02/19/16 02/19/16 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, thiss democracy now! 20 years ago on february 19, 1996, democracy now! went on the air. today we take a freewheeling journey through the last two decades. that chevron clear , just like shell, uses the

military to protect its oil activities. they drill and they kill. >> listen to me. he asked the questions and i'm going to answer. you have asked questions in a hostile, even disrespectful tone and you never been able to combat the facts. >> we stand here today to let those people and others know a diverseca is country. and we are part of the greater truth of what makes our nion. dr. king once said that if maind doesot put an end to war, war will put an end to mankind. >> do not arrest me.

you are choice david's. we are joy davis. >> it looks like a battlefield. this is not -- the same as the arabs fought for their rights to oust the corrupt government, we're fighting for our rights, our human rights. amy: highlights of 20 years of democracy now! all of that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the united states carried out airstrikes in libya that killed at least 30 people this morning. the strikes hit a farmhouse outside sabratha, to the west of the capital tripoli. the spokesperson of the

tripoli says the farmhouse had been seized by isil fighters. unnamed pentagon officials told the "new york times" the strikes were targeting a tunisian man is suspected of being involved in two isil attacks in tunisia last year. it is not yet clear if the tunisian man was killed. the strikes come as the u.s. weighs increasing military action in libya, which has been torn by violence since a 2011 u.s. backed military intervention ousted longtime dictator muammar gaddafi. in recent months, u.s. and british special operations teams have been increasingly operating in libya. today's strike comes three weeks after general joseph dunford, chair of the u.s. joint chiefs of staff, said he wants to begin taking "decisive military action" against isil in libya. in news from the campaign trail this weekend marks the south , carolina primary for republicans and the nevada primary for democrats. on thursday, pope francis criticized republican front-running donald trump, suggesting the real estate mogul's plan to build a wall

across the u.s.-mexico border means he is "not christian." pope francis spoke to reporters aboard the papal airliner. >> a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, not building bridges, is not a christian. amy: donald trump file back sing his comets were disgraceful and unbelievable. become it commented on the use of birth control in areas where zika verse has led to public health emergencies. scientists say the zika virus may be linked to microcephaly, which causes infants to be born with unusually small heads. the pope appeared to make an exception for the use of birth control in such cases, saying, "avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil." in more news from the campaign trail, new polls find democratic candidates bernie sanders and hillary clinton are in a dead heat heading into the nevada caucus this weekend. a new cnn poll shows 48% of likely voters support former secretary of state hillary clinton, while 47% support

vermont senator bernie sanders. and what is being seen as a victory for bernie sanders, the most powerful labor union in nevada the culinary workers , union, has decided not to endorse before the caucus. it had been assumed that the 57,000-member union would support hillary clinton. students are protesting across india after the indian supreme court refused to consider a bail plea for student leader arrested and charged under a colonial you're a sedition law. student union president kanhaiya kumar has been charged under a -- was arrested after the anniversary of the 2013 execution of afzal guru, who was convicted of a 2001 attack on the parliament. human rights activists say there were major holes in the case against guru. in california officials say the , worst natural gas leak in u.s. capped after he spewed methane gas and beer for nearly four months. delete again in october at an

underground natural gas well operated by southern california gas in porter ranch. methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. at the peak, the leak has spewed the equivalent pollution of 4.5 million cars every day. activists and residents are calling for the permanent closure of all 114 wells at the facility. meanwhile, group of congress members are calling for an investigation of shell oil over whether the oil giant lied to the public about climate change even while preparing its own operations for rising sea levels. th week, california congressman ted lieuvermont coress memr peter welch,nd pennsylvania congressman matt cartwright send a letter to u.s. attorney general loretta lynch saying that a growing body of evidence suggests there was a "a conspiracy between shell, exxon mobil and potentially other companies in the fossil fuel industry." "the los angeles times" has reported that in 1989, shell oil announced it was redesigning its natural gas platform in the

