03/31/14 03/31/14 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! i spent the whole night there on the floor with my hands tied blindfolded.y eyes i had an infection in my eye because of it. my head was bleeding.

it was quite cold. they left me there for 12 hours in the condition. >> today, in a democracy now! global broadcast exclusive, we spend the hour with one of egypt's most prominent dissidents, alaa abd el-fattah, speaking in his first extended interview after nearly four months behind bars. an open internet and political activist, alaa has been at the forefront of the struggle for change in egypt for many years and has the distinction of having been actively persecuted for the past four successive rulers in egypt. he could be sent back to prison very soon. he talks about the future of egypt and the ongoing crackdown on activists. >> there are a couple of cases where citizens are given 14 years, 17 years, 11 years and so on. frenzy. on a sentencing if it is a war

on a whole generation. >> all of that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the un's top climate body is warning human driven climate change is impacted every corner of the globe, with the poorest suffering the worst effects. in its latest report, the intergovernmental panel on climate change says greenhouse gases have driven up global temperatures and extreme weather while threatening sources of food and water. unveiling the findings in japan, the panel chair called for immediate action to adapt to climate change and prevent it from getting worse. >> the one message that comes out very clearly is that the world has to adapt and the world has to mitigate. the sooner we do that, the less the chances of some of the worst impacts of climate change in different parts of the world.

>> the panel's report warns climate change -- at a rally, the global call for climate action urged rich countries to take the lead on curbing greenhouse gases. >> we are here to remind world leaders like barack obama, david cameron, and many others, this is the time to cut emissions to fight climate change. they have ample opportunity this year and next year at the climate summit and that is when they need to put better policies on the table to save their people and the environment. >> poorer countries have increasingly called for climate aid as they face the worst impacts from the emissions of the world's wealthiest. the u.n. report cites a world bank study calling on rich countries to provide climate aid of as much as $100 billion per year. but according to "the new york

times," the figure was removed from an executive summary of the report to be read by the world's top lyrical leaders. the edit was reportedly made at the request of several rich countries, including the united states. poor countries are expected to seek firm commitments on climate aid at a summit in new york this fall. continue to russia hold talks amidst the diplomatic showdown over ukraine. president obama spoke with russian president vladimir putin on friday, followed by sunday -- followed on sunday by meetings between secretary of state john terry and russian counterpart sergei lavrov. havee u.s. and russia differences of opinion about the events that led to this crisis. but both of us recognize the importance of finding a diplomatic solution and of simultaneously meeting the needs of ukrainian people that we agreed on tonight. the russians actions over the

past several weeks placed it at odds with the rule of law and the international community. and we still believe, on the wrong side of history. but any real progress in ukraine must include a pullback of the very large russian force that is currently massing along ukraine's borders. >> russia says it wants ukraine to adopt a federal system of semi autonomous regions. holdwo sides are said to continue talks. thousands of palestinians have rallied across israel and the occupied territories to mark land day. the protest commemorates the killings of arab demonstrators protesting the seizure of their land. >> this is the land they celebration. the palestinian community -- every year they march, when arabs, for the first amendment history

[indiscernible] >> israel has reneged on a pledge to free a small group of palestinian prisoners as part of the u.s. brokered peace talks. some 26 prisoners were due for release over the weekend, but israel says it will now only release them at the palestinian authority agrees to extend the talks be on next month's deadline. the negotiations have faltered so far over israel's continued expansion of settlements in the occupied west bank. two journalists have returned home to spain after over six months of captivity in syria. javier espinosa and ricardo garcia vilanova were seized al qaeda-the troubles near the border of turkey in september. for journalists in syria, there are at least nine foreigners and tens are in still missing. president obama has reauthorized the governments balk of phone data for 90 days, despite calling for the practiced in. in a statement, obama said he

would sign an extension this congress has yet to approve his proposed reforms. endwyden said obama should bulk collection on his own. >> i believe the president ought to make the transition right away. i believe strongly we ought to ban all dragnet surveillance, not just phone records, but medical records, purchases, and others. >> under obama's proposal, phone company's would store the metadata and the government would find it using individual court orders. on friday, the obama administration bid farewell to general keith alexander, the longest-serving head of the nsa. defense secretary chuck hagel paid tribute to his tenure. >> our responsibility, all of us, whatever the revolutions in technology, is to guard not only our nation, but also the fundamental charter of our open society. general alexander, your vision and dedication and leadership have allowed us to begin that task.

