04/12/17 04/12/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> many, unfairly, did not realize that the u.s. was are ready bombing syria. in syria and iraq, just over the recent weeks and months, u.s. air attacks have hit mosques, schools, apartment complexes, and killed many, many hundreds of civilians. amy: as rex tillerson meets with his russian, part in russia to

discuss the war in syria, we look at how president trump has been escalating u.s. treks across the middle east. we will speak to longtime investigative journalist allan nairn about trump's foreign policy and what he describes as republican right wing revolution. >> it is not just the trump presidency, it is the right-wing revolution, which is captured, control up to this moment, of the presidency, the house am a part of the senate, and now the supreme court. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. secretary of state rex t tillern is in moscow meeting with his russian foreign minister sergei lavrov, amid mounting tensions between the u.s. and russia over the war in syria. on tuesday, white house officials accused russia of trying to cocover up the s syrin government's role in last week's alleged chemical attack, which killed 86 civilians, including

dozens of children. while the u.s. asserts the syrian g government carried out the attack, russia has blamed it on the anti-governrnment rebels. the russian foreign minister has called the u.s. rhetoric primitive and loutish. russian president vladimir putin has signaled he may meet with tillerson during the secretary ofof state's visit, a reversal from putin's earlier position. meanwhile, people are calling for white house spokesman sean spicer's resignation after spicer tried to drum up support for more u.s. military attacks against the syrian regime by comparing assad to hilter and falsely claiming hitler never used chemical weapons. in world war ii, you had guys on as despicable as hitler who did not even sink to using chemical weapons. so you have to come if you are russia, ask yourself, is this a

country that you and regime you want to align yourself with? amy: in fact, the nazis systematically used poison gas as part of its genocide of 6 million jews. the nazis began experimenting with gas with the specific purpose of carrying out mass murder in the late 1930's. after the nazis invaded the soviet union, they deployed gas vans to killed hundreds of thousands of people. by 1942, the nazis had set up a series of concentration camps where gas chambers were the main method of killing people. at its peak, as many as 6000 people, mostly jews, were gassed to death every day at auschwitz concentration camp alone. during his comments, spicer also referred to nazi concentration camps as "holocaust centers." hours later, spicer apologized, although he made a number of mistakes during his apology, including mispronouncing syrian president bashar al-assad's name. >> i mistakenly used in inappropriate and insensitive reference to the holocaust, for which frankly there is no comparison.

for that i apologize. it was a mistake to do that. i needed to make sure i clarified and not in any way a distraction from the president's decisive action in syria and the attempts he is making to destabilize the region. there is no way i can see a stable and peaceful syria with bashar al-assad in charge. >> i know you have misplaced -- mispronounced his names a few time, but it is a sure al-assad. all blitzeras speaking with sean spicer. spicer later said he meant to say president trump was seeking to stabilize the region, not to destabilize the region. in news from the korean peninsula, japan's navy will carry out joined military drills with the united states, amid escalating tensions between the u.s. and north korea. earlier this week, the u.s. deployed an aircraft carrier and multiple warships to the korean peninsula. meanwhile, chinese president xi jinping told president trump china will work with the united states to denuclearize the peninsula. the "washington post" has revealed the fbi obtained a secret fisa warrant to monitor

the e communications of trump adviser carter page last summer. the fbi and the justice department obtained the warrant after arguing carter was acting as a russian agent. earlier this month, politico revealed trump's campaign sent page to russia in july on the condition page would not be acting as an official representative for trump. page's visit came just days before wikileaks began publishing thousands of emails hacked from the servers of the democratic national committee. meanwhile, paul mananafort shown to have received at least 1.4 main dollars for doing political consulting work for the former ukrainian president viktor yanukovych, the first evidence man afford received some o of te 4.7 momoney dollars in cash payments detailed on handwritten ledgers unearthed in ukraine. meanwhile, both democratic and