north sea in the atlantic in order to deal with rising sea levels caused by global warming. yet despite this admission, shell continued funding groups denying the existence of climate change for decades. oil giant exxon mobil is already facing a criminal investigation over similar charges that it mislead investors and lied to the public about the risks of climate change. the white house has announced president obama will visit argentina later this month in a trip that signals a "new era" in the two countries' relationship, only months after argentina's new right-wing president mauricio macri came to power. deputy u.s. national security adviser ben rhodes said he expects the u.s. and argentina to have a closer economic relationship moving forward. >> with respect to argentina, we definitely anticipate there will be a closer partner on a range of issues, in fact, president macri has been a strong voice

for democracy and human rights in latin america. he signaled he would like to have closer economic and diplomatic cooperation with the united states. we believe this is a new beginning and a new era in our relations with argentina. massives comes amidst -- the dismissal of nearly unionized public sector workers, 20,000 and the elimination of taxes for mining corporations. macri's has also proposed a desk a crackdown on press freedoms, including repealing a law outlawing monopolies by media companies. maryland, the trials of six officers charged in the death of african-american man freddie gray have been put on hold. a family attorney says graze five -- spine was 80% severed from fatal injuries last april. the six officers were supposed to go to court this winter, but after a jury failed to reach a decision in the first case

brought against officer william porter, all the other trials have been delayed over the issue of whether porter should be compelled to testify before his own cases retried. on thursday, maryland court of appeals said all trials are on hold until a court hearing march 3 over porter's testimony. the court could then take to issue a decision. in chicago, the leader of the black lives matter chicago chapter declined to meet with president obama in the white house thursday. obama invited a slim pulley to be part of a small intergenerational gathering of civil rights leaders, which included civil rights leader al sharpton and naacp president cornell brooks. but pulley declined writing in an op-ed for truth out "i could not with any integrity participate in such a sham that would only serve to legitimize the false narrative that the government is working to end police btality a institional rasm that els it inadison, sconsin,4,000

people gathered at the wisconsin state capitol for a "a without latinos and immigrants." the demonstration was in protest of two bills in the wisconsin legislature. one would ban local governments from issuing photo id cards, the second bill would allow the police to hold people for up to two days after an arrest in order to investigate their immigration status. activist say the bill would lead to racial profiling against immigrants. at the protest, mariana spoke out. klux a lot of places are not going to have customers, not going to have students. that is the point. i can see -- they can see how important are this country. amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. 20 years ago today, democracy now! went on the air. this is how we began our first radio episode on february 19,

1996. this is democracy now! from pacifica radio, i am amy goodman. today, live free or die, look at the political landscape in new hampshire where the republican revolution has taken its toll. >> if you want a taste of the country after the revolution, you might as well visit new hampshire today because we have the most regressive taxes, does not have mandatory kindergarten, does not invest in its infrastructure. amy: the politics of race in the granite state and money talks. who are the millionaires having their way and washington? >> you need to go up to bob dole now that he is on the corporate welfare line and say, ok, that is a great -- that is great you have taken this up. whose corporate jet did you fly in on?

relentlessly expose them. amy: all coming up on democracy now! today is presidents' day and tomorrow is the new hampshire primary. welcome to the maiden voyage of democracy now! inetings to our audiences california, texas, new york, pennsylvania, washington, d.c., washington state, kansas city, and colorado. in this election year, we are embarking on a nine-month journey through the country and helped of the community radio stations in many more states as we go. as we give voice to the grassroots. broadcastur first february 19, 1996. for the first five years of democracy now!, we were only a radio show. we began on each community radio stations.

