Democracy now! The war and peace report

A new investigation by Colorlines Magazine has revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement continued to detain and deport individuals rounded up by the East Haven, Connecticut police, even after the Department of Justice launched its investigation into racial profiling. Four East Haven police officers have been arrested for targeting Latino immigrants with false arrests, false reports and harassment, prompting the East Haven police chief to resign. We’re joined by Seth Freed Wessler, a senior research associate at the Applied Research Center and an investigative reporter for Colorlines.com. "East Haven, Connecticut has a long history of profiling people of color," Freed Wessler says. "Folks of color in the greater New Haven area know not to drive through East Haven, Connecticut: you’re going to get pulled over if you’re black or Latino." [Includes rush transcript]

Occupy protesters in Indianapolis are gearing up to use the media spotlight on Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVI to rally for union rights outside the statehouse. Earlier this week, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a so-called "right to work" measure into law that critics say will result in lower wages and diminished collective bargaining rights. Indiana workers have received the backing of the National Football League Players Association, which has called "right to work" "a political ploy designed to destroy basic workers’ rights." We’re joined from Indiana by Tithi Bhattacharya, an associate professor of South Asian History at Purdue University and a protester who is taking part in Occupy the Super Bowl. "It is absolutely shameful that the legislature passed a law that condemns unions and is now using the city to showcase Indianapolis while ordinary people in Indiana are completely opposed to this law," Bhattacharya says. [Includes rush transcript]

New revelations have emerged about the New York City Police Department’s secret program to spy on Muslim communities. The Associated Press has just uncovered a confidential NYPD plan from 2006 to engage in targeted surveillance of Shiite mosques following increased tensions between the U.S. and Iran; the latest revelation on its secret intelligence operations focused on Muslim neighborhoods. On Thursday a coalition of Muslim and civil rights organizations reiterated their call for the immediate resignation of NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly. We’re joined by reporter Matt Apuzzo, who has helped break the NYPD spying story for the Associated Press; and Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid, spiritual leader at the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood and president of the Islamic Leadership Council of New York. [Includes rush transcript]

• Komen Officials Resign Over Planned Parenthood Controversy
• Syria: U.N. Drops Call for Assad Resignation
• Egypt: 4 Killed as Thousands Protest Soccer Deaths
• Israel: Iranian Missiles Could Reach United States
• Khmer Rouge Commander Gets Life Term
• Trump Backs Romney Ahead of Nevada Caucus
• SEC Issued Scores of Waivers to Wall Street Firms in Fraud Cases
• Holder Takes Heat from Congress for "Fast and Furious" Weapons Sting
• Yemeni Activists Protest Saleh’s NYC Visit
• Sierra Club Took $26 Million From Gas Industry
• Report: U.S. More Than Doubles Names on No-Fly List
• NATO Chief Contradicts Panetta on Afghan Timetable

The nation’s leading breast cancer charity is under intense scrutiny for its decision to cut off funding for breast cancer screening programs run by Planned Parenthood. Susan G. Komen for the Cure has confirmed it is withdrawing support for 19 of Planned Parenthood’s 83 affiliates, citing a new policy barring funding for any groups under investigation by local, state or federal authorities. Planned Parenthood’s finances are currently the subject of a probe led by anti-abortion Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida. "If you look at all the government reports which have already been done on Planned Parenthood, they’re completely cleared of any of the charges that Cliff Stearns claims he’s looking for. So this is a witch hunt," says Jodi Jacobson, the editor-in-chief of RH Reality Check, who recently wrote the article, "The Cancerous Politics and Ideology of the Susan G. Komen Foundation." We also speak with Patrick Hurd, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia and a recipient of a 2010 grant from Komen, and his wife, Betsi Hurd, who has participated in several Komen fundraising events and is currently battling breast cancer. "This isn’t about fundraising," says Patrick Hurd. "This is about making sure that we provide access to women, that we continue to provide education to women, that we continue to serve the women in the communities where Planned Parenthoods are located." [includes rush transcript]