republican lawmakers are contradicting former house intelligence committee chair devin nunes' claims former obama national security adviser susan rice broke the law by unmasking the names of americans whose communications were swept up in foreign surveillance. the lawmakers from both parties say the documents do not show that rice's moves were either unusual or illegal. in washington state, organizers say hundreds of immigrants imprisoned at the for-profit northwest detention center in tacoma have launched a hunger strike to protest the poor living conditions inside the immigrant prison. organizers say prisoners have also launched work stoppages to protest the fact they are paid only $1 a day to cook, clean and do the laundry necessary to keep the prison running. the prison is owned by geo group, which is facing a class-action lawsuit arguing the company violates federal anti-slavery laws at its aurora, colorado, prison where it also pays only a $1 a day. the pentagagon is preparing to deploy 300 marines to afghanistan's helmand province.

on monday, the pentagon also identified the u.s. special forces soldier who was killed in afghanistan on saturday as 37-year-old mark de alencar from edgewood, maryland. in chile, police attacked students with water cannons and tear gas during a demonstration against education privatization in the capital santiago tuesday. at least 68 protesters were arrested. meanwhile in northern india, police attacked students with water cannons, batons and tear gas during a demonstration against a steep fee hike at panjab university in chandigarh. human rights organizations and russian media outlets are reporting that gay men are facing a wave of violence and imprisonment in chechnya. human rights watch says dozens of men have been rounded up in recent weeks and subjected to torture and beatings. the russian lgbt network, based in st. petersburg, says men have been tortured with electric shocks and cables, and that three people have been killed since the crackdown began. a chechen government spokesman has denied the reports, saying

gay men "simply don't exist in the republic." back in the united states in florida, orange-osceola state attorney aramis ayala has sued florida governor rick scott, in an escalating battle over the death penalty. ayala has sued scott over his decision to remove her from two dozen murder cases after she announced she'd no longer seek the death penalty in any cases including in the case of a man , accused of murdering his -- a police officer. aramis ayala is the first african-american state attorney in florida history. she'e's received racist death threats, including suggestions that she should be lynched, in the wake of her announcement. united airlines has finally apologized after stocks temporarily plummeted tuesday amid controversy over a video of a doctor being forcibly dragged off a flight united had -- windowvolunteers passengers volunteered to

disembark from sunday's flight, dr. david dao selected to be forced off. he refused to leave saying he had to see patients at a hospitital in kentucucky the followingg m morning m multiple , chicago o partment o of aviatn security officicers dragged dao through the aiaisle, bloodying him. hehe tried to run back o on the flflight and w was forciblbly rd a second time. united ceo oscar munoz first defended the company's actions, claiming dao was disruptive and belligerent, but then as stocks plummeted, finally apologized tuesday, calling the incident horrific. new jersey governor chris christie h has called for an investigation of the airline. dao is still hospitalized in chicago from his injnjuries. in atlanta, georgia four georgia , state students and a local resident were arrested at a sit-in outside the george state president's office, demanding the university reach a community benefits agreement with local residents over the plan to develop 67 acres of land known as turner field. the university is seeking to turn the field into a football stadium and university housing.

local residents fear the $300 million plan will lead to gentrification and displacement. longtime local residents have set up an ongoing tent city in protest and have been camped out at turner field for momore than0 days. this is shsherise brown. >> we are outut here because we arare trying to gea negotiation fofor community benefit c contrt that is bibinding an legal witih gegigia state university, , carr development, and oakwood developmenent. we're going to be out here as longng as it t takes until they listen too us and know that this is not a jokoke. this is our livelihood. we are willing to stay on the front line as long as we have two. amy: and in new orleans, civil rights activist lolis edward elie has died at his home at the age of 87. he helped organize lunch counter sit ins and boycotts. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as secretary of state rex tillerson meets with his russian counterpart sergei lavrov in russia to talk about the war in syria and other issues, we spend the hour with the longtime investigative journalist allan nairn. fofor decades, allan has covered the impact of u.s. foreign policy across the globe in east timor, indonesia, guatemala, and indonesia as well as other countries. i spoke to allan on monday and we discussed the escalation of u.s. military operations across the middle east, as well as the unique danger trump poses both abroad and at home. i began by asking allan about last week's u.s. attack on a syrian airbase. >> it was an attack on an old u.s. partner, old u.s. stretcher partner, assad. the chemical attack was a monstrous atrocicity, but it wasn't the most monstrous

atrocity that was done in syria and probably that week or that month. routinelyad regime massacres civilians using conventional weapon. and also, the forces backed by -- gulf states and turkey u.s. allies -- for a number of years were also using tactics that involved attacks on civilians. and some of them ended up morphing into isis. this particular attack on the syrian airfield i don't think is going to save any lives in syria in terms of its a fact on the conflict. it may save trump, , to a certan extent, politically. it was mainly an act of political theater.