two years later in 1998, jeremy scahill and i documented chevron's role in the killing of two protesters in the oil-rich niger delta. the protesters were occupying a chevron-owned oil platform called the parabe platform, demanding jobs and compensation for environmental damage to their communities. soon after landing in chevron-leased helicopters, the nigerian military shot to death two protesters and wounded several others. democracy now! jeremy scahill and i traveled to the niger delta to investigate, and produced the special report, "drilling and killing: chevron and nigeria's oil dictatorship." this is an excerpt. until now, chevron has claimed its only action against the occupation was to call the federal authorities and tell them what was happening. it in a startling admission in a three-hour interview with democracy now!, chevron spokesperson acknowledged that chevron did much more. he admitted that chevron

actually flew in the soldiers who did the killing. he further admitted those men were from the notorious navy. >> [indiscernible] we did. chevron did. we took them there. amy: by. >> helicopter. amy: who authorized the call for the military? >> chevron's management. >> here we have on may 20 8, 1998, chevron flying in the nigerian navy and the police to confront a group of villagers who thought they were in the midst of a negotiation with the oil giant, which rings is to another admission by chevron spokesperson. again, listen carefully. amy: were any of these armed? >> i don't know. i don't know. . cannot say they came armed

[inaudible] >> no. chevron very clear that , just like shell uses the military to protect its oil activities. they drill and they kill. >> environment list douglas. >> they're shooting people for just a manning their rights. amy: does he behold document or he -- two cb the whole documentary, you can go to democracynow.org. democracy now! grew into a daily television show in 2001, but our first tv broadcast took place in august 2000 as recovered the republican national convention in philadelphia. from pacifica radio, this is

democracy now! breaking with convention, power protest in the presidcy. george bush accepts the republican nomination for president. we will get reaction from barbara gonzalez. also, a look at the conduct of the philadelphia police this week and a tour through the independent media center. all of that and more coming up on the civic a radio's democracy now! you are listening to pacifica radio's democracy now! broadcasting on community radio stations around the country, on public access tv stations around the country, on the internet, both live streaming and videocast at democracynow.org. i'm president community --

unprecedented community media. i'm here with juan gonzalez as we continue to the acceptance speech of george w. bush for nomination by the republican party as the presidential candidate. juan: as i said, an amazing speech by bush. you know, he actually attempted, basically, to pretrade himself as a caring, sensitive, compassionate conservative. but the reality of the message he was bringing of increased military spending, a privatization of portions of social security, charter schools that would help to begin to tear apart the public school system rather than raise the level of the public school system throughout, i think was one that was clearly, clearly at the right fringe of american

politics today. amy: that was at the republican convention. we move forward to election day 2000. then-president bill clinton was calling radio stations to get hillary was for running for the senate seat of new york. hillary clinton. and for al gore running for president. among the places he called was wbai. while he may have intended to spend a couple of minutes on the phone wbai host gonzalo aburto , and i kept him on the line for about half an hour, asking him about topics that weren't being discussed in the presidential race. mr. president, are you there? to're calling radio stations tell people to get out to vote. what you say to people who feel the two parties are bought by corporations and that they are, at this point, feel that their vote doesn't make a difference? there is not a shred of evidence to support that. that is what i would say. it is true that both parties have wealthy supporters. but let me offer -- give you the

differences. let's look at economic policy. first of all, if you look at the last eight years, look where america was eight years ago and look where it is today. we have the strongest economy in history. for the first time in history, the incomes of average people and lower income working people have gone up 15% after inflation. the lowest minority unemployment ever recorded, the highest minority home and business ownership in history. that is our record. amy: president clinton, you and figures show up to 5000 children a month die in iraq because of the sanctions -- >> that is not true. that is not true and that is not what they show. let me tell you something. before the sanctions, the year before the gulf war, you said this, how much money did iraq earned from oil? answer, $16 billion. how much money did iraq earned from oil last year?

cash on the barrel to saddam hussein? answer, $19 billion. he can use it exclusively for food, medicine to develop his country. he has more money now, $3 billion more now, that he did not years ago. if any child is without food, medicine, or roof over his or her head, it is because he is climbing the sanctions were doing it and sticking it to his own children. amy: the past two to you and head of the program in iraq have quit, calling the u.s. policy, u.s.-u.n. policy genocidal. >> they are wrong. -- saddam we should hussein says i'm going to start my kids unless you buy nuclear weapons, chemical weapons or biological weapons. if you let me do what i want to do so i think it position to kill and intimidate people again, i will stop starving my kids. we're supposed to assume responsibility for his misconduct. that is not right.

