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Between the Lines
"Between the Lines" is a national, half-hour program that provides a platform for individuals and spokespersons from progressive organizations generally ignored or marginalized by the mainstream media.
New U.S. Ground Troops in Syrian Conflict Likely to Intensify Multi-sided Proxy War
Posted Nov. 4, 2015
MP3 Interview with Charles Glass, former ABC News chief Middle East correspondent and author of “Syria Burning: ISIS and the Death of the Arab Spring”, conducted by Scott Harris
syria
The civil war in Syria, now in its fifth year, has claimed over 300,000 lives, forced 4 million war refugees to flee the country and internally displaced another 8 million. Refugees have flooded into neighboring countries and more recently have sought sanctuary across Europe in large numbers. Now after a year of bombing targets inside Iraq and Syria, the Obama administration has announced it will deploy U.S. troops on the ground in Syria to advise and assist rebel forces combating ISIS.
A White House spokesman said that the U.S. would be deploying “less than 50” Special Operations forces, who will be sent to Kurdish-controlled territory in northern Syria to assist local Kurdish and Arab forces fighting ISIS. The deepening of America’s involvement in Syria’s civil war comes after Russia escalated its own intervention by launching a campaign of airstrikes on Sept. 30.
Russia’s larger presence in Syria, a longtime regional ally, helped to bring about a new round of peace talks in Vienna that for the first time included representatives of all the major powers involved in the conflict, including the U.S., the EU, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran. There were no breakthroughs in the first round of negotiations, however, as major disagreements persist on the future role of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Charles Glass, a former ABC News chief Middle East correspondent and author of “Syria Burning: ISIS and the Death of the Arab Spring.” Here, Glass, who recently returned from assignments in both Syria and Iraq, discusses escalating U.S. involvement in Syria’s civil war and the prospects for successful negotiations to end the conflict.
For more information, visit Charles Glass’ website at charlesglass.net.
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Related Links:
“In the Syrian Deadlands,” New York Review of Books, Oct. 22, 2015
“Syria Burning, ISIS and the Death of the Arab Spring,” OR Books (book)
” ‘Make No Mistake About It, This Is a War’,” The Nation, Nov. 2, 2015
“Syria: Obama authorizes boots on ground to fight ISIS,” CNN, Oct 30, 2015
“Obama: No US troops on Syria front lines,” Al Jazeera, Nov. 3, 2015
“US officials: troops to only fight Isis, Russia risks fueling Syrian quagmire,” The Guardian, Oct 31, 2015
“U.S. Troop Deployment To Syria Draws Criticism,” Think Progress, Nov. 2, 2015
“Syria peace talks pin hopes for end to war on Iran and Saudi Arabia,” The Guardian, Oct. 30, 2015
“What is Russia Doing in Syria?,” CounterPunch, Oct 30, 2015
‘Keep It in the Ground Campaign’ Calls on Obama to Halt Public Land Leasing for Fossil Fuel Extraction
Posted Nov. 4, 2015
MP3 Interview with Randi Spivak, director of the Public Lands Program at the Center for Biological Diversity, conducted by Melinda Tuhus
fossilfuel
As world leaders prepare to attend the United Nations climate summit meeting in Paris later this month, it’s clear that even if every government honors the pledges they’ve made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, that won’t be enough to keep emissions from rising more than two degrees Celsius. That increase, climate scientists maintain, will cause irreversible climate change likely to make Earth uninhabitable.
One enormous source of current and future greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. comes from fossil fuel extraction under federal public lands and waters — including coal, oil, shale oil, gas and tar sands. One of the largest and most diverse coalitions ever to address climate change in the U.S. is asking President Barack Obama to stop granting, or “letting,” new leases on public lands. Since 2008, the Obama administration has leased more than 35 million acres of federal public lands and waters to the fossil fuel industry, almost half of the total 67 million acres already leased to fossil fuel companies. More than 179 million acres, or 90 percent of the public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management in 11 western states, are currently available for oil and gas leases.
Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Randi Spivak, director of the Public Lands Program at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the lead organizations of the Keep It In the Ground campaign that is calling on President Obama to take action. Here she discusses the broad coalition of groups involved in the campaign and the impact that the initiative’s success could have on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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RANDI SPIVAK: What makes this movement so broad and so powerful is the intersection of climate change and public lands activism. Several groups – the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, 350.org, etc. – delivered a letter to President Obama back in September that was signed by 400 organizations, including the United Auto Workers Union, Physicians for Social Responsibility, as well as many individual high-profile climate scientists. So I think you can see we are attracting a broad spectrum of people impacted by climate change through the health angle, labor angle, as well as scientists who know how quickly and urgently this issue is to take action.