the u.s. establishment is an organism. and that organism, in an important respect, has a two permit similar to that of trump -- temperament similar to that of trump. it gets satisfaction from displays of aggression. if you look at the press coverage, you see this attack has made them feel good, has made them feel better about themselves as leaders of the united states establishment. in it is n not saving lives syria. in fact, this particular u.s. attack was probably not the most deadly attack in syria that the ..s. staged that week although, many people were calling for the u.s. to do this air attack on syria, many apparently did not realize the u.s. was already bombing syria. in syria and iraq, just over the

recent weeks and months, u.s. air attacks have hit mosques, ,chools, apartment complexes and killed many,y, many hundreds of civilians. people whothat the monitor this, like the airwars group, have estimated that the u.s. has now surpassed russia in its killing of civilians by bombing raids. this was more of a symbolic strike. as to the deeper issue of what can be done to stop this carnage , i am not a pacifist. i think sometimes, unfortunately, tragically, force a violence iseven necessary to prevent more violence. if there were a military action that could stop this mass

slaughter in syria, i would support it. but there isn't. , most decisions regarding foreign policy are not hard. they are easy. they are easy. don't support the murderers. don't create a bureaucracy that in order to survive, has to keep on killing in order to justify its own existence. but occasionally, now and then, you will get a situation where the choices are hard. and that is syria today. an important part because of the excusable actions a very's outsidide forces, including the u.s., russisia, iran, the gulf states, turkey, syria has reached a state of such collapse that there really is no clear immediate way to stop, or the moment, even mitigate the mass

civilian killing. but although it would be extremely difficult, you can't imagine some steps that could be constructive. for example, getting all of these various powers out, stopping the influx of arms, even on the dealmaking level which the u.s. establishment likes and trump likes, even a deal between the u.s. and russia where on the one hand the u.s. agrees to stop the nato expansion and the pressure on russia, which is a violation of the agreement that bush sr. made with the russians, in exchange for russia cutting loose the assad regime. things like this could at least perhaps edge things in the right direction. but more airstrikes will not. -- fact that the u.s. bombed

u.s. bombs hit mosques, hit schools, hit apartment complexes , even in some cases hit wedding parties such as in one famous massacre carried out why the forces of general mattis -- now the defense secretary -- within that wassystem, incorrect or the border of syria. within the u.s. system, those killings of civilians are excused because the u.s. was not targeting those civilians per se . they just happened to be next to the target, so they died in the explosion. so the u.s. system says it is ok, it makes us morally ,ifferent from assad, from isis from the russians, etc. the pentagon uses algorithms before t they make these airstrikes. they calculate how many civilians they predict will die

by accident. in a certain sense, it is an accident. at another sense, if you are applying domestic criminal law standards, you would not be considered an accident. they could be charged with criminally negligent homicide. they could be charged with various kinds of manslaughter. they make these calculations and say, ok, if we got this bomb, x number of people will die. it used to be with the bush attack on iraq, the standard was somewhere in the mid-20's, roughly 25 civilians -- it would be ok to do an airstrike i if he woululd only kill roughly 25 civilians. now the calculations have changed. one thing that trump, with the support of general mattis, has done, is encourage the pentagon to say, oh, even if it is more than 25, no problem. we will still go ahead with this airstrike. so with those standards, some of which, by the way, were inspired by the russian example,

