help the nsa spy on the united nations. we will get the latest. into chelsea manning. a disciplinary board will decide whether manning should be sent to solitary confinement for prohibited property in

herself, including a copy of "vanity fair" with caitlyn jenner on the cover. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the obama administration has granted royal dutch shell final approval to resume julie for oil guess since 2012, despite widespread protests from environmental groups. shell first obtained drilling permits in the arctic during the george w. bush of administration , but drilling stopped in 2012 after a series of mishaps. the permit was issued monday 's icebreaking ship arrived at the drill site carrying a required piece of equipment known as a capping stack. the quitman arrived on the same protesterseace temporarily blocked from oregon, byortland,

hanging suspended from the st. than 40idge for more hours. shell now says it majorly its first well as early as the summer. the interior department has said there is a 75% chance of one or spills once shell begins drilling. we will have more on the arctic drilling after the headlines. is obama administration expected to announce as early as today the first-ever federal the oilons requiring and gas industry to cut methane emissions. is a powerful greenhouse gas that fuels global warming. the regulation would cut the methane 40% to 45% over the next decade from 2012 levels. the move comes after the obama administration announced plans earlier this month to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas, by 32% by 2030. the pentagon says it is planning to ramp up its use of drones by

50% over the next several years. the increase will rely on the use of the u.s. army and private contractors to fly the unmanned aircrafts. currently, the u.s. air force flies about 65 drone missions a day. the pentagon is looking to increase that number to 90 missions. the pentagon says the private contractors would only fly surveillance drones, not lethal strike zones. the united nations security council has approved an initiative jurenec peace talks in syria, mark the first time in two years. the 15 member council has agreed on a political statement regarding the crisis. the move came as the syrian government launched fresh airstrikes on a rebel held district northeast of damascus, day after killing about 100 people at a market. the attack appears to be among the deadliest in the four year-long conflict. speaking monday damascus, the u.n. humanitarian chief stephen

o'brien said he was horrified by the attacks on civilians. >> last week we heard of shelling of damascus by armed groups. while i have been here, we have reports of u.s. airstrikes on the besieged area of douma. yesterday's airstrikes on the caused market area scores of civilian deaths and hundreds of people were injured. scrambling to treat them. horrified by the total disregard for civilian parties in this conflict. my: in news from thailand, at least 20 people have died after a bomb placed religious shrine exploded monday night in the capital city of bangkok. ithorities have called delivered attack on civilians. bombing is the worst in a series of explosions that have rocked thailand's is the military seized power in a coup

last year. authorities are now hunting process but identified on surveillance video. reported a second explosion of bangkok this morning with no injuries. in news from south sudan, president salva kiir has declined to sign a peace agreement aimed at ending a civil war that had claimed tens of thousands of lives. president kiir and rebel leader riek machar faced a deadline monday to sign a peace accord or face possible sanctions. but late monday, president kiir said he needed more time, and proposed returning within 15 days. the fighting erupted in 2013 between forces loyal to president kiir and supporters of rebel leader riek machar, his former deputy. the u.s. state department spokesperson john kirby said monday the office would consider ways to increase the pressure for a peace agreement. call on the government to sign the agreement within the 15 period the requested. has stated, the restore agreement signed today, we would consider ways to raise cost.

we will work with the original international partners on next steps and ways to increase , especially against those that are undermining the peace process were opposing this agreement. amy: the irs says as many as three times more u.s. taxpayers have had their personal data stolen them previously thought. in may, the irs said hackers accessed the tax return information of about 114,000 people in 2015. but a new review shows that the total figure is closer 330,000 . the agency says that it processed 15,000 fraudulent tax returns this year as a result of the data breach. a state department review of democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton's messagesas blind 305 which require further scrutiny because they may contain classified information. clinton has been under fire for relying exclusively on a private server while she was secretary of state. she has denied sending or

