god forever bless the united states of america. now you might think that standing ovation was for a popular american politician well think again as israel's prime minister with congress we asked what is this foreign leader would be more popular at leave us president. and while netanyahu stole the show on the hill america's involvement in afghanistan and pakistan was the center of attention at a senate hearing this morning when it comes to afghanistan what are america's true goals building democracy or fighting the taliban. and the death penalty in the u.s. now this time the question isn't to kill or not to kill instead when it comes to

executions are states torturing their inmates to death. good evening it's tuesday may twenty fourth four pm here in washington d.c. and we see catherine of and you're watching our t.v. . just a few hours ago here in washington and this was the scene in a packed u.s. house chamber we capitol hill take a look. god whoever borders the united states of america. that's right president obama the leader of the united states of america addressed the wait a minute that's that's not obama that's the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu no i'm sorry all of that wild applause must have really thrown me off track so let's try this whole thing again the israeli prime minister's speech today had all

of the trappings of a state of the union address by an american president with soaring approval ratings in fact netanyahu got twenty nine standing ovations from lawmakers compared with just twenty five the president obama god turned his january speech to congress now some critics are actually warning that this is an indication of something more than just congressional support for israel some go as far say that the israeli prime minister in fact wields more influence over the u.s. congress that american president now one such critic was a former alaska senator and he actually ran for presidential office in two thousand and eight his name is michael bell and i spoke with him earlier about this issue take a look at what he had to say. on this particular subject no question that in you know who is more powerful than the president because the congress is sold out to a pac and so they play it a dick second off it's the congress or vice versa but right now the congress is his impotent and put him in terms of middle eastern foreign policy has america's

foreign policy toward israel actually changed it hasn't changed at all and his speech lacked content it was just more of the same. type of stuff the embarrassment was of course who comes to town and upbraids the president sells and what he's suggesting is not going to happen but that's expected from an opinion belief how do you mean by that well listen you know doesn't want any peace and never has he's never played characterizes peace he is sure on a cut from the same school club. what they want to do is they're prepared to go ahead and over time push the palestinians from the west bank and from jerusalem that's a plan that takes a thousand years that's their plan that's they're going to do so you think that netanyahu is genuinely not committed to any sort of peaceful solution to this issue

and that as long as he's in power status quo will remain. totally totally and i will really want to not equivocate on this and you know who is a is a product of his culture which is a bunker type mentality that you hunker down and keep use any excuse to push out the palestinians from the west bank and gaza so you can take the whole thing over that's their claim and they're not deviating that line and in the slightest and the united states becomes the victim because we don't have the guts or the wherewithal to oppose them they are stronger if and you know stronger than their president of the united states with respect to the middle eastern policy why is it that so many lawmakers on the hell are reluctant to ask the different difficult questions that need to be asked when it comes to us as really foreign

policy. the reaction you see is that groveling and that's what we're grovelling to the interest of apex by members of congress and and with the with respect to the ninety six sixty seven borders that's a given that has been given in international law and international police since ninety sixty seven so it is so he articulated nothing new but this is not what israel wants under the leadership of this and you know now there are some very strong forces within israel who don't buy into the scenario but like the united states they are ruled by a military industrial clique and that's the way the united states is rules and of course obama is obviously part of that clique but obama on this particular issue and the congress on this debate issue or lack moral courage and what has nothing to

hide that senator i mean why is it we value free speech and open debate here in this country and yet it seems like when it comes to the question of israel it's one of the sacred things that if you're a lawmaker and god forbid you speak out you say something that sort of doesn't tell the subject line that's almost political suicide what is it that has made israel such a critical issue for of our politicians it is political suicide and it's political suicide because the jewish community primarily apac musters whatever monies are needed to defeat anybody who doesn't toe the line or raises the head in opposition or to turn around and support anybody who will unilaterally support the interest of israel over those of the united states or america it's it's unpatriotic i mean our american interest should be first and foremost that's not the case of the middle east it certainly is not the case for israel and that's