unrestrained bombing -- don amy: allan nairn. we will be back with him to talk about iraq, yemen, the trump administration, and more. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: the groups's singer is on hungnger strike with hundreds of others at the geo group owned northwest detention center in tacoma, washington. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. a recent toll from u.s. air strike in the iraqi city of mozelle has risen to nearly 300 civilians, including many children. the los s angeles times has described a 17 strike as among the deadliest incident in decades of modern warfrfare. i asked investigative journalist allan nairn to talk about the airstrike in mosul. >> various u.s. defenses after that mass killing of civilians by the u.s. was reported with things like it was an accident,

or we were targeting isis, or isis was using civilians as meant, yes,s, or we we met to on the apartments but we did not realize that isis had rigged them with explosions -- explosives. so when we deliberately bombed the apartment, that touched off the explosives and that made the killing of the residents of the apartment complex even more extensive than we had -- then we had planned on. those defensive -- defenses turn on the idea that as long as you're not targeting the civilians per se, it is still acceptable to kill civilians en masse.

if you go back in history, you find these justififications repeatedly. they are the same ones israel used in their various assaults on gaza as they were bombing apartment buildings to liberally in gaza because they wouould sa, oh, yeah, we bombed that apartment building, but there 3b,a hamas guy in apartment therefore, it is justified. the human shield concept. think of domestic police the future. say ththere is a hostage situation. there is a criminal, they have just robbed a store and grab the store clerk. they are holding them and holding a gun to the clerk's head. what do the police do? they're not supposed to throw a grenade and kill both the criminal and the hostage. they're supposed to seek a way that will allow the hostage to go free.

but what the u.s. military doctrine does is precisely the opposite. they say, oh, well, yeah, all of these civilians died, but it wasn't our fault because they were being used as human shields by our targets. now, these standards are just as grabbed our long-standing u.s. standards. these standards were in effect under obama, under bush all the way back. but with trump, and this is the thing to be clear about, we have entered a new era. under trump, the military and the cia are being encouraged first to make their own decisions on the ground as to where and when to bomb and drone . under obama, many of these decisions were run through the white house bureaucracy and there were lawyers. obama lawyers actually sitting there is all you waiting these

various bombing planes, applying the criteria i just described. the criteria that, yes, allowed the killing of civilians, but placed certain limits on it. now under trump, they're saying, don't worry about the limits. don't worry about the lawyers. need to bombou somewhere, go for it. therefore, the only constraint on these bombings is the feelings in the doctrine of the military commanders. it so happens that the man at the topopf the pentnton pyramid famousral mattis who is for among other reasons, one, doing the wedding massacre i just mentioned, a and two, consnstantly articiculating doce that when you're going after the bad guys, it is fun to kill. you should kill with zest. if you go online, you can see a list of famous quotes from mattis that have endured him to

much of the military and to buy the democrat and republicans, by the way. in fact, it is interesting during the presidential election, mattis was invited to speak about the democratic and republican conventions and he was the preferred presidential candidate of the never trump people, the bill kristol anti-trump republicans. he is a consensus man of the establishment. and trump takes an approach that is even more unconstrained than that of mattis. that we should say in fairness, it is not just trump to take that approach. jenna campaign, the republican candidates were -- competing with each other to see who could sell more bloodthirsty. trump was always talking about bombing the hell out of them, but it was ted cruz who said he was going to make the desert .low with his bombings each one would try to talk the other. that is where we are now.

so this is going to give a the u.s.oth to military, also to law enforcement personnel within the united states. local police, people with -- ibo from the various police and order patrol unions who in their republican political statements clearly represents among law enforcement the most racist, the most prone to violence of these -- of the various law enforcement communities. overseass u.s. clients ,n the philippines, indonesia in country after country after country after country around the world because the u.s. has military and client 100tionships with more than countries around the world, depending on how you calculate it. some could argue up to 170 countries around the world. the new message, the new u.s.