receiving e-mails marked classified on her private account. in news from mexico, a team of independent experts say authorities have blocked them soldiers whowing may have witnessed the disappearance of the 43 students ofthe southern state guerrero honesty or go. investigators with the inter-american commission on human rights say authorities blocked them. clothing have been discovered shortly after their disappearance. experts say it's possible security video may have been destroyed. the 43 young men, who were training at the rural teacher's college of ayotzinapa, went missing last year after being detained by local police. a member of the inter-american human rights commission spoke monday. with special concern for loss of evidence in the case. we have informed the authority of the attorney general's office the existence of a video the scene of the

police intervention that led to the disappearance of a group of students. amy: meanwhile, in the mexican state of veracruz, a journalist was killed by armed gunmen in a on thursday, two weeks after the death of another journalist from veracruz sparked international outcry. juan heriberto santos, who had worked as a correspondent for televisa veracruz for ten years, died after gunmen opened fire in a bar, killing the journalist and five others. human rights groups say he is at least the 18th journalist from veracruz to be killed since 2000. the national labor relations board has dismissed of board by northwestern football player seeking the right to unionize. theeals a major blow to movement of college athletes who are arguing the massive profits generated i sports like college make them university employees who should have the right to collective bargaining. in a unanimous decision on monday, the national labor relations board said he petition the players

in part because, if the northwestern players have the "bet to unionize, it would difficult to imagine any degree of stability and labor relations ." the northwestern players are not allowed to appeal the decision, but college athletes are allowed to bring similar cases in the future. the obama administration has announced a new initiative to address the epidemic of heroin overdoses in the united states. heroin-related deaths have nearly quadrupled over the past decade, in part by in widespread use of prescription painkillers. the new initiative focuses on 15 hard-hit, northeastern states and involves hiring both drug intelligence officers and policy analysts. in a statement, the drug policy alliance said -- "half of what [the obama administration is] doing is right -- the focus on health and overdose prevention -- but the other half, the side that focuses on the failed arrest and incarceration policies of the past, is destined to ruin lives and fail."

in kansas, a man is in police custody after bringing an improvised explosive device and knives into an abortion clinic in wichita. the man had the items in his backpack when he entered the south wind women's center, the recently reopened former clinic of dr. george tiller, an abortion provider who was assassinated in church in 2009. no one was injured in monday's incident. this comes as states are ramping up efforts to defund planned parenthood following an anti-choice group's release of heavily edited videos showing planned parenthood employees discussing the sharing of fetal tissue with researchers, a practice planned parenthood says is performed legally and never for profit. on friday, arkansas became the fifth state to try to end its contract with planned parenthood for low-income residents covered by medicaid. in news from upstate, new york, and autopsy report obtained by times determine the death of prisoner from a correctional facility four homicide caused

by "physical altercation with corrections officers." samuel harrell, an african american prisoner with bipolar 21 after died on april as many as 20 correction's officer's, punched, and dragged him down a flight of stairs while he was handcuffed, to interviews conducted by "the new york times." crewers will the medical the man may have overdosed on marijuana. carol died that night in a nearby hospital. in south africa, prosecutors of ask for olympic and paralympic runner oscar pistorius to be with murder just days before he is due to be released from prison, less than a year after being convicted of killing girlfriend reeva steenkamp. the stories opened fire on steenkamp through a locked door, then claimed he thought she was an intruder. he is due to be released friday serving 10 months of a five year sentence for

manslaughter. he will be kept under a form of house arrest at a three-story mansion. in texas, a memorial service was held monday for eight people killed in the latest mass shooting related to domestic violence. on august 8, david conley killed his ex-partner, valerie jackson, along with her husband, and her six children in their houston-area home. conley had a history of domestic abuse. he faces murder charges. an estimated three women are killed every day in the united states by their partners or ex-partners. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the obama administration has granted royal dutch shell final approval to resume drilling for oil and gas in the arctic ocean for the first time since 2012, despite widespread protests from environmental groups. shell first obtained drilling permits in the arctic during the

