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Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Tawakkul Karman, one of three recipients who split the award this year, spoke in New York City at the Brecht Forum in September 2010 about state violence, targeted killings, and human rights abuses enabled by the so-called “War on Terror.” Democracy Now! was there and we bring you her address. Karman notes that by cooperating with the Yemeni government’s repression of its opponents, the United States "has transitioned from being the leader of the free world to a watch dog for tyrant regimes."

CUNY professor Frances Fox Piven recently spoke with Democracy Now’s Mike Burke at the Occupy Wall Street protest. "I think we desperately need a popular uprising in the United States," Piven said. "I study movements. None of us know the exact formula for when those movements erupt, but it could be. And if that is true, then these people who are here are really wonderful."

New York, NY. Monday, October 3, 2011—Today, award-winning journalist Amy Goodman announced that a final settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit brought by Goodman and Democracy Now! producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar against the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and the U.S. Secret Service, challenging the policies and conduct of law enforcement at the 2008 Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities.

"It’s impossible to translate the issue of the greed of Wall Street into one demand, or two demands. We’re talking about a democratic awakening," said Dr. Cornel West when he spoke with Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman during a visit Tuesday night to the Occupy Wall Street encampment. Some critics have expressed frustration at the protest’s lack of a clear and unified message.

Filmmaker Michael Moore was among the worldwide audience watching Democracy Now!'s live coverage from outside the prison where death row prisoner Troy Davis was executed on September 21 — despite significant doubt of his guilt. Moore describes how he was inspired by one of the people Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman interviewed at the protest outside the prison shortly after news of the execution was announced. The man, who introduced himself as Wesley Boyd, immediately called for a boycott of the state of Georgia in response to the execution of Davis.

As the United Nations Security Council considers the Palestinian bid for statehood, we speak with human rights lawyer, Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza and Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights. Sourani says even if the bid does not pass, it will show the world that the United States and Europe failed to support Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a man dedicated to peace.

In part two of our interview with veteran journalist Ron Suskind about his explosive new book, "Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President," he examines the challenges faced by President Obama, and his evolution as a leader. “You see the president grappling, often with great might, to try to get his arms around what is often an untenable situation,” says Suskind. “He has a team around him with long Washington experience, and long histories with one another.

Troy Anthony Davis, who maintained his innocence until his last breath, was executed by the state of Georgia Wednesday night. As the world watched to see whether Davis’ final appeal for a stay of execution would be granted by the U.S. Supreme Court, Democracy Now! Democracy Now! was the only news outlet to continuously broadcast live from the prison grounds in Jackson, Georgia. During our 6-hour special report, we spoke with Davis’ supporters and family members who held all-day vigil, then heard from those who witnessed his death by lethal injection at 11:08 p.m.

The U.S. hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal have been released in Iran after two years in prison on charges of espionage. Bauer and Fattal were granted bail earlier today and handed over to Swiss diplomats. The pair were arrested in 2009, along with Sarah Shourd, while hiking near the Iran-Iraq border. We get reaction from Esther Kaplan of the Nation Institute, a colleague of the hikers who last year published an extensive investigation reporting that they were arrested on the Iraqi side of the Iran-Iraq border—not in Iran as the Iranian government has claimed.

In our extended interview with Noam Chomsky, he argues that in Libya, "you could have made a case for a no-fly zone and protection of civilians, but I think it’s much harder to make a case for direct participation in a civil war and undercutting of possible options that were supported by almost the entire world." Meanwhile, in the Middle East, Chomsky notes that Turkey and Egypt have been key allies for Israel and that the deterioration of their relations "contributes very substantially to Israel’s isolation in the region." Back in the United States, Chomsky says that while he is no fan of