Welcome to Cooper Union. What's happening with human rights around the world on Think Tech Live, broadcasting from a downtown studio in Honolulu, Hawaii in Moana, New York. I'm your host, Joshua Cooper. And the title of today's episode is Please for Leonard Peltier's Freedom Persist, the case raised at the UN and the US Senate. Today, I'm fortunate to be joined by three amazing activists and advocates working for the freedom of Leonard Peltier. And I wanna first go to Jean Groot. Jean, thank you so much for joining us. We know you're the co-director of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. Could you share with us who is Leonard Peltier? Yes, Leonard Peltier has been in prison for 47 years. And basically he's stood up for the people in many ways. One of the ways is that he was wrongly convicted for the death of two FBI agents in Ogoa, South Dakota. And also we always failed to mention that Joe Stunt has also killed him as a native man from Washington state. But Leonard represents indigenous peoples fight. And we've been fighting his government and the people for a very long time. We've faced many years of colonization. And one of the things that we're trying to do now is get Leonard Peltier free. And a lot of it's based on lies, total lies and the colonized stereotypes of Indians, all the things that Leonard represents is all the things that are happening to our people. Okay, the lies and the manipulation and the very fact that the federal government, the FBI will not admit their wrongs and how they coerced so many people during his trial. I mean, on day one, they went to Canada and they lied to the Canadian government, United States government just to get him returned here. And they based that on the affidavit done by Myrtle Forbear. And she was forced to do these affidavits but Canada would not extradite him without an eyewitness. That was the reason to bring her. And basically they told everybody that that was his girlfriend. They were like, who is this woman? We've never, ever seen her before. I mean, it was just an all right lie. So that's the way it all began. But it really began, you know, or political prisoners started way back at contact. We have crazy horse that was also thrown in jail, sitting both. I mean, our history repeats and Leonard is one of the historical figures right now that we are trying to free that has been railroaded, you know? So all the things that Leonard represents with all the fight that we have today with our people. And this all happened in Oglala, South Dakota. Basically the FBI came down there and did not even recognize its own law, broke many laws just to be down here. So it's a continual fight to get Leonard out as the political prisoner. And one of the things I do know is that I'm a survivor of the firefight and he protected us. And the things that we were doing in the community were basically organizing a community to be self-sufficient. I mean, we planted gardens, most of us there were under the age of 17, 18. So we were never charged, people that were charged with an adult. And you have a bunch of kids that got away from the FBI. I think that doesn't make them show face very good. But you know, good thing we were young, we could run up those hills fast. But I'm here now in the Oglala area. I'm at Red Claw Renewable Energy, which is near where the firefight happened.  My brother was 10 and he didn't, that didn't save him from being shot at. So, you know, it doesn't matter. When they want something, they break any law. And today we know that they break any law to keep him in there. So the story has been a long one. And 47 years is way too long. When the evidence, we have evidence and we have judges, we have senators, we have Congress people that can read and understand what the Constitution stands for. So basically, you know, honor your own laws, honor our treaties. I mean, we have a long list of things that need to be made right with our indigenous nations. Leonard Paltier's release is one of them. Leonard's family, he has been able to spend any time with his grandchildren. I'm a grandmother now. I can't even imagine, since I was the age of 16, he's been in prison. So when it comes down to it, there's not gonna be any peace or any type of progress how this case has been addressed. And everything that we talk about, we have documentation for it. I don't know why he's not released, but you know, the people should have more power than a few politicians that will not hide their scars of how they attack people. Gene, thank you so much for the historical perspective, bringing it back to colonization, but then also your firsthand account of surviving as well as a teenager. And we'll come back to you, Lenny Foster. It's so good to see you again. I know we've seen each other at the Universal Periodic Review and also at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. We know you serve as a spiritual advisor for Leonard Paltier, but also for more than 2,000 incarcerated Native Americans in 96 state and federal prisons. Thank you for joining us. And who is Leonard Paltier to you? I've known Leonard Paltier for over 50 years. I met him in Denver, Colorado in 1970. I became acquainted with him because we were both young, joined the American Indian Movement and we're both idealistic, working for our people's struggles, treaty rights and human rights for Indigenous people and treaty rights for our Indian people. He's a citizen of the Third World War, a modern man ban of Chippewas. And I believe he's 77 years old, he's four years older than me. And I've known him in the prison system when I first met him in USP Leavenworth, 1985. And I've visited him for 20 years at the Leavenworth Federal Prison, which is a maximum security prison. And my responsibilities for him was to provide him with spiritual support, engage in a cleansing and purification ceremony known as a Swellage. We prayed with the chanupa, the pipe. So that's how I got to know him. And I know him to be a reverent elder and he's become as such because of the long time of incarceration. He's a very talented painter, artist, and he's a very sincere human being. And I believe it's time he's released and be allowed to go home to Turtle Mountain and enjoy his remaining years with his family, his grandchildren, great-grandchildren. And it's only befitting and right that we work on his behalf to do that. We don't leave any brother behind on the battlefield. So we need to get him out of the federal beer prison. So that's one aspect of him that I know, but I also want to share that I Sundanced with him at Crotox Paradise in Rosebud, South Dakota, 1975. And shortly thereafter, he was captured in Canada and then he sent word out that he wanted me to come and visit him and provide him with the sweat-laught ceremonies and pray with a pipe with him. So I did that. At that time, there was a David Chief and Archie Fire where his spiritual advisors, and I joined that group from Arizona. I'm a dener. So I'm explaining my clan, the Taran House clan, born for Mount Cove. And my maternal grandparents are River Edge and my paternal grandparents are one who walks around. So that's who I am as a Dene citizen. And I've known Leonard Pell Tear since 1970. I know him through the Sundance. And I think that's something that's very important because that's one of the ancient old ceremonial practices of the Great Plains people. And the Sundance was brought to the Southwest by our elder Leonard Crodog in 1979, 1980. And we've been Sundancing in the Southwest ever since. So that's how I know Leonard Pell Tear. And like I said, I used to visit him every quarter at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth. And we did our sweat-laught ceremonies and he was one of 85 prisoners, native prisoners at that facility. So we became acquainted and became good friends through those years. Now he's at the USP Coleman, Florida. And I have the opportunity to visit him, but only in the visiting room, the warden prohibited me from participating in the sweat-laught with him out of the sweat-laught area. And I objected and I asked him, why? He said, we don't let friends or relatives come into the prison to do ceremonies with their relatives. And it's come to my attention that you and him are like friends. I said, how can I not be his friend? I've known him for 52 years, but that wasn't enough for him to change his order. So I can only visit him at the visiting room. But someday soon we'll be engaging in a sweat-laught ceremony again together and praying with the pipe. And like I said, he's a very reverent. He's a very humane person, very talented, very friendly. A real sense of a humor about him. And he's a very well-read, very self-taught. He keeps up with things out here in the free world. So that's how I know him to answer your question. Thank you so much, Lenny. And it is true, even Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama protest his imprisonment and request his immediate release. And just last week, our next speaker representative, Ruth Buffalo, was able to bring his case forward to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the 21st session. Representative Buffalo, could you share with us a bit? Who is Leonard Peltier to you and the amazing work that you're doing? Nido Shadzi, Nakhbaga'o. Marashi Mya Adeshez, Mabi Sigits, Madzigidads, Nakhbaga'o. Hello, good people. My name is Woman of Peers. I'm dialing in from the stolen lands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe people within the what is present day Red River Valley here in Pargo, North Dakota. It's an honor to be here with you and to have shared the words for Leonard Peltier on behalf of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. What who Leonard Peltier is to me, he represents and is a constant reminder of the injustice that we continue to face here within our own homelands of what is present day United States of America. Many of us know all too well, unfortunately, the over-representation of Native Americans within every level of criminal justice system, from juvenile justice system to county jails, city jails, state prisons, federal prisons. And so it's, it times up, we need Kim back in our homelands with his present day, North Dakota. I'm a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa Narikra Nation, and we just need to get them out of there. There's too many stories of loved ones that we know of who have been incarcerated, who have been denied compassionate release. And so this is really a sense of urgency and we need Leonard free. We know that we, none of us are free until Leonard is free. And so as state legislators, we have helped with different efforts in mobilizing the communities and calling for his release at, it's the end of October, about 24 native state legislators issued a letter to Biden calling for his release. We've also had the National Caucus of State legislators for Native American also issue a letter and a resolution to Biden calling for Leonard's release. And also the DNC native caucus has also followed suit. Even the North Dakota Democratic Nonpartisan League