Last week, President Obama called the United States "the Saudi Arabia of natural gas" in a speech about boosting domestic energy production. That concerns Wyoming farmer John Fenton, who already has more than two dozen gas wells on his property. The Environmental Protection Agency ruled in December that water contamination in Pavillion, Wyoming, was a result natural gas extraction and the controversial technique known as fracking. "Things changed pretty rapidly," Fenton says, after fracking took place on his land near Pavillion, and he now has to ship in water for drinking. "It didn’t take long to notice significant impacts to the water, the change to smell like diesel fuel. Methane was bubbling in the water. We had neighbors that actually had livestock die from drinking the water. And we also saw really huge impacts to our way of life. The farm fields are full of wellheads now that we have to work around. We have people coming and going off our property 24 hours a day. And we’ve seen over a 50 percent devaluation in the value of our land." We also speak with filmmaker Josh Fox, who was arrested for attempting to record a congressional hearing over the EPA report on Pavillion. Fox is producing a sequel to his award-winning film, "Gasland," about the impact of fracking across the United States. [includes rush transcript]

The Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox was handcuffed and arrested Wednesday as he attempted to film a congressional hearing on the controversial natural gas drilling technique known as fracking, which the Environmental Protection Agency recently reported caused water contamination in Pavillion, Wyoming. Fox directed the award-winning film, "Gasland," which documents the impact of fracking on communities across the United States, and is now working on a sequel. Fox says he was arrested after Republicans refused to allow him to film because he did not have the proper credentials. "We wanted to report on what happened [at the hearing]. I was not interested in disrupting that hearing. It was not a protest action," says Fox. "I was simply trying to do my job as a journalist and go in there and show to the American people what was transpiring in that hearing, so that down the line, as we know there will be a lot of challenges mounted to that [Pavillion, Wyoming] EPA report—and frankly, to the people in Pavillion, who have been sticking up for themselves and demanding an investigation into the groundwater contamination—and to make sure that people could view that in a larger forum than usually happens." [includes rush transcript]

• Panetta: U.S. to End Afghan Combat Operations in 2013
• Romney: "I'm Not Concerned About the Very Poor"
• Thousands Protest as Indiana Enacts Anti-Union "Right to Work" Law
• Washington State Senate OKs Same-Sex Marriage
• Dozens Killed in Syria Clashes; Russia Stalls U.N. Measure
• Julian Assange in Final Day of Extradition Hearing
• U.S. Lifts Military Aid Ban to Uzbekistan
• ACLU Sues Admin for Drone Strike Records
• NRC: Nuclear Reactors in Central and Eastern U.S. Face Earthquake Threats
• Trump to Endorse Gingrich Ahead of Nevada Vote
• Arizona State Senators Introduce Anti-Union Bills
• American Airlines to Lay Off 13,000 Workers
• At Least 74 Killed at Egyptian Soccer Match
• Occupy Wall Street Protester Gets Twitter Subpoena

A Haitian judge announced Monday former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier will face trial for corruption, but will not face any charges for the murders, disappearances, torture and other human rights abuses committed during his 15-year rule because the statute of limitations has expired. "Unless this ruling is overturned on appeal, it’s just going to be another confirmation to people in Haiti that the justice system is always on the side of the rich and the powerful and doesn’t serve even to punish the worst atrocities," says Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch. "For Jean-Claude Duvalier to come back to Haiti and not be prosecuted is a slap in the face to the thousands of people who were killed and tortured under his rule." [includes rush transcript]

Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón is known for ordering the arrest of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and seeking to indict members of the George W. Bush administration for their role in torturing prisoners. Now Garzón is facing trial himself, in Madrid, after right-wing groups objected to his investigation of atrocities committed by supporters of the dictator Francisco Franco. Garzón has used the doctrine of universal jurisdiction to investigate war crimes and torture across national lines. "The irony here, of course, is that he is being prosecuted in Spain for trying to apply the very principles that he so successfully promoted internationally," says Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch, who has been in the courtroom observing Garzón’s trial. [includes rush transcript]