amy: many people say ralph nader is at a high percentage on his in the polls because you have been responsible for taking the democratic party to the right. what do you say to listeners were listening around the area right now? >> i am glad you asked that. this is the last question i have time for. what is the measure of taking the democratic party to the right? we cut the welfare rolls in half, that poverty is at a 20 year low, that child poverty has been cut by one third in our administration? that the incomes of average americans has gone up? that we have the lowest african-american, lowest latino unemployment rate in the history of the country? that we have a 500% increase in the number of minority kids taking advanced placement tests? that the schools in this country, the test score since we have required all schools that basic standards, test scores

among african-americans and other minorities have gone up steadily? amy: can i say -- >> let me finish. you started this and every question you have asked has been hostile and combative, so you listen to my answer. will you do that? you asked the questions and i'm going to answer. you have asked questions in a hostile, combative, even disrespectful tone, and you have never been able to combat the facts i have given you. you listen to this. amy: that was president bill clinton on democracy now! in 2000, the day he called into wbai radio where we were broadcasting from. the next day, the white house called and said i would be banned from the white house because they had said he had a couple of minutes and we kept him on the air for half an hour. i said, the president is the leader of the free world, the most powerful person on earth, he could have hung up if you wanted to. today we're celebrating 20 years of democracy now! the first broadcast, february 19, 19 96.

we are taking a freewheeling journey to the last two decades. and a bunch of people have wished us happy birthday. you would be happy to wish a happy birthday. we started small, you started small. look where we are. it is building, growing. i think it is all good. happy birthday. don't wish me happy birthday, because it draws attention to my birthday, which i want to forget. amy: can you say your name? >> paul newman. [laughter] precious lord lingered near is old, almost gone

cry my callmy lest i fall, hand, precious lord, lead me home ♪ odett performing "takea my hand, precious lord" in our firehouse studio is a gem or 11, 2002, the first ever three of the september 11 attacks. we did a special for our broadcast. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and

peace report. i'm amy goodman. celebrate 20 years of ♪ we go back after the september 11 attacks to revisit a remarkable conversation between two new yorkers. on lost her brother during the 9/11 attacks. masuda was an afghan woman living in new york at the time of the 9/11 attacks. she soon got word that 19 members of her family had been killed in the u.s. attack in afghanistan. , an they met in our studio lot of new york media were there for this exclusive moment. masuda sultan on a just return from her native afghanistan where she met with surviving members of her family. we're going to turn to the conversation between rita and masuda. first, we go to the report masuda did for democracy now! as she made her way to afghanistan from pakistan while investigating the killing of her

family. >> there were women and children running for their lives, being shot at by helicopter hovering over their homes. people were not taliban supporters. they were not al qaeda fighters. they were simple afghans trying to stay safe in their own country. september 11 really made me angry. but meeting these people and what they went through, it makes me angry as well. war, yet towar -- in break a couple of eggs to make an omeltte. >> i was on the 15th floor and ran to my neighbors house. she has a clear view of downtown

manhattan. i looked out her window and saw the second plane hit the second building and it dawned on me, my brother works there. i went down to the hospitals to see if his name was on the list. and then i realized he had died. because he had stayed behind to stay with his quadriplegic brother -- i'm sorry, friend, who could not get out although he was on the 27th floor and he could have saved himself, he died. and then president bush mentioned him in the national cathedral speech and cited him as being a hero. and i realized that my government was going to use my

brother is justification for killing other people. and that had a tremendous impact on me. --id not want that to happen not in my brother's name. and so i wrote a letter to the "times," which they printed, asking our government to please be cautious and not do something they could not take back. speak ati was asked to the peace rally, and i did it. and just before i went on, i was told they had started bombing afghanistan. and i realized something i had never realized before. i had heard the term "collateral damage" all my life. it was always used about people far away from us. and i realized now what it meant, because my brother was

collateral damage in a war that suda's not want, and madu people did not want. i knew i did do something, but i did not know what. -- i knew i needed to do something, but i did not know what. i got a call from this wonderful woman from a marvelous organization called global exchange. she said, would you like to go to afghanistan and meet people like you who have lost their families? and i thought, that's perfect because masuda and i are the same. there is so difference between us. >> first of all, i want to express my condolences to rita. i did before, but your brother is a hero and you are a hero for continuing his legacy.