shameful that's a shameful chapter in american history is that really what you think that a pack a lobbying group is really sort of the fear that that's behind this is it that simple that it ends the political donations than money. it is that simple and you know you have to do is look at the record if somebody stands up in congress opposed to israel you see the the wealth of the nation from the jewish community focus on that person's defeat so politicians are more interested in having a job then and doing what's right and so if they want to keep their job then they've got to keep keep themselves clean on the israeli issue and respond to apex the vans for their support for the united states of america does not control its foreign policy with respect to the middle east and senator is there anything unusual to you about sort of having the the president give this major address about

the arab spring and then the police sort of go away on this trip to to europe and to have nothing yahoo address lawmakers. as if one eight zero evidence president obama or something were it is very thing that started fanned out to us strange about netanyahu his address of our congress well what's strange is that a foreign leader is more power than a president on this subject. that's what's strange. but that's the tragedy of america's foreign policy i see no immediate change in that regard and list is a change in the government of israel and as i pointed out there are large factions in israel to not buy this war been tallahassee that do not. bring about the ability end of the palestinian community they do not buy that but they are not in power and so maybe an election would change that in the future but.

at this present time in american history we are stuck with a situation where the congress and the president of the united states are moral cowards when it comes to justice but it should be brought about in an adjudication of the interest between palestine and israel that was former senator and presidential candidate mike grell. now israel continues to dominate headlines when trying to yemen or clashes have taken their deadliest turn yet according to reports forces loyal to yemeni president president of dillard sali used guns tanks even rocket propelled grenades in a violent standoff with the opposition tribesmen in the heart of the capital city and the gulf cooperation council has been trying to approach a peaceful transition from power for saleh but this weekend marks the third time that such a deal collapsed all at the last minute u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton said that she was outraged over the violence

urging the yemeni president to stand down and meanwhile here in the united states pending hard from that issue a group of u.s. lawmakers reserved their outrage for the secretary of state herself i. members of congress have written to clinton demanding an explanation of u.s. policy towards americans who run hired gun operations i'm talking of course about mercenary forces all of this in light of blackwater founder erik prince is the latest exploits in the united arab emirates there's a lot to talk about here and for more i'm joined by jeremy scahill he's a national security correspondent for the nation magazine he's also the author of this book here blackwater the rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army journey it's great to have you back on the program thank you so much for being with us and before we get to the real news with the an implacable outer quick reaction to netanyahu speech today i mistakenly thought i was watching a twenty eight twelve nomination party before i realized as just his address to congress right i mean he had at least thirty or forty standing ovations depending on who you ask for warmer reception than president obama has received certainly

from the republicans but you could argue also from the democrats it seems as we enter a political season here in the united states that you know you could potentially get the nomination for either the democratic or republican party i mean it's really it's incredible the amount of enthusiasm that is thrown on benjamin netanyahu particularly in light of the fact that he made the outrageous statement that base you know free air herbs are those that are living in israel. actually going so far as to say that israel is not like the belgians and congo like the british in india which i replied no you're like the israelis in palestine doing exactly what the world sees you do which is condemned regularly by many nations around the world it's not the united states yeah i mean i love this we go from you know week where obama is touting the u.s. role in helping to see the building in the in the arab spring to be essentially getting this rolling reception here on capitol hill but pivoting to blackwater we

in on this program last week talked at length about the sort of legal issues associated with their princes new ventures as you've written yourself his new company well as it reflects the. reflex reaction but facts are pretty actions and or are too hard to share right hopefully it's not going to the same kind of reflects the reaction that they had in the unfortunate tragedy in the slaughter of iraqi civilians and this new center square you've written recently that lawmakers are now taking up this issue they've written a letter to secretary of state hillary clinton what indication if any do you have that congress may be able to do something about this and that the state department even is paying attention to the issue right i mean first of all the number of lawmakers in the u.s. that have made this even remotely an issue you can pretty much count on one hand around on both hands and the fact is that it's really is locked up and people like representative jan schakowsky of illinois was on the intelligence committee and john conyers who of course is a stalwart of many progressive causes in the congress he did raise this issue and