As Mitt Romney surges in his bid for the Republican nomination, we take an in-depth look at his career and political record with reporter David Bernstein of the Boston Phoenix, who has covered Romney for many years. Bernstein details Romney’s shifting stances over the years on a number of key political issues to appease Republican voters in his bid for the party’s nomination. "The basic [Obamacare] system is entirely taken from what he did" with healthcare reform as Massachusetts governor, says Bernstein. Regarding Romney’s Mormon faith, Bernstein says, "Last time, in the 2008 election, he really was trying to win over ... Christian conservatives, down in the South and in Iowa. And he tried to talk to them about his Mormonism and tried to convince them that it wasn’t that different from their religion. It really didn’t take." [includes rush transcript]

Mitt Romney beat Newt Gingrich by 14 percent last night in the Florida primary, but he has yet to win a majority of votes in any state contest so far, and Gingrich has vowed to continue his fight. The Florida vote was the first contest of the year where only registered Republicans could participate, with independents and crossover Democrats restricted from casting ballots in the primary. "The Florida primary is a very big one for Mitt Romney," says David Bernstein, political writer for the Boston Phoenix who has covered Romney for years. "They knew that he was not likely to win a lot of states in the South, some of the conservative Midwest, so Florida was really the one place where they thought they had to win. And with Florida, they feel like the rest of the states really add up in their favor from this point." [includes rush transcript]

• Romney Wins Florida GOP Primary
• Obama Visits U.S. Automakers in D.C., Praises Industry Rebound
• U.S. Intelligence Chief: Iranian Leaders More Willing to Attack United States
• NATO Report: Prisoners Say Pakistan Aiding Taliban
• Russia Challenges Syria Measure at U.N. Security Council
• Egypt: Dozens Wounded in Pro-Democracy March
• Bahraini Protesters on Hunger Strike are Tear-Gassed in Prison Cells
• WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Battles Extradition in U.K. Court
• Breast Cancer Charity Faces Backlash After Defunding Planned Parenthood
• 12 Charged in Occupy Oakland Protests
• Judge Rejects Attempt to Block Camping Ban on Occupy D.C.
• Santorum Claims Conservative Mantle Ahead of Nevada Vote
• NATO Soldier Killed in Afghanistan
• Syria: 6 Killed in Fighting Near Lebanese Border
• U.S. Intel: Assad Regime Won’t Outlast Protests
• Oakland Protesters Face Mistreatment, Beatings
• Riot Police Clear Occupy Miami Encampment

This weekend the top documentary prize at the Sundance Film Festival went to "The House I Live In," which questions why the United States has spent more than $1 trillion on drug arrests in the past 40 years, and yet drugs are cheaper, purer and more available today than ever. The film examines the economic, as well as the moral and practical, failures of the so-called "war on drugs" and calls on the United States to approach drug abuse not as a "war," but as a matter of public health. We need "a very changed dialogue in this country that understands drugs as a public health concern and not a criminal justice concern," says the film’s director, Eugene Jarecki. "That means the system has to say, 'We were wrong.'" We also speak with Nannie Jeter, who helped raise Jarecki as her own son succumbed to drug addiction and is highlighted in the film. We air clips from the film, featuring Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow"; Canadian physician and bestselling author, Gabor Maté; and David Simon, creator of "The Wire." [includes rush transcript]

As Freddie Mac comes under scrutiny for betting billions on investments that profit if homeowners they issued loans to are locked into high-interest mortgages, we speak with Arturo de los Santos, a U.S. Marine veteran who was evicted last year in Riverside, California, after Freddie Mac and JPMorgan Chase foreclosed on his house last June. "We were trying to get the bank’s attention to review our case again. We couldn’t believe that after they had evicted us, they modified our loan," de los Santos says. "I called, and I told them, 'I thought we were doing the loan modification.' And they go, 'Well, we have a loan modification department and a foreclosure department, and the foreclosure department decided to sell the house.' So they sold the house." De los Santos and his family reoccupied their home in December with help from the Occupy movement, but face eviction again this week. [includes rush transcript]

