05/25/17 05/25/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from canada and the toronto skydome, this is democracy now! >> what is the white house perspective on duterte? >> it is an opportunity for us to work with countries in that region that can help play a role in isolating north korea. duterter the past year,r, has overseen a bloody war on drugs that is left over 7000 people dead.

while human rights groups have slammed duterte, president trump embraced him. we will speak with jeremy scahill of the intercept who kedt published a lea transferred where president trump says duterte is doing an unbelievable job on the drug program. we will speak also with glenn greenwald about how the media coverage of the manchester bombing victims should be a model for all young victims of warr from yemen toto afghanista. plus, we will speak to toronto activistst and journalist desmod colele. >> i think what was revealed is a certain naivete whehere we ignore very obvious problems of racial discrimination. we want to telell ourselves that it i is not happenening herere e esespecially wanant to tell ourselveves we are not the unitd states of america.a. amy: up until rerecently, desmod cole was a columnist at "the toronto star." its editors told him he had to choose betweeneneing a jojournalist or a black lives

matter activist. he decided to stop writing his column. all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!,!, demomocracynow.org, the war and peace repoport. i'm amamy goodman. we are broadcasting from totoronto, canada. in new revelations about possibible collusion between t e trump campaign and alleged russian efefforts to influencece 2016 election, the "nenew york times" i is reporting g that u.. sponsored d senior russian political and intelligence discussing ways to use then-trump campaign chairman paul manafort and trump advivisr michael flynn in order to exert influence over donald trump himself. in the alleged conversations last summer, the russian officials reportedly bragged about their close ties to michael flynn, as well as to former ukrainian president viktor yanukovych, who has worked closely with manafort.

it is not known whether russian officials ever actually tried to influence manafort or flynn or, if so, whether they were successfsful. meanwhile, the "washington post" is reporting former fbi didirecr jamemes comey y may have been inflfluenced by a fake r russian intelligence document when he decided to publicly denounce hillary clinton's handling of emails as extremely careless in july. officials say the secret russian intelligence document claimed then-attorney general loretta lynch had assured the clinton campaign the fbi would not probe too deeply into clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. "the post" reports comey relied on that document when he took the extraordinary step of announcing -- without justice department involvement -- that, although the fbi investigation was over, he found clinton's conduct to be "extremely careless." officials now say the fbi itself had suspected the document was was bad intelligence or even fafake.

cnn is reporting jeff sessioions did not reveal hisis two meetits lastst with rurussian ambassador sergey kislyak when he applied for security glances as attorney gegeneral. these are the same meanings he failed to disclosese in his confirmatition hearing.. the congreressional budget offie says the newew republican health care plalan would cause 2323 min people to lose their h health ce by 2026. the plan narrowly passed the house early this month. it's not clear whether the bill will pass the senate. this is new york democratic senator chuck schumer. >> the report makes clear trumpcare would be a cancer on the american health care system, causing costs to skyrocket, making coverage unaffordrdable r those with pre-existing , and many seneniors, and kicking millions off their health insurance. unless you are a healthy

millionaire, trumpcare is a nightmare. amy: p president trump was greed , and manyby 9000 angry proteste arrived in belgium wednesday, as part of his first foreign trip as president. last year, trump sparked outrage when he described brussels as "a hellhole" because it had welcomed so many immigrants and refugees. this is protester anne tonglet. --trump is a great example he was to destroy the planet and destroy people. we are not insignificant. where not enough percent of the planet against one person billionaires, the only ones that trump represents. amy: in brussels, trump will be attending his first nato summit today. in news on yemen, the human rights group reprieve says u.s. navy seals killed five civilians during a raiaid tuesday night oa village in marib governorate. ththe pentntagon says the raid targeted al qaeda, and that seven militants were killed. but residents of the village say the e navy sealsls actually shod a 70-year-old civilian,

a partially blind civilianan who had comeme out of his s house dg ththe raid to see whwhat was gog on. at the sound of gunfire, four more civilians reportedly came out of their houses, only to be gunned down by the seals. reprieve says another six civilians were injured, including an elderly man. this comes after navy seals killed up to 25 civilians, including nine children, during a botched raid in yemen in january that alslso left one nay seal dead. meanwhile, in more news on yemen, nearly 400 people have now died in a spiraling cholera ououtbreak as ththe u.s.-bacack, saudi-led d bombing caaigngn has devastated the country's health, water, sewage and sanitation , systems. in brazizil, president michel temer has authorized the dedeployment of the army to thte capital brasilia amid d growing protests demanding the president's ouster. on wednesday, tens of thousandns of protesterers marched to congress to demand temer's resignation. some demonstrators also torched a ministry building. multiple protesters were injured as police attacked them with tear gas, stun grenades and