what the lawmakers said in their letter was basically a request for hillary clinton to explain whether or not erik prince got the necessary licenses from the u.s. state department to provide these kinds of services to a foreign government technically when someone like erik prince or a company like blackwater or whatever he wants to call it these days runs to export the kinds of training services or armed services that are appearances at sporting to the united arab emirates and remember erik prince is a navy seal who's have access to very sensitive secret u.s. operations was allowed to go into cia headquarters under president bush and look at operational intelligence and then offer his services there whether or not he got a license for that is up for debate right now and we'll see how hillary clinton responds but blackwater has been fined in the past for not obtaining those licenses so we'll have to see what happens but i don't have any illusions about anyone in the congress making this a central issue i mean basically people don't care because it has no no positive impact on their ability to raise campaign cash no i don't want is

a pouring money into the coffers of antiwar congresspeople were people that stand up for the war industry and knowing what you know that erik prince on about the state department and you have any sense that it could could this. really have happened without anyone's knowledge whatsoever i mean i have a hard time believing that but i mean we have we have an indication from the reporting of the comments in the new york times from an unnamed administration official that the obama administration was in fact aware of that era prince was offering these types of services and united arab emirates you know i obtained a speech that era prince gave in late two thousand and nine in front of a military audience in his home state of michigan in which erik prince laid out his vision for the united states to send small teams of mercenaries into countries in the neighborhood of iran with the express intent of countering what erik prince called iran's creeping influence and whipping up shia revolts in the middle east so eric prince seems to be making good on that whether or not it was sanctioned by the obama administration would really require probing from people on in congress and

not just the five people that wrote this letter it require committees with subpoena power going after them in that list but didn't happen even when the democrats were in control so i think it's going to be left to the usual suspects who make this an issue regularly and that's a seventy icons don't get to bomb iran then i guess our individual citizens will get to start out on the rest they're wonderful at a gallop and they're moving on to yemen i know it's told a completely different topic but it really does look like the situation is reaching a critical mass there and i know you've reported on this issue extensively and i just want to know what you make of the u.s. response so far i mean we saw hillary hillary clinton expressing deep disappointment in insall as if it was some sort of a child and not a dictator or essentially a client of the united states they've supported for years and do you think they're actually serious about a backing up their calls for him to go you know i mean even even as you and i are speaking right now about hillary clinton's reaction or the white house's reaction the fact is that there are scores of us are still operations forces that are inside

yemen right now training ali abdullah saleh is counterterrorism units but the fact is that for more going to do. now the u.s. approach to yemen has been almost exclusively through the lens of who the yemenis allow us to kill inside of their country just a few days after the raid on osama bin laden's compound in pakistan the u.s. attempt to kill an american citizen named anwar locking in in yemen for some time he's an american born cleric who is now living in yemen it's families from yemen and so what we're seeing now with the chaos that is spreading throughout the capital of yemen is in part a failed u.s. policy that was obsessive only model focused on counterterrorism and it almost nothing to relieve the suffering of the yemeni people instead pouring in millions upon millions of dollars and sensitive training to brutal and murderous forces controlled by yemen's president so you know ali abdullah saleh is is famous for

a number of things in yemen not the least of which is his ability to get around to resigning once he's gone not resigning so you know the u.s. response is it's almost laughable if it wasn't so deadly right now and what's your sense of whether the focus is only going to intensify on counterterrorism efforts in yemen in light of that and a lot in the scales and now they're sort of casting a lighter net and fighting al qaeda wherever and wherever i guess the battle needs to be taken well you know i would be very careful in pretending that i knew the answer to that what i what i will say is that if there is chaos and instability that spreads across yemen and if the throughout the country dividing becomes real the u.s. could respond by withdrawing and pulling out and seeing where the flames burned or could respond by saying here's our opportunity to jump in in the chaos and bump off a bunch of people that we want to hit so you know i think that the u.s. could go you know any number of directions but certainly

