03/13/17 03/13/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: fm pacifica, this is democracy now! >> we are very troubled by the launch, the missiles from north korea. i think that is why the missile system we started to deploy in a south korea is so important. we will cocontinue to work with to government o of south korea make sure that they have the defense is necessary to protect themselves. amy: tension is escalating on the korean peninsula from north korea's recent launch of four

ballistic missiles to the u.s. deploying a missile defense system to south korea. this all comes as south korea is -- constitutional court removes the sitting president over a corruption scandal. we will get the latest. then we look at the environmental protection agency under its climate change denying head scott pruitt. it has beenlieve proven that co2 is the primary control knob for climate? do you believe that? >> no, i think that measuring precision h human actctivity one climate is something very challenging to do and there is tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact. amy: we will speak to mustafa epa the head of the environmental justice program who resigned last week to protest the agency's new direction. 24 years ago, he helped start the environmental justice program at the epa, which worked

with low income and marginalized communities dealing with industrial pollution and climate change. all that and more, coming up. welcome e to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. attorney general jeff sessions asked for the resignations of 46 u.s. attorneys on friday, angering the prosecutors who say they were not warned in advance. although the dismissal of u.s. attorneys is common during presidential transitions, those affected say the trump administration bungled the layoffs with many u.s. attorneys , learning only through the media that they had to clear out their desks by the end of the day. one of the most high-profile prosecutors asked to resign, u.s. attorney in manhattan preet bharara, refused to step down and was quickly fired. friday bharara's termination came as a surprise since donald trump met personally with bharara at trump tower last november and assured him he could remain at his post.

bharara says his office received a voicemail thursday from the white house, but that he declined to speak with the president citing department of justice rules. the unusual circumstances of bharara's dismissal prompted democrats to suggest it was politically motivated. this is maryland democratic congress member elijah cummings speaking on n abc's "this week." >> just not very long g ago, the president was saying he was going to keep u.s. attorney there in new york, and then suddenly, he is, i guess, changed his mind. i'm just curious as to why that is. certainly some of there is a lot of questions coming up as to whether mr. trump -- president trump is concerned about the jurisdiction of this u.s. attorney and whether that might affect his future. amy: bharara's dismissal came as his office was probing fox news after it allegedly failed to

informrm shareholders s about numerous settlements in sexual harassment and assault cases. the dismissal came less than a week after government watchdog groups sent a letter to the manhattan prosecutor's office asking for an investigation into whether president trump violated a clause of the constitution , the emoluments clause barring , federal employees receiving benefits from foreign governments. in 2013, preet bharara was one of 18 u.s. officials barred from enentering russia. russian president vladimir putin was reportedly angered by bharara's prosecution of russian arms dealer viktor boot. on sunday, bharara tweeted about his firing -- "by the way, now i know what the moreland commission must have felt like." that's a reference to an anti-corruption commission set up by new york governor andrew cuomo in 2013 and then disbanded the next year. the tweet fueled speculation bharara was fired because of his investigations into trump's

businesses and the white house. in washington, d.c., the congressional budget office is slated to release its assessment of a house republican healthcare bill as early as today. ahead of the report's release, the brookings institution estimated as many asas 15 millin people may lose coverage under the american health care act within 10 years. the legislation would give huge tax relief to the wealthiest americans. according to the nonpartisan joint committee on taxation, those earning more than $1 million annually would save an estimated $165 billion in taxes over 10 years. that would cause many to talk about the bill, not as a health care bill, but a wealth care bill. hill, the panel has said today as the deadline for the justice department to turn over any evidence to support president trump's unfounded claim that the obama administration wiretapped trump

tower in the run-up to november's election. the ultimatum by ranking democrat on the panel came as even top republican lawmakers questioned president trump's claim. this is arizona republican senator john n mccain speaking n cnn sunday. >> the president has one of two choices, either retract or to provide the information that the american people deserve becauaue if his predecessor violated the law, president obama violated the law, we have a serious issue here. i have no reason to believe the charge is true, but i also believe that the president of the united states could clear this up in a minute. all yes to do is call the director of the cia,a,irector of national intelligence, and say, ok, what have an? amy: in washington, d.c., thousands of native american activists marched to the white house on friday, protesting the trump administration's policies towards indigenous people and its support for the dakota access pipeline.