has issued a statement calling for Leonard's release. And so we're trying to help where we can within our reach, but I've had the opportunity to talk to Leonard a handful of times and he's very, very upbeat and very, you can tell he's a very kind hearted person. And we just need to get him out of there. We need him to walk out of there and to return to his homelands here in North Dakota back to his family, his friends within the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Indians reservation, the homelands here. And I was born in 1977 and he's currently 77 years old. So we talk about his experience in boarding school and all of the injustices surrounding that. And so Leonard to me is somebody that needs to be released. He is our Nelson Mandela and none of us are free until Leonard's free. That's who Leonard is to me. Thank you so much. And it also brings up not only were you speaking at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the UN Headquarters in New York, but also just last week, Senator Brian Schatz who's the chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, press attorney general, Merrick Garland on the status of Belter's clemency petition as Garland testified in an unrelated Senate budget hearing. So it is good that the world is aware. Jean, do you wanna share with us why this case is so important in the US but also around the world? This case basically, like I said earlier, it represents an attitude that the United States government has had against native nations. Okay, we have many treaties we're here from the Dakota nation. So our treaties have not been honored our land has been stolen. I mean, Leonard represents every bit of that, his treatment and how he's being treated. So there's just so many connections in so many ways that his treatment is related to the way our nations have been treated, basically. So I think that one of the things that we can do is educate ourselves or education or past historical treatment has been lost. At some point, we don't teach it in our schools. They don't tell about the things that are going on. The unjust, I mean, he represents everything about the judicial system that is going on to native people. And we have people going to prison that the average non-native won't even do time for. But because we have a racist system, I live in Rapid City, which is one of the most we call it the deep north. And we have people in prison, for we have one of the only laws in our state where somebody can go to prison for having drugs in your pee. It's just outrageous. We have a lot of people with preferred treatment, not the penal system. So there's so many attacks on our people. And Leonard just represents an overall of so many of these unjust attacks, the bias system. I mean, we don't have access to by justice is what the bottom line is. We don't have the money to bail our people out. So there's a difference there between the treatment of us and them. Thank you so much, Jean. And it reminds me of a quote of Peltier. He said, we need to do more than just what is right. We need to join together and right what is wrong. And I think the work that you've been doing this entire time leads towards that. Lenny, can you share with us why this case is so important and matters so much to the world? No. Leonard's represents the resistance of the indigenous people, the Indian people. And we were never taught our true history, the culture, the languages and the schools and upbringing, everything that was taught was basically distorted or outright law. And then when we start to question some of that, we become an enemy and throughout our lives where Indian people are targeted, once we leave the reservation, go into the border towns, into the cities. So it becomes a, to be a target, it becomes a very difficult life to exist under a double standard of society. And with that, it's very difficult to basically exist and make a living. And the laws are written where we're basically targeted and it becomes a very difficult existence in this society and to go to other places where basically it's still our land, but you don't have any native or indigenous people there, except maybe in the Navadios or the ghetto or places where you're not able to enjoy their existence in this society. And to enjoy their existence as a human being. So it's a very difficult, it has become difficult and we were brought to a point where we resist it and then to be a resistor, you're targeted. And that's one reason the movement and the prisons brought about the American Indian movement in the upper Midwest, in Minnesota, places like that. And it grew and it became basically a threat to the FBI. And I participated in the Trail of Broken Treaties caravan where we ended up taking over the BI building in 1972. I was at Wounded Knee for the whole 71 days and engaging in some very intense firefights. Then I realized the seriousness of standing up for your treaties, your rights as an Indian person, human rights for indigenous people, for Indian people and just honoring or seeking the full compliance and the enforcement of the treaties because almost every one of these agreements have been broken and to question it, you become a threat. And so that was my experience when I left the Naval Reservation to go to school and I was up in Pasco, I was in the Colorado state in Fort Collins as I ended up joining the American Indian movement in Denver, Colorado under the late Vernon Balport. And he introduced me to Dennis Banks and Clyde Balcourt. And as I mentioned, I met Leonard Paltier and I met Bill Means and Russell Means and Ted Means and people like that and also the women who were the backbone of this struggle. So it was a good experience for me and this movement spread throughout the whole country and we were a part of that Leonard Paltier was part of the movement with the Northwest Group and I was with the Denver American Indian movement. So it was a beautiful experience then going through the Sundance that made us very confident in ourselves and then the more learning and educating ourselves about the treaties and the mistreatment of our people resulted in being a real warrior. And that whole experience many of us went through and that was my experience with Leonard Paltier because I met him and then he was with a different chapter and I was with a different chapter but we all ended up doing the same thing and I applaud our sister there for being in the legislative process and that's a difficult one. I know something about the legislative process because I had some bills introduced in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah to protect religious rights and religious freedom for Native Americans in the prison system. Mahalo Lenny for that lifetime of liberation and as you mentioned, Representative Ruth may be able to move to her briefly just for her to share why this case was so important and what was the impact from what she shared last week at the permanent forum. And I remember hearing the words of, Leonard recently said, if I'm not guilty of the shooting, I'm not guilty. I'd like to go home to spend what years I have left with my great grandkids and my people and that was really what you shared last week, Representative Ruth. But sure, Mazikidads, thank you Lenny and Jean for all of the work that you've done. It's sad that we have to continue to fight every day and just think of how much that impacts your daily health because that is stress, that's chronic stress and so just hope that you're taking good care of yourselves because we need you here for many more years to come. And yeah, I'm thankful to have been able to say a few words at the UN, the listening session via Zoom and it's the work that Lenny and Jean are doing. It's so important for all of us because it has to stop. It has to stop. When do things change? When are we going to have the real change that we need? Families deserve to be together, especially the first peoples of these lands and it raises the question, why are we not held in high regard within our own home lands? Why do we have our elder behind bars today? And so I see so many injustices and it's terrible and it needs to stop. And so we hope that by Biden releasing Leonard, it'll bring a renewed hope for the first peoples of these lands that we too have a right to the American dream that is so often spoken by the founders of our country but we deserve true justice, period. And we don't have justice right now, not until Lenny Leonard is free. So I just wanna say, Maud Ziggitadz, thank you for allowing me to share a few words. Thank you. I know we only have a couple moments left. Jean, would you like to share, what's the state of Leonard Peltier's case and why we believe now with President Biden that we might turn a page going forward? Yeah, there's always hope that one of the presidents will actually acknowledge his own constitution. And one of the things that I don't know that's been holding it back is we know that his Leonard's applications for clemency have been held back and we know it's the FBI. And if they want change and they want to make some great changes, I mean, he's already made some good changes putting Dev Halvin in as the secretary of interior. There's a lot of good changes. Now, at least in Leonard Peltier would actually show that there's somebody that has some real belief in the United States constitutional system. Now they disacknowledge it, they make their own laws to cover their own track, which is not the so-called American way. So let's live with reality and not really expect that Leonard's just gonna stay in there because they ignore that part of our constitutional end or human rights. I mean, there's human rights being violated here still. And when you go back to the day massacre days when the people were given medals, I mean, that is so ugly that you get medals to massacre unarmed people. We're still in that state right now with Leonard Peltier and the Oglala Firefight.  But that's not nothing to the massacres that our people have felt over the generations. Thank you so much, Jean, Ryan brings us to where we are. I know we're on the final moment. I remember one quote from Leonard Peltier that showed us the wisdom that Lenny was sharing. He said, I don't know how to save the world. I don't have the answers or the answer. I hold no secret knowledge as how to fix the mistakes of generations past and present. I only know that without compassion and respect for all of us inhabitants, none of us will survive nor will we deserve to. And that really brings up his wisdom with the climate crisis, the health crisis. And I think all of you for joining us here on Cooper Union. And I think we definitely should have a second show looking at what'll happen when of course Lenny, you're there in the sweat lodge with him and pointing out how we've been able to turn a page and move forward. Thank all three of you for all the work that you have done in the past and continue doing every day. And I echo what Representative Ruth Buffalo said of take care of yourselves because we're all needed to keep going forward. Mahalo. Thank you.


