heard. the waltons and a share shareholders needed to hear what was going on. they should not just close their eyes and say, we did not know that war is was not our fault but our [indiscernible] killing these workers back home. >> walmart said no one from the, was able to join his cousin as a statement that said -- in may, walmart announced it would terminate its contract with canadian jeans maker thing jeans after documents surfaced that the company had ordered pants from inside rana plaza. and is acceptable to? >> it is not protect their sourcing from the outsourcer bridge when it is, say our

products were there, not just we are cutting contracts with our sourcing -- it is not a satisfactory answer for us. walmart should take responsibility. they had connections but they could have improved the factory conditions. they could have prevented the rana collapse. >> there was a fire and there was the building collapse, two different buildings, two different workplaces. did walmart refer to any official from the stage at the shareholders' meeting? >> i was surprised that they have not said any more about the fire or the building collapse. >>, people died in the fire? >> in the fire, a killed 112 workers and left hundreds injured. and ran a plaza, a killed 1127

and left more than 600 or 700 injured for a lifetime. but in the shareholder meeting, word forbeen given any those. >> can you talk about how companies like walmart and others used subcontractors to employ people in places like doc pack? >> walmart and the other big western retailers did i stumbled into a worker safety crisis in bangladesh. they helped to cause it by placing tremendous pressure on their contractors to produce lower prices, giving them overwhelming incentives by ignoring safety standards. >> what are the safety standards that are being proposed that the gap and walmart have not signed on to the other corporations like h&m have?

>> for the first time, major brands has signed a binding enforceable agreement under which they must pay to carry out building renovations, repairs, and retrofitting necessary to turn these debt trap factories in the state structures. h&m has signed. the second largest global retailer after walmart has signed the biggest fashion retailer has signed the walmart and gap have refused to make these binding agreements to clean up their factories in bangladesh and make them say critics who wrote this contract? >> the agreement was developed by non-governmental organizations and unions. the retailers must open their factories to independent inspections by confident safety experts published, but it safety experts and compel the factories to carry out any and all building repairs and renovations necessary to address safety hazards. installing fire exits, which most of these buildings don't have, is a critical example.

they must cease doing business that refuses to undertake these repairs. burdennot place the purely on the factory but if the factors will undertake the renovations and operates safety, then the prince and retailers have to stay and continue to produce at those factories. >> what would it mean if, don? >> there the second-biggest producer in bangladesh after h&m. the tens of thousands of workers that are outside the protective scope of this accord which means it the safety hazards and as factors will not be addressed from the safety of those workers will not be protected. >> these are some of the voices of workers shortly after the rana plaza disaster lessened or forced to go to work even after massive cracks were found in the walls. >> we did not want to go up the

management forced us to go up and said there is no problem but after that i sat down on my table to work in the building collapsed. i was trapped. >> i started my work at 8:00 this morning. at about 9:30 i heard a strange sound and saw the building was collapsing. i ran through and jumped down the road and lost consciousness but i was rescued by others. >> inside about 9:00 in the morning, the building collapsed and we were trapped inside. up until now, 10:18 p.m., 11 hours we were trapped. we did not want to enter the building but the owners pushed us to get in and work. >> some of the voices of those workers who escaped the rana plaza collapse. i want to go to what walmart and the gap are saying about not signing on to this contract that other multinational corporations are signing on to. >> one of wal-mart's astonishing excuses, the inspections they

themselves done with no accountability or transparency would be a faster mechanism for protecting worker safety in bangladesh this from a company is producing in bangladesh for nearly a quarter-century and has done nothing in that time to protect the safety of workers. gap's target is about some supposedly legal liability they faced. it is a trumped up claimed rid their row concern is they don't pay the cost of preparing these buildings -- repairing these buildings. is a gap same workers in bangladesh should continue to die so they can be protected from litigation? >> since we just played these voices from the rana plaza, kalpona akter, the documents that surfaced three weeks after -- walmart said we're not making clothing in this factory now. >> we found documents in the rubble. my colleagues and meat went there and we found it. this clearly says that at --

that wal-mart was sourcing clothes from a factory located in rana plaza. regarding the email wal-mart, i called a merchandiser personally to confirm that walmart was there. he confirmed, yes, walmart was sourcing from our company. >> we will continue this conversation and talk also about walmart workers in the united states. and scott nova will stay with us. we come back, josh eidelson will also be joining us. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with aaron maté.

mart, andore about wal- we're joined by josh eidelson, a journalist covering labor issues for the nation's reported for the walmart shareholders and last pick and also contributing writer for salon.com and in these times. we are still with kalpona akter, executive director for the bangladesh center for workers solidarity, scott nova and, executive director of the worker rights consortium. can you make a link between what they're talking about with worker conditions abroad and what is happening here, this growing movement around walmart? >> in each case we see a challenge to wal-mart's business model, and model that we see the most extreme consequences of in places like bangladesh. when he talks as some of the workers in the u.s., they will say the difference is just the difference of what walmart can get away with. we see this push down cost an --ive

in each case we see a challenge. we see a strike wave that has moved through walmart supply chain, walmart retail workers in warehouses and abroad making common cause in taking on the company. we saw that in arkansas when the strikers came to crash wal- mart's party in arkansas. one of the most dramatic actions i witnessed was workers along with kalpona akter and international walmart workers lining up across from walmart's home office headquarters to sing a dirge about the deaths in bangladesh, to read bubble bourses. some of those thousands of wal- mart employees started watching, listening, taking pictures. walmart management started leading those workers in the walmart chair. they were having workers do this cheer as about 50 feet away you walmart workers cheering,

which side are you on? >> what are some of the complaints against walmart and what to say to the company or supporters of the company saying, look, it is only as mall strike? >> it is a small strike. the workers' main demands have been around wages, which one estimate pegged at $8.81 an hour, around health care, , and around retaliation of workers to organize. it is a small strike. what walmart is not saying is they're doing everything in its power to prevent this from getting bigger. we see carrots and sticks. on one hand walmart has begun to make moves to appear to address some grievances and on the other hand of mandatory captive audience meetings where workers are lectured about not getting involved. and you have over 150 allegations of illegal

retaliation and intimidation against workers to prevent them from stepping up. when walmart says it is not concerned, it is fair to say they're bluffing. >> explain what our walmart is. >> it is backed by the united food and commercial union, part of the labor groups that are organizing workers outside of collective bargaining without demanding collective bargaining but using mobilization, a political, community, legal media pressure and industrial activism like these strikes, which we've never seen at walmart in the u.s. until last year in order to try to transform the company's business model. >> why are you here in new york? >> we're here this week to meet with the comptroller of the city of new york. we're here to talk about the enormous risks for investors that walmart's records policies in bangladesh -- the failure of walmart and gap to sign on to

this critical fire safety agreement is not only extremely bad for workers, but bad for the