george w. bush administration, but drilling stopped in 2012 after a series of mishaps. the interior department's decision comes just weeks after a protest in portland, oregon temporarily blocked an arctic bound rig of shell's from leaving the city after a group of activists from greenpeace dangled off a bridge blocking the ship's movement while kayakactivists took to the water below. a coalition of environmental groups have pushed the obama administration to say no to arctic drilling, citing the dangers of a possible oil spill in the pristine region and the impact new oil extraction would have on the climate. the interior department approved the arctic drilling ahead of tripdent obama's upcoming to the arctic later this month. he mentioned the trip during his speech unveiling his plan to cut carbon emissions from u.s. power plants. >> i will also be the first american president to visit the -- alaskan arctic where

the fellow americans of our the by risingstation oceans and melting ice. .he impact on marine life where going to talk about what the world needs to do together impacts ofthe worst climate change before it is too late. amy: joining us from washington is athan manuel, director of the lands protection program at the sierra club. welcome to democracy now. the obama administration has given approval for drilling in arctic yesterday. can you talk about the sierra club's response? we are very disappointed. talks aboutnt climate change all the time and talks about it in his trip to alaska. this is a very bad decision. is not a very clean company. mishaps andtory of problems with drilling anywhere in the world, but especially in an area as challenging as the ocean. this is not going to make our

climate any better. if we're serious about fighting climate change, and this president seems like he is serious about it, we know we keep dirty fuels underground where they belong. this is a really disappointing decision, one that is not consistent with what this president has done in other change.round climate amy: can you talk about what this drilling could mean and exactly it will take place? there's a very small window, is that right? it is a very short drilling season. this is a cynical issue. canonly reason shell consider drilling in the arctic that's climate change, now it is getting warmer in the arctic, the ice is breaking up and in the summer, the ice breaks up a network copies can uprate boats and put temporary drilling rigs. but it is a short drilling season. they have permits for august and september and have to end in when it starts getting colder again, cold enough to freeze up the entire ocean. narrow when know that operate in. the problems are, it is a very

dangerous place to drill. -- there is ice that tell us to the water. no onshore facilities where you can stage clean of the quitman. the gulf of mexico were there a lot supports, people, boats. northf that exists on the slope of alaska. there are no ports. there's no infrastructure to clean up a's health. if a spill happens, there's honest and witty clean it up. amy: why is the obama administration given approval to shell? we can't really figure that out. there's no logical reason why this kind of president, one who climate and inherited this problem from a notblican president, would step in and say, this is a terrible idea, bad for our climate and ecosystem and that fish, thatmmals and for alaska natives who depend on the arctic ocean for their way for subsistence. it is ahead scratcher. it is completely inconsistent with what he is done recently when you look at the claim power

regs role, the methane that are coming out today. he is attacked climate change it a signature issue for his. this issue -- decision to not 's billing shell record and how this truly what impact the climate negatively no sense.es where not when the stop pushing him on this issue. it will be a priority going forward. amy: the interior department ofd there is a 75% chance one or more large spills since drilling.ns >> yes. the agency that regulates drilling says there is going to be a spill if they allow drilling there. sense.s no this is a huge mistake by the obama administration to allow operate knowing what we know about the risks of area like then arctic ocean, which is very dangerous and very remote. what is the next step for

the sierra club? >> this is the first step in shell developing this field. they probably want to put two years ofds, two more exploratory drilling before the even consider putting a permanent platform there. we're going to fight them every step of the way. you will continue to see more protest like you saw in portland, but all around the world is this issue gets more and more high profile. we will continue to fight them courts. road that we will continue to fight every step of the way to prohibit shell from putting of any production so it industrialize as the arctic ocean. amy: what are the positions of the presidential candidates? we are in luck there are at on the democratic side, every candidate running for office from senator clinton -- secretary clinton to senator o'malley toovernor governor chafee, all of those folks oppose drilling in the ocean and many of them have all voted to oppose drilling in the arctic refuge

when they were in the senate. hopefully, the next president will overturn this decision and put a stop to this very, very idea that would really damage one of the last pristine places left in the united states. amy: and the significance of president obama's trip? well, you know, it is going .o be all about climate in paris, he will go there touting issues like the clean power plant role and the fact reducing emissions in the united states. he would have had a stronger paris if heng to said, we're not going to drill in the arctic ocean. problems we're seeing is russia, canada, norway, great britain, they want to drill for oil in the arctic ocean also. we were hoping the u.s. would lead the world and showing to arctic, not jewel for oil there and keep this area off-limits from -- amy: i mean a trip he is taking arctic, the first u.s. president who'll be doing this. think you'll be confronted by a lot of questions, if you really care about climate and to