along the march route, protesters erected a giant tipi -- teepee outside the trump hotel to "reclaim stolen land." this is activist deborah his horse is thunder. >> as native people, we continue to have our sources -- resources extracted to the detriment or possible or the very real detriment of loss of clean water. and then what? nothing will survive without water. nothing. amy: the protest came just days after a federal judge ruled against a lawsuiuit by the standing rock and cheyenne river sioux tribes to halt construction of the last section of the $3.8 billion pipeline, which they say could pollute their main source of drinking water, the missouri river. the ruling came after president trump fast-tracked the dakota access pipeline and keystone xl

pipeline for completion. the company building the dakota access says it expects to pump oil through the pipeline by april 1. jewish commumunity centers andnd synagogues around the u.s. reported another wave of bomb threats over the weekend, as jews observed the religious holiday of purim. in rochester, new york, the louis s. wolk jcc was evacuated for the second time in less than a week as police searched for explosives. this is polilice chief mark henderson. >> we do believe that ththis is part of - --s i mention on tuesday, a larger picture. the natitional trend.. i did mention the fbi was involved. they arere assisting us. the e state police has taken a lead role from the new york state perspective. amy: there were other weekend bomb threats against jewish centers in illinois, indiaiana, texas, wiscoconsin, and in vancouver, canada. the jewish community center association of north america

says it's documented 128 incidents at 87 community centnters so far this yearar. in florida, a man attempted to set a convenience store on fire friday morning, later telling police he wanted to "run the arabs out of our country." 64-year-old richard leslie lloyd told police he believed the store's owners were muslim, although they are of indian ancestry, and that he was "doing his part for america." the arson followed a rash of recent hate crimes targeting south asian men. iowa republican congress member steve king sparked outrage sunday after publishing a racist tweet in support of far-right dutch politician geert wilders. congressman king was retweeting a cartoon by the anti-immigrant group voice of europe depicting wilder's with a finger plugging a leak in a dike labeled

"western civilization" holding back a toxic wave of islam. the cartoon also depicts muslim men with a sword and a suicide bomb vest. congressman king's retweet of the cartoon read -- "wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. we can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies." the tweet drew praise from former ku klux klan leader and louisiana politician david duke, who tweeted, "god bless steve king!" it was not congress member king's first white e suprememact comment. last jululy, he told msnbc thatt white christians have contributed more to western civilization than any other subgroup. in south dakota, governor dennis daugugaard signed legislation friday allowing taxpayer-funded adoption and foster care agencies to cite religious exemptions to refuse services to lgbtq people. critics say the law also o opens the door to discrimination

against interracial couples, single parents, and non-christians. similar bills are winding theier way through legislatures in alabama, oklahoma, texas, and other statates. in new orleans, an unknown assailant threw a brick through a stained glass window of the first unitarian universalist church during sunday morning services. no one was injured by the vandalism, which came less than 48 hours after the church hosted a well-publicized town hall meeting aimed at stopping violence against the transgender community. the meeting followed the recent murders of two black transgender women in new orleans, 31-year-old china gibson and 25-year-old ciara mcelveen. in texas, a federal court panel ruled friday that the state's republican-led legislature illegally drew three congressional districts to suppress the voting power of minorities. the 2-1 ruling by the fifth circuit court of appeals found the state's illegal gerrymandering packed minorities into some districts and split

them in others, diluting the voting power of latinos and other nonwhite citizens. the districts were drawn in 2011, the same year then-governor rick perry signed a voter i.d. law that was later struck down by federal courts because it discriminated against minorities. a new documentary casts further doubt on the claims that a ferguson, missouri police , officer acted in self-defense when he shot and killed 18-year-old michael brown in august of 2014. after the killing, ferguson's police department released video footage showing what officers said was michael brown shoplifting a box of cigarillos from a convenience store and pushing a clerk who confronted him. the video was unrelated to brown's killing later that day, but police used it to justify -- betray michael brown as filing. previously unreleased video revevealed saturday thehe premieiere of the dodocumentary "s"stranger fruit" showsws michl

brown entering the same convenience store,e, the night before his d death. >> st. louis county has written documentation that we fod that shows s they saw t the 1:1:13 a. videotape, b but thehey ave out what r really happened that nigt thehe rort. littleadeththe ste aa bag of weed angot two box of gagarellos in retu. mike did n rob the store amam michaelrownwn's s killing spard d months oprototestsn ferguson and in citi a acros ththcountry. brown's kier, , ofcer dadaen wilson didotot faccrimimin , charges after a grd d jury thatateclined to indict him in november 2014. in iraq,.s. bked iraqand kurdish rces pssed deepe into is-heldestern mos over the weekend, leaving terrified residents to risk their lives fleeing to refugee camps. one civilian, saad mohamed, said families had to run through sniper fire as they tried to escape the violence.