guideline is "kill more and don't worry about criticism or occasional cutbacks in your aid from the u.s. because, as the prpress people is statically set after the syrian bombing run, there's a new sheriff in town and the white house." at syria, in look response to what he saw on the ground in syria, still he stands order,ban, executive though judges have s stopped it, that would not allow one syrian refugee into the united states. >> i think it may well be true that in terms of trurump's own emotional wiring, his mental see thoseybe he did disgusting, gruesome videos of the gas attack and maybe said, ok, we have to attack syria. i can believe that. sawi am sure trump also some other very famous images,

like the one of the little boy, the refugee from the mediterranean, face down on the shore as he had just drowned to death because the boat he was shore iniled to reach europe. and countless other images. the policy response -- i don't about the emotional response of trump -- the policy response of trump to that drowned boy on the shores is to say, screw the refugees. to make that hatred toward the refugees -- one of the very pillars of, a, his campaign, and, b, his new government. amy: with the attacks from syria to muzzle to iraq to yemen, it wasn't eight days before -- after donald trump was inauguguted that the u.s. navy seal strike happened in yemen.

someththing like 25 civilians we killed, many of them children. and perhaps the reason we know about it is because the u.s. navy seal was killed. that u.s. navy seal's father, william owens, refused to meet president trump, who surprised owens when he came to dover airbase with his daughter ivanka. his son's body wrought to the base. he was harshly critical of the raidid. mr. owens said, why did he have to do this now? to move so quickly in his administration? can you talk about that first attack -- if it was the first attack? and what it means to talk about these attacks as presidential initiation rites? >> well, first, the particulars of that attack. that attack was aimed to be targeting al qaeda, a local al qaeda affiliate.

syriaworth noting that in , many of the rebels who the u.s. has been backing and arming and training often conduct joint nusra, the alth al- qaeda affiliate. a good number of them have joined up with al-nusra. on this rate, it took place in a context of a broader warar and a does onassault, which yemen, funny houthi-armed by saudi arabia. and in n these raids,s, the saus are using u.s. planan, using u.s. bombs, there were actually u.s.s. personnel sitting in the saudi air forcece headquarterss helping g them withargeting..

the saudis are systematically tatargeting yemeni civilians. after one particularly egregious and especially widely reported gathering, a funeral the u.s. admonished the saudis, criticize them, temporarily froze and pulled back a bit of the raid -- their aid. but under trump, it is full speed ahead in yemen. if you look at the press, including outlets like msnbc and various press outlets considered to be liberal, one of the main arguments they make is a u.s. action is good when it pleases the saudis. line of this constant criticism, which has been going on for decades. criticism against u.s.

presidents who are considered to be too soft at a given moment. and that criticism is, you're letting down our middle eastern allies. i.e., you're letting on the saudis. journalists will say, i've been in the middle east and talking to our allies there, i.e.,s the saudi, the gulf states, and they're unhappy because they think the u.s. is not showing enough credibility. we are letting them down. i.e., the u.s. is not being violent enough. that is the context in which this attack on yemen by the special forces took place. as to why trump authorized it in very importantnk motivating factor that is really underestimated by people, especially scholars, is the extent to which when you have power and you are the king, a

lot of the motivation for violence, for war, it is not just interest. a lot of motivation is fun. thrill. is getting a charge out of ordering violence. and thrilling the public, exciting the press around you. the recent reaction to the syria attack is a very good example of that. i think to really understand how big powers operate when it comes to going out and killing people, we don't just study the concrete know,sts like, you mineral exports and geopolitics will stop also study shakespeare, study the whims of kings. because that is what a lot of it is about. if you look back at the debates in the campaign between clinton and trump when they were talking about the violent system, they

did not disagree at all about the u.s. right to commit aggression, about the u.s. right to kill civilians. what they do disagree about was how those decisions would be made. clinton invoked the traditional establishment criteria that i discussed before of, yes, you come from, for you can only kill of the 25 civilians with your bombing run. trump said, i will attack whenever the hell i feel like it. allow the killing of civilians, which is a crime. amy: and trump saying, i was just continuing what president obama started. >> in that sense, trump does have a point. it was obama who started the support t of the saudi attack in yeyemen, and the e general polif military cias own strikes in yemen. of c course, u.s. support forore