To Keeping the World Company, I'm Jay Fiedel. We're going to talk about an update on Israel's war against Hamas. With Gene Rosenfeld and my co-host, Tim Appichella, we're going to follow up on our discussion last week because an awful lot has happened. Joe Biden went for a day, came back, tried to keep things cool. But today there's more rockets. There's more air attacks. There's a story of some drones and missiles in the Red Sea that were shot down by an American destroyer, possibly heading toward Israel, probably in my view heading toward Israel. And there's increased violence around the Arab world, possibly likely related to the narrative that was put out by Hamas after the hospital explosion. Even though it's pretty clear that the hospital explosion was by the Jihad, not by the Israelis. Okay, so let's get updated here.  What are the significant events this week? Well, I'm going to go right to where your introduction went in quote Mark Twain. A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth is still putting on its shoes. And as before we came onto the show, Gene correctly said, it's all about the narrative. And if you can capture the narrative and keep throwing it down and repeating it, that becomes the new accepted truth, regardless of what the truth eventually becomes. And as of this morning, about 10 minutes ago, CNN just reported that U.S. intelligent agencies have confirmed that this missile that hit that hospital definitely was from the Islamic Jihad. I mean, it did not come from Israel. And so that's the truth. Yet now we have as a result of what I call suspect reporting and made assumptions. We had reporting that has canceled a critical meeting in the Middle East with Jordan and Egypt with President Biden. That meeting was canceled as a result of those stories and mission half accomplished. This trip there was half accomplished and it should have been 100% accomplished. So that's an update is that this this false narrative put out by Hamas that 432 people were killed. The estimate now is somewhere between 100 and 200 individuals still 100 and 200 too many. But it wasn't Israel that bombed a hospital and Israel wouldn't bomb a hospital on purpose. They just wouldn't do it. But there you go. There's the narrative and Gene's spot on again that it's not the truth is never the important part is how you can just repeat a lie and as an all good propaganda, repeat it and repeat it and get it out there first. And that's what happened in this case. Yeah, indeed, you know, and the number of people who are injured or killed in the hospital parking lot hospital itself was not blown up. It was only the parking lot, you know, keeps changing. And you know, it goes to the question of whether Hamas has ever been telling the truth about the number of people are inflating that number. I noticed also an Israeli analysis of the footage that they've been playing out that Hamas have been playing out to the world. And the Israeli analysis shows that a good part of that footage is made up. It is nothing to do with now or Gaza or the Israelis or Hamas. They just grabbed it elsewhere and been telling everyone that it reflects what happened in Gaza. Interesting, you know. Yeah, let me interrupt here. You know, we've talked about the role of the media for a lot of issues, particularly reporting on Donald Trump. At what point does the media have to look at their sources and say, to what degree of suspicion shall we hold before we put it on the front page or as a leading news item on CNN or MSNBC? I have no answer to that, but I hope it comes soon. In any event, let me go to Jane. And Jane, you mentioned before the show that it really didn't matter what actually happened at the hospital. What counts is the narrative. Can you talk about that? Well, first of all, it does matter that people were killed and injured and they were innocents and civilians. And it's very interesting to look at the traditions in Islam and Judaism over whether civilian casualties are acceptable under the rules of war. There are different rules of war in Islam and Judaism. So that's number one. Number two, what I meant by that is that the stories we tell ourselves motivate our behavior and our attitudes. And we're emotional beings before we're thinking beings. So our emotions rule at times of great crisis and drama. And so what happens in history then becomes a function of that rather than the logical information we can gather about any given thing. History takes place after the event. That's when we reflect and our emotions die down and there's a tranquil period in which we can take a reckoning and after wars, this is what happens. And sometimes we have courts and reconciliation committees and else that not during the time when things are happening. It's happening too fast. And as they say, the history of the event is told by the survivors. Yes and no. We have revisionists in history. That's history is sort of like science. In fact, what I do is a social science. It's qualitative analysis. And after the fact, somebody will write something, put a theory together. It'll sound very logical. And then somebody will investigate their sources and go back over it, get new sources and then come back with a revised idea in history. This is why we have Confederate flags disappearing from the American south because the narrative was that it was all states rights that caused the Civil War and freedom for the South. In fact, they've suppressed the true facts, which was it was about slavery that took a hundred years, almost not quite 75 years, let's say for that to become to replace the dominant narrative. So you see how fast a narrative and the stories we tell ourselves becomes more important than what we put together in a cool, logical fashion. You know, you were also mentioning before the show that, you know, the press doesn't want to talk about controversial things. Doesn't want to publish articles that talk about controversial things. The media doing on this, we're in day 13 now, and I'm wondering how you feel the media has done in terms of reporting the things the way they happen. Well, that's a big word, the media. I guess the media are the major outlets that people listen to on television, on their on their screens, which includes print media, New York Times, Washington Post, largely the Guardian in the in the Western world anyway. In general, they're governed by very strong canons of journalism. Their their objective is is to gather information. Information must be carefully confirmed by their own organizations. And NBC did a very good job of this, for example, when it came up with actual documents from dead Jihadi terrorists in Kaboots and found in their pockets, they found maps of schools and school cafeterias and residences. And in these Kaboots is where they were to go and take hostages. They were given these instructions in Arabic and it's very, very detailed. And they came out with that. And and that's what they do best. What they do worst is everyone is invested in this one way or another, emotionally and we don't realize the extent to which our preconceived notions determine what we select to present. Thirdly, we're going through a period in the United States where. Discussion is being censored. It's being censored on many different levels. I mean, the Republicans have a point when they talk about school campuses where certain discussions can't take place in class or people report on other people. That is chilling and Stanford, for example, has a whole new initiative now to increase the freedom of speech on campuses. So we have to be be careful because the media is very, very there's no more controversial subject than religion and war. And the media is also, in a sense, preventing some ideas from coming out because they're too controversial. I believe I'm pretty careful about what I write and I document it. And I sent in a couple little essays recently to our local newspaper, and which normally print, fortunately, I'm very happy with them. What I write and I didn't get any responses.   And what you write is going to be important for public consumption. In this climate, a laboratory scientist's conclusion is equivalent to an influencer's opinion. You know, the kind of knowledge and the epidemic of ignorance in our country is you can track it with the rise of the Internet. Where does religion play in this war now? You know, you've been writing about religion and terrorism for a long time. Where does it play? And you did write an article about that. Can you talk about it? Oh, the one on religious confrontations played by different rules? Yes. Yes. Okay. I went back to an experience I had in 1996 when I was called by the FBI to give them an interpretation of what a religious war is. What a hostile person said inside of a farmhouse that was ringed by FBI people and was holding, quote, hostages. And in that experience, which took place with two of my colleagues. After that, I wrote an analysis of the whole thing, but it ended peacefully and it ended peacefully because the FBI employed novel methods of resolving it and didn't listen to the clamor of the press and the population of go in there with guns blazing. That was an 81 day standoff. It was the Freeman standoff in Jordan, Montana. And it took what we did is we employed different, different things. And one of the most important things that the FBI did differently is that they gave the ultimate say in how to handle things on a daily basis to their negotiators, not to their hostage rescue team, which is military, basically paramilitary. So what happened at Waco is they gave they gave more power to the field commanders who reversed the agreement that they had made as to how they were going to handle things at the end and there was a bloodbath. And so scholars came in and the FBI consulted with scholars and eventually they did some self-analysis and they did things differently. So I took the principles that I learned from that and the analysis I wrote up and I applied them to this situation under a Jewish logical rule called Calva Homer, which means what obtains in the smaller case may obtain in the larger case. So you have a smaller case of a confrontation with a religious group in Montana. The principles that guide the peaceful resolution of that may have something to say about what applies in the larger case of a religious war in Israel. So I just wrote about that. And as a result of that, I said, and this happens to agree with Jewish rules of just war, by the way, that before you go in to lay siege to a city, you have to initiate negotiations. And we all know that the principles of negotiations are governed by what happens on the ground in any kind of a hot conflict. So it's probably best to open up an avenue for negotiations, even if the parties don't yet want to sit down. And I think that's what Lincoln did when he went to cutter because cutter is the logical place mediator in this before you go in with guns blazing. And the longer you take time, I said, is on Israel's side. The the power that's doing the sieging can determine how long it's going to take and what steps it's going to take. So that is in accord also with Jewish just war principles. And if you have a minute, I'll just lay out the four principles that I got from Margo Kitt's book on religion or war. And that is on laying siege to a city. You have to determine first, can it be captured without destroying it? Secondly, negotiations must precede any subject gating of the city to hunger, thirst or disease. So that's an important principle in this case. Three, you have to send emissaries of peace for three days before you lay siege. That would be equivalent to approaching cutter and saying, would you please talk to Hamas, some of whose leaders are actually in your country and see if we can establish at a track of negotiation parallel with the track of the military and for. A side to the city must be left open as an escape route. Now that you might apply that to Israel's attempt to tell the Palestinians, they have to go south. There are complicating factors of that that don't work too well. But those are the main four rules. There's nothing approaching that in Islam, I must say. So let me let me turn it to Tim for a minute and taking those four principles and, you know, everything we know, including what we know about the way Hamas operates and the fact of the massacre and the