>> about 14 or 15 fleeing while the stivers were firing on them in the valley. they do not care about women, children,n, or anything. the people were running in zigzags, trying to avoid the sniper fire. amy: outside mosul, a shia paramilitary group said it had unearthed a mass grave for hundreds of prisoners who were slaughtered in june 2014 when isis took control of the region. human rights watch reports as many as 600 people were killed in the badush prison massacre. in syria, a pair of suicide bomb blasts tore through buses transpororting iraqis to a cemetery near damascus saturday, killing at least 74 people and injuring scores of others. most of the dead were shia pilgrims. a sunni rebel alliance called the fatah al-sham front, which was formerly allied with al qaeda claimed responsibility. , the violence came as the united nations children's fund

reported 2016 was the worst year yet in syria's s 6-year-old civl war. unicef found child deaths jumped at least 20% over the prior year, while the rate of child conscription doubled. in ethiopia, at leleast 46 peope were killed after a landslide swept through garbage dump on the outskirts of the capital city addis ababa on saturday. among the dead were residents of a series of shanty homes on the perimeter of the landfill. the disaster also claimed the lives of some of the hundreds of waste-pickers who sort through trash looking for valuable scraps. in haiti, at least 38 people are dead after a bus trevor plowed into a parade. witnesses say the driver initially struck two pedestrians before diving several models further to seek out for their victims. the driver then fled on foot and has not ever handed. and i in californiaia, a group f envivironmental actitivists sned onto one e of president t trum's golfoursrses sundaday mornining, carving g a stemement in the

green around the fifth hole rereading, "no m more tigers, no more woooods." in a statement sent to the "washington post,"," the group said -- "we hope t this sends a a messao trump p and his corrrrupt adnistraraon that their acactions will be met with action." and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war andd peace report. i'm amy goodman. on sunday, ousted south korean leader park geun-hye left the blue house presidential compound and returned to her private residence in southern seoul two days after south korea's constitutional court unanimously ruled to remove her from office over charges of graft and corruption. the unanimous ruling strips park of immunity from prosecution, clearing the way for her to face criminal charges. park's power had been sharply reduced since december, when south korea's parliament voted overwhelmingly to impeach her. on sunday, she offered a brief statement about her impeachment

through a spokesperson. president park geun-hye, apologize i cannot finish my mandate as president. i apprpriate all of f the people whwho have trusted me and supported d me. i take responsibility for the outcome e of all of this. it will take time, but i believe the truth will be revealed. amy: a new election will be held in 60 days. the upheaeaval in southth korea comes days after north korea testfired several ballistic missiles and the trump administration is the playing a missile defense system to south korea. meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of south korea and u.s. troops backed by warships and warplanas are currrrently engaging in a massive military exercise. last week, chinese foreign minister warned the u.s. and north korea are "like two accelerating trains coming towards each other."

sides to on both de-escalate tensionsns. meanwhile, your secretary of state rex t tillerson is heading for his first trip to asia rate or this week, stopping in japan, south korea, and china. in a break with president, tillerson is not traveling with members of the press. for more, we're joined by two guests. in chicago, illinois we're joined by bruce cumings, professor of history at the university of chicago. he is the author of several books on korea, including "korea's place in the sun: a modern history" and "north korea: another country." and in new york we're joined by , christine ahn, founder and international coordinator of women cross dmz, a global movement of women mobilizing for peace in korea. her recent article for foreign policy in focus isis titled, "south korean women take on trump." professor cumings and christine ahn, welcome to democracy now! christine,e, talk about the significance of the presisident being reremoved. >> it is extraordinary.