alaska's northg slope from the impacts of climate change, why are you allowing drilling in the arctic ocean? the alaska natives who live in the area above the arctic circle understand the impacts of change on their villages and their way of life. most of those folks oppose forling in the arctic ocean all of the reasons we do as well. he will be confronted with that contradiction when he goes up there at the end of this month. amy: athan manuel, thanks for being with us, director of lands protection program at the sierra club. this.l continue to follow we will be in paris at the end of the are for the conference of bindingsummit, the meeting that will take place of many of the countries, most of the countries, of the world, the u.n. climate summit. when we come back, who is listening? who is watching? who is reading your e-mail and what does at&t have to do with it? stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. documents from nsa whistleblower edward snowden have exposed how extensively the nsa relied on telecommunications giant at&t for its vast spying operations. records described by "the new york times" and propublica laud at&t's extreme willingness to help the nsa's spying efforts.

according to the piece, the supplied access to billions of emails flowing across its domestic networks and technical aid in carrying out a secret order allowing the wiretapping of all internet communications at the headquarters of the united nations -- an at&t customer. in 2013, the nsa's top-secret budget for its partnership with at&t was reportedly more than twice that of the next largest such program. democracy now! asked an at&t representative to join us on the program, but they declined. an at&t spokesperson sent us a note saying -- "we do not provide information to any investigating authorities without a court order or other mandatory process other than if a person's life is in danger and time is of the essence. for example, in a kidnapping situation we could provide help tracking down called numbers to assist law enforcement." to talk about the significance of these latest revelations, we're joined now by two guests. in san francisco, mark klein was a technician with at&t for 22

years. in 2006, he blew the whistle on at&t's cooperation with the national security agency by leaking internal documents that revealed the company had set up a secret room in its san francisco office to give the nsa access to its fiber optic internet cables. here in new york, jeff larson is data editor at propublica. he co-authored the new york times/propublica piece headlined, "at&t helped u.s. spy on internet on a vast scale." we welcome you both to democracy now! jeff, explain what you found in the snowden documents. we found a partnership between at&t and nsa that was close, highly collaborative, and characterized by the partner at&t's extreme willingness to help. amy: so go further into that. find?xactly did you sleuthing,y, through

we found at&t provides the nsa with access to at least 17 of its internet access hubs on u.s. soil. that includes things like cable , coming out of the ocean, two different facilities within the united states. they provide the nsa with large onlyts of data, not foreign to foreign, foreign to and purely domestic data including cell phone records. companiesin why u.s. and the cables they lay are so significant all over the world. operation.st a u.s. >> exactly. the internet is largely operated through the u.s.. it is allginally -- of the infrastructures in the u.s.. an e-mail that maybe is one from france to germany has a good chance of traversing the united states. at&t comes in. at&t operates -- is a tier one

provider, operates the big fat pipes that make up the internet. what at&t gave the nsa was call theirhat they common backbone. theh was part of declaration. why single out at&t? what do the documents show? it shows the fairview partnership, the codename -- the partnership between the nsa and at&t, is much larger than the second-largest program, which is stormbrew, including verizon. that only has a handful of access points. in the fairview documents is this extreme willingness to help, we see them handing over internal plans for nations network, we thethem -- they're often first ones to boot up new spying capabilities for the nsa, and also in some cases, the even check the work for stormbrew,

includes verizon. amy: fairview. they're using the codename? the nsa? codename for were the relationship between at&t and the nsa. amy: how do you know? did they ever say directly at&t? >> not directly in the documents. we were able to work back from a technicalhighly jargon words and academics to fact that those acronyms early used at at&t. correlatere able to real-world events like fiber-optic cable going down during the japanese earthquake operatesct that at&t those facilities. case for stormbrew, recordsable to look at to confirm that verizon operates