, rubber-coated steel bullets. temer is facing mounting calls to resign or be impeached following explosive testimony released by the supreme court accusing him of accepting millions of dollars in bribes since 2010. we'll have more on brazil later in the broadcast with pulitzer prize winning journalist glenn in rio de who lives janeiro. shocking new details have come toto light about how the u u.s.g enforcement administration tried to cover up its role in the killing of four civilians in honduras in 2012. for years, the dea claimed they were assisting honduran authorities in a raid that killed four drug smugglers near the village of ahuas. this was the story the dea told congress, the justice department , and the public. but a scathing new report by the inspectors general of the justice and state departments says the dea repeatedly lied about key aspects of the raid. the victims were not drug , and the public. smugglers but civilians -- --luding two pregnant women

traveling on a water taxi. in addition the report says the dea falsely claimed that honduran law enforcement had led the operation, when in fact it was led by the dea. the agents were part of a now-shuttered task force known as the foreign-deployed advisory support team, or fast, which was trained in military-style anti-drug raids. vermont senator patrick leahy said the report "unmasks egregious events and conduct, as well as the subsequent efforts to hide the truth about what happened." british offificials are accusing the e united states of leaking o the news media details about the investigation into monday's suicide bombing in manchester, which killed 22 people. ththe officials say they'll no longer share information with thee u.s. after u.s. law enforcement agencies released information and pictures about the investigation before british agencies did so. u.k. prime minister theresa may says she'll raise the issue when she meets with president trump today during a nato summit in brussels.

the leaks s come as british authorities have arrested a total of eight men suspected of being connected to the attack, including suspected bomber salman abedi's brother, ismail. abedi was a 22-year-old british man whose parents emigrated from libya. abedi's brother hashem and his father have e also been arrestsd by special forces in libya. the italian coasast guard says t least 34 refugees, including many small toddlers, have died after their boat capsized off the coast of libya wednesday as the refugees were trying to reach europe. their deaths come as a new report says as many as 6.6 million people are waiting in countries around the mediterranean hoping to emigrate to europe. back in the united states andd montana, republican congressional candidate gregg gianforte has been charged with assault after r he body slammed a guardian repeporter toto the r wedndnesday night only hours before polls open for the

special election today. gianforte, a tech millionaire who is backed by trump, attacked guardian reporter ben jacobs as jacobs was trying to ask about the republican healthcare plan. this is audio jacobs captured of the incident. >> i will talk to you about that later. >> there's not going to be time -- i am sick and tired of you guys. the last guy who came in here to the same thing. get the hell out of here. the last guy did the same thing. are you with the guardian? >> yes. you just broke my glasses. you just ought he slammed me and broke my glasses. amy: that was reporter ben jacobs being attacked by montana congressional candidate greg gianforte wednesday night. voters are now heading to the polllls to decide between

gianforte and democratic candidate rob quist to fill montana's at-large house seat, which was vacated by now interior secretary ryan zinke. the $10 million closelely watchd race is seen as a referendum on the trump administration. closose to 70% of the people in montana have already voted in the congressional race. and protests against corporate shareholder meetings continued wednesdada in chicago, crowds of baggage handlers, janitors, cabin cleaners, and security officers rallied outside the united airlines shareholder meeting demanding higher wages and better working conditions. inside the meeting, united ceo oscar munoz was grilled by shareholders over the violent removal of a doctor who suffered a concussion, broken nose and , lost teeth after he was dragged semi-conscious off a refusing to be

"involuntarily rebooked" from a flight. meanwhile, in the chicago suburb of oak park, hundreds of fast food workers protested outside the mcdonald's shareholder meeting to demand the miminimum wage be raised to $15 anan hou this is one of the protesters. >> we deserve dignity. we deserve $15 an hour. we deserve to take care of our kids. i cannot even by my son any shoes. he has not -- he deserves to be held have some shoes on his feet. i'm sure the shareholders take care of their families. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. we begin today's show looking at the philippines where filipino president rodrigo duterte has been overseeing a bloody war on drugs. since last morere than 7000 peoe june, have been extrajajudicialy

killed by police or vigilantes. duterte has also suggested he might impose martial law across the country after first declaring it this week in his native island of mindanao. while human rights groups have condemned duterte, he has received backing from president trump who recently invited him to visit the white house. human rights watch slammed the invitation saying -- "by effectively endorsing duterte's murderous 'war on drugs,' trump has made himself morally complicit in future killings." well, earlier this week, a transcript of the call of trump inviting duterte to the white house was leaked and published by the intercept. according to the leaked transcript, trump said -- "i just wanted to congratulate you because i am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem. many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and i just wanted to call and tell you that." duterte responded -- "thank you mr. president. this is the scourge of my nation now and i have to do something to preserve the filipino