i would say it is really incredible how come of months of organizing by mass movements to ununseat this presidentnt that s obviously charged for political corruption, but whose policies have really steered south korea into a very dangerous situation that we are in today. i think it is extraordinary what people in mass movements can do and i think it is not just great for south korea and peace on the financial a, but a really great symbol for the rest of the world. amy: what you mean what people in mass movements can do? how is the president of south korea removed? >> first, by parliamentary vote to impeach her and recently, the consnstitutional court affirmed that decision. but it really took months of millions of people

taken to the streets, holding candlelight vigils, demanding her ouster, demanding she be impeache i think is a great day for social justice and tomography in south korea. her policies have been really bad for workers rights, for labor unions, for farmers and it has endangered korea, worsened our inner korean relations to the worst point that just last year, the industrial complex which is economic zone that was established during the sunshine between norths korea and south korea. a demilitarized zone. that was one step toward reconciliation, toward unification. she basically get away with that. that had a lot to do with her confidant. he was unlawfully giving her advice and was also tied to her corruption. a new day for is the korean peninsula. i hope the u.s. does not take mililitary action in is very

dangerous our where there is tremendous possibility for miscalculation. there is a political vacuum in south korea until likely, the leading contender for president, who was the chief of staff, the last liberal government that was, you know, carrying out the sunshine policy. he has said he would reopen it. he said, we must return to talks with north korea, we must acknowledge that kim jong-un is the leader of north korea. hopefully, the u.s. will not d o anytything dangerous in the interim. amy: professor bruce cumings, you talk about how park geun-hye rose to power, how she was also as christine was talking about, what this means for north/south korean relations and the united states? >> well, park geun-hye was the daughter of the president who

was assassinated by his own 1979,igence chief in precipitating a crisis that led to another military coup. at this point, park geun-hye have been living in the blue house i think for 10 or 11 years. she went into a kind of seclusion for a long time, then came out in the 1990's as a member of the national assembly. she was elected, really, in reaction against to progressive presidents -- two progressive .residents her constituency, as you can see from the protestss in seoul in favor of her, consists of people who were still deeply anti-communist, anti-north korean. they hate the north korean. they tend to be in her 60's,

70''s, 80's. declining constituency. lost hery, basically, popular base in light of the corruption case that christine was just talking about. it raised all kinds of historical memories for koreans because inin the past, kings and queens had relied on shaman and others to do their business. this s seemed to be harking back to that. she is one of the most unpopular president in korean history, and now she is gone. talk about what this means for what has taken place over the weekend, in the last weeks, with north korea, the launch of the missiles, and then the u.s. -south korea military exercises. >> well, of course, the u.s. holds these exercises every year because south korea, under parts

leadership, is a welcoming country for these wargames involving, as you said, hundreds of thousands of troops. there are not many other countries in the world are willing to do that. and the north, predictably responds every time with missile .ests or atomic bomb blasts in this case -- i want to emphasize that the north koreans pay acute attention to what is going on in washington. something that symbolizes what they want from the u.s. or to try to get attention. they did that when prime minister abe was having dinner with president trump at mar-a-lago a few weeks ago. and they basically presented a missile in the middle of the dinner, tested a missile. trump pulled out his 1990's flip phone to discuss it. the what was not pointed out in our media is that abe is the grandson of a war criminal, a

war criminal in world war ii according to the u.s. occupation. and had been one of the people fighting against them in the 1930's. he was responsible for munitions production. so you have abe who reveres his grandfather, and kim jong-un who, likewise, reveres his grandfather. basically, 70 or 80 years of history is represented by that particular missile test. but americans and that is a bunch of irrelevant minutia. they don't realize that japan and north korea have terrible relations, no diplomatic relations. and basically, the north koreans at that dinner wanted to present trump with a message. of fournt tests simultaneous missiles is a direct response to the hurried deployment of the thaad

antimissile system. they are just rolling it out right now so they can do before progressive president takes over in south korea. koreans that, the north reveal the have capabilities that were undetected before. amy: we're going to go to break and come back to this discussion. professor bruce cumings teaches history at the university of chicago and we're joined in new york by christine ahn, founder and international coordinator of women cross the dmz, a global movement of women mobilizing for peace in korea. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the political upheaval in south korea comes days after north korea testfired several ballistic missiles. in response, the trump administration announced it would deploy a missile defense system to south korea. hundreds of thousands of south

korean and u.s. troops backed by warships and warplanes are currently engaging in a massive military exercise. last week, chinese officials called for both an end to north korea's nuclear program and an end to joint u.s. south korean military drirills. this is the chinese foreign minister. >> as a first step, north korea should suspend nuclear activity and u.s. and south korea should also suspend large gill military drills and with both sides stopping, avoid the current security dilemma and make all sides to return to the negotiating table. later, based on a dual track strategy, we will realize denuclearization and establish a piece mechanism on the peninsula to simultaneously an equally resolve the concerns of all parties. and because of that is the chinese foreign minister wang yi. we are speaking to two guest about the escalating tensions between the koreas and the united states and china. bruce cumings, professor of history at the university of