now it is ours to carry. for our grateful nation, thank you. [applause] >> general alexander will be replaced by admiral michael rogers. hundreds of people have marched in albuquerque, new mexico to protest a spate of deadly police shootings. the latest assault police kill james boyd, a homeless man who appeared to be surrendering at the campsite where he was sleeping. after a peaceful march, sunday's protest turned into clashes as police fired tear gas at demonstrators who threw rocks and blocked traffic. at least four people were arrested. as demonstrators marched in the streets, group claiming to be the hacker group anonymous to down the albuquerque police department's website for several hours. the fbi has confirmed its investigating the latest shooting in addition to around 22 others i police since 2010. albuquerque has one of the highest per capita rate of fatal police shootings in the country. a top ally of embattled new

jersey governor chris christie has resigned. david sampson served as head of the new jersey new york port authority, which oversaw the bridge whose lanes were shut down in an apparent act of political retaliation by governor christie's aides last year. he announced the a departure at his first news conference as the bridge gate scandal broke open in january. in his comments, governor christie also defended using taxpayer money to fund a report by close associates that cleared him of wrongdoing. >> he believes the best way to start the new year of the port authority is with new leadership. davide with that believe, tendered his resignation to me this afternoon effective immediately. no matter who i chose to do this, questions would be raised by some as to those people's objectivity. my answer is, look at the report. we gave them unfettered, complete access to everyone in this government.

and allow them to interview people multiple times if they so desired on multiple occasions in order to try to get to the bottom of things. >> avner christie and several top republican politicians attended a gathering hosted by billionaire casino mogul shuttle -- sheldon adelson in las vegas. the conference was dubbed the adelson primary as his donations go play major role in the 2016 presidential race. avner christie unintentionally caused a stir during a speech to the republican jewish religion and adelson's casino, when he said the words "occupied territories." invoking a line previously used by george w. bush. he later apologized to adelson for calling the west bank occupied, saying he misspoke will stop the justice department is recognizing same-sex marriages in michigan when it

were briefly legalized earlier this month. the federal judge struck down the state's ban, prompting hundreds of weddings the following day. an appeals court then froze the ruling after the state appealed. on friday, the attorney general said those couples that managed to tie the knot can receive federal benefits. for of the same step same-sex couples in utah earlier this year. west virginia's democratic governor earl ray tomblin has vetoed a measure that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks. the law was similar to one struck down in arizona last year. investigating a safety defect in general motors cars has revealed federal regulators failed to open a probe, despite knowing of 2000 seven.blems in according to "the new york times," the national -- ntsb was made aware by its own investigators that faulty ignition switches and chevrolet cars caused scores of accidents and four deadly accidents but took no action. documents showed gm continued to

mislead the families of accident victims, despite acknowledging the defect in 2009. gm has recalled some 3.1 million cars this year and admits the defect has caused 12 deaths, but independent estimates say it could be in the hundreds. those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. globaln a democracy now! broadcast exclusive, egypt's electoral commission announced sunday the country's presidential elections will be held in late may. the boat is widely expected to be one by egypt's military chief al-sisi. he led the overthrow president mohammed morsi last summer. since then, some 2500 people have been killed and only 16,000 people arrested. in our global broadcast exclusive today, we spend the hour with one of egypt's most prominent dissidents, alaa abd el-fattah, speaking in his first extended interview since his

release from prison after nearly four months behind bars. an open internet and political activist, alaa has been at the forefront of the struggle for change in egypt for many years and has the distinction of having been actively persecuted by the past four successive rulers in egypt. in 2006, under the mubarak regime, he was detained at a protest calling for independence of the judiciary and was jailed for 45 days. in 2011, he emerged as a leading phase of the revolution that forced mubarak out of office. later that year under the rule of the military council that replaced mubarak, he was jailed again, this time for 56 days. his son, khaled, was born while he was behind bars. then during the rule of him mohamed morsi, alaa was issued an arrest warrant as part of a government crackdown on critical voices. the interimovember, cabinet issued a draconian protest law to further crack down on any opposition.