it is amazing to me, someone who is lost so much isn't revenge-hungry as some of the other people that seem to want to, you know, go start bombing whoever, wherever. a lot of this is about revenge i feel because, especially having seen the faces of the people there and realizing these are the farthest things from the enemy we could find amy: afghan american masuda sultan on and regal a sock, new yorker meeting for the first time where we were broadcasting in our firehouse studio's in downtown committee television. we were blocks from ground zero, the closest national broadcast to ground zero when the attacks took place. we're going to jump forward a few months to may 20, 2002, when east timor became an independent

country. it'd been occupied since 1975 by indonesia. one of the worst genocides of the late 20th-century. i had been reporting on the east timor for years. on november 12, 1991, journalist allan nairn and i were there when indonesian troops armed with american made m16 rifles opened fire on thousands of unarmed east timorese civilians who were gathered at the santa cruz cemetery. i lost one sister and two brothers. >> 10 days before i was to give birth, the army was shooting people and they would die at our feet, but you cannot stop to help them. >> i know families who are totally wiped out. >> two american newsmen badly beaten. >> the indonesian army converged

into places. >> hundreds and hundreds of troops coming straight at the timorese. -- hen they came they opened fire on the people. >> we pride ourselves on standing up to human rights desk for human rights. exposing the attorneys to democratic ideas. >> i'm very concerned about what is happening in east timor. we have ignored it so far in ways thai think are conscionle. amy: massacre: the story of east timor, i am amy goodman. you can go to democracy now! to see the whole documentary of "massacre." at least 271 timorese were killed that day. linear, the a indonesian military fractured his school, but we were able to

leave that country that day. more than a decade later, may 20, 2002, east timor did become at the time the newest nation and the world. nairn and i returned for the celebration. and then president clinton, who was not president at the time, representing the united states under president bush, went to reopen the embassy in a newly independent east timor. in 1999, in april, the indonesian military and their militias massacred 50 people in the rectory. they hacked them with machetes. two days later, and roll blair, the commander for the pacific, your commander, met with the general, the indonesian commander, and offered to help him in lobbying the was commerce to get full u.s. military training restored. you may no mention of the massacre.

during that same time, the indonesian military rampaged in awntown, attack the house massacre the refugees there. you continued for months to continue aid to the indonesian military. why? >> i can't answer the question he asked about enron blair, you'll have to ask him because i'm not aware of that. >> he was working for you. what did you continue -- >> i understand that. first of all, i don't leave america or any of the other countries does for a long time and a long time before 1999, going back to the 1970's, the suffering of the people of east timor. i don't think we can defend everything we did. objectives, which was to try to keep indonesia from coming apart and from having some of the influences i think we still worry about in , lead us tominate

do some things which, in my judgment, made us not as sensitive as we should a vendor the suffering of the people here. i think we did the right thing in the u.n. and bringing the australians in and i think the right thing to do is to do what the leaders of east timor said, they want to look forward, you what to look backward. you want to look backward, have added, but you'll have to have help from someone else. [applause] president.u, mr. >> [indiscernible] amy: president bill clinton responding to questions from journalists allan nairn survive the massacre. that was may 2002. we're going to go forward now to february 15, 2003. more than half a million people rallied in new york, estimates even went higher, to say no to

war. joining millions and protest around the world -- in protests around the world to say no to war in iraq. democracy now! broadcast live from the new york protest on the freezing cold day. this is actor and activist harry belafonte taking to the stage. a historic, proud day in the name of america. withorld has sat by tremendous anxiety and a great exist.at we did not told wh our country with its press and the leaders of administration have said, we today invalidate all of that.