fact that they have a few hundred hostages. You think it would work? You know, actually, Jean makes a great point is that time does help because Israelis, Americans, we're we're emotional. Everyone's emotional. That's the human condition. And when Joe Biden said yesterday, he compared our experience with the 9-11 and he understood, you know, the need for justice, the need for immediate justice. But he also said in the same sentence almost is that mistakes were made as we as we dished out justice as a result of the 9-11 attacks. And I think that was a very controversial thing for him to do. But he did it and I'm glad he did it because it was to say to Israel and the world at the same time at the same podium microphone that let's not be hasty and let's not get into something that you're going to regret and can't extricate yourself out of. I think he's referring into, you know, boots on the ground invasion. So, yeah, I think it does work. And I think these four rules are very, very wise for us to keep in mind. And hopefully the American public also has that in mind as before we blunder into our next military conflict. Hmm. I'm sorry, Jean, I wanted to pose it to Tim, but I also want to pose it to you with those four rules work. And what gloss would you put on them? You know, what details would you modify to make it more likely they would work? Well, you know, I'm not alone who was here. Tom Friedman wrote a wonderful column a few days ago in the New York Times and other columnists have also echoed this. That going into Gaza and executing urban warfare is not something that should proceed without determining whether you can handle that and isolate the 30,000 Hamas members from the two million Gazans that are there. These people are hostages in a way because the rules that the jihadists play by are different even from the rules in classical Islam. They have their own rules based on a scholar named Ibn Tamiya and the 1200s that al-Qaeda privileges about. You know, they'll make martyrs of anybody. Martyrdom is is held in very high esteem. And they will basically not take cognizance of the impact on their own civilian population. Yes, what they're aiming for is the victory of their version of Islam, which is very puritanical over and above any other governing power or any other identity. And even those that are Muslims that side with the non-Muslims are considered fair game. They're just as bad. So it's a very stark polarization between those that are on your side and the rest of the world. So that the ends then justify the means, but martyrdom becomes a a desired, almost outcome. And the fact is that the people are the sea in which the terrorists are swimming. And I don't see how Israel can possibly go into Gaza City while there are one million civilians there, hold up. They have to take care of those people in the south first. So negotiation has to also take place. It's not impossible to negotiate with any entity if you take into consideration what their ultimate objectives are and you are willing to give up something that is valuable to them. Well, I remind you that Golden Maiaz had a lot of good quotes.  She said that way back when. And I really wonder if this the four rules will work to separate the 30,000 Hamas from the two million ordinary work a day, although there are not a lot of jobs in Gaza, the ordinary Palestinians in Gaza. That's pretty hard. And Hamas is not going to easily agree to that. So these negotiations would have to result in some kind of separation between those who are committed to killing Israelis and the ordinary people. And since Hamas has the guns and is already using them in many, many ways as human shields, why would Hamas ever negotiate a kindly result there? Because they've already set forth their conditions. They have conditions that are not acceptable to the Israelis, but they have conditions that is always a starting point. Secondly, what happens on the ground influences the negotiations. Negotiations should precede what happens on the ground. That's why the Israelis need to hold back. Not only that. Thirdly, if they go in under these conditions now, they will suffer higher casualties on their own forces because urban warfare is the absolute worst type of warfare. And military commanders will tell you that. Thirdly, they're going to lose the hostages because they will be. The consequence of a purely military attack initiative. So it has to be it has to go on a two track thing. And time is on the Israeli side. They're the ones that control the time factor. And we found in this smaller case of a religious confrontation, it made all the difference in the outcome. If you if you compare Waco and its consequence of Oklahoma City, which you can kind of extrapolate to the consequence on world opinion. Vis-a-vis Israel and these outbursts vis-a-vis Israel. If you compare that with the Freeman crisis and what happened there. Now, you can't always guarantee that these principles will work, but we have some evidence that they do work. Yeah, I'd like to add maybe a subset or a fourth point to Jean's previous points, and that is urban warfare. All we have to do is go back in history and look at the siege of Stalingrad and how the buildings that were decimated, which Israel is doing right now, became the perfect hiding place for all all the all the Russians and the Germans to hide behind. And so the casualty rate went exponentially higher because you didn't have an open playground of the field of battle. And so if Israel goes in with with ground troops, it's going to be a hard, bloody slog, and I think Israel will sustain a lot of casualties trying to root out Hamas fighters. Nobody will disagree with that. Nobody will disagree that it's not a bad idea to try mediation, to try negotiation before any further action. But query, Jean, what what are the conditions that Hamas laid out and how far are they from the reality of an agreeable solution? Well, they're very far from the reality of a solution, but that's how things always start out. I mean, we negotiated with the North Koreans to put a ceasefire in place for the Korean War. We negotiated with the Vietnamese. We've negotiated with some pretty hard individuals and whether you get a cessation of hostilities, whether you get a different objective from an end to the war, still you aim for a better outcome. And one of the conditions is for the release of the hostages. They want every single Palestinian hostage released seven thousand from Israeli jails. Yes, that's number one that they want. Secondly, they don't want to be rooted out of power. They want to be left alone and not punished for what they've done. Those are the two initial objectives and they threaten. And if that isn't the case, then they will involve their other allies in a multi-front war with Israel. The narrative will proceed right now. I said time is on the Israeli side, but time also governs the narrative that goes around the world and especially in the Middle East, which is a tinderbox, but we don't want to have explode. That has implications for what's happening with China and Russia, who in the meantime right now are meeting to for their outreach to the unaligned world to replace the American hegemony, the Pax Americana that's in the world. So things are happening on a global stage as well that can be affected by this hot war. I see these things as all connected. And that's another essay that I wrote. And it's also I've talked about it on this program. We have to bear in mind all the dots connect one way or another. And if you if a butterfly, you know, moves its wings here, it's going to result in some sort of calamity there. So, Tim, one of the things that that James suggested is is we have to look Israel has. However, this works out, let's assume for this discussion that the four points apply that there is a negotiated result along the lines that she has just described somewhere in the middle of the two positions that somehow would would result in a peace. But she has also suggested that Israel has to be very careful about the security of its borders, more careful perhaps than Netanyahu has been recently. So query, how in the world can Israel prevent this from happening again, assuming all that? How can it secure its borders in a way to avoid a repetition? Oh, boy, that's a tough question, Jay, because we all know that walls don't work, be it the wall trying to separate Mexico from southern United States, or in this case, an impenetrable wall between, you know, the Gaza area and Israel. Walls are they're permeable and there's ways of getting around it. And so that I don't have an answer to that because I think it takes, obviously it's going to take negotiations and an improvement of relations. And I don't see that happening anytime soon. It's going to take a regional effort to to calm the temperature down right now. And certainly to improve, you know, life in between the Palestinians and the Israelis. And that we're talking decades that have been attempted to do this. And it hasn't worked yet. We've seen some small improvements, you know, the the agreements with Egypt and the Sinai position and things like that in the past and the Camp David peace agreements. But it's it's going to take time and a military solution to a humanitarian crisis. I don't think it's going to always work and it's not working. Well, that's my long answer. My short answer is time is not on our side now. CNN just reported before we came on the air is that two of the hostages have been found dead. It was a family of five that were kidnapped and the granddaughter and the grandmother have been found murdered. And so now that you have reports of hostages dead in in the Gaza area, that just up the ante for Israel to take action. Also, they keep firing rockets into Israel from Gaza. Today they resumed in great numbers. So, Jean, but let me let me go back to, you know, the four points, the possibility of a negotiated result. You know, Israel's had, you know, what five wars since 1948 in each case it was attacked. And then there have been resolutions of those five wars one way or the other where there was a truce or some sort of peace. And in each case, what it gave up was Perik. What I mean is, for example, you give up Gaza and you're supposed to get peace. There was never peace. This is what is the third Gaza war already and only the past generation or so. So how can Israel protect its borders in the event of a negotiated peace, if at all? Before this attack by Jihadists on Israel, there was a process of normalization occurring in which there was an acceleration peaceful agreements between Israel and its neighbors. We were facing at that time an incipient agreement with Saudi Arabia, which represents all of the Sunni world in Islam, Islam is split right now between Shia and Sunni. We can exploit that for peace. Israel can exploit that for peace, because Saudi Arabia has concern about the growing power of Iran. So it makes sense, maybe, for Mohammed bin Salman to make peace with Israel. Secondly, and we need we need not lose sight of the of the what has happened that is good. Netanyahu is very unpopular right now in Israel. Gershengorenberg, who is an American who made Aliyah to Israel about 20 years ago, told me then that the election of Netanyahu was not a good sign because he's a hardliner and he supports the settlements in the West Bank is is under all kinds of pressures. And and this new generation is forming new terrorist groups to combat. It's a symmetrical warfare on the West Bank. And and Israel. You know, needs a new regime in power with new objectives and needs to reach out to partners for peace. The spirit of the Oslo agreements is still is still part of the Abrahamic Accords and normalization can proceed. But Jihadists want to disrupt that. That was a major major of terrorist objective. And these are not your ordinary, even original Hamas people. These are more like Al Qaeda. They have the support of Al Qaeda and Somalia in the Indian subcontinent right now. They are forming agreements with Al Qaeda. Shia and Sunni terrorist groups are getting together for the first time since ISIS. So it really is kind of a fractured situation where you have this terrorist against states like Jordan and Egypt and Saudi Arabia who want a peaceful solution for all of their people and also between the Gazans, who are many of them, are ordinary Muslims who