dozens of people were arrested the next day at a protest near parliament, among them alaa's sister mona, who was eventually released. despite the no to military trials activist group publicly admitting to organizing the protest, prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for alaa as the organizer of the event. he was jailed in the same prison wardens other leading activist adel maher and mohammed of the april 6 movement. after 115 days behind bars, alaa was finally brought before a judge released him on bail. his case is still ongoing and he says he expects to be convicted and sent back to prison. in the first interview since his release, alaa discusses his imprisonment, the wave of repression in egypt, and the state of the revolution. he sat down with democracy now! correspondent sharif abdel kouddous who interviewed him in cairo egypt on sunday.

>> welcome to democracy now! let's start by talking about the night of your rest. explain what happened. >> they broke into my house around 9:00 p.m. special forces -- i don't know, they looked like guys from a , their faces concealed and with heavy weapons and so on. .hey shattered the door they beat me and my wife. fortunately, my son was sleeping so they did not touch him. they started collecting all kinds of devices like mobile phones, even though they did not

have a search warrant. because -- was [indiscernible] blindfolded and transferred to a car. first, before they blindfolded me, i saw they had the whole neighborhood at gunpoint. tens of people heavily armed, armed policeman. then they blindfolded me. later on i figured out it was the cairo security forces, but i did not know at the time where i was. played tricks with me. when they moved me from room to room, they would walk the outside so it felt like it was moving from a building to a building.

i spent the whole night there. i had my hands tied to my back. my eyes were blindfolded. i actually had an infection of the eye because of it. back ofaten with the some weapon. i'm not sure which. but my head was bleeding. it was quite cold. they left me there for 12 hours in that condition. and they kept moving me several times at night. , they took meng to me to prosecutors. prosecutors are supposed to be part of the judiciary. revieware supposed to them. it is supposed to be independent. going on for a while, the prosecutors moved the prisons, move the police

stations, even judges. there are court hearings that happen inside prisons. some of them are happening within the police academy. the whole justice system now is in a secret way, but explicitly an overly controlled by the police. prosecutori face the . they spent a couple of hours trying to consume he does convince me to cooperate without my lawyer, then they gave him. i was questioned. it turns out i'm not just accused of protesting without permits, but also armed robbery. i was sent to prison. but the safety was

improved. i was placed in a relatively standardsy egyptian -- cell which is quite small, but i had it to my own. i was allowed visits and access to my lawyers. the very basic rights i was allowed immediately. for the first months we were placed in solitary. for the first month we were not allowed out of our cells except for one hour per day. we were not placed close to each other. we could not talk or exchange stuff across cells and so on. >> explain what solitary is like. how do you occupy your time? >> you go crazy. you sleep a lot.

is sort of feels like depression. which it might be depression. eating, writing. >> the australian al jazeera correspondent was also imprisoned in the same wing as you for a month before he was transferred to another wing of the prison complex. what did you discuss, the two of you? >> there was a lot of explaining. peter is quite an experienced writer. we spent a lot of time trying to understand what is going on.

we talked about africa. i lived in south africa. we discussed the politics >> that is egyptian activists alaa abd el-fattah speaking in his first extended interview since his release from prison after nearly four months behind bars. he is interviewed in cairo, egypt by sharif abdel kouddous. when we come back, he talks about the likelihood of being convicted again and sent back to prison. back in a moment. ♪ [music break]

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we continue our exclusive interview with prominent egyptian political activist alaa , he was released

last week after 115 days in jail. on sunday, he sat down for his first interview since his release, speaking with democracy now! correspondent sharif abdel kouddous in cairo. >> what is the likelihood of you being convicted and sent back to prison? >> it is quite likely. created all, they have the special terrorism courts. they pretend they're not special courts. that they've formed separate circuits without completely [indiscernible] speed up the criminal procedures. they tend to take months and months, years sometimes.