we stand for peace. we stand for the truth of what is at the heart of the american ople. this is not the first time that we as a people have been misled by the leadership. we were misled by those who of the bay falseness of tonkin, which falsely led us into a war with the annam. a war that we could not and did not win. we lied to the american people about grenada and what was going on in that tiny island. we lied to the american people about nicaragua, el salvador, cuba, and many places in the world. and we stand here today to let

those people and others know that america is a vast and diverse country, and we are pt of the greater truthss of what makes our nation. dr. king once said that if there is -- if mankind does not put an end to warwar will put an end to mankind. amy: we turn a 2004, the second ouster of haitian president aristide. at this hour, the streets of port-au-prince are barricaded. president aristide and his wife mildred are inside the palace. ared gangs, paramilitaries moving closer to the capital of port-au-prince. we turn to the palace where i just got off the phone with the first lady of haiti, mildred

aristide. >> the situation is quite critical. armed, they're sending messages repeatedly on the airwaves in haiti that they stand ready at any moment to storm port-au-prince. from pacifica radio, this is a democracy now! exclusive. >> he was kidnapped. he said he was forced to leave haiti. amy: did u.s. security forces kidnap haitian president aristide? we will speak with congress member maxine waters and aristide's close friend randall robinson. >> he said the mattel the world it is a coup. it's a coup. was inrisde

ndcuffs,laiming e marine were pt of a two. could either one of you comment on her claim? >> i'm tryi to pickhe right rds. if yo're aing me did tha happenthe answ is, no. >> any and bella schmidt? >> i think not today. >> [inaudible] amy: it has been in a stork 48 hours, haitian president aristide has defied washington, returning to the caribbean. i return to new york last night where i trip complained officials who set off from miami, florida, on a

mission to escort president aristide and his wife mildred back to the caribbean. on the plane, i asked president aristide why he believes the u.s. wants him gone. i can have opinions, but i cannot answer for that. for instance, we're the first black independent country in the world. those who want to invest in killing democracy, and bloodshed , they don't accept you as an elected president. we have 32 coup d'etat plus the last one, 33, and our 200 years of independence. our goal was to move not from coup d'etat to coup d'etat, but

from elections to elections. free, fair, and democratic elections. that was the goal. they went back to couldn't tell. amy: that was ousted haitian president jean-bertrand aristide. we got word from washington that condoleezza rice and secretary of state colin powell and others were saying the aristides were not to return to the western hemisphere. to which rental robinson, who is founder of transafrica in the plane with us, said, whose hemisphere? they said he was not to return to his country haiti. ultimately, the aristides would land in jamaica and go into exile in south africa for a number of years. ultimately, they came back to haiti and democracy now! was on the plane when they flew back to haiti. to see all of our coverage for haiti over the years, go to democracynow.org, as we take a freewheeling journey through the last two decades of democracy now! it is our 20th birthday. >> here we are, 2016, this is

roger waters, wishing democracy now! a very, very happy 20th birthday. may you be around for another 20 years and another and another and another. we need your voice. ♪ [music break]

amy: sweet honey in the rock were forming in our firehouse studio back in 2003. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. it is our 20th anniversary. m.i.a., to democracy now!, thank you for being here, happy birthday. i hope you keep going. i'm here to support you. amy: thank you so much.

as we celebrate 20 years of democracy now!, we're going to go back in time and this freewheeling journey through our history today's just after hurricane katrina hit in 2005. we were down in new orleans in the community of algiers. i was speaking with malik rahim, co-founder of the common ground collective, who showed us a corpse on the street two weeks after the storm. his body has been here for almost two weeks. two weeks tomorrow. at this man's body has been laying here. and there's no reason for it. look where we are at. it is not flooded. or is no reason -- there is no reason for them to have left that body right here like this. i mean, just totally disrespect. i mean, two weeks. every day we asked them about picking it up.