don't subscribe to the extreme genocidal and martyrdom concepts of the Hamas militants that are holding them hostage as well as the Israelis hostage. It's a complicated situation. Yeah, how confident are you, Tim? This will be resolved in an amicable way. What's your level of optimism or pessimism? After Joe Biden's trip, which had positive implications for sure. And not only there, but here. What are your thoughts about the future? Well, I think on the short term, it's going to continue to get worse. I think in the near term, it will cool down. And in the long term, I hate to say it. I think it's just the quagmire we've been in for 50 some odd years in the Middle East. I had a question for Jean and this this alliance that was being forged between Saudi Arabia, the United States and Israel. To what degree, Jean, do you think that was a motivating factor for Hamas to attack Israel? Well, you know, the plans for this attack have been in place since May of 2021. The Abraham Accords have been proceeding, but I don't think at the time Hamas considered this, they were thinking of such wider causes for their terrorist attack. I think they were looking at the fact that the al-Aqsa mosque had been trespassed on again by hardline Israeli types. And anytime you mess with al-Aqsa mosque, you're going to have a blowback from Palestinians because it's a sacred issue, sacred ground and sacred issues. Sacrilege is different from just ordinary grievances and crimes, and it's like a trigger point. But I do think now and in the final planning stages, they are very, very concerned to disrupt the normalization process and the Abraham Accords and the Oslo peace process because they see that these states like Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt are putting the Palestinians on the back burner. And this is like a kid in a class who's being ignored and has grievance, wants to come to the attention of everybody's going to act out like a juvenile link went almost out of time. Jean, let me ask you this. What's your level of confidence that a solution, an amicable solution will be reached? What's your level of pessimism or optimism? Not only for the solution of this current conflagration, but also for the continuation of the state of Israel. I think one of the negotiating factors could be that the current Israeli government step down and a new government be put in place. Secondly, I think Israel has to take a hit. It was defeated by a surprise attack. It was caught on awareness and Netanyahu regime is being blamed for that. And I will remind you that even Golda Meir had to step down after the 1973 war. This normally takes place afterward, but it could be a negotiated one. Thirdly, Israel is going to have to give up prisoners. They're going to have to take the hit because they suffered a defeat. And fourthly, I don't think the IDF is going to stand down. I think they're going to go into Gaza at some point. And they're going to try to root out this jihadist factor in Hamas, because there's no going forward when the jihadists are in in control of two million people and holding them hostage while Israel is trying to contain the situation and is creating a situation that has blowback with Palestinians throughout the world, claiming that Israel is imprisoning them as an apartheid regime is doing all these things and bringing them up before the criminal court. So I think very, very pragmatic and tough things have to take place. And yes, the idea has to go in there at some point. But in the meantime, what's not being done by Israel, even more so than it should be done, it should be working with Egypt and Jordan to ameliorate the condition of the Gazans who are suffering, who have evacuated Gaza and at Gaza City. And they have to be very, very careful how they use force in this. It has to somehow be part of a larger process with other parties involved, including the United States for bringing peace back to the situation. I'll add a point, see if you agree. Israel has to get much sharper on public relations. They have to have, you know, privacy in their narrative, which they really haven't had, I think they operate on the assumption that people will read and think and find the truth. But it doesn't really work that way in today's world. You have to present the truth and you have to present it in all media, especially social media, and you have to keep on presenting it. Israel should learn to do that better. Don't you agree? Unfortunately, the time for reflection is after not during. Right now, Israel has to secure its borders, protect itself. It's still being attacked by rockets. And it's still suffering from very bad PR right now at the moment. And its hostages are at risk. Jean Rosenthal has two articles on our website. You can look them up and read them. And they're under articles and blogs in the top menu of our website. There'll be more, I hope, looking forward to that. Tim, you get the last chance. What are your closing thoughts? Closing thought is that Israel can stop the incoming missiles, regardless of where they're coming from. Hopefully, this does not expand from the other countries. These missiles came from Yemen this morning, that that stops and the four principles that Jean outlined are followed. And that leads to a cooling of tempers, so to speak, of emotions. And that Jean's right that this current administration probably should step down and allow a coalition government in Israel to replace it. And also, you consider the United States to try to hold on to Joe Biden because of the players on the platform. He is the best suited to deal with this on behalf of the United States. Thank you, Jean Rosenthal. Thank you, Tim Epichella. Aloha.


Head it right now. Thank you. To go. Good morning. This is convening of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. And before we get started, I just want to extend my appreciation to our team members who have been helping on our flood to the extent they're hearing or anybody can pass along. They're busy at work taking care of some difficult arrangements. So to the draft King's folks, thank you for your patience. And we're going to get started. Good morning to our team. And it is Monday, July 24th. It's an adjudicatory hearing before the Massachusetts Gaming Commission relative to the alleged non-compliance of Crown Mass Gaming LLC doing business as draft Kings. With Massachusetts General Law Chapter 23N, Section 305, CMR 2.7.01, subsection 2A. In the Massachusetts Sports Wagering Catalog, I will refer to Crown MA Gaming LLC as draft Kings. My name is Kathy Judstine, and I'm the Chair of the Gaming Commission, and I'm joined today by my colleagues, Commissioner Eileen O'Brien, Brad Hill, Commissioner Nikisha Skinner, and Commissioner Jordan Maynard. The entire commission will preside over the hearing and decision of this matter. This hearing will be conducted in accordance with 205 CMR 101.01, Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 30A, sections 10 and 11, and 801 CMR 1.02 Informal Fair hearing rules. This hearing is being conducted via remote collaboration technology. Before we begin, I'd like to explain the process that will govern this proceeding. First, the notice of hearing was provided to draft Kings in advance of today's hearing. It exemplifies the alleged non-compliance incident. That will be the focus of the commission's attention at this hearing and the relevant statutes and regulations. A pre-hearing conference was also conducted. Personed to Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 23N, sections 4 and 16 and 205 CMR 232, the commission may hold a statutory hearing and at the conclusion of the hearing may decide to issue a civil administrative penalty and pose conditions on draft Kings license, suspend draft Kings license, revoke draft Kings license, reprimand draft Kings and or assess a fine on draft Kings. At the conclusion of my opening comments, this proceeding will commence with the presentation of the evidence of this matter. And specifically, if the commission will first call Zachary Mercer, IEB Enforcement Council and any other witnesses listed on the notice of hearing or witness list, draft Kings may ask questions of any witness who testifies. Kings will then be called upon to make a presentation and to call additional witnesses if any. Any commissioner may question any witness who is testifying at any point during or after their presentation. And draft Kings may raise any objection at desires at any time. However, the basis for all objections must be clearly stated. Finally, at the conclusion of all the evidence, draft Kings will be provided an opportunity to make a closing statement to summarize its view of the evidence. And before we begin, I understand that there are pre-marked exhibits that have been prepared in advance of this hearing. Those exhibits are identified on the exhibit list and that's been circulated. They are as follows. Exhibit one, investigations and enforcement bureau, sports waitering, non-compliance incident review, report dated April 13, 2023. Exhibit two, notice of July 24, 2023 hearing. Tracking, so are there any objections to the exhibit one and two being marked and entered into evidence? No, there are not. And may I have, I'm so sorry. I don't have your full name. Is it, is it list? Is it attorney list? Yeah, of course. Sorry, I'll briefly introduce everyone here on the draft Kings team. So my name is Nicholas. I'm the senior director of regulatory operations. We also have Pete Harrington, who's our regulatory counsel, and Keir Adams, who's the senior manager of the training team. Okay, so attorney Harrington and then I'm sorry, one more colleague. Yes, his name is Keir Adams. Okay. Yes, I see him now. And position again, please. He's senior manager from our training team. Thank you. All right, thank you. And so you are raising no objections, either Mr. List or attorney Harrington to these exhibits one and two? No objections. Excellent, thank you. So those exhibits shall be admitted into evidence and in order to maintain a clean record, I ask that documents are referred to by exhibit number. And at this point, I'd ask if draft Kings would like to stipulate to exhibit one, the IEB sports wagering non-compliance incidents review report. I suspect that you had that discussion during your pre-trial conference. Yes, we did point out one like small language error, which we responded to prior to the hearing, but yes, I think we can stipulate to the report. In the subject line, we get issues in UTA when it should be referred to as UTR, I believe. Okay, and that edit is noted. Mr. Attorney Mercer, are you all set with that? It is, yes. I had a conversation with the team from draft Kings last week, the typographical error that is correct. Okay, excellent, thank you. And then if draft Kings would like to have any additional documents entered into evidence during the course of the hearing, I would ask if they'd just be properly introduced and marked. But at this point, we understand draft Kings would like to stipulate to exhibit one with that minor edit. I'll add that no final decision will be made at the conclusion of the public portion of the hearing. Instead of the conclusion of the proceeding, the commission will privately deliberate and ultimately issue a written decision. If at any point during the commission's deliberations, it determines that additional testimonial or documentary evidence is desirable, it reserves the right to ask for such evidence prior to a final decision being made. So we'll now swear all the witnesses in and anyone who will be testifying at this proceeding, please raise your right hand. Mr. Adams, I think you've got your hands up. I can tell from your angle of your shoulder, but you have your right hand up, correct? Okay. All right. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you'll provide before the commission at this proceeding will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. Thank you all. We responded in the affirmative. I thank you for that. And before we begin, Mr. List, Attorney Harrington, do you have any other preliminary issues or objections? We do now. Okay, excellent. So with that, I'll ask Mr. Mercer, you'll present exhibit one, the Investigations and Enforcement Bureau, Sports Wadring Non-compliant Incident Review Report Data Paper 13, 2023. Certainly. Thank you. Good morning, Chair and commissioners. On March 23rd, 2023, Joseph McCann, Draft King's Regulatory Incident Senior Manager, notified the commission's sports wagering director, Bruce Band, by email that Draft King's had made the UTR Pro Series, an unapproved tennis league available for wagering in Massachusetts earlier that month. The UTR Pro Series is a series of tennis tournaments with cash prizes. These tournaments are open to tennis players above a certain universal tennis rating, which is a rating system that algorithmically generates a numerical assessment of players based upon their last 30 eligible matches over the preceding 12 months. In addition to this rating, players must be 14 years of age or older and meet certain ranking requirements. The IEB has learned the following key factors during its review. The timeframe that the wagering was allowed was from March 10th, 2023 through March 22nd, 2023. As for the events, numbers of wagers and amounts, there were 68 wagers on the UTR Pro Series event in Barcelona, Spain, for a total handle of $965.47. 22 wagers on the UTR Pro Series event in Newport Beach, California for a total handle of $589.41 and 774 wagers on the UTR Pro Series event in Tigray, Argentina for a total handle of $6,312.12. Total amount of wagers was 864 with a total handle of $7,867. As for the reported reason for the error, DraftKings reported that their trading support team discovered that the UTR events were enabled for wagering upon launch and remained active until the date of discovery. DraftKings stated that the reason for this error was a miscommunication between the trading team and the trading compliance team. Their usual practice involves a weekly coordination between those teams to confirm authorized tennis wagering markets on a jurisdictional basis. This is done by the submission of a file of the upcoming weeks markets and events from the trading team to the trading compliance team. In this instance, DraftKings trading team had copied the tennis offerings from a different jurisdiction without verifying Massachusetts approval with their trading compliance team. In regards to remedial and mitigating information, DraftKings self-reported this matter and was cooperative with the IEB's review. Following this incident of non-compliance, DraftKings voided all wagers on the unapproved events and notified all impacted customers. Once the wagers were voided, any winnings were removed from the players' balances and the stakes were returned and the stakes of losing wagers were also returned. Additionally, DraftKings removed the UTR markets upon their discovery, performed a review of all tennis markets to confirm compliance and relayed to their trading team that all new market requests must be submitted to their trading compliance team prior to being made available. Thank you. Commissioner, do you have questions from Mr. Mercer? I see it, Commissioner O'Brien saying no. Commissioner Maynard, are you all set? I'm all set. Commissioner Hill, are you all set? Okay, thank you, Commissioner Skinner. Any questions? I'll set, all right. Thank you, Tony Mercer. Thank you, Chair. And so now, DraftKings, do you have any questions that you'd like to pose or would you like to make any kind of a closing statement or introduce any evidence on your part? So we don't have any questions for Zak about the report. We would like the opportunity to describe in much more detail the facts which led up to the event and their mediation. But to do so would require us to disclose quite detailed trading processes that we would consider to be confidential. And we would request that we'd be able to do that in closed session. Mr. Owens, did you say, are you saying trading process? Yes, trading, trading, trading with a date, yes. With the date, okay. And that makes a difference. So I'm gonna turn to Council. I see, Tony, on the hand, you're here today. Your thoughts? Yes, per 205-CMR 101.07, the Commission may close the hearing to the public and I'll just read the standard to the Commission and the Commission can decide whether it feels that this is an appropriate situation or not. So under that section, any adjudicatory hearing conducted under 205-CMR 101.01 may be close to the public at the request of either party or on the Commission's own initiative in order to protect the privacy interests of either party or other individual to protect proprietary or sensitive technical information including, but not limited to, software algorithms and trade secrets or for other good cause shown. Such determination rest in the sole discretion of the Commission. So I would say that it's up to the Commission to decide if it would like to go into closed session and the standard is met. And if it has any additional questions for Mr. Alist, it can ask them as well. Questions for Councilor Monaghan? Commissioner O'Brien, are you leaning in? If it turned out for some reason that we felt it didn't rise to that standard, once we started speaking with DraftKings, we could always come back to the public session, correct if we'd all be in agreement that this really is public. Is that fair, Caitlin? Yes, absolutely. Okay. Commissioner, is there any questions that you have? Do we have to, we can just shift without any kind of a vote, correct, Caitlin? I think that's correct because this is not an open meeting, it's an adjudicator hearing. Right. So, commissioners, is there anyone in opposition to moving to the private session as DraftKings has requested? Commissioner Skinner? Madam Chair, thank you. I'm not in opposition to that request, just wondering if there's anything that DraftKings and Mr. Alist are, his colleagues can share in the public session, generally, about what happened and some of the, just in, I don't think they've had the opportunity just yet to sort of give their presentation. So maybe that can happen in public and then we can consider going into executive session for additional questions. Yeah, I'm just to clear. I suspect that there might be some questions. I'm sorry, did I say public? No, you said executive session. I think it's just a little bit different in an adjudicatory hearing, but it's fine. But we just went to the private, yeah, private session. We try to do as much of this in public as possible. Yeah, I'm just suggesting that because there might be questions that are suitable for this public session. Mr. Liston, Attorney Harrington, do you want to present anything that is less sensitive just to set the stage and for the public to hear? Mr. Liston? I can summarize a little bit. I mean, essentially what we already provided in the written report is a level of detail that we're comfortable in sharing in the public forum. But to re-summarize, essentially there was a miscommunication between our trading compliance team and our trading support team about exactly what was approved. While that might sound straightforward on the surface, there's actually a lot of detail that goes into these processes and the communication between these organizations that also doesn't only affect compliance. Some of it's competitive in nature and also potentially enables customers to more easily exploit us if you've talked about in the public forum. So that was the reason for requesting the closed session and the general summary already provided. Thank you. Commissioner Skinner, any follow-up questions? I do have a follow-up question. Could you share any detail about how the support team discovered the issue? Yes, yes, I can share that. The support team, I mean, maybe best understood as trading operations is responsible for actually implementing the filters which are sort of stipulated by the trading compliance team. And in this case, a member of the trading side organization able to see certain filters in the back office just raised it as a potential issue because that specific league UTR is approved in several jurisdictions but I think not more than half. So it was just flagged as potentially something to double check that this had been enabled in Massachusetts. And when was that flagged? Just a second, let me check my notes. I mean, it would be the date that in the report we said that it was discovered. Is that March 11th? Yes. And so was it reported to IEB the same day, March 11th? No, Jake, I don't believe that's the date we went live in Massachusetts on March 11th. No, March 10th, I think actually. Oh, I think this market was first wagered on on March 11th. Yes, you are correct, we went live on March 10th. But I believe the issue was discovered on a different date. Yeah, I can, I've almost got to it in my notes. Just hang on a second. Yeah, we discovered it on the 22nd and it was reported to the M.J.C. on the 23rd. Covered on March 22nd and reported on March 23rd. Is that correct? Okay. And could you speak to the timing? On March 22nd and March 23rd, in other words, how much time had lapsed between the time you discovered it and the time you reported it to IEB? Could I just quickly make a quick note? I believe that it was actually not reported to IEB specifically at the beginning, but instead to Bruce Bann, the director of the sports advisory division. I just want to make sure we're clear on that. Thanks. Attorney Hall, can I apologize? I'm not sure the exact minute on the 22nd that it was discovered, but we did record that we notified you at 6.06 p.m. Eastern time on the 23rd. Okay, thank you. Any further questions, commissioners? All right, so Grace, the way that this works is that all present here have a different link to go into the private session. So because it's pretty clear that we may be coming back into public session, you can disregard that link, and instead Dave Sousa will move everyone into a breakout room, and then we'll be able to move you all back into the public session, if need be. So do nothing. Just sit tight and get transported. Yes. All right, thank you, Grace. Appreciate that. Thanks, Grace. I will start moving everybody over now and share the screen that says we're in executive session. If I have not moved you over in a few minutes, just give me a holler and I'll make sure to do so. Excellent, thanks, Dave. I think the only one that should be left in here is Ying. Ying, if you need me to toss you over there, just let me know as well, please, and thank you. I just don't have you on my list. Oh, yes, okay. Yes, please move me over, thank you. Gotcha, no problem. Dave, I think you can take down the screen. Thank you. Thanks so much. I'll just set it. Okay. Is everybody back? I think we have everyone? Okay. So at this time, thank you to Drakens for its testimony in the closed session, but now I'd like to turn to you, Mr. Liston, your attorney. Is there anything you'd like to add as a closing statement? I mean, certainly nothing substantive, just to thank everyone at the commission for their time. Especially under duress with the flooding. This is an issue that we did take very seriously and we hope we've addressed sufficiently to the standards of both ourselves and to the MTC. Thank you. So unless there are any further matters at Drakens or my fellow commissioners would like to address, we'll now conclude this portion of the proceeding. Anything for other commissioners? Before we adjourn. So the commission will now deliberate about the matter in private, an issue of written decision. The proceeding at this point, however, remains open. At any point during deliberations, the commission determines that for the testimonial, a documentary evidence is desirable. It may send notice of such and provide instructions as to how to proceed. So we are adjourned at this moment. And commissioners, I believe we're going to go into deliberations now, but we're going to assess our schedules for the rest of the day, given that there was a disruption in today's calendar, given our flooding. All right. Is that right Grace? Do we go into a deliberations room now? Yep. So we'll close out this meeting and then you all have a calendar invite for deliberations. So you can join that and we can discuss there if we, how long we would like to proceed for. Okay. To Drakens, thank you so much. Thank you for your patience this morning. I wish you a good day. Thank you. And we'd like to keep the stream going. Yes. No, I think we can close this out. Correct, Caitlin. We can close this session out and then we'll go into our other virtual deliberations room. Again, Drakens have a good day. Thank you. Bye sir. Thanks everyone.