chicago. and christine ahn is the founder and international coordinator of women across dmz. this is much broader than just korea? >> i am concerned that we have a situation in south korea that is essentially a political vacuum until the next progressive president comes into power. and we have a trumump administration that has said it is undertaking a korea policy review, which has ranged from he is willing to sit down with kim jong-un and have a hamburger to preemptive strikes. and what really worries me is, while these military exercises may be routine, you know, the south korea and media reported the u.s. has deployed a team of navy seals that basicalally took out osama bibiladen. it includes unmanned aircraft

that could basically completely destroyed them. that could be a signal. amy: deployed where? >> to the korean penininla as partrt of these regugular exerc. and that is all under this of 5015, that includes decapitation of the leader. i think there has b been -- amy: what you mean, includes decapitation? >> basically taking out the north korean leader. i think there is a perception in this country that regime collapse is imminent and that all it will take is a military action to conduct it. and one -- when has regime change ever been successful? what would be the likelihood for the millions of south koreans right acroross the dmz? innocent civilians. it would engulf the entire region into a very dangerous

regional conflict. russia, china, japan, the united states. diving part of mutual defense treaties, it will engulf the entire region. five of the top 10 countries in terms of the military capacity in defense spending are in that region. it is a tinderbox. we need to understand the korean conflict is at the root of that. so we have to really seriously pressure our government -- obviously, how do we pressure the trump administration that seems to not have a clue about korea? that we have to. i think it is a very dangerous situation and we have to be very vigilant. amy: professor bruce cumings, what about this? yet the chinese officials issuing this warning. you have people in the united states deeply concerned when you have the very popular president and they're having embroiled in trouble at home, that he might want to focus attention elsewhere on an enemy outside and the idea that north korea

could become the country, a country that u.s. engages militarily. do you think there's any possibility of this? >> i don't think the trump administration can get its act highher to appoint officials in the state department and the pentagon. i don't know how they can start kimr in korea or decapitate jong-un. i think the situation is worse in the sense that over the last year or so, there has been a bipartisan inside the beltway consensus that most of our methods for dealing with north , cap on theirions test, talking with them. those things have not worked over the years. they are still building their arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles. and so some sort of force, it may be necessary either to take out those missiles primitively,

end regime. an the council on foreign relations last october published a paper on north korea rick came very close to saying the u.s. might have to use force to change the regime in north korea. we're not talking about donald trump and a bunch of yahoos, we're talking about a consensus in washington. also, the chinese foreign minister's statement was important, unprecedented. i've never heard a high chinese official say we're moving toward a collision on the korean peninsula, that it is like two trains rushing toward each other. over the weekend, william parry, the former defense secretary, and bill clinton's roving ambassador for north korea in the late 1990's, also said he thought a train wreck was coming. this isle way to handle the way jimmy carter did in 1994 when it looks like bill clinton

was about to launch a preemptive attack on north korea. and he just a sickly cut through all of the bull in our relations with korea going back decades in flu out to talk to kim il-sung. out of that came a complete freeze on the plutonium facility for eight years. for eight years they had no access to any bomb making materials, 20 47 control on the facility. so if donald trump wants to share a hamburger with kim jong-un, that is a very good idea, but the idea of using force against north korea went even their artillery, 10,000 guns north of seoul, conventional artillery can take out a city that has a third of the south korean population, you just really have no military option on the korean peninsula. unfortunately, a lot of folks in washington have not gotten that straigight. amy: i w want to turn to whihite house spokesperson sean spicer speaking last week. >> we're very troubled by the

launch of missiles that occurred from north korea. i think that is why the thaad missile system we startrted to deploy into south korea is so important. we will contininue to work with the government of f south koreao make sure that they have the defense is necessary to protect themselves. the deployment of the thaad system is critical to their protection, as witnessed by this weakens missile ballistic test. china and u.s. understand the threat that north korea poses to the region and i think there are areas that we can work together to protect the country. amy: so according to reports, senior white house official said president trump believes the greatest immediate threat to the united states is north korea and its nuclear program. you just heard sean spicer, christine ahn. >> is so interesting. david singer had a piece in "the new york times" about the obama administration secret cybebe warfare prograram agagainst norh

korea because, basically, they concluded that the missile defense system is truly ineffective and that even in the most pristine environmental or climactic conditions, that 50% of the tests failed. so i think it is truly a testament why if, you know, there is no demand coming from south korea, they're not saying, please, give us this thaad missile defense system. in fact, there is massive protest where the two potential sites are. it is creating havoc for south korea-china relations because china is obviously angered because they view the thaad missile system as a surveillance tool, not really there to block north korean missiles. plenty of experts have shown it would be ineffective as a deterrence from north korean missiles.

