VICE (2013) s04e11 Episode Script

1 This week on "VICE": Inside Iran's nuclear program.
When they say they're not trying to build a bomb, they're lying.
Smith: This pool is radioactive, and your thing is beeping, so maybe we should go out.
And then, the street kids of Kolkata.
(train horn blows) (speaking foreign language) It's kids running the kids' show.
(theme music playing) Crowd (chanting): Hands up! Don't shoot! Hands up! Since the hostage crisis in 1979, our relationship with Iran has been America's most intractable foreign policy problem.
But last year, Iran and the major world powers signed a landmark agreement that eased years of economic sanctions in exchange for Iran's abandonment of its nuclear weapons program.
President Obama: Under the nuclear deal that we, our allies and partners, reached with Iran, it can begin to receive relief from certain nuclear sanctions and gain access to its own money that had been frozen.
Smith: Now this deal has been intensely controversial here at home, with 47 senators signing a letter saying they had the right to rescind the agreement.
I signed that letter.
I stand by it.
Smith: Now that, in turn, prompted charges of treason from the president's supporters.
Republicans are undermining our commander in chief, while empowering the ayatollahs.
But lost in all the noise and rhetoric here in the US is what the Iranians themselves think of the agreement.
So we went to Tehran to find out.
(distant shouting) We're here in Tehran.
And this is the Independence Day parade.
The president is making a speech, and we're trying to get there, but so is the rest of Tehran.
Smith: When we arrived in Tehran this winter, the American-led nuclear deal was just beginning to take effect.
But at this national celebration, we didn't see many signs of warming towards the West.
It's the 37th anniversary of the revolution.
They're trotting out new missile systems.
There's drone systems over there.
We're gonna see what's happening here and see what's going on.
(chanting) People are very excited.
There's a lot of Obama being burned in effigy, America being burned in effigy.
And we're here to see how it's going here in Tehran.
Now the parade was dominated by the standard anti-American chants and the burning of effigies.
But when we actually talked to people in the public square, their opinions about America were much more complex.
Smith: Right.
Right.
Smith: Now distrust of the American government dates back to 1953, when the CIA led a coup that overthrew the democratically elected prime minister and transferred all power to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Iran.
And for more than two decades of authoritarian rule, he governed as America's proxy in the region.
(explosions) But in 1979, the shah was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution and the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini rose to power.
Khomeini is my leader, and I believe in his leadership.
Smith: Now, a firsthand witness to all of this was Masoumeh Ebtekar, an Iranian revolutionary and spokeswoman for a group of Iranian students who took more than 50 Americans hostage at the US embassy in 1979.
The hostages are in our hands, and we protect them strongly.
And we are ready so that in the case of any military intervention, we will destroy them.
Smith: Today, she is part of Iran's political elite and acts as one of their powerful vice presidents.
In America, there are some skeptics, basically, in the American government about the deal.
Are there skeptics in Iran about the deal? Yes, we have skeptics in Iran.
The long history of the "imperialism" that Iran experienced during all those ages, that has created some people to be anti-American and not to be so optimistic about the ultimate results of this deal.
Smith: Now this deal is a hallmark of the Obama Doctrine, which is this president's initiative to engage with, rather than isolate our traditional enemies.
But it's also a profound compromise, because rather than ending Iran's nuclear capabilities entirely, the deal only slows the program down, and consequently has earned a huge amount of skepticism here in the US.
Senator Lindsey Graham was one of the signatures of the controversial letter to the ayatollah.
When they say they're not trying to build a bomb, they're lying.
When they tell us what they're going to do with it, nobody really knows.
So here's what I would assume: the worst.
All their behavior since the agreement, holding the two American ships, jailing Americans, firing missiles in violation of the UN resolutions.
Here's what the ayatollah and his buddies are telling us: "You misjudged us.
" On the day we voted in the Senate to basically uphold this agreement, he tweeted out: Allah willing within 25 years, the Zionist regime in Israel won't exist.
They're basically giving Obama the diplomatic finger.
Under the agreement, after 15 years they can reprocess and enrich without limitation, so all you've done is buy time.
Under this agreement, they can buy weapons freely on the open market five years from now.
They can increase their missile technology eight years from now.
By the end of a 15-year period, they have a pathway to enrichment and reprocessing that makes them a threshold nation in terms of a nuclear bomb.
I think overall that deal fell well short of what I would have liked.
Smith: Now under this deal, Iran's nuclear facilities will be able to produce electricity, but will, in theory, remain incapable of generating enough fissionable material to produce a nuclear weapon.
To see how Iran is responding to these terms, we went to the Tehran Research Reactor, which is the birthplace of Iran's nuclear program.
Now, this reactor was actually given to Iran in the 1960s by the United States under a program optimistically named "Atoms for Peace.
" To learn more about the program, we met with the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi.
You studied at MIT, and I believe this reactor came from America? Yes.
I think a lot of Americans would be surprised about that.
So you have a unique position.
You were foreign minister during sanctions, now sanctions have been lifted.
One of the reasons why they were doing the sanctions is because they wanted to come to facilities like this.