saudi orderer and dominance in e region a and for their violence goes back for many decades. it is also the case that clinton would probably have done this strike on the syrian airfield just as trump did. in fact, a day or so before, she gave an interview to "the new york times" were she was recommending strikes on the syrian airfield. amy: actually, the interview that hillary clinton did was with nicholas kristof in the women in the world conference. it was several hours beforore ts took place.. that video clip of her saying, why doesn'n't he bomb and aiaird or, i would bomb and airfifield was plplayed before the attack took place. >> in fact, come to think of it, the way trump operates -- if that was publicly available, maybe trump saw that clip. that is the kind of thing that would set him off the set, oh,

my god, i have to at least match her and maybe top her. but this gets back to the more fundamental point that it is really important to understand, which is u.s. has this violent system which is criminal, and it has had it for decades. it is willing to commit aggression and kill civilians in country after country after country. and all of those responsible for it should be judged by the same standards that we judge domestic killers. and by those standards, they should all be in prison, including the living u.s. presidents, including hillary clinton. but trump -- that all said, trump makes it even worse. doctrinebringing in a and a group of people who are in the process of and are definitely going to commit even more killings of civilians, even more aggression. and that is why it was one of many reasons why it was such a catastrophe that trump and the

radical right republicans won him a because it will make it even worse. and the argument you hear going around, especially in some circles on the left, oh, they're all that, they are equally bad, it is insane. given thatponsible now even m more people are going to suffer as a result. amy: award-winning investigative journalist allan nairn. we will be back with him in a moment as he discusses his assessment of the trump presidency. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we continue our conversation with award-winning investigative journalist allan nairn, i asked him to talk more about his assessment of the opening months of the trump presidency. >> it is not just the trump presidency, it is a right-wing revolution which has captured control of to this moment of the

presidency, the house, part of the senate, and now the supreme court. if they abolish the legislative filibuster in the senate, which they may, then they will have total absolute control of all branches of government. and will enter a radical new phase the on anything that has happened so far because there will be absolutely no constraints on what they can do. the only constraints could be is if they trip over themselves as they have on some occasions up to now. i in a collectition, a right-istof broadly elements. through public and establishment, fascists, the oligarchs -- all sorts of elements with their own very well defined agendas for

radical change in the u.s.. some points of those agendas so that has caused some of the problems. for example, on the repeal of obama care. but on 80% of things, they agree and they're moving forward. they have already systematically started repealing constraints on pollution, constraints on police forces that had previously been placed on federal supervision because of their involvement in killing of civilians -- often with racist motivations. to give wallng street and corporations complete license to commit crimes. under the obama-clinton establishment, these corporate figures when they committed crimes would often end up having

to pay a big settlement. they would have to pay some billions of dollars to the justice department. under trump, not only will they not be criminally prosecuted, they won't have to pay civil settlements and they will be encouraged to do their worst. a very effective part of trump's campaign was linking clinton to goldman sachs. the trtrump white house and government is stocked with goldman sachs people. there is no government ever before, even exceeding the clinton team, which is saying a lot. on the international front, it is not as if trump is being the security establishment. it is that trump is pushing the security establishment to become even more violent, to use cruder, less subtle tactics. he has are ready moved away from one key element of u.s. policy

overseas, which is hypocrisy.. the u.s. has always supported -- the basic u.s. policy for decades has been in country after country to support the military and security forces as the primary u.s. into locators. but then on top of that, too also support when it is convenient, when there is so dangerous candidate, and elected government that can give some veneer and also some local social stability. and also, while on the one hand handing arms and training and political cover and intelligence to the armies and secured he forces and the death squads, using the other hand to admonish "oh, that massacre you just did using our weapons, using our training, you should not have done that massacre. that was a little bit excessive." this is one reason why you often find resentment from u.s.