BETWEEN THE LINES: How big a difference would this make? I think I read that the fossil fuels on public lands comprise half the total of unleased such lands, is that right?
RANDI SPIVAK: Yep, that’s pretty close. Because public lands are lands and waters basically are allowed by law to be leased by private corporations for extraction of fossil fuels. The Center for Biological Diversity … I was curious to know, well, what is the potential greenhouse gas emission effect if public lands and waters were allowed to be fully leased? So we contracted with a group called EcoShift, who are very good climate modelers, and they actually calculated the amount of unleased fossil fuels in terms of greenhouse gas emissions in the public estate, if you will, and that was 450 billion tons, which is a large number, but to put it into perspective. It is basically half of all the remaining unleased fossil fuel in the USA, on land and waters. So that could keep half the fossil fuels safely in the ground and out of the atmosphere. That’s why the publicly-owned fossil fuels, which are controlled by the federal agencies, is an enormously important piece of this pie. And the good news is, the president – any president, this current president and future presidents – has the legal authority to stop letting new leases – sales of new lands and waters, for fossil fuels.
BETWEEN THE LINES: But even if Obama were to enact a ban, a future president could just undo it.
RANDI SPIVAK: Technically, yes, that is right, but what I think is important here is taking action and starting to get the information out there that the public part of this is a huge carbon bomb, literally. We don’t expect the president to do this with one broad stroke, but what we do expect to see is the amount of land being leased to be rapidly slowed down, and that’s the action we anticipate. You know, as Paris is coming upon us, and post-Paris, the pressure will be on and the president – any president – has authority to do it. I think it’s going to be up to the people in this country to raise their voices loudly and keep the pressure on so that whether it’s President Obama or the next president, they know that the public – who owns this carbon – wants to see it stay in the ground.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Randi Spivak, because of the Mining Act of 1872 and other laws, companies can dig up these fossil fuels and other natural resources like uranium for a few cents a ton. Do you think raising the price a lot would make companies less interested in exploiting these resources?
RANDI SPIVAK: Raising the prices, if it’s a really meaningful rise in prices, I would think should have an effect then, and certainly we do want to see prices raised and that could affect demand. But the oil and gas companies fight this tooth and nail, any price increase – including money that could be used to help agencies actually monitor what’s happening on the ground. So we do need to see the prices increase. There are a couple of efforts now in the administration looking to raise prices on coal, reform of the coal program. My worry, though, is that the price increases will be the most minimal and honestly, with these companies making as much money as they do, it won’t really be a hardship to them. That’s why it’s important to start off by keeping this in the ground and not letting these leases from the get-go. If any fossil fuel is leased, it will be mined, it will be burned, it will be combusted. And so the nature of our effort is, we have to keep this in the ground. Scientists say – there have been several studies now which say that in order for the world to avert warming greater than two degrees – which will have irreversible consequences – we must keep about 80 percent of our fossil fuels in the ground. And that’s the premise from which this starts; it’s not just regulating from the smokestack; it’s actually keeping this in the ground, and that will ultimately affect price, and then demand, and help the rapid shift to renewable energy.
BETWEEN THE LINES: What response, if any, have you gotten from anyone in the Obama administration?
RANDI SPIVAK: Well, when Secretary Jewell, the Secretary of the Interior, found out about our campaign – it was actually the day we released the letter signed by 400 organizations to the president – her response, when asked by a reporter, was, “We can’t possibly do this; we’re a nation that depends on fossil fuels.” And to me that answer is just a non-starter. We’re a nation that must immediately transition out of fossil fuels. And the technology is out there ready to do so and transition to renewable energy. So I think the secretary was caught off guard how strong and how big this movement is. It’s a paradigm shift.
For more information, visit the Center for Biological Diversity’s website at biologicaldiversity.org.