particular undersea cables. amy: are they still doing it? it is hard to tell. -20 13cuments cover 2003 and after 2013 with the snowden revelations, we know a couple of things have changed. there was the usa freedom act, in november, will put an end to the bull calling records of the cell phone records. we don't know if it is continuing apace as it was in it stands to reason that such a massive apparatus would not just be turned off overnight. talk about the kind of wording, you refer to directions how nsa, government workers at&t plants or facilities. right, so what characterizes the fairview program is that it is a collaboration. it a collaboration. they remind nsa employees that if they're going into at&t be mindful of the

fact that this is a contractual not -- i mean, this is not a contractual relationship, this is a .artnership a partnership between at&t and nsa. case, they're working hand-in-hand to decode data, to help nsa enable spying. let's talk about the united nations. where does it fit into this specter? the nsa got a court order to basically spy on every bit of through the united nations. the nsa engineers had a little decoding that ,ata, so at&t engineers helped worked in concert with the nsa engineers to decode the data. amount of data. this basically everything, a full take access to everything flying around the united -- amy: who gave the order? is unclear from the documents. they got a court order.

i would assume, like all things court order-related when talking the secretsa, it is intelligence court, the foreign intelligence surveillance court, which only hears the arguments and all of their court decisions are secret. amy: so at&t is helping the nsa spy on every person in the u.n. e-mail.ters, reading how hard is ago, listening in on phone conversations? it cannot before they're also looking at the video conference systems of the united nations. in 2013, barack obama did public spyingunce he would stop on the united nations. know, like everything else, because the documents in a 2013, we don't know whether or not that actually happened. amy: we're talking withl with per-pupil cut, one of the of the big piece in calledw york times"

"at&t helped u.s. spy on internet on a vast scale." by mark klein a , technician with at&t for 22 years. in 2006, he blew the whistle on at&t's cooperation with the national security agency by -- and also author of, "wiring andhe big brother machine fighting it." what most surprised to and is most important for us to understand? >> of course i feel very the documents back inhat i was saying 2003 -- axa, came forward in in 2003at i discovered was they were tying into the stream.ernet data that.documents confirmed there's a paragraph that talks nsat in september 2003, the

went live on the internet because of the installations at at&t. and so i was right about that. they tried to dismiss me back then because i did not work for the nsa. i was a little surprised i did that the program to -- with at&t went back 1985, as mentioned in "the new york times" article. i'm not sure what that is about. but i assume that might the therecall's because wasn't very much internet back in 1985. that indicates the very close between relationship at&t and the nsa. echomark, can you go back we talk to you, what was it, in 008 on democracy now! can you talk about how you found what you found? what exactly was your job at at&t? >> i was acumen occasions technician. i took care of the data lines and the equipment in the central

office. in late 2002, we heard there was an installation going in at a outby office, which turned was an nsa installation because office,showed up at my interviewed the one guy who was one of us, not one of the union technicians, only that one was nsa cleared, could work in this room. so that told us right there that installation.a the following year 2003, i was transferred to 611. street. i was in charge of the internet room. as part of my job, i got a hold engineering documents to show what they were doing. i actually had to hook up cabinettic cables to a which were connected down to the secret room. the documents i got hold of showed very clearly that they blindly sweeping up

everything going across those peering links, they're called, which connected at&t's network to other quest and what have you. amy: so they were all oflaborating, this idea peering? >> peering is when you connect links together. that meant there were sweeping up everyone's communications, not just at&t customers, but -- but other companies who were not aware of this arrangement back then. they were sweeping up all of that stuff without any selection because the apparatus are using to sweep it up with had no intelligence. it was just a blind sweep of everything, which shall he then and there that was unconstitutional. amy: and so what did you do? at that moment, i did nothing because i was too scared. i did not know if i could find

anyone to believe me because who i? idid not work for the nsa, worked for at&t. all i had were these engineering documents, which showed an intrusion into the at&t network somebody. but i came forward later after i retired. and how did you release the information? andl, i retired in 2004 after "the new york times" came out the revelation article in revealing this kind of collaboration with the phone companies was going on for surveillance, i came forward in 2006, which to the electronic foundation with my documents. i wanted to point out to my government lying at that time was, there just foreign to foreign communications or domestic to foreign communications, not at the domestic

