National Bird Page #5

I so appreciate...

Well, you're kind.

Thank you so much.

...your understanding

so of the Afghan culture,

and all of that.

It just touched my heart.

LISA:
One of my neighbors,

her name is Asma,

and she was born in Afghanistan.

And she goes there every

year distributing seeds,

and doing humanitarian work.

And Asma was willing

to take me this year

and it's a beautiful thing.

I'm aware that Afghanistan

is a dangerous place.

I'm aware that there is

still war going on there,

but I believe that doing this

is the right thing to do.

I lost part of my humanity

working in the drone program.

And humanity was what

was missing there.

And seeing these

people as human beings.

It'll be nice to

just see it up close.

[non-English speech]

I missed you.

[non-English speech]

[helicopters passing]

[non-English speech]

LISA:
When I'd meet

these people, part of it

is making reparations

for my participation

in a program that's

a huge, huge weapon

system that kills more innocent

people than actual targets.

There's no way that I can make

amends, or change anything

that I've participated in.

But if there's

any way that I can

somehow give back

to that country,

that's what I wanna do.

[non-English speech]

I said, give the ladies two.

LISA:
I wanna be able to be

helpful, even just a little bit,

by talking to somebody

who has been directly

impacted by the drone program.

And asking, "What do you need"?

What do you want people to hear?

Basically, how can I be helpful?

Because being a part of a

weapon system can't be helpful.

It can only be hurtful.

ALL:
Hi!

I'm finally here,

sorry about that.

[chattering]

My feeling of her moving to

California is mixed emotions.

I feel it's an

opportunity for her,

but I'm concerned about a young

lady being that far from home,

without family support

that can't be nearby.

And if she needs help, it

would take some time for us

to get help to her.

HEATHER'S MOM:
She has episodes

at least once or twice a week.

Sees things, hears things.

But it's so hard for our

vets and our soldiers,

and men and women to get help.

And with drone

people, they consider

that they didn't see combat

because they weren't overseas.

And that's not the truth.

They see a lot of

combat, but nobody

takes that into consideration.

It's not just my granddaughter

that has had trouble getting

the treatment she needed.

I know she attempted

to get help.

And she had trouble

finding a therapist

to talk to because

they didn't have

the right security clearance.

And she was in

violation of the law

and could go to prison

for even talking

to the wrong therapist about

what was really bothering her.

And that made me a little

angry at our own government

for putting these

kids through hell.

If we put our young people in

this kind of an environment,

we have an obligation

to look after them,

to help them make the

adjustment back to normal life.

And we're not doing that,

and that's shame on us.

JESSELYN RADACK:
The

government recently

contacted two of the

drone whistleblowers,

whom I represent.

The government, meaning

the Air Force Office

of Special Investigation and the

Federal Bureau of investigation

contacted them, told them

that they were on some sort

of terrorist kill list.

In Heather's case,

my understanding

was that the Air Force Office

of Special Investigations

contacted her stepfather

to relay the message

that a known

terrorist organization

had been searching her name.

And on the one hand

they said, there was not

a specific or imminent threat.

On the other hand, they had very

tailored solutions for Heather,

which was that she needed to

tone down her social profile

in general.

And that would include

writing op-eds

that would include the use

of Twitter and Facebook.

It's not like Heather's

been out screaming

from the rooftop about drones.

But clearly the government

is very aware of the fact

that she had written

about drones before.

To me that's a blatant attempt

to silence whistleblowers,

and it doesn't surprise

me that that happens

to the very few

people who have been

brave enough to be speaking

out against the drone program.

DANIEL:
When they

arrived, it was actually

just hours after I had

turned in my badge,

and was finishing my last day.

I had gotten home, was relaxing,

I had poured myself a drink.

And somebody downstairs

was knocking at the door,

and immediately- both people

at the door, man and woman...

Shoved FBI badges in my

face, pushed me inside

into the kitchen, and

immediately behind them

came... I'd say about 20

agents- basically all of them

with pistols drawn

somewhere, in body armor.

And at this point

I'm extremely scared.

I didn't understand

what was going on.

Altogether, I think there

might have been at least 30

to 50 agents in and out of

the house at different points

throughout the evening,

taking photos in every room

and of everything, searching

for different things.

Once they were done,

they left and I

didn't even have a phone on me.

So I had retained a number...

One of the agents allowed me

to retrieve a number

from my phone...

And then I used that to call

my friends in DC to ask them

if they could... if they

could help me get in touch

with the... the right

people that knew

how... that knew how to deal

with these kinds of cases.

Once I was in touch with

Daniel, we met at one location

and promptly moved

to another location.

And he started telling

me what was going on.

And it became very

apparent that he

had been subject

to search warrants

that he had brought

with him and showed me.

And I drafted up an

attorney-client agreement...

A temporary one... on a

napkin so I could provide

immediate representation

and then eventually

was able to do a full agreement

with him, but he was terrified.

Everything that we know so

far between me and my attorneys,

I've been keeping in here.

And it's basically

just the warrants

that were issued that day,

and the items that they took.

And so there were

three warrants issued.

One for the room, of

the house that I was in,

and the house itself.

The... there's a warrant issued

for me and my smartphone,

that I may have

in my possession.

There's this... there's

one for my motorcycle,

and then there's a list of

all the things that they took.

So basically there was

a list for electronics,

and there was a list for papers.

The next was just an explanation

of what they were looking for.

So under category 1:

"Information and documents,

in any format or medium, all

originals, computer files,

copies, and manipulated

versions of that

are the property of the

United States Government,

or any agency of the

United States Government,

including the NSA,

the NGA, JSOC,

the Department of Defense, the

Department of the Air Force.

All classified information,

materials, or documents

are defined in 18 U.S.C. 1924."

So those five

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