it is creating a very dangerous situation for the korean peninsula and i hope that there will be some possibility of nuclear-freeutral zone for the korean peninsula because it has becomee ground zero for the geopolitical l arms race b between the u.s. anand c. on n reuters right now, professor, japan plans to dispatch its largest warship on a three-month tour to the south china sea beginning in may in its biggest show of naval force in the region since world war ii . is this in any way tight in? also, talk about the defense of the current secretary of state, the former ceo of exxonmobil, rex tillerson, going now to asia? he is not bringing the press corps with him. your response? why should tillerson bring

the press or with him when he never talks to the press? i've never seen anything like this situation where a secretary of state comes into the state department, does not appoint a bunch of under secretaries of state. instead, he fires the ones that are there. and then he acts as if he is on a secret mission to do something. he has barely talked to the present all. when he has said anything, it has been completely innocuous. they say he is trying to get his feet under him and learn about american foreign relations. well, that is good. maybe you can convince president trump to do the same thing. but i don't think tillerson's visit is terribly important. it is just a matter of going to south korea and japan to rear -- reassure them in a situation where most national security experts, whether of one party or the other or one tendency or the other, think that north korea is the number one or two security problem in the world. as for the japanese navy sending

a task force to the child's sinus see, that is, of course, to do with a very different problem, which is china's expansion in the south china sea and also the east china sea where there have been a number of clashes and near incidents between japan and china. basically, where both the obama and the bush -- previous bush administrations have been trying to do is to well south korea and japan together to contain china. in japan, under eight, has been more than willing to do that. that is why i think he is doing exactly what the pentagon wants him to do, which is to send this task force through the south china sea. south korea is a very different situation, as christine pointed out, where it is likely you will have a progressive president come to power in 60 days and frombe back where we were

2003-2008, who was loathed whether bush a administration. i don't know how many conferences on anti-mechanism and south korea i went to during that teething because whenever a south korean leader tries to stand up and tell the u.s. no, suddenly, it is a matter of anti-mechanism. south korea is in a much more difficult position in this general policy of u.s. of trying to weld the three countries together. amy: i want to end up asking about this very strange situation of the killing of the half-brother of north korean leader. in malaysia, police say a pair women used a and google nerve agent to assassinate kim jong non-, the estranged half-brother of north korean leader kim jong-un. he died of a seizure on the way to the hospital from the malaysian airport figure 13 after the women doused hisis fae withth the chemical l as he was

waiting to board a fghght at kuala a lumpur internanational airport. the ununited nationsns has bannx as weapon n of mass distraction. althouough the country's believd to have stockpiled otother nerve agents. christine, the significance of this, now, you know they are saying they're looking for a number of north korean agents who might have provided the vx to the women. what is the significance? >> i think there are many more questions than answers. if i may outline a few of them, did south korean media know about this before the malaysian authorities? if it was the nerve gas agent, why did it take the malaysian authorities to basically sanitize the airport two weeks later? tsipris i said ththey don't t tk it is the nerveve agent.

why would d north korea, which, obviously, all roads are leading to north korea, whwhy would they do thihis in a placece that has basisically closed circuit tvs d would lead it to be nortrth kora as t the culprit? and why would they do it at a titime when nortrth koreansns, m of t t foreign m ministry officials, were ababout to go to the uniteded states s for diaia? i think north korea is working hard to try to not be an internrnational pariah, cererta, they're doing the misissile tes. they do that as a message to the united states. i think i don't want to be isolated. they want to join international commmmunity, they wawant the sanctionons to be lifted so that ththey could e eventually norma. it just raises a lot of questitions. why would they do this at a time when they were about to have a potential talks track to dialogue with u.s. officials? amy: bruce cumings, would you like to weigh in on this? >> i agree with christina was very odd this was done in a