, their privacy is safe. i knew from the apparatus they were using, they were sweeping up domestic to domestic communications. obvious from the way it was set up. and they to the eff follow lawsuit against at&t in then we had ad big fight for several years after that. , is this aarson violation of the constitution? >> what is weird about the documents that we published is that at&t is doing the filtering on behalf of the nsa. telecoms is part of an act passed in 2008 in response to article mark klein is talking about, got an exemption. -- butt doesn't seem that still -- the fourth of them of the constitution against unreasonable search and seizure seems to still apply to the nsa.

in one court case at the end of the court case, the government it was the clapper court case. denied standing to the defendants -- i mean, to the that even by saying if there was a fourth of moment only happent would on the order of milliseconds and it would be such a minor infraction against the fourth amendment that possible intelligence all you would amendmentourth concerns. amy: clearly, this is an issue in thisare about country. i want to turn to the first republican primary debate earlier this month. presidential hopefuls new jersey governor chris christie and kentucky senator rand paul got into a heated argument over nsa domestic surveillance. >> and i am proud of standing for the bill of rights and i continue to stand for the bill of rights. megyn, that is completely

ridiculous answer. i want to collect more records terrorists, but less records from other people. how are you supposed to know, megyn? how are you supposed to know? >> get a warrant. get a judge to sign a warrant. amy: that is chris christie versus rand paul. mark klein, your response? of course, you should get a warrant. they could've done that back then. they could have used the pfizer law. bush amply disregarded the fisa law and it with his own signature, which is totally illegal. that while there are few dissidents in both parties like rand paul in the republican ron wyden on the side, both parties, the real political crime here is that both parties approved this passed the immunity bill for the phone companies in

2008 with the help of barack add, and that killed the lawsuit. that is a very significant moment. a remember back then, this was -- i think it was in december 2007 of barack obama that he would not, senator, be approving retroactive immunity for the phone companies. then he turned around, he not supported it, he voted for it. we went to the democratic convention in denver and those swag bags and on the cover -- right on the bags it said "at&t" on both firstand one of the party toas a major thank at&t. say, they do get warrants -- there is an apparatus for them to get -- the

and certification's, so they have a bunch of certifications and also get 215 programer the for purely domestic communications, but we don't know the size of these warrants. they seem very, very bulky. hard to imagine that millions of e-mails, everybody a warrant for every single one of those millions of e-mails. and in the past with the new certifications are particularly bulky. amy: i want to go to former florida governor and republican presidential hopeful jeb bush has been calling for the reauthorization of the patriot act, saying that there is no proof the metadata program violated civil liberties. this is bush speaking to face the nation earlier this summer. >> there's no evidence, not a evidence that the metadata program has violated anybody's civil liberties. the first duty of our national government is to protect the homeland, and this has been an tool, along with many others. the patriot act ought to be

reauthorized as is. amy: that was jeb bush speaking earlier this summer. jeff larson? i also want to point out the going back to my previous point warrants, the 215 orders are particularly bulky and that every domestic phone call. thishat happened was, when first came out, there was a verizon order released in 2013 saidhe federal government this was largely landline and news in our story that we published was that at&t is also handing over cell phone records. so who you call and what you made -- what time you made those calls. that is an example of this really bulky type of foreign to get from're able to the secret intelligence court. amy: i want to go to president ofma addressing the issue the usa freedom act that was

this summer that requires the nsa to get a warrant in order to obtain records from phone companies. earlier thisaking summer explaining what the act will succeed in doing. the usa freedom act conscious something i called for a year and half ago. itnds the ball metadata program, the book collection of phone records as it currently , and put in place reforms. the government will no longer records.e telephone providers will. the act includes other changes surveillance laws, including more transparency to help build confidence among the people that your privacy and civil liberties are being protected. obama.at is president saying, don't worry, we won't hold your information, copies like at&t well. -- companies like at&t will. at&t is are ready doing the