even though it is completely ridiculous. it has no purpose except serving the regime. there's no sense of justice. i have a suspended sentence based on a very colorful case that was started by the military , and to morsi's election then was dropped by the prosecutor for lack of evidence. started complaining about human rights violations, they brought the case again. the point is, i had a one-year suspended sentence, which means that if i'm accused of even the

smallest thing, i will spend that year plus whatever it is i'm given. it is highly likely i'm going back to prison -- or at least, that is their plan. >> how does that affect you? how does that affect your life, your family, knowing will probably be sent back to prison? >> it's quite horrific, obviously. we have plans to fight this both in court and out of court. these are not real courtrooms. we have to exert political and soes via protesting on. we are busy doing that.

the defenseplanning strategy. that is going to be my life for while. even with the suspended sentence, it is hanging over my head for three years. it was clear the previous times that they never planned to sentence me. it was like they used pretrial detention as a form of punishment, a form of detention. we knew it was about stifling the voice for a while or issuing punishment that would only last for a few months. at this time, it is not just about me. sentencedhave been

for five years -- no, two years. and it was confirmed in an appeals process. they have been sentenced from one year to five years has been common. there are a couple of cases where they've been sentenced for like 14 years and 17 years and 11 years and so on. they are on a sentencing frenzy. it's not just about me. ons almost as if it is a war a whole generation. >> let me switch gears and ask you about some of the letters he wrote from prison will stop in december, you wrote a letter to your two younger sisters. it was delivered a month later. in it you write, what is adding to the oppression that i feel is that i find this prison sentence is serving a purpose.

it is not resistance and there is no revolution. explain what you meant. contrast tot was in the previous times in which i was arrested. like in 2006, it was a heat mobilization for the democracy movement. in 2011, it was immediately before a very strong wave between two massacres. so it was clear -- in both cases, there was a sense of urgency and the fact of my arrest. in plan was to prosecute me

2007, and they thought this they make me -- well, thought this would shake me. back in a kind of planned my arrest, in a way. and it wasontrol clearly part of the struggle. and there was a strong reaction on the outside the was supportive. i felt i was being supportive of the strong action. this time was very different. it is a moment of defeat, to be honest. everything that has been .appening july,st since the end of ,f not the month before that

has been part of a massive revolutionary wave that is compromised a lot of individuals and parties and political groups, deeply compromised them. was, the massive arrests and so on, it could have if there was a strong enough reaction. this was the first case where they use the law. -- the protest law. basically, if you participate in a protest and there's a single individual in the protest, even if not known to you, even if that is not the purpose of the protest, who happens to carry a

knife, for instance, can you have committed a crime. protest, they a can arrest you and sentence you. they have been able to always arrest -- there've always been able to arrest you, but it is now possible to sentence you very easily and judges could claim this is the letter of the law. ordered to not being the executive order. that's not true. the reaction back then wasn't -- it could have been broken in. there was a much bigger window hen, and it didn't happen. >> did you take part in the june 30 demonstrations? >> very reluctantly so. -- there was this

attempt to retain our margins. who arehe people complaining about the collusion with the military and the police by, youn were accused -- the infantile left. i think that is our expression. anyway, we were supposed to be too stupid to realize the conflicts, politics of it all, and so on. so we staged a couple of protest

s under the banner of infantile left. the point was to chunk against the military police and muslim brotherhood. it was such a crazy time. the state was busy mobilizing people to go out. did, protesters because people needed to be out there, even our group, joined by throngs of other , you had. your voice could be heard. -- could not be heard.