nation." trump then responded -- "i understand that, and fully understand that, and i think we number one priorities of the president. amy: the leaked transcript of the trump-duterte call does confirm north korea came up but

only after trump praised the filipino president on waging his war on drugs. during the call trump said -- , "we have a lot of firepower over there. we have two submarines -- the best in the world -- we have two nuclear submarines -- not that we want to use them at all." trump went on to say -- "i've never seen anything like they are, but we don't have to use this, but he could be crazy so we will see what happens." well, to talk more about presidents trump and duterte, we are joined by jeremy scahill, co-founder of the intercept and host of the new weekly podcast, "intercepted." jeremy's recently co-wrote a three-part article on the leaked call for the intercept. jeremy, it is great to have you with us here at the skydome where the blue jays play in toronto, canada. we all paparticipated in a forum on journalism last night. but talk about this really explosive expose that you did

for the intercept around trump's phone call with duterte. >> first of all, to establish what this is that we published, this was a transcript from a phone call that took place april 29 between trump and dutererte. trump initiated the call. what we published was a philippine government document, classified philippine government document. so this was the transcript that duterte's people made of his call with trump. the reason i emphasize that is because after we published this, matt drudge put it at the top of drudge report. we had an enormous surge in traffic from many people who are supporters of donald trump. drudge gotarded in bombarded with a boycott campaign from trump supporters who are saying, whoever leaked this should be prosecuted for treason. in the journalist who published this should be put in prison,

which echoes what we know trump has sort of suggested in meetings most recently to james comey right before he fired him. this was not a a u.s. government document. people were saying, this is proof that obama left the white house bugged. it is like they don't understand the basic fact of went to foreign leaders are speaking, there are two sides of the conversation, so there we have it, the phone conversation -- amy: how did you get it? >> we're not going to talk about sources or methods as the us the government likes to talk about. we will say we obtained it and the philippine government -- the philippine government validated it is legitimate document. the white house said the transcript was accurate. that leaves us with h the fact that dononald trump begins s a e call with rodrigo duterte openly bragging about how he

will get a pardon or immunity to people who extrajudicially kill anyone involved with the drug war. in the dominant perception and the way this is s portrayed by people, they're just going after narcotraffickers. in reality, many drug users have been assassinated as part of this campaign. duduterte enenjoys a p pretty we base of support in the philippines and kind of mixes in anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist rhetoric with these very harsh policies. he also is one of the few heads of state in the world -- he regularly swears that she called barack obama things that i can't even say on this program, the son of a rush than referenced as though obama's mother had been a sex worker. he is calling the president and saying i'm going to orient myself toward china and russia.

he said that under obama because obama is a administration crititicized the tactic that duterte was using, the paramilitary gangster tactics they were using. not astonishing, but the most relevant part of this is that trump knows all of that. in fact, views that as a positive thing. so he calls duterte and says to to congratulate you for the amazing job that you are doing. and the reason we know it is not just generic platitude, trump himself references in this call the fact that his predecessor barack obama had said the obvious, which is, this is not right the way this is being handled. the obama administration had a very hypocritical recordrd on human rights, but as allan nairn put it out before, hypocrisy has some virtue in at least you're able to call them out on it because they say one thing, but mean another. the bottom line is, trump calls duterte says, great job, amazing job, obama did not get it, i get it.

you are a good man. juan: almost as shocking as the call in the congratulations from trump was the other part of the discussion about north korea and trump revealing to duterte and to lots of folks in the philippine government about nuclear submarines of the u.s. that are off the coast of north korea. >> first of all, trump still continues to use an insecure cell phone that he tweets from and has brought the cell phone to the table unclassified discussions about north korea. he did it withshinzo abe in mar-a-lago. there are pictures of trump's cell phone, his phone that he uses that has been -- already for years it has been known to have been compromised by chinese hackers. insecurureinging this phone to meetings about north korea, then on the phone with duterte last month and s s s s s duterte about these

submarines off the coast. he says, we're so much more fire power than north korea. at least 20 times. 20 times? u.s. is known to have more than 6000 of their warheads. north korea is believed to have around 10. trump's math was way off.