Related Links:
“Keep it in the Ground,” Center for Biological Diversity
“Climate Coalition Calls on President Obama to Halt New Fossil Fuel Leases on Public Lands, Oceans,” Center for Biological Diversity Press Release, Sept. 14, 2015
“Grounded: The President’s Power to Fight Climate Change, Protect Public Lands by Keeping Publicly Owned Fossil Fuels in the Ground,” Center for Biological Diversity, September 2015
“Fossil Fuel Revolution: Tell Obama to ‘Keep It in the Ground’,” TakeAction petition
“Tell President Obama: No More Coal, Oil and Gas Leases on Public Lands,” Rainforest Action Network, Sept. 15, 2015
“Keep it in the Ground campaign: six things we’ve learned,” The Guardian, March 25, 2015
“From Bill McKibben, 350.org & The Guardian: Keep It In The Ground,” PrimaMundi.com
“Keep It in the Ground,” Green Peace campaign
Bernie Sanders’ Democratic Socialism an Opportunity to Critique the Excesses of Capitalism
Posted Nov. 4, 2015
MP3 Interview with Richard D. Wolff, professor of economics at New School University’s graduate program in International Affairs, conducted by Scott Harris
socialism
The unexpected strength of Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination for president has surprised many beltway pundits and political insiders. Not long before the 2016 campaign got underway, Hillary Clinton was predicted to be the heir-apparent for the nomination after her narrow loss to Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primaries. But Sanders has attracted passionate support across the country, especially from young people, with his message denouncing economic inequality and the urgent need for a peaceful political revolution challenging unchecked corporate power.
After being elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1981, Sanders went on to win Vermont’s sole congressional seat in 1990. After serving 16 years in the House, the Brooklyn, New York native won election as Vermont’s junior senator in 2006 and re-election in 2012. Throughout his political career, Bernie, as he’s affectionately known, has always described himself as a “democratic socialist,” extolling the virtues of the four Scandinavian nations’ mixed economies that supports generous social welfare programs, such as free higher education and universal healthcare.
In the early days of the Democratic campaign, Clinton’s surrogate, Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill accused Sanders of being an extremist candidate and complained that the news media rarely mentioned that the Vermont senator was a “socialist.” Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Richard D. Wolff, economics professor at New School University’s graduate program in International Affairs, who explores the definition of socialism as discussed by presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and changing perceptions about socialism and capitalism among a new generation of Americans.
Richard D. Wolff is author of the book, “Capitalism’s Crisis Deepens: Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown 2010-2014.” For more views on Bernie Sanders’ campaign for president and democratic socialism, visit berniesanders.com.
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Related Links:
“Bernie Sanders is more American than Ayn Rand: Democratic socialism will always trump free-market selfishness,” Salon, Nov. 2, 2015
“Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist, but what does that term mean?” Daily Kos, June 7, 2015
“How Bernie Sanders Should Talk About Democratic Socialism,” The Nation, Oct. 21, 2015
“Democratic Socialism Has Deep Roots in American Life,” History News Network, Nov. 1, 2015
“Bernie Sanders explains what ‘democratic socialist’ means,” Wisconsin Gazette, Nov. 1, 2015
“Bernie Sanders, Democratic Socialist Capitalist,” The New York Times, Oct. 20, 2015
“Bernie Sanders’ ‘Democratic Socialism’ Explained,” Huffington Post, April 30, 2015
“Is Bernie Sanders Too Radical for America?,” The American Prospect, June 30, 2015
Democratic Socialists of America at DSAUSA.org
Professor Richard D. Wolff’s website at rdwolff.com
Democracy at Work for Economic Justice at democracyatwork.info
This week’s summary of under-reported news
MP3 MP3
Compiled by Bob Nixon
China, upset over a maneuver by the US Navy in the South China Sea, summoned US ambassador Max Baucus to lodge a protest from China’s vice-foreign minister Zhang Yesui. In a move planned for months, the USS Lessen, a guided missile destroyer, cruised within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands built by China to strengthen its presence in disputed waters. The Obama administration described the action as a “freedom of navigation” operation, which have been carried out regularly in the South China Sea.(“Beijing summons US ambassador over warship in South China Sea,” The Guardian Oct. 27, 2015;”,” publication date; “As Obama weighed patrol to counter China, Pentagon urged faster action,” Reuters Oct. 28, 2015)
A number of groups active in the Black Lives Matter movement, including the Black Youth Project and Dream Defenders recently released a video highlighting the connections between the African-American and Palestinian struggles against state violence. The video featuring numerous black and Palestinian activists declares “we are not statistics. We are not collateral damage. We have names and faces.”(” Why Black Lives Matter Activists Are Showing Up for a Palestinian Woman Threatened With Deportation,” The Nation, Oct. 26, 2015)
San Francisco has some of the highest rents in the United States, driving many working class families from the city. In September, the median rent in San Francisco hit $3500 dollar a month, as over 30,000 people moved to the ‘City by the Bay.’ The rise in rents in the formerly affordable Mission District over the last five years, has increased the city’s eviction rate by 50 percent.(“These Activists Are Trying To Solve the Housing Crisis — By Suing the Suburbs,” In These Times Oct. 19. 2015)