program, for the 702 which is internet. they're just moving bulk records polled aboverolled every bulk record back to at&t. at the hourly have this -- they are to have his relationship with telecom companies are doing, in essence, the filtering and selecting on behalf of the nsa. it is sort of aware law under these revelations because half the nsa's programs, the bulky part, is already operated under that manner. is there a difference between the telephone companies and the nsa? i don't know. the nsa i think sees the telecom important intelligence tool, but the telecom companies long history of compliance at the nsa. since 1985, we are talking about a program that has lasted for decades. it sort of seems like -- amy: i want to go back to at&t we asked them to come

on the show -- "we do not provide any information to investigating authorities without a court order or other mandatory process other than if a person's life is danger and time is of the essence. example, kidnapping situation, we provide help tracking down called number is to assist law-enforcement." other ? it is hard to say. the secret court orders are secret. know what sort of court orders they got. amy: mark klein, when president obama says, don't worry, the operation -- the reauthorization of the patriot act means yours, at&t, will hold the information, not us? well, you should worry. they're storing everything they collect in the collect everything they can get their on, as the nsa documents

reveal. is no need for that. they should rip out the secret rooms. if they of some individual they get a worn foran that individual, but they don't have to collect billions and communications, which is what they're doing. that is all too tempting for the use when they want to go after someone. by the way, they did not stop a of attacks that happen. they had all of this in place and they did not stop the boston bombing, for instance, even though they knew the perpetrators beforehand. this is just an excuse to collect information on everybody, as far as i'm concerned. amy: i want to thank you both. we will continue the story. and jeff larson. we will link to the major piece times" "the new york "at&t helped u.s. spy on internet on a vast scale." we will be back in a minute with an update on chelsea manning. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: joni mitchell, singing "chelsea morning." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we turn now to the latest on in

prison army whistleblower chelsea manning. chelsea manning is scheduled to go before closed-door today atary hearing fort leavenworth, kansas where she is serving a 35 year sentence for leaking u.s. government cables to wikileaks. her lawyers say she could be sent back to indefinite solitary after being accused of a number of infractions, including have an expired tube , an issue of "vanity fair" in which transgender celebrity caitlyn jenner describes her new life , a copypenly as a woman of the u.s. senate report on books andeveral lgbt magazines, and other so-called in herself.roperty chelsea manning has been denied the right to be represented by an a turning -- attorney at her hearing. in her most recent tweet, chelsea manning wrote -- "prison staff are now denying me access to the law library at scheduled times -- times--with only two days until my board." supporters are planning to deliver a petition to the army

on -- army liaison office hill some a more than 75,000 people. yorkoined right now in new i one of chelsea manning's , staffys, chris strangio attorney at the mecca and civil liberties union. ast year, the aclu filed lawsuit on behalf of manning to force the military to provide her medical treatment for her and be provided hormones their of the and permission to follow female grooming standards. welcome back to democracy now! explain what is happening. i want to thank you for highlighting this issue because it is ali through public thetiny we can ensure government doesn't continue to abuse chelsea manning and people like her who are sent into underry confinement and horrible conditions. go before the disciplinary board in which she will not be represented by an attorney. she will face a possible indefinite solitary confinement

as well as other possible punishment so was severely limit ability to engage with the public, possibly losing publications altogether and other materials that allow her voice that public she has will stop there's a lot of reason to be concerned. amy: explain the caitlyn jenner "vanity fair" issue in herself that they say she could face indefinite solitary confinement for? >> the caitlyn jenner issue can in.wfully, not smuggled there are some allegations in report that ity somehow was altered from its original state, that it was used -- i think it just highlights the extent to which prisons in general and the military prison in this case, really use disciplinary infractions to threaten people with things like solitary confinement. can you talk about the timing of this? chelsea's just started tweeting and now writing a column in the

guardian. >> a number of things are now after five years of confinement. voicea is leveraging her and becoming an important commentator on issues of transparency, media access to prisoners, and transgender rights. here we are as her voice is being solidified in the public, having a threshold have that shut down whether through solitary confinement or other means to take away materials that she uses to inform her political -- public. amy: explain the hearing today. >> so many aspects of this are unknown. as her attorneys, we have not been given a lot of information about it nor has chelsea. it is a closed-door hearing. she is not entitled to have counsel. the charges against her include the misuse the medication for the expired toothpaste. explain. how many people are thinking now, i have not checked the date on my toothpaste. >> a lot of people did not know it could expire. isn't she getting it from inside the prison?