venue where there are all kinds of people milling about and security cameras there. with the north koreans want to assassinate someone, they send a caringsassin and he is poison so that if he is captured after the assassination, before he is captured, he will commit suicide and then they can deny everything and blame it on the south korean special services. .his was a very odd event also, it occurred in malaysia, which is a country that had freely relations with north korea. one of the few non-communist advanced countries that north koreans and malaysians could go back and forth without visas. they poisoned if north korea did this, which one has to assume they did. i mean, who else didn't it? is basically poison the relations with malaysia. it feeds into the world media image of kim jong-un assembly

just chopped someone set off when they disagree with him, whether it is his uncle or some of the else. in this case, his half-brother brother. it is a very murky incident. i don't think we will ever get to the bottom of it, really, but we will probably learn a lot more than we know now. amy: i want to thank you both for being with us, bruce cumings, speaking to us from chicago, professor at the university of chicago. his books include "korea's place in the sun: a modern history" and "north korea: another country." and thank you to christine ahn, founder of women cross the dmz. , environmentback of protection agency official who founded in agency for environmental justice within the epa a quarter of a century ago quit over the new administration. stay with us. we will speak with him. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the environmental protection agency has been overwhelmed by angry calls in recent days after the agency's new head scott pruitt said that carbon dioxide emissions are not a major cocontributor to glolobal warmi. pruitt, the former attorney general of oklahoma, made the comment during an interview with cnbc host joe kernrnen. >> do you believe that it has been proven n that co2 is the primary control knob for climate? do you believe that? >> no, i think that measuringng with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do, and there is tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact. so, no, i would not agreeeehat it is a primary contributor to the global warming that we see. >> ok. >> but we don't know that yet.

we need to continue to review. amy: that was scott pruitt the head of the epa's begin with cnbc host joe kernen. pruitt's comment defies scientific consensus about the laws of physics. the epa's own website even , in the time of trump features , a fact sheet declaring -- "greenhouse gases act like a blanket around the earth, trapping energy in the atmosphere and causing it to warm." on friday, one day after pruitt made the comment, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration revealed that the level of c carbon dioxide in the atmosphere had risen at a record pace for a second year in row. meanwhile president trump is , proposing to cut 25% from the epa's budget and eliliminate 300 jobs. trump's plan calls for the complete elimination of epa programs on climate change, toxic waste cleanup, environmenental justice, and funding for native alaskan villages. it would slash funding to states fofor clean air and water progrs by 30%.

well, , we turn now to a longtie epa staffer who o resigned last week to protest the agency's new direction. mustafa ali is the former head of the epa's environmental justice program which worked with low-income and marginalized communities dealing with industrial pollution and climate change. ali helped found the office 24 years ago under president george h.w. bush. he is now working with the hip hop caucus. mustafa ali, welcome to democracy now! can you talk about why you resigned? forh, yes, i thank y you having me. there were a number ofof reasons or resigning. one of them wawas i felt t the valulues and priorities ofof ouw administration did not line up with mine in relationship to our vulnerable committees and thee work that t needed to happen in that space.. secondly, i also had some great

concerns about the rolling back of the budgets and the eliminating of offices that have played a significant role in helping to move those vulnerable communities forward. thirdly, when i took a look at some of the proposals for rolling back regulations that have played a significant role in helping to protect the environment and public health of our most vulnerable community's, i just could not be a part of that. those regulations, many of those communities, have been working for decades trying to make sure one of -- when they are in place, and two, that they are more inclusive of retractions for their communities. and getting traction, being able to afford. the trump administration has proposed zeroing out the budget of your office, the environmental justice program. this has not been approved, but this is the proposal. what exactly can creeley would that mean -- concretely with

that mean you go talk about some of the areas in the country you have been working on and just what the words and the movement "environmental justice" is. >> you have to go back in history a bit to understand environmental justice. the office of environmental, the first became the office of clearnmental equity, got to because of a set of recommendations that came from stakeholders from grassroots academics,ns, faith-based institutions. it actually started under william riley back in 1992. in the issues are numerous around the country. you could look at some of the things happening in port arthur, texas, where there are a number of refineries in the community is literally surrounded. or look at louisiana where communities have been impacted by toxic chemicals that have created some great public health challenges in those communities.