a lot has been made about this group in the arabian peninsula that operates in yemen that is by most estimates three hundred to five hundred people strong and there's a lot of agitating on capitol hill for. the u.s. to go after these individuals in a more aggressive way ali abdullah saleh staying in power means they can continue to hit these guys ali abdullah saleh leaving power could open the door even wider for the u.s. to go in and it's very very dangerous i think for the u.s. to consider boots on the ground in a more extensive way than they already exist all dangerous and of course absurdly expensive and lord knows if we have the budget to sustain that journey thank you so much for your time and i look forward to having again the programs as jeremy scahill author of black blotter. all right moving on from yemen roughly to in roughly two months president brought obama is expected to announce the beginning of the end of america's longest war now afghanistan has been called the graveyard of empires and with one hundred thousand u.s. troops on the ground at a cost of more than one hundred twenty billion dollars per year the war in

afghanistan has taken a serious toll on the united states but what about the people of afghanistan those afghan voices who are hardly ever heard amid the shouting of the pundits generals lawmakers one of those folks make of america's war time experiments on bare land and what future do they envision for themselves one thing americans leitz if they leave well for the answer which earns you ours award she's an afghan american blogger who's sitting in washington and she joins us live in d.c. ours i thank you so much for being here i really appreciate having on the program what's your sense i mean you're sort of straddling both cultures here you're studying here you're afghan by birth. what's your sense about what america's goals are in afghanistan today and there's a difference between what the generals say sometimes and what actually happens on the ground and initial goal obvious. ok to some of the modern. and bring down al qaeda and you know it's all of on but obviously we now realize and discover that some of them are now and hiding out in pakistan so now obviously

there are our you know our foreign policy objectives how obviously ship it to pakistan so but your troops are there right and i mean you know each here so much from from different i don't see that there's a divide within the administration and people who are involved in afghanistan american thought is where you know on one hand we're fighting this war on terror and it's a military conflict on the other hand do americans have a responsibility to essentially nation build in afghanistan to build schools and civil society and so on and so forth and as not be an american what's your take i mean do you want to see americans doing that well actually i believe you know it's up to the afghans. in afghanistan to really need to begin uniting and. just rebuild their own lives that's not up to the united states however we did go you know the united states that in an instant we can't just leave the country and ruin the country i believe afghanistan would be susceptible to you know just

perhaps even potentially civil war. because of the fact that you know we have this quite government you have about corrupt government and so you have a lot of these disparities amongst but i think i'm sort of chemist aaron and so there's a lot of there's a lot to deal with and unfortunately if we just leave right now i feel like the country just claps to be like another vietnam although at the same time you can almost say that the united states is in part responsible for why the corruption is as bad as it is for why the central government is so weak i mean we were the same people that were arming the mujahideen at the time against the soviets and so what's your take on. do you think people are angry at the u.s. presence there i mean maybe it's. oa i definitely believe so you have you know afghans and again are very brave americans they understand that they're here to help us however you have a lot of the tribal areas in the south especially that resent you know the

americans because it's actually attracted far more you know attacks from the insurgents it's increased violence you have all these you know i mean roadside bombs far more civilian casualties so i feel if they are resenting the americans trance so you know but then you do have the advantage mostly in the callable appreciate you know the american presence however however it does need to they need to begin transitioning the process or not so quickly needs to obviously you know it's just a systematic you know process and how far should nation building or democracy building go i mean should america. americans be spending u.s. taxpayer dollars on building schools and civil societies when they're seen as an occupying force well you see we there's there has been so much money that's gone into especially government contracts and there's been so a lot of fraud a lot of lack of regulation we don't know where those millions of dollars went to

there have been schools built no longer exist. we don't know what what happened there hasn't been any nation building and yet all of our tax dollars have gone into this country which is why a lot of americans resent this war and we haven't seen any progress so i feel like if the united states is going to continue to invest any more than we already have then there needs to be far more regulation you see far more oversight and intel that there is really essentially just engage in this perpetual war for nothing special or for nothing stronger it's well one when the president does over announce his eventual end of the longest war ever for the united states i hope to have you back on with him talking more detail about what's going on the ground we thank you so much that was a blogger are so worked up. now the subject of capital punishment in the u.s. isn't without controversy but the way in which that some american states have begun executing their death row inmates could in fact according to some critics and on to torture some of those critics are furious with several states that are literally