Hey guys, welcome back to Comic-Ed and TV we're all geek culture collides I'm Shannon and today we're going to be taking a look at the 2015 theatrical release Dragon Ball Z Resurrection F which saw the return of Frieza for the final time so stay tuned. Alright guys so as I said we're taking a look at Dragon Ball Z Resurrection F which came out in theaters in 2015 and was released to digital in DVD Blu-ray shortly thereafter. The old Resurrection F was pretty much taken directly from Dragon Ball Super along with Battle of the Gods or maybe it's the other way around. I don't know I'm just a casual DBZ fan so I don't know all the ins and outs of the series. All I know is that I really enjoy it and I really like Vegeta but as for Battle of the Gods I'll be reviewing that in another video. Resurrection F is a second film personally supervised by series creator Akira Toriyama following Battle of the Gods in 2013. Like the previous film it was considered an official part of the Dragon Ball storyline. The movie depicts the return of the villain Frieza as well as the god of destruction Beerus and Whis from Battle of the Gods. After his resurrection Frieza goes into extensive training for the first time in his life so that he can exact his revenge on the Super Saiyans that destroyed him. The extensive training that he underwent lasted about six months. The amount of time it took for them to get from one point of the universe to Earth. There are quite a few differences between the movies and the series such as the art style and of course the foul language. There are multiple uprisings going on throughout the universe within the one-time empire ruled by Frieza. Several of Frieza's loyalists go to Earth in order to obtain the Dragon Balls to bring Lord Frieza back from the dead. Piccolo is stuck babysitting Gohan's baby while he and Vidal were off shopping. Shinron is summoned to bring back Frieza though Shinron is able to bring him back. Trunks had cut Frieza's body into multiple pieces and the dragon mourns it would be unwise to return Frieza's soul to that form. Commander Sorbet tells Shinron to do it and his army will heal Frieza's body. Vegeta and Goku have spent every moment since battle of the gods training with Whis who had trained Lord Beerus, the god of destruction. Whis takes on both Saiyans effortlessly, occasionally even with one hand tied behind his back. Before Goku and Vegeta can make it back to Earth, the Z fighters have to take on Frieza's entire army. Piccolo, Gohan, Krillin, Master Roshi, Tenshin, and Jaka, a space patrol officer. I'll take on 177 soldiers each to hold the line until the two champions can return. The humor in Resurrection F is what you would expect from anything Dragon Ball. Goku effortlessly takes on Frieza in his final form without even going Super Saiyan. But Vegeta eventually allows Goku to continue fighting Frieza a little bit longer. The back and forth between Goku and Vegeta is hilarious as Goku offers Vegeta his turn right after Frieza transforms but Vegeta declines saying he told us he wanted to fight you remember. The cinematic effects during the battle are amazing and feels extremely epic. In a sneak attack Commander Sorbet shoots a hole straight through Goku causing him to depower and get beat mercilessly by Frieza. However before this Frieza begins to depower very very slowly. It seems that though he managed to become super powered with Frieza gold he didn't train long enough to be able to hold that power for an extensive period of time and because of this Vegeta calls out to Goku. I think I'll take my turn now Kakarot. This causes the two to kind of argue a little bit because of course Goku tells Vegeta the only reason you want to take on Frieza now is because you see his weakness which then explains what Frieza's weakness is. Back to Goku getting shot by Commander Sorbet. Frieza offers to allow Vegeta the chance to kill Goku and prove his loyalty and in return Frieza would make him the supreme commander of the Frieza force. However Vegeta turns him down and has Krillin give Goku a sensei bean. This leaves Vegeta to battle Frieza on his own easily. In one final move just before Vegeta can destroy him Frieza destroys the earth Beerus and Whis offer Goku to turn back time to restore the earth along with Vegeta and everyone on it so that Goku can finally do what it takes to destroy Frieza once and for all. This causes Vegeta to become furious because he felt that Goku stole the glory from him. Overall I really enjoyed the movie. Personally I feel it's the perfect Dragon Ball film and should stand high at the top of every Dragon Ball fans list of favorites. I got into Dragon Ball Z way back during the Majin Buu saga. I never got to finish that saga because it was during the time when it was airing on Cartoon Network and it had come on right after I got home from school I was about a senior in high school at the time and it got right to the point where Vegeta had become a one of Bibbidi's subjects or whatever and turned against the Z fighters and then when he finally turned back against Bibbidi or whatever his name was it was shortly after that that Cartoon Network stopped airing it for some odd reason I'm not sure why so I never really got to finish that season so this was way back in 2001-2002 somewhere around there when I saw that a new Dragon Ball Z movie and series was coming out I had to jump on it and that was Dragon Ball Z Resurrection F my wife and I watched it after it shortly after it first came out on digital we rented it on Comcast and watched it and then just this past year while we were in St. Louis saw it at Best Buy had to pick it up and then right next to it also was Battle of the Gods which another one I had to pick up to complete it I tried watching some of the Dragon Ball Super episodes but with Comcast they don't broadcast the entire season they pick and choose episodes they leave out some episodes and put other episodes on there twice and it's just ridiculous I'll wait until the entire season comes out on Blue Ray or DVD or whatever but I really love this season or the this movie and as I said before I'll be coming back again soon with my review of Dragon Ball Z Battle of the God take care guys hey guys if you like this video make sure you smash that subscribe button and click on the little bell to receive notifications on all our upcoming videos hit the like button make sure and leave us a comment so we know how you felt about this video and don't forget to share with your family and friends until next time I'm Shannon from Come Again where all geek culture collides


Many music channels were YPP suspended yesterday, and I want to show all of you the examples in case this applies to you. This is part of our KYC Know Your Channel series. Here is one channel that has music with permission from Epidemic Sound and Physician Music, and they were one of the YPP suspended channels. Why did they get suspended? It was because of duplication and we are fighting for the channel by asking our YouTube support team to re-review the request, citing the permission and the fact that everything looks legitimate on this channel. Here is another music-focused channel that was YPP suspended, and as you can see in the video description there also using the music with permission. Do you have a friend or a music channel of your own that was YPP suspended yesterday? Tell us down there in the comments below so we can collect all this information and help understand why these channels were suspended and help reinstate them into the partner program and into YouTube network membership because as you know when you get YPP suspended you cannot monetize your videos and you cannot be part of a YouTube network like Freedom. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this because music is something that is very popular on YouTube. There are many large YouTube music channels that have not been YPP suspended and we're trying to understand what the difference is between these channels. As you can see I am back in the Philippines now but I will return to Dubai on Wednesday August 29th where I'll continue building the freedom experience. But here we're talking about KYC, know your channel. Click that I to learn more about the KYC series that is the playlist of all the videos that help keep your channel safe from YPP suspensions and terminations. Click that out to learn more. And click that I to learn about the freedom experience which is all about a tax reduction strategy for you to move to Dubai for 6 plus funds with me to make videos to live and work and pay 0% on all of your income tax for that year. It's been a while since I made a video and I apologize for that. I have many updates to share with you. For example we are releasing a one penny payout to everybody in the crypto miner. What that means is you'll be able to get a penny as soon as you earn a penny. You won't have to wait till the end of the month. We're also introducing this in our freedom dashboard to verify that PayPal works. When you first create a new PayPal account or connect it with your dashboard for the first time you'll be able to ask us to send you a penny right away just to confirm that the payment works. How many of you are excited for that? Tell me down there in the comments below. Click that I to learn about the crypto miner. It's a Windows piece of software that all of you can download from your shiny freedom dashboard for free that lets you make money while you're sleeping. You simply run it in the background that lets your computer solve complex mathematical questions that allow us to generate cryptocurrency that we sell and then pay you in cash each month. Except now we're going to launch a feature that will allow you to get paid instantly even as little as one penny directly to your PayPal account. There's a lot of other updates to share with you guys. We now have almost completed our level designer for the Klotthikens game. Click the link down there below in the video description to go to klotthikens.com to try out the game and soon we'll have a level designer where you can create levels and make them so when you submit them to us we will pick the best levels to include in future versions of the game or custom versions of the game for you the creator. Yes, you'll be able to have your own game built by us given to you for free where we'll just operate on a revenue share of any income generated. We'll split with you in exchange for your promotion. We'll handle all the development. The music you are listening to on the George show is all produced by Music Factory. And Rainimator, one of the largest Minecraft animation channels on YouTube, has used it to create his latest video Wings of Salvation. Click that eye to see the video that features our vocalists, our composers and everything audio there is and our voice actors is composed by Music Factory. Music Factory is 100% owned by freedom. That means all the music that we provide for you to use there is 100% safe to use because we own it outright. You'll never get a copyright strike or a content ID match if you're a freedom partner and you can use it even if you leave freedom. Click that eye to see the Music Factory channel and have a look at all the tracks that are available for download for you from our website musicfactory.tm. Do you use Music Factory? By the way, none of the YPP suspended channels are channels using Music Factory tracks. Tell us down there in the comments below where you get your music. Are you happy with the music? What can we do to give you better music we would love to know? Alright guys, I need to do read your comments. I need to feature some of your channels. We need to talk about the community forums, the Discord chat servers and all the other ways in the community that we can help you grow and collaborate in future videos. I just got back from Dubai so I'm hoping to make videos regularly while I'm here for the next week in the Philippines but in the meantime I hope this is a good catch-up and whom I am your Papa George, your George Sunpai, your Obi-Wan George Nobi. Got it right that time. I am George, the CEO and founder of Freedom for Freedom and the Freedom Family and the Crypto Family and our game development family called MGM Studios and all the other products and teams and people that all work together to help each other grow together as a family. The Freedom Family. Till next time, be safe. I'm George and you've been watching. Click that I to partner with Freedom and join the Freedom Family so we can all grow together. You get many perks like position music, you also get Epidemic Sound, a lot of other access to royalty free videos, sponsorships and many things to help you grow. Just click the links down there in the description below to get involved in our community, our forums, our Discord chat servers, meet our graphics team, meet our community team, all of that on Discord and the forums. What are you waiting for? Get started. And we will grow together as a family because this is the Freedom Family. You are part of it, we are all part of it and we're all growing together. To get more George, click that big F that will subscribe you to Freedom Central, home of the George show. And PewDiePie gave one of you, Freedom Family, a big shout out. Click that video to see the shout out and to see our new 3D sets for you. And click that video to see what YouTube recommends you watch next.