Why was it such a huge issue that they had to come and see your nuclear program? They thought that Iran was intending to divert to non-peaceful nuclear activities.
To make weapons.
To make weapons, yes.
Iran is never interested in this.
Because assuming we had developed a nuclear weapon, use it against whom? We could not get into competition with the United States, with Russia.
With-- You know.
So It would be suicide.
You could never ever come up and compete with other leading countries in this regard.
Our supreme leader had issued a fatwa, which is a decree, forbidding the production, accumulation, and any possible use of weapons of mass destruction.
Why do you think there was such an acceptance, I guess, on both sides of that political story? I think that pressure came, essentially, from the side of America to see if they can somehow bring back Iran to their political orbit.
They came to a very good conclusion this time to engage with Iran.
The Iranian influence in the region was increasing day by day, and the golden key in the Middle East is in the hand of Iran.
Maybe you could explain a little bit about what "golden key" means.
Well, when I say golden key, Iran is situated in a very geo-strategic place.
We are a link between Central Asia, and through Turkey to Europe.
We are a link between Russia and Persian Gulf, which is very important, in the south.
We are a stable country, we don't have sectarian problems.
What do you see going forward in the next few years happening politically in Iran and with Iran in the region? We have to rebuild the trust and confidence.
You seem very optimistic about the future, optimistic about being more transparent, being more open.
I wonder if we could ask you if we could see the facility here, today? Yes, why not? Okay.
Reactor on? We wanna go in? Okay.
(elevator rumbling) Smith: When we reached the actual reactor level, spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi gave us an overview.
So, this reactor here was the birthplace of the Iranian nuclear program? Smith: Right.
Your own experts here? So you can make your own fuel? Your own uranium? Within Iran.
Smith: One of the researchers brought us closer to the pool to show us how the reactor works.
Smith: And the water's very blue? So it's radioactive, so we're going to stand away from it.
I am anyways.
Right.
This pool is radioactive, and your thing is beeping, so maybe we should go out.
Why do you think that there's been so much international furor to come into facilities like this in Iran? Smith: Standing next to an active reactor, Kamalvandi admitted to us that if Iran can make reactor fuel, they can also make a weapon, and that has been the international community's biggest concern all along.
And according to US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, who was a key negotiator on the deal, Iran was, in fact, close to being able to produce a bomb.
There are several pathways to a nuclear weapon.
In Iran, a general thought was if they chose to move towards a nuclear weapon, they could produce the needed materials in two, perhaps three months.
The accomplishment of the Iran deal is that they have scaled back their activities to a place where even in a so-called breakout scenario, it would still be at least a year, more than enough warning for us to act, should they decide to pursue a weapon.
The Iran agreement is not based on trust.
This agreement is about no nuclear weapon, absolutely grounded in verification.
Smith: Now negotiators insisted on a strong system for verifying Iran's compliance, but Iranian nuclear authorities maintain that this was unnecessary.
Smith: But that ideology isn't always so clear-cut.
Foad Izadi, a professor of American Studies in Tehran, took us to the Imam Khomeini Mosque, where the spirit of the ayatollah's anti-American defiance is alive and well.
Is this the largest mosque in Tehran? Yes.
Yeah.
It's very busy.
Thousands.
Right.
Tens of thousands.
(chanting) (speaking foreign language) During the prayers, there was actually a podium, and in front of the podium it said against United States.
Why is that? Revolution.
You teach students here in Tehran about America.
What do young people think about America? Smith: Right.
Socially, politically, and economically, we're at a big Turning point Yes.
between Iran and America.
And it could go one way, it could go the other way.
Smith: Now outside the mosque's walls, opinions about America seemed to be positive, especially among Tehran's young people.
(speaking foreign language) (woman speaking) Smith: Now, Iran just held elections in which moderate candidates made big gains, building on the election of a more pro-Western president in 2013.
But in the elections here in America the rhetoric is turning much more conservative, and the Iran deal is a major flashpoint.
They are laughing at the stupidity of the deal we are making on nuclear.
We should double up and triple up the sanctions and have them come to us.
I would urge the next president not to honor this deal and bring these people to their knees as much as possible before it's too late.
If the next administration wants to undermine this nuclear deal with Iran, it would undermine, essentially, its own credibility.
Then that means you cannot trust the continuity of any commitment made by any administration in the United States.
Smith: But the issue has now become so politicized, especially amongst hardliners on both sides, that it's clear that this story is far from over.
Global wealth disparity has reached record levels in recent years.
Now it's created pockets of unimaginable affluence, and huge populations who are falling farther and farther behind.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in India, where the most prominent victims of poverty and inequality are young people.
Morning, we're on an express train into Kolkata.
Like most trains, this one's going to Howrah.
It's the Grand Central of Kolkata.
It's one of the biggest train stations in India.
Millions of people pass through it every day, and thousands of street kids live there.
Morton: India's got a lot of people, some 1.
26 Billion at last count.
Kolkata's railroads not only service the entire eastern half of the country, they connect India's railways with all the South Asian countries to its east: Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, China, none of which are doing too shabby in the population department.
On the periphery of all the commuters and porters and other train personnel are Howrah's only permanent residents, the platform kids.