clients regarding this hypocritical approach of the u.s., which is, after all, fundamentally supporting them. hypocrisy.s away the he continues to give the arms and the training and the intelligence and political cover, but he does away with the aspect that the obama administration, in particular specialized in, was the hypocrisy, the criticism. for example, when sisi in the army seized powower in egypypafr teedo mamassacres of opponents, supporters of the muslim brotherhood, a roughly 1000 people in each massacre, john kerry said that they had moved to implement democracy . after the army andsisi seized power in egypt and did teedo massacreres of roughly 1000 peoe each of opponents and supporters of the mother doesn't muslim brotherhood, john kerry said they moved to implement

democracy. the obama administration continued military and intelligence a to the sisi government, but cut some of it back in protest of these massacres and they made some human rights criticisms of the government will stop trump comes in and does -- changes the approach. he invokes the criticisms and fully restores and says he intends to increase the military sisi to theomes white house, embraces him, says they agree, and he does this, by the way, three days before he criticizes assad, who for years worked with the cia. -- aba would send of duct ductees to assad for torture. trump criticizes assad, then bombs. it.p welcomes it is the same approach to

israel. one reason why israel and the netanyahu administration is so delighted with trump. obama pushed through a massive, the largest ever weapons aid and training package for the israeli military, as the israeli military was in the midst of tightening the repression in the west bank after they had -- not too long before they had done a massive slaughter with their air attack on gaza. obama did that. and at the same time, he waggedd his finger at israel on certain issues like settlements. says, no more and finger wagging. and to boot, we're going to try aidncrease the military that props up the israeli state even more, and we're going to align politically with the

elements i in israel, the settlr settler elements that are constantly berating netanyahu for being too soft on the palestiniaians. that is who trump's new ambassador to israel represents. amy: he was the bankruptcy lawyer, now the new u.s. ambassador to israel will stop he raised money for the settlement. >> and openly aligns with the political elements in -- you want expulsion and even more killing of the palestinians. this is the new trump policy in country after country after country. amy: can you talk specifically about the environment? i mean, talk about the trump trump rex tillerson, the former ceo of exxonmobil being secretary of state to the oklahoma attorney general -- oklahoma, now rocked by earthquakes, which it never had in the past. now has become the state of fracking. the oklahoma attorney general

scott pruitt who sued the epa 14 times now head of the epa for the governor perry head of the energy department, who sat on the board of energy transfer partners that owns the dakota access pipeline. >> well, trump has essentially sent subversives i into the cabinet, top of the agencies to dismantle, destroy the agencies. ,n the words of steve bannon how did he put it, to deconstruct the administrative state. gorsuch, the new supreme court justice put in by trump, his was reagan's epa administrator gorsuch. she was one of two such cabinet appointees sent in by reagan to dismantle the respective departments.

the other was the head of interior. when i say dismantle, i mean dismantle all aspects of their work and regulations that run counter to the interests of corporations and polluters and may be favorable to the interest of what are seen as liberal or democratic interest groups. that with twod agencies, epa and interior. during -- when rick perry ran for president, he got in trouble because although he was openly dismantling alilar very's government departments, including education -- unfortunately for him, he could not remember the whole list, so everybody laughed at him. now with trump in and not just trump, but trump and the whole radical republican right-ist establishment, they're trying to do it with every department, every department that has within its mission any kind of service

to the poor, service protecting the rights of working people, protecting the rights of protesters, protecting the rights of women or that has within its work any kinds of projects or regulations that inconvenience corporations and rich oligarchs. this administration is trying to dismantle those functions of government across the board. it is systematic in sweeping and bannon is entirely right when he makes the claim that it is revolutionary. he compared himself to lenin, kind of a linen from the other direction, from the radical right. it is true they are engaged in a truly revolutionary project. and it has to be stopped. what you might say is the good news is history is moving at a much faster pace now. events have speeded up, bigger

change is possible faster than it was before. so it is conceivable that if there is enough resistance from the streets, if there is enough activism within the many corners of the system where concessions state won, especially the of local level, especially within the democratic party, backed up by mass disruption from below, it might be possible theseerse some of revolutionary steps from the right, perhaps sooner than would have been the case in the slower this local conditions that prevailed before trump. but we are in the midst of this massive crisis. the damage assessment is months from coming in. we have just seen a tiny fraction now of the people in this country and overseas who are going to die preventable deaths as a result.