>> d.phil. was a mistake given what was happening now? >> i don't think it was mistake because it was already set in stone. -- we started warning of an imminent coup in december because the way -- i think it was december, maybe january. not just depending on the police violence, but when they were completely out of [indiscernible] fighting against christians. and then allowing or aligning themselves with others, it just --a few of us spent

months trying to stop that. either by warning them or by warning those who were supporting the military intervention or by trying a moretely to create grassroots movement so the complications that the regime was creating would be resolved via a more genuine, popular approach. they refuse to give any concessions and anything, which made politics basically impossible.

win even verydn't localized -- you cannot even reach a compromise with the struggles around issues of liberty in specific small towns -- coup was showing its face. i was really defeated by april. the threat.ot see

they kept treating us as a threat. during these months in which the , morsi'sbeing planned prosecutors, the one he broke laws in order to install, was --y creating cases for me the only cases he filed for and a couple of people like me. >> egyptian political activist alaa abd el-fattah speaking in his first interview since he was released last week after 115 days in jail. he is being interviewed by democracy now! correspondent sharif abdel kouddous in cairo, egypt.

when we come back, he talks about his family's history of activism and dissent, including his father and his sister. i university students who join political protest have come under increasing attack at about the future of egypt. all in a moment. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. our exclusive interview with egyptian political activist alaa abd el-fattah. sharif abdel kouddous spoke to him in cairo, egypt this week

and in his first interview after being released from prison. >> there's a rich tradition of activism and dissent in your family, both your sisters are very politically active, your cousin is politically active on and so are your parents. your father was in prison several times. one of which, your younger sister mona was born during. this past -- path was repeated son, was bornyour what you are in prison. at a press conference, talking about the crackdown on protesters, he said "i'm sorry, my son, i'm sorry to your generation. we had dreams and ambitions to bequeath you a democratic society that preserves human dignity, which only inherited the prison cells that once confined me." any comment on your father's words? in anid respond to them article i smuggled out of prison

inheritances my from my parents and my collective and heerden's from the previous generations -- and from previous generations. the brotherhood thing is born era and weworld war have to pay the price now. this countryst of has been born after the end of the cold war and none of this makes sense to any of us, but you have these people talking about [indiscernible]

and people talking about reversing the mistake. [laughter] worry that, also like, what is my son going to face? -- that west that we hand over the prison cell. things are getting worse that lost anytitutions have semblance of doing their advertised function. like, if you spend any time some prison, it makes you wonder what is the function of the criminal justice system? it is absolutely nothing to do with security or committing

crime. so most people in prison are there for heady crimes. -- petty crimes. anyone in prison that is a danger to society. that to thed extend public hospitals. most of them are not functioning at all. the smaller ones are really not functioning at all. they're just empty shells. the ones that do function, it is quite random what you're going to get there. the doctors are trying hard, but there's absolutely no resources. it is so corrupt. basically, it is a high possibility that the treatment you get there, you'd be better

off not getting it. universities -- universities have become not places of learning, but places of conflict. the whole discourse from the state, even from the university staff and so on, is about how youth are a problem that we need to control. no other universities have a --her percentage of students more students from outside that have been killed, have been imprisoned, then any other university. they're just treating it -- just the students as a security threat. the wall in

palestine. they have armed anti-riot police around the university. they're ready at any moment in time. students are being killed inside their dorms. hasink it was going -- it become a completely dysfunctional state with coercion, oppression. even the mubarak regime was a organism.complicated that not just terrorism withre trying to treat

security measures only. it is everything. people are building -- how do you say it? >> informal? >> yes, building informal settlements because people -- the housing is crazy. reasons forcumented andwe have a housing crisis the many proposed solutions and so on, but they've been doing nothing about it for years and years. people up and having their own solutions. -- informalntails

settlements could be dangerously land whichricultural means we are less space to go for and so on. go and storm the place and demolish it and arrest people. i could cite probably six examples of economic social programs that are being sold via security and that's it. so this is what candidates are doing, then -- [laughter] i think that is what motivates me. this is a completely terrible and unlivable situation. that is why it is worth fighting against. but we had a couple of years that it was possible to make

major victories. life is possible. and it looks very bleak right now. right now i have to tell people that all state institutions are completely corrupt and need to be dismantled. -- whats them because do you do after? they are scared of the threats. they're scared by even diminishing the power of things like the military is quite dangerous.