Hi everybody it's Sam here thank you for watching today I'm going to be showing you how to make this cute little box I've made very similar ones before on my channel and I'll link a playlist of all those kind of shaped boxes up there so you can have a little look and I'll link them at the end as well. It's a great little size I think this would work really well as a table favour and you just open up the top and it will all open up and you'll see that with the one I'm going to make in a moment so let's crack on I'll show you how it's done. Okay so the papers I've used is the North Star and I'm using the same for both of them it's just the cardstock that's slightly different colour and it's the very first one this one here you can see it's absolutely gorgeous it's got like a watercolour background and then they've put this lovely like star foiled pattern over the top then I'm using I've got some lovely ribbon there that's just from my stash just hanging on my wall and then I'm using these bows mini bows I'm going to take another silver one and also the silver sentiment from the simile creative sentiment toppers. So I've cut my cardstock and I've got my sorry pack of paper and here's my cardstock so this is an A4 piece so it's 11 and 5 eighths but 11 and a half would be fine and then that is by the default width which is eight and a quarter okay so along the long side you want to score it two and three quarters five and a half eight and a quarter and 11 and then along the short side you want to score at three and a half and five and a half okay pop it back into that orientation with that tab on the right hand side and I've just put you won't be able to see it yet but there's a little marker just along the top there I'm actually going to bring in my little other stylus here but you want to put just a little notch at one and three eighths four and one eighth six and seven eighths and nine and five eighths and basically what that marker is if I bring it up here there we go you can see them it's the center of each of these sections so we're going to be scoring now with our ruler to score you know that triangular shape so get rid of the scoreboard and then just using the metal ruler I'm going to score from the little notch down to the bottom right hand side and the bottom left try not to go over I just did then but you probably don't really notice it once it's all folded and again always lay the stylus down first that way you're right on that halfway mark whereas if you put the ruler on the halfway mark and then you're stylish you're going to be off from the start so lay the stylus down and then bring it down to that corner you should be able to see these score lines really well because of the the shine on this cardstock there we go okay so you can see what I've done so I'm just going to finish these two okay so now you can see all of those triangular parts next you want to fold and burnish all of the score lines and then with these ones you can just fold them by hand and every one will be a mountain fold and what will happen so you've got a mountain either side there this straight score line will go down into a valley what you want to do is make sure here that you've got it right up to that other score line so I'm just going to put that in there just to kind of push it down see there you get a much nicer finish so you get that right up to the point there so again I'll just show you on this one so do a mountain mountain that will then automatically start to go into a valley if you just kind of pinch it together just push down there and you'll see it will meet up really nicely like so okay that's what you want to have so I'm just going to do these two here okay so now we want to do some cutting so first of all you want to again have that tab on the right hand side you're going to cut up all these bottom base score lines just to the first score line okay now this one here at the end just cut this away completely and then cut this one away as well as a come up and cut all of this one away you're just keeping that one that's lined up with that center with those center rectangles there okay like so we'll just lay it down that's what you want to have so far now we're going to tidy up the bottom of these in a moment I want you to do now is turn it around so you're working on this side and you want to come down so that you want to have about I'd say half an inch will be okay I've probably got more like three quarters of an inch there but you just want to have like a tab here okay and then if you kind of just bring it down a little bit more there you see I've created that tab I'm going to do the same on this side so come all the way down again doing about three eighths of an inch come down to that score line come down on here and what this is creating is you're removing the bulk which is all of this here so you can get more of your gift inside but having these little side flaps will mean that it will all close nicely and you won't be able to see in it sometimes you get gaps now if you want to tidy up here just come in again just slightly angled just to kind of cut away any score line that might be there and then again here just kind of go into that a bit more but that's what you will kind of want to have just need to do that one okay so don't touch the point because that's obviously all your shape we're going to put a little hole punch here on the top of each one but that's the effect you want to create across all of these so I'm going to do these now okay so now you can see that shape that we have next back along here if you pretend to put it together and you want this tab on the back left hand side okay so this is now going to become the front so this one here is going to be the last one I stick down so now if I open it back up holding that one fold that one away these ones here you want to take wedges away from the sides and it will just make you know it a lot easier when you go to fold it all together because it will all be concealed under that one which will keep that same square shape so I'm just taking a little wedge off okay and then this one here I've got a little bit of the score line showing there so I'm just going to just cut that off but I'm not taking anything away from that square shape now we want to decorate it so I've got four pieces here this gorgeous paper and these measure one and three quarters by two and a half okay so that's those stuck down and also just on the tab here at the end just take a little wedge off of the corners now I'm going to bring in my quick grab glue just to attach this tab you don't have to change the glues I just like to use this one when I'm doing the small tabs I'm just going to cover that one there flip it over have this side facing you and then just fold this other side over and just make sure it's all lined up but that will just stick down now okay so now while that's drying these triangles will line up with each other so if you just grab your hole punch and I'm just going to use the smaller setting and I'm just going to punch a hole as close to the top as you can get it out there you can see and you'll see there it's gone through the other side as well so again just make sure the points line up not the side side pieces because like me look mine are all different but make sure the points line up okay so now I've got all the holes punched there as well next we want to seal the bottom so remember the one that squares the last one you're going to stick down so I'm going to pop this one down first of all I'm going to do this one and then that one then finally this one will cover everything and just give you a nice finish on the bottom of the box turn it upside down and you can just go inside there or use your bone folder just to spread all of that glue out okay like so now you can obviously fill it with your treats and everything but I'm now going to bring in my ribbon what I like to do is again this is the front because there's my side seam join on the back left hand side so I'm going to do the sides first of all so I'm going to go in this one here okay and then using the other end I'm going to go in the opposite okay make sure I've got roughly the same amount over hang on I'm just going to trim this end because it seems to be afraid okay so I've got about equal amounts there and then in fact I'll do the back make sure all of these little wings now start to fold in okay I'm then going to go in this back one and just make sure the wings are all folding in as you pull it all together and then this one I'm going to go in the front this is how I do it you don't have to do it in this order again make sure they all fold down and you'll see there now if you get anything can you see that one there it's kind of sticking out a bit too much it's actually hitting on this one here so what I'm going to do is just open it up and I'm just going to go in and just cut some more away from this side so you might find you want it you need to go a bit thinner okay but now I can just again bring them all together and I'm having it tied so it's at the front okay like so I'm just going to trim a little bit off there I can make that look a lot nicer nearer the time when I actually end up putting gifts in it and then I'm just going to grab one of these and just stick that one at the top there and then one of the sentiments and this one is going to go along the middle here and they have a very cute little gift box so I'll just bring the blue one back in there so you can see it I think they are really really cute pretty easy to do and quick and you don't need too many supplies so I'll link what I have used in the description box below also check out the tutorials that are popping up now and I'll be back again very soon with more fun tutorials bye