As homeowners across the nation struggle to keep up with mortgage payments—and in the worse cases face foreclosure—a new investigation reveals that taxpayer-owned mortgage giant, Freddie Mac, made multi-billion-dollar investments that profited if borrowers stayed stuck in high-interest mortgages. Freddie Mac began increasing these investments dramatically in late 2010, at the same time it was making it harder for homeowners to get out of such mortgages. Several U.S. lawmakers and prominent economists are now calling for Congress and the White House to end this financial conflict of interest. This comes just one week after President Obama promised "no more red tape" for homeowners looking to refinance. We speak with Jesse Eisinger, a Pulitzer Prize-winning senior reporter at ProPublica, who co-authored the investigative report with NPR news. [includes rush transcript]

• Syria: Russia Opposes U.N. Resolution Against Assad
• Report: 13,000 Pro-Romney Ads Aired in Florida, 200 for Gingrich
• Gingrich: We Need a Government that Respects "Our Religion"
• Obama Defends Drone Strikes, Denies Civilian Toll
• Suspected U.S. Drone Kills 13 in Yemen
• Haiti's "Baby Doc" Will Stand Trial for Corruption, Not for Murders
• Despite Eviction Order, Occupy D.C. Protesters Remain in Parks
• Belgian Workers Hold General Strike to Protest E.U. Meeting
• Drought in Mexico Leaves Two Million Without Water
• East Haven's Top Cop Announces Retirement After Racial Bias Arrests
• Tennessee Lawmaker Threatens to “Stomp” Transgender People
• Romney Expected to Win Florida Primary
• U.S. Military Equipment Sale to Bahrain Faces Congressional Opposition
• 25 European Nations Agree to Stricter Budget Rules
• Senegal's Youssou N'Dour Accuses President Wade of Staging "Coup"
• Brazil: Chevron Faces $11 Billion Lawsuit for Oil Spill
• Republicans Tout Bill to Override Obama on Keystone Pipeline
• Water Tankers Called to Drought-Stricken Texas Town

Street battles are raging at the gates of the Syrian capital of Damascus, and activists say at least 62 people were killed nationwide on Sunday. This comes as United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on the Syrian leadership, particularly President Bashar al-Assad, to end the violence against the demonstrators immediately, and plans to take up a draft resolution this week calling on him to step down and transfer power. "They are just watching the bloodshed in Syria and keep talking and talking without doing anything," says Razan Zaitouneh, a lawyer and human rights activist, who joins us from Damascus. We also speak with Karam Nachar, a U.S.-based cyber-activist who is working with Syrian protesters via social media platforms. [includes rush transcript]

The National Park Service says it will begin enforcing a ban today on Occupy protesters camping overnight in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, two parks near the White House where they have been living since October. Members of the Occupy encampment say they will resist eviction. "We are going to do our best to make sure that they’re protected from what is effectively a criminalization of poverty and a criminalization of homelessness. By choosing to evict the people who have no place else to sleep, they’re effectively criminalizing those among us who are disenfranchised," says Justin Jacoby Smith, a member of the Occupy D.C. media team, who joins us live from McPherson Square. [includes rush transcript]

Police have arrested more than 400 Occupy Oakland protesters, as well as a number of journalists, in one of the largest mass arrests since the nationwide Occupy protests began last year. When protesters attempted to convert a vacant building into a community center on Saturday, witnesses say police used tear gas, bean bag projectiles and flash grenades. Several hours later, police said some of the protesters broke into City Hall. However, demonstrators claim they found the door to City Hall already ajar. We play a video report from Oakland filed by John Hamilton of KPFA. We get a response from Occupy Oakland member, Maria Lewis, to Oakland City Council Member Ignacio De La Fuente’s accusation that the Occupy movement is engaging in "domestic terrorism." "They are more interested in protecting abandoned private property than they are the people. And the idea that opening up a social center is terrorism is very telling of the narrative of the police state," Lewis says. [includes rush transcript]