armed situations are happening around our borders. there is a war there were the military is using tactics that we've only seen -- well, i was going to say the british. -- occupying any force where it's a must if they're copying the israelis front demolish houses -- they go and demolish theyouses of families

accuse of attack. they're fighting this war with .paches for years and years and years and years. with the hellfire missiles, it becomes a space where human trafficking and drug trafficking and arms trafficking and also terrorism and so on flourish. but then use that fact that people are made to live in fear. part of the country that we went to war for an people died for, and now it is being treated as an alien -- it has become, i

.ean, they have mismanaged it threat, there is a real threat, but they created it. now we are stuck with it. i somehow have to find a way to explain to people why we need to dismantle the state and appeal to their fears and actually find of all that will be leashed when they collapse. they will collapse. it military regime, i mean, could last for years and years. -- this state of emergency violence is the only thing they have. they are absolutely incapable of people whoeven young

revolutionary, but people who would love to believe them. it is very clear in the referendum when basically most all young voters did not show up . -- poor, that you're talking about most of the country, if you say young people. but even the people who believed them, the people who rallied to sisi and created the sisi cult and so on, they were being promised security, stability, and food and work and so on.

,hey have an energy crisis which they're going to solve with coal, which is going to create an environmental health crisis. is in collapse. education is in collapse. care is in collapse. education is in collapse. very dependent on our currency and the plan is just to borrow a lot of money. that's not going to last. and when they collapse, it is going to be scary. when wardak collapsed, it was beautiful. there were months when the regime was so -- they never lost

complete control. revolution was so strong in the regime was so weak that at least in public space and so on, .eople were liberated they could imagine a completely different world. it,ss we do something about the sense that will prevail will be a sense of fear. that is when we get the worst reactions out of people. we saw that in morsi's collapse. duringouple of months august, there was civilian violence. i think about 200 civilians were a protest that had absolutely no log i logic.

scary.so chaotic and so even though the police and the military -- or over the police, the police completely collapsed. we spent months with no authority on the ground, but there were safe ones. people were killing each other. -- people were not killing each other. happened. you had these months of absolute military control, but everyone was scared and paranoid, so we .ad chaos i think we're going to get more of that, unless we do something. >> you said the word "defeat"

many times. do you think the revolution is over? >> no. i don't know if the revolution is over or not. when we talk about the revolution by living it, we're a dream, a wish, something we would like to create. but you can only talk about it as being over while you're looking back. mean in a "defeat," i method. but we continue to exist and continue to be other shovels and so on. it's not like you have a choice. an individual might have a choice if they have a way out. but most people don't have a choice.

[indiscernible] if what you're trying to do is ofachieve a life of dignity safety and prosperity for yourself and your loved ones, then you have no choice. but even if you're just trying to live, the current situation is so bad that you end up struggling. it is happening right now, mostly by people who are probably very supportive of the overthrow of morsi, but also sisi. i'm guessing, obviously. i'm just saying it fit the

pattern. but then they have to go on strike because the wages are not good enough. they're unemployed. constant flow of unemployed youth, what are they going to do? they're not going to cease to exist, so they continue to resist. they might resist by joining the informal economy, which means they'll have to conform to fight for peace, in which they could sell something or set up something. they might resist through politics. those politics are not going to get them anywhere. but they are not just going to

disappear. but for it to be a revolution, you have to have something that brings all the forms of resistance together. and you have to have hope. it has to be the people are mobilizing not out of desperation, but out of a clear sense that something other than this life is possible. right now, that is a tough one. right now i talk about defeat because i cannot even express but hopefully, that is temperate. >> one of egypt's most common it lyrical activist, alaa abd el-fattah, speaking with democracy now! correspondent sharif abdel kouddous in his first extended interview since his release from prison after nearly four months behind bars in egypt. a special thanks to omar robert

hamilton. to see our interview with sharif last week about the 529 members of the muslim brotherhood sentenced to death, visit democracynow.org. happy birthday to mike burke. democracy now! is lookin