They wait for each train to disgorge its passengers, then scramble on board to collect all the the water bottles and other recyclables left behind, which you'd think would be viewed as a valued service, though this is not often the case.
(speaking foreign language) They're basically living in this weird little blind spot created by India's massive population.
Right? Pretty much.
Oww! Despite us being out-of-towners, one of the Howrah boys took us under his wing, and introduced us to his friends at platform 17, just one of the many gangs of kids around the station.
Those are some little lost boys.
How are you doing, man? While living on the tracks is how we usually refer to the lowest level of human existence, the Howrah kids we saw seemed to be enjoying themselves in a lawless, parentless sense of freedom they enjoy at the station.
That's a good stream he's got going.
It's kids running the kids' show.
Howrah's street children may seem like a form of vestigial poverty, a remnant of old India that will be swept away by the country's growing economy and influx of new money, but, in fact, according to Professor Mazumdar of the Jayaprakash Institute, the children at the train station are a modern phenomenon.
Morton: While a lot of the Howrah kids are runaways or orphans, some are still in touch with their families.
Some of them even live right by the station.
So, this little guy, Jan Mohammed, his mom actually lives near here.
The problem is she works all day, so she can't look after him.
Exactly.
(growls playfully) Jan Mohammed's mom was waiting for him at his family home, which was built under a highway overpass.
Are these all yours? Okay.
And one more.
Oh, she's the oldest one.
Okay.
Can we see where you live? Okay, so this is home.
This explains things a little bit more.
This is not a spot.
This is basically homeless living.
So it's not entirely surprising Jan Mohammed would opt for a slightly more fun, at least for a kid, form of homeless living over at the station.
So the whole thing with Howrah, we look at it and we see a train station that's dirty and like, dangerous, but if you look at the rest of this neighborhood, Howrah's actually kind of clean and safe.
Even without parents, the Howrah kids still have daily responsibilities.
Is this today's just from one train, or from the whole day? Morton: The bottle game is big money around Howrah.
It's basically it's own micro economy, with the gangs working as little recycling cooperatives, and a network of collection centers located right off the tracks for them to sell to.
So, that's the transaction.
Bottles have been dropped off, money has changed hands, and we head back.
They have to do it again and again.
Hello.
(speaking in foreign language) Got it.
Between bottle recycling and basic panhandling, platform kids can make enough scratch in one day to keep them and their fellow gang members fed.
Unfortunately the first thing most Howrah kids spend their money on is glue to get high off of, which is available for cheap at newsstands around the station.
The platform kid brand of choice is Dendrite, which costs a little less than a quarter.
If there's any money left after buying glue, it gets spent as it does by high teenagers anywhere, at the movies.
Uh, one balcony.
Oh, lot of kids.
Hey, guys.
The platform kids are such regulars at this theater that the owners change the movie daily, just for them, and let them huff Dendrite the whole time they're in there.
(raucous shouting) It's like the Cinematheque Francaise meets the rowdiest, least-supervised birthday party you've ever been to.
After the movies, the kids head back to Howrah to sleep where the atmosphere is a lot darker than it is during the daytime.
It is spooky out here.
This is not where I'd want to be hanging out.
There's a rag in their mouth.
Ready to sleep.
I'm good.
Good.
The glue sniffing continues until shuteye.
Actually, a lot of the kids sleep with their glue rags stuffed in their mouths like pacifiers, which in a sad way, they kind of are.
At this point, the glue is less a recreational drug than a necessary anesthetic for their environment.
Mohammed Sohail is 12 years old.
He's been living in Howrah for the last two years, and uses glue every night to get to sleep.
(speaking foreign language) What do you want to happen then? Like, what do you want to do? You kids are You kids are a mess.
What's going on? How you guys doing? All right.
(boy speaking) The next morning, everybody wakes up, wipes the glue from their mouths and starts the whole process over again.
One thing we started to notice was there weren't just no adults around, there didn't seem to be any older street kids.
It's weird considering you have hundreds of children on the tracks, you really don't see anyone over the age of 14 or 15.
Vishu Viswanath helps run this drop-in center by the station, where platform kids can come get off the tracks for a bit, eat some food and catch up on their cartoons.
He's one of the few authority figures the street kids regularly interact with, and one of the only grown-ups they all seem to trust.
Morton: Oh, you have a nice shiner.
A policeman did that? How badly beaten? Is it just like slaps and No? Like those big batons they carry? Morton: Since Howrah's not only an awful place for kids to live, but may also be grooming them for an adult life of crime, we met with the State Commission For the Protection of Child Rights to see what the government in Kolkata is doing about the situation.
How long do you estimate it will take? Morton: So the government's official plan is to wait for 50 years and see if adding more people to the city somehow solves the problem.
Meanwhile, as Kolkata waits for half a century to see how this turns out, mass urbanization isn't a local issue, or even an Indian one.
According to the United Nations, in the next 15 years, 60% of the entire planet will live in crowded urban areas just like Kolkata.
And as the widening gap between rich and poor forces these new city dwellers to work even longer and harder to make ends meet, packs of uncared for children like the scene at Howrah may become a permanent feature of the urban landscape worldwide.