experimenting with lethal injections and all of this in light of a massive shortage of the key most drug for these the evil injections called sodium thiopental i'm now going to bore you with the scientific details of all this but the crux of the story is that the only u.s. manufacturer of this drug actually moved its operations to italy where the company was and then forced to stop making it after the italian officials figured out what it was used for killing people now the shortage prompted some american states to seek other suppliers for example in britain and so that government also banned the export for use to kill people so what you busy death penalty states do when their preferred execution drug dries up though in some cases like that of texas and oklahoma for example they got a look at creative executing human beings with the same drug used to euthanize dogs and cats now all of this complicated stuff is the subject of a hard hitting piece in the nation magazine by lillian said laura she's an associate editor at the nation magazine and she also sits on the board of the

campaign to end the death penalty earlier i spoke with her spoke with her about this issue here is her tick. the current controversy have to do with the fact that numerous dates are now out to break with this protocol and as you guys you mentioned in your introduction because of a shortage of one of the crucial drugs in this protocol so what we need to be understood that there are three very broad comprise the method of execution that was upheld by the supreme court first it's a drug that it meant the end of. the. don't feel anything pretty much i don't feel anything the second drug is the drug that paralyzed this drug actually and i didn't mention it. but interestingly the drug is actually meant to paralyze a prisoner so that there is no sign of new twitching nothing that would make people uncomfortable as they as they watched my situation taking place outside of what's actually happening here especially the second drug the third drug is the drug the

heart of the problem has been discovered now years ago first drug in the mix doesn't always work to do with you know whether the drug has expired. and the number of other factors but if it's right if the first drug doesn't work then the third drug concerned about their drug has been found to be absolutely excruciating week rainfall and so new that average american doesn't really care it just broke. probably committed some gruesome crime and tortured but the reality is that the constitution protects prisoners from cruel and unusual punishment so when the supreme court took up this issue in papers with three some two dozen they ultimately determined that there wasn't enough proof that this one protocol. meant that prisoners to a realistic chance of being tortured. in massive quantities in other words you know if this was where if and when it happened it was aberration it usually goes that

way but we're finding out now that the paper tinkering with their their drugs that there have been up in recent box. botched execution where prisoners were tortured and of course i talk about georgia really and you know instead of figuring out how to humanely deal with this issue the shortage it seems of paper that's actually short term to very shady companies that you documented abroad for example the company dream pharma which you've written about in britain which operated out of our rented driving school building i mean where is the federal government when it comes to all that well that's a very good question because that's actually part of the controversy now and you above it's very us has been or are sort of slow to act on this but is on the question of how drugs were imported so when states began looking to train pharma has written a serious or that you should dr. david cross. boundaries of the law in order to try to quietly import used drugs into the united states so you know obama

administration did george's execution drug because they realized that a broken federal law trying to obtain them but at the same time billabong administration had. the f.d.a. rather the druggist ration had sort of thrown its hands up and said this is not for us to regulate we're not relating execution drugs so it's a little bit of even a response from the federal government or. insurance here but. ration makes a healthy on its own book and lethal injection as it don't matter at all if you're killing prisoners it just hasn't started right right and i do want to point out the irony one of the stories we're talking about in our editorial meeting earlier was how the f.d.a. regulates breast milk and the failing use of breast milk for women in the united states but of course death penalty drives a whole different matter it's one quote that actually really stood out to me in your piece was from a report that you cited that said the way in which texas actually human executes human beings is quote riskier less transparent and has less oversight than the

euthanasia cap saugus birds and lizards do you see any sort of impetus for states to change the way they're dealing with this issue or is there just not enough media attention to this trend. well in terms of the sort of question of humaneness all unusual punishment i actually think that states will be comfortable those continue to be country will execution executing going beings are going to be people who are troubled by how these executions are going unless there is some some outside pressure and what you just kind of experimentation as essentially human experimentation. i think it's quite literally true what clive stafford smith thought of my effort that the human rights lawyer kai suffered snip who is based in europe who has represented for prisoners in the american south who now represents all prisoners you know he describes it as human experimentation and then that really is what it is because because what's happened is that in switching from one road to another and not just switching provide right another.