for example, they are going after programs run by the agricultural department and others that feed hungry kids in the united states. they want to kill them. they're also going after programs in the u.s. foreign aid budget that feed starving people overseas. now, the u.s. government has lots of bad things, but it is also the case that the u.s. still is, to a certain extent, a democracy. and over years and years of wonuggle, activists have certain concessions. there are thousands upon thousands of passages in laws and programs within government that are the result not of corporate dictates, but a --ssure from below, pressure racial justice and labor and human rights and women's rights activists, consumer rights, environmental justice. there have been victories won

over the years, very hard fought. and a lot of these are put into legislation. they're put into the functions of departments. and what trump and the republican coalition are trying to do is ripped them out systematically, dismantle them systematically. that is what is under way now. and many commend many thousands of extra people will die in the u.s. and overseas as a result. amy: you have an enormous irony worry you have president trump accusing the obama administration, president obama of surveilling him of wiretapping them, yet at the same time in congress, they roll .ack privacy protections the whole internet privacy act that has now been written into law. any talk about the significance of this, which would seem to join right and left? >> i am a little surprised what i guess is maybe the majority of the population or at least the majority of young people in the united states who essentially

live their lives online. are not completely up in arms about this. are not storming washington about this because what they have done is they have made i it easier for online private profit-making corporations to sell the most intimate details of y your l life. you think people wouould objecto this. what i it also shows is much of this new goverernment's agenda s strictly corporate. strictly corporate. the democratic party is also dominated -- at the elite level, by the corporate and the rich. at the democratic party also has its pays, all sorts of working and poor and activist constituencies that are against those corporate interests and the rich. and they fight it out. the outcome of those fights is democratic policy. in the new order, with this trump republican administration,

it is straight corporate. and the only resistance that those corporations get is if some aspect of their agenda happens to clash with come impact on the program, say, the orists or the neofascists arrival corporate faction -- for kochs havee disagreements with other oligarchs under his issues. those are the only constraints on corporations. there is no constraint within this new republican governing coalition from working people or poor people, even though trump is making a big play to working people by addressing in a way that the democrats should have but never did, the realities that the u.s. working class has been gutted by the decades upon decades of bipartisan neoliberalism that was embraced by obama and clinton.

amy: can you talk about steve bannon, stephen miller, their position in the white house, what they represent, the talk of the infighting between them and jared kushner, president trump's son-in-law? >> bannon comes from goldman sachs. miller comes from the most openly racist part of the anti-immigrant movement. and after that, from the office of then senator now attorney general jeff sessions, one of the most openly racist politicians in washington. i was a little -- i have been a little surprised that bannon has lasted this long. not for any political reason, but just because a few weeks back, they put him on the cover of "time" magazine inserted talking about him as the real president. you would not think trump would tolerate that kikind of thing.g. whether he stays or goes matters inin a certain s sense because s obviously a very powerful advisor, but all that really

matters for is the balance of the competing radical right-ist interest within the administration. so for example, if the bannon and your fascist, racist -- , racist people are pushed aside, maybe that means more power for the koch brothers or more power for the mainstream goldman sachs philosophy, or maybe that means more power for the radical intolerant religious right faction. or maybe that means more powerful for whichever company or foreign interest made the biggest indirect payoff to trump and his family that particular week. whatever. but the point is, the larger point is that that is what this administration and this republican group that now controls congress consists of. factionsese radical

that mean increase suffering and increased death for the majority of the people in this country and overseas. they are now in there. they are now inhabiting the state. and they sometimes clash among themselves. but whoever wins those internal clashes, the loser is poor people, working people, people who were targets of discrimination, and also another loser is the chance to reverse these radical changes they are making. because they're very strategic. they're trying to set it in stone. and now with the majority on the supreme court and perhaps the impending lifting of the legislative filibuster in the senate, they will have the power to set it in stone. and you're absolutely within the federal establishment system. amy: long-time award-winning investigative journalist allan joke -- the george

polk award, robert f kennedy award.dupont: the his red for numerous publications. to see his conversation with julian assange on democracy now! , go to democracynow.org. that does it for our show. we begin "change in america tour " sunday in princeton, new jersey. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. go to democracynow.org to see

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