>> yes, but it is just an example into which prison rules can be used to punish and people when the government does not want their boys to be heard. chelsea manning is one of tens of prisoners subjected to arbitrary roles in which they can be sent to solitary confinement for things like praying in a group of three or singing "happy birthday." we hear things like this all the time. because chelsea's voice is important and we need to issues of government transparency and transgender rights, we should be particularly concerned this is to silence that voice that is so important. amy: let's talk about the full list of books and magazines that chelsea.n from "vanity fair" issue that highlights caitlyn jenner on the cover, advocate, out magazine, withtology and issue chelsea herself -- cosmopolitan herself,h chelsea transgender studies quarterly, "the many faces of

anonymous" and five books by robert dorgan, legal documents the senate torture report and the book "hidden qualities that make us influential." one thing to point out that is not different the document other materials were also taken, but they were returned and not deemed prohibited, even in the same condition as those documents were. it is particularly concerning that the senate report on torture and all of these trends publications for the things that were deemed prohibited. those are the things that she is been using to public her tweets and her guardian columns. amy: what is the latest on your aclu lawsuit? >> we're still awaiting word from the government about willingor not they're to let chelsea manning grew her hair. right now she is still forced witheooming standards respect to her hair. she was given access to hormones.

the fight is still ongoing in the fact they're forcing her to essentially shave her head in accordance with the male grooming standards is something that is greatly upsetting to her and that fight will continue and will pick up fall as will her continued effort to fight for through her appeal of her court-martial conviction. amy: i want to switch gears a bit and talk to you, chris , about these recent killings of transgender women across the country. the body of alicia walker, a womanr-old transgender missing from list a year was recently found in a crude grave carolina. this comes amidst reports of three other like transgender women killed in texas, michigan, in arizona. fieldas found in a dallas . amber monroe was shot and killed in a detroit park. candace capri shot dead tuesday night in phoenix, arizona. now tamara dominguez brings the

total number to 17. 17 just this year. she was run over repeatedly in what is being investigated as a possible hate crime. people are calling this a crisis. >> it absolutely is. have a clear and the black lives matter movement and trans clearleaders have made this is a national crisis. this is a state of emergency for the trends gender community -- transgender community. we are living in a moment where we should be incredibly concerned about all of the mechanisms of violence against our community and state violence includes the violence of police includes all also of the ways in which transgender people, particularly women of color, have their lives cut short your systems of discrimination and through the violence that we

see these women have experienced. it is devastating. i hope we don't have to turn on on facebook or twitter to see another trans woman of color murdered. amy: are you finding these women -- the investigations are being treated differently than if they weren't transgender? absolutely. in two critical ways. the first is the media, the local media particular, often isls them men, which itself contributing to the violence against them, and then the delays in bringing people to also a concern for the transgender community. elons been two years since nettles was murdered here in was a long time before any meaningful investigation was done and had to take to the streets over and over again. just bringing the individual to justice is not going to solve problems. it is systemic and institutional. and we have to look at all the ways transgender people and

black transgender woman in particular are cut off. i want to go back to chelsea manning for a moment and facingsibility of her solitary confinement indefinite -- indefinite solitary confinement. how does this go to the issue of solitary confinement? >> we overuse solitary confinement. is something we should not be using at all enwezor it as a default mechanism for minor disciplinary infractions like having an expired tube of toothpaste, using it as a default mechanism for allegedly safeng transgender people in men's prisons. we use it to keep death row prisoners in solitary confinement for the duration of their time on death row. we have a serious problem because people are being tortured in our prisons come in dyingils, and people are and coming out of prison and killing themselves because -- is an intolerable wait to confine people. hope the continued attention

to chelsea's case will affect our policies. , thank youstrangio for being here, part of chelsea manning's legal team. that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to >8e;each@democracynow.org or