and they refuse to come and pick it up will stop and you can see it is literly decomposing right here. right out in the sun. every day we asked them about it. this is as close as you can get ,o tropical climate in america and they won't do anything with it. amy: malik, do you know who this person is? >> no. but regardless of who it is, i would not care if it was saddam hussein or bin laden, nobody deserves to be left here. and the kids pass by here and they are saying it. i mean, the elderly. this would frighten a lot of people into leaving. we do not know if he is a victim of vigilantes or what. all we know is his body has been allowed to remain out here for over two weeks. of theat was malik rahim common ground collective. 2007, juan gonzalez and i

interviewed cnn anchor lou dobbs for the hour. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. our guest is lou dobbs. juan: the question is, there's a huge disparity between the economic levels in mexico and economic levels in the united states, and you probably said many times on your show that american companies are creating the problems rather than helping to alleviate the problems, yet all that would be needed to do is raise economic level in mexico and the entire legal immigration publisher problems would decline in this country. not only that, but the country, if it had a higher -- >> are you telling me what we agree upon? juan: we don't agree because you are demonizing illegal immigration as a separate issue -- >> how can use my name and anti-immigrant in the same breath? amy: when we hear comments -- >> you hear.

amy: one third of prisoners -- >> can we discuss that? amy: one third of illegal immigrants, not true. because of illegal immigration -- >> we said that and that is asterisk for as we can be. amy: you made an announcement on your show and you will say to hear that it is not true, illegal immigrants are not responsible for 7000 cases of leprosy over the last three years. >> not over the last three years. amy: to see that entire hour that juan gonzalez and i had with lou dobbs, go to democracynow.org. we are racing to the finish line. on september 1, 2008, democracy now! producer shareef abdel kouddous medical salazar, and i, were among well over 40 journalists were arrested during a police crackdown at the republican national convention in st. paul. as the riot police came at nicole shouting, "on your face," she shouted back, "press! press!"

>> get out of here. get out of here. >> press. press. >> get down on your face. express. amy: that was nicole salazar screaming as the riot police took her down, bloodying her face. as shareef abdel kouddous told the riot police to calm down, they kicked him twice in the chest, threw him against the wall and arrested him as well. when i got the call of the convention floor about what happened, i raised outside to the corner of seventh and jackson were the riot police had formed a line, having fully contained the area. i asked to speak with a commanding officer to get sharif and nicole released. >> man, get back. i came from the convention

floor. >> sidewalk, now. amy: sir -- do not arrest me. do not arrest me. >> your under arrest, wait right there. don't do it. amy: after our arrest, ultimately, we were released but we sue the st. paul and minneapolis police as well as the secret service and ultimately won a six-figure settlement. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we spoke out against the police crackdown on journalists and the illegal arrest of protesters as well. we're moving forward to 2010 and is 20 anniversary tour of democracy now!, the whistleblowing website wikileaks released footage of u.s. soldiers firing from a military helicopter on iraqi civilians. the dead included two employees of the reuters news agency, videographer namir noor-eldeen and his driver saeed chmagh.

amy: julian assange, tell us how you got this footage. >> we got this footage sometime last year. we don't disclose precise times for reasons of source protection. when we first got it, we were told it was important and it showed the killing of journalists, but we did not have any other context. we spent quite some months after breaking the decryption looking closely into this. the more we looked, the more disturbing it became. this is a sequence which has a lot of detail.

i think in some ways, it covers most of the bad aspects of the area war in iraq, and what we must be able to infer is going on in afghanistan. amy: that was julian assange speaking in washington, d.c., 2010. to see our interviews with him last 3.5 years he has been an ecuadorian embassy in london having gotten political asylum from ecuador, you can go to democracynow.org. we're going to the egyptian revolution that ousted president hosni mubarak in 2011. democracy now's sharif abdel kouddous was on the ground. >> the sun is setting on to red square, thursday night, the night after the mubarak regime launched the corrugated campaign of violence to try and take back the streets of cairo from the pro-democracy uprising that claimed one week ago over nine days ago. they remained defiant. have held onto tahrir but of