amy: and these communities you're talking about are african-american communities? >> these are communities of color, african american communities, latino communities, asian-american and pacific islander communities, native american committees, and low incomeme white communities. amy: let me turn to scott pruitt's recent speech to staff at the epa and he first came in. >> i believe that we as an agency and we as a nation can be both pro-energy and jobs and proenvironment. that we don't have to choose between the two. i think our nation is done better than any nation in the world and making sure we do the job of protecting our natural resources and protecting our environment while also respecting economic growth and jobs our nation seeks to have. amy: mustafa ali, your response to, well, the man who was your boss but you have since resigned, scott pruitt? >> yes i believe that we have to be as equally focused on the impacts that are happening

inside of those communities. i personally think that when we are taking a look at regulations, we could ask a basic question. if we're thinking about creating a new regulation, will it be beneficial to our most vulnerable communities? if we're thinking about rolling back a regulation, will that be helpful to those most vulnerable communities or will it move them in a negative direction? and if that is the case, that i think we're making a mistake, that there needs to be a better analysis, that there needs to be conversations that are happening with those most vulnerable communities and getting their input as we move forward. i'm often wondering, what are the criteria you're using to make some of the decisions of some of the proposals that i have seen the moved forward over the last few weeks? >> amy: can you talk about some examples yactayo your rececently in flint -- you were recently in flint, well-knknown for what happened to the water supply of

flint, the poisoning of an american city when it was taken off its traditional water supply by an emergency manager who the republican governor of michigan city,t in to rule that and an elected official. took it off its water supply of over half a century, the detroit water system and made the water supply the flint river -- which was a corrosive, polluted body of water. talk about the significance of the cutting of the epa for communities like flint, and then talk about south carolina. >> oh, sure. as it relates to flint, that is situation that has just devastated the community, but there is still hope also in the community. recently, there with the mayor otherersof her staff and fofocusing on some environmental justice opportunities and how we can help to revitalize that

communities. you know, in speaking with many of the folks who are there. they are still struggling to make sure they have fresh water, clean water, something that many of us just take for granted every day. this want to address the investments that have happened over the years inside of the community. and safera healthier place, to move forward. so we are very, very focused on being supportive. the flipside of that is an example like spartanburg, south carolina. and why i also think it is so important for the new administration to value the grant programs that exist in the agency that help communities the able to move from surviving to thriving, as i often will frame it. in spartanburg, south carolina, they had a number of the issues that many of our communities have across the country. they had that transportation routes. they had old housing.

some folks call it shock and housing. they had lack of access to public health to health care facilities. they have the environment impacts of superfund in brownfield sites and other issues. they took that $25,000 small grant, began a visioning process with the community and asked, what are some of the things you would like to see fixed in our community, but also, what are some of the benefits you like to see happen? and that $20,000 grant leveraged overdriven thousand dollars in changes. so now and that community you have a new health care centers, were before seniors had you drove -- travel great distancee. yet t much more healthier and ls impactful on the community. you have a number of new housing units, over 500 new homes that are there. green homes that are energy efficient. before, in the summertime, folks were spinning $300 to $400 on

their energy costs because of this new housing that enable to lower it to $67 a month which gives a lot more disposable income, especially to those who are on fixed incomes. as this revitalization which was happening, which was community driven, they made sure there were worker training programs in place so that the community members, one, were able to create their own jobs to be able to be playing a significant role. and to bring hope back to this community. there aree a number of other things that are very, very positive that are happening. but these are the examples of what can happen when we value communities, would we listen to the voice of communities, and we begin to move forward in a collaborative way. they have been able to bring the state and the local government into this process. a number of the community members, of course, are a part of the process -- business and

industry is a part of the process. and as they cleaned up the brownfield superfund sites were being cleaned up, they now are moving forward having a solar farm put into those cleaned up areaea, which will now zero out those electricity bills and the excess that can be sold to the grid will come back to the communities. that is why environment -- what i talk about what i'm talking aboutal justice, addressing this past and preresent impact. amy: in our last minute, mustafa ali, you worked for republican and democratic administrations. your office was founded under george h.w. bush. why leave now? me toelt it was time for take my skills and talents to a place where i knew they would be valued. i also felt it was necessary for me to stand up and share respectfully in the letter of our brexit nation with the administrator the challenges that still exist for vulnerable

community's, but also the opportunities that exist and implore him to do a serious analysis of that and to give serious consideration into making sure these communities are protected and engaged in the process. amy: did scott pruitt respond your resignation letter? >> i have not heard from him to date, but i wish him well. , resigned ata ali the environmental protection agency last week. he's now senior vice president of the hip hop caucus. that is it for today's program. if you would like a transcript or see video or listen to audio of today's show, get a podcast, you can go to democracynow.org. all transcripts are there. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your r comments to outreach@d@democracynow.org or mamail them m to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

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