suffered terribly. we've seen many wounded and the battlefield ranges. rocks are being thrown, army tank shots are being fired. unclear what is going to happen, but we will continue to follow developments. still a tense situation but the people are proud and defiant and friday will be a decisive day regardless of what happens. amy: that report aired on friday, february 4, 2011. hosni mubarak resigned one week later. shareef abdel kouddous continues to report for us from egypt. on september 21, 2011, democracy now! broadcast live for six hours from the grounds of the prison in georgia where troy anthony davis was executed. we were the only news outlet to continuously broadcast live from the death row prison grounds. from george's death row prison in jackson, this is a democracy now! special broadcast. we are just an hour from the

scheduled execution of troy anthony davis, and execution the whole world is watching. >> i would like to say, i have been battling cancer for 10 years and i don't have cancer, but i'm reaping some of the effects. i was doinghs ago, fine. and after that, i could not get out of the chair. but i'm here to tell you that i'm going to stand here for my brother today. [applause] >> i am troy davis. you are troy davis. we are joined to us. p.m., atf death 11:08

the time media witnesses will be coming out to give a firsthand account of what happened. sharing theofficial news that choi anthony davis was executed at 11:08. that was the time of death. i am standing with -- >> wesley boyd. i would like to say there's been a travesty of justice and i would like to tell america, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. god help america. if you are alive in america, please, don't come to georgia. don't buy any georgia pecans or peaches. don't buy any trade with georgia. the whole world, don't buy anything with georgia. god bless america. god bless troy davis. amy: that was september 2011, a few months later, troy's biggest advocate, his sister, would also die of cancer. to see all of our coverage of the troy anthony davis case, go to democracynow.org.

we are raising forward to july 2015 when democracy now! interviewed all three cofounders of the black lives matter movement patrisse cullors, opal , tometti and alicia garza. this is alicia. matterblack lives movement has to by its very nature be intersectional because of the complexities of who black people are in this country and throughout the world. there is that thing separate about wages from black like in the survival of black people than police violence and police terrorism. we even still have a situation in this country where we have black workers who are not covered by federal labor protections, like domestic workers and farm workers. so we certainly cannot just look at the issues of police violence. police violence is the tip of the iceberg when it relates to the conditions overall of black people across the globe. amy: in our 20 birthday, democracy now! special, we race for two october 20 -- to the

2014, world-renowned political dissident, linguist, and author noam chomsky. i will with him to the united nations to interview him in front of 800 people at the u.n. journalists in late including world leaders, ambassadors, people who just crowded into the u.n. does the gnome chomsky. what do you think is the single most important action the united states can take and what about its role over the years? what is its interest year? >> well, one important action that the united states could take is to live up to its own laws. of course, it would be nice if it lived up to international law, but maybe that is too much to ask. but live up to its own laws. we end with the late great historian howard zinn, author of "a people's history of , the united states." overoke to him so frugally our years. this is howard zinn in 2005 -- so frequently over the years.

this is howard zinn in 2005. >> they have no notion, really, of what is happening to the human beings they are firing on. everything is done at a distance. this enables terrible atrocities to take place. and i think reflecting dust reflecting back on a bombing raid and thinking of that in hiroshima and the other raids on civilian cities in the killing of huge numbers of civilians in german and japanese cities, the killing of 100,000 people in tokyo and one night of firebombing, all of that made me realize war, even so-called good ii, warse world war don't solve any phenomenal problems and they always poison everybody on both sides. they poison the minds and souls of everybody on both sides. we're seeing that now in iraq or the minds of our soldiers are being poisoned by being an occupying army in a land where they're not wanted and the

results are terrible. amy: to see all of the highlights of democracy now! over 20 years, go to democracynow.org. that last was, the late, great historian howard zinn. a big thank you to all of the team of democracy now!

and this week, it's oneness: the big picture, you know, where we are all coming from and where we are all going to, in other words, the grand theory that ties together everything... perhaps. so let's now explore oneness: the big picture with philosopher deepak chopra and author riane eisler. warning: this program may change your life. [ambient instrumental music] ♪