some are saying, trump keeps saying we don't want to use it. that is not significant. what is significant is trump says t this is a madadman and we don't t know what is goioing to. we prefer not to go to war, but who knows? that is really frightening to hear from someone who is in command of the most lethal and powerful military in the world. this is sort of sat on one level but frightening, he says, roderigo, let's talk about kym johnson -- kim jong-un. is he stable or unsnstable? why is the president of united states asking if kim jong-un is unstable? juan: a man whose own stability is in question, duterte. >> i really don't know which of these three people that sort of the greater threat too civilization. probably trump. tough call. amy: let's go to some of the clubs of duterte in his own words. last september, the philippines presesident likened himself too

hitler's. > hitltler assange.

he was never charged. what does this angel -- what does this mean, glenn?

you won a pulitzer prize for your work on edward snowden. julian assange has been in the ecuadorian embassy for almost five years. foot outside,ps even though sweden has dropped this investigation, after questioning him at the embassy -- shame.s a i think everyone ought to agree when there are allegations of this type that are made and denials issued by the person he was accused, i it is in everyo's interest to try to make sure these claims are adjudicated, not your online debate, but in a court of law with due process. the factct that it has n not ben apparently won't be, i think iss this horrible -- is horrible for everybody involved. the reason why that happened, and a lot of people bear the blame for it, but the primary reason is that what the ecuadorian said all along was that we're concerned about the

persecution we're protecting him from is not the allegations in sweden, but the concern that if he goes to sweden, he will then be turned over to the united states and be prosecuted for political crimes, namely, publishing documents list of the ecuadorians always said of the sweden's would give us assurances that turning over julian to the swedish authorities will not result in him being extradited to the u.s., we will send him to stockholm. julien said the same thing. the swedish refused categorically to give those assurances, which is why the ecuadorians gave asylum. on top of which the prosecutors took many years to question julian and the embassy, which they were offering all along and could have done five years ago and did not. now we are where the swedish investigators of said, we don't think we can proceed anymore. we're dropping the charges. which means every fair-minded person should not assume julian to be innocent, but also not guilty, because there is been no due process.

why is he still the embassy? the reasason he can't leave his exactly what the ecuadorians feared, the u.s. govevernment hs mamaker underr trump they intend they will prosecute wikileaks and join us on us under an espionage statute f for the " crime" of publishing documents. the british a are entirely subservient to the wishes of the u.s. government and will arrest julian the minute he steps out and undoubtedly turn them over to the u.s.. the irony is that he is not a convicted, the charges are dropped -- amy: not even charged. >> the case has been dropped. the investigation has been dropped. yet he is in greater legal jejeopardy than ever because jef sessions and mike pompeo and donald t trump,, apparently, wht to prosecute him for the crime of reporting on documents. there many people in the u.s. media is below that would be a grave e danger t to their own ds seem to be acquiescing or

overtly supportive and it is a dangerous situation. >> a lot of what is missed in the criticism of assange and wikileaks from these organizations is that what they do to wikileaks and if they do charge julian assange with espionage, if they do criminalize what wikileaks is doing, that is a threat to journalists everywhere. regardless of what you think of julian assange as a person or the allegations that originally surfaced i i sweden, this is a tactic that the u.s. government uses all the time. that is what the whole and by the journalism program is part of in the military. embedded journalists -- remember victoria clarke during the invasion of iraq, an embedded journalists were basically fair game. if we end up killing you, that is your problem. if you are inveterate, you are working with us. look at the way journalists talked about this recent israel leak story in the oval office

with the russians were there. cnn come all of these publications rushed in front of the cameras and microphones to say, we coordinated our coverage with the u.s. government to make sure we would d not say y this r this. that is fair. you should ask the government when you are publishing documents, led t to your argume. the idea that evan perez on cnn used the term "coordinated" a talk about what they were doing with the u.s. government before publishing things is really the sharpest contrast you can draw. wholeaks versus journalists go and say, mr. president, is it ok if we publish this? that is a problem. regardless of what y you think f wikileaks, if you're not against the prosecution under this, then you're going to be papart of a drawn n back of a press freedomn the united d states. amy: we are wrapping u up in 30 seconds, glenn.. tomorrow, we're going to broadcast an exclusive interview with the ouster brazilian president dilma rousseff. you just flown in from brazil.

as a kind of introduction to thisis, can you say whatat is happening there? >> it is hard to imagine anyone more vindicacated than she. the argument that t many of us made against the impeachment was if you impeach her, the people of brazil who will take over of .he single most corrupt faction the president of the country just got caught on tape three months ago endorsing rideses. my husband was in brazil yesterday. that we no idea now have unraveled democracy what the result will be. amy: we will talk about that with dilma rousseff tomorrrrow n democracy now! as well as glenns analysisis of what is happppenig now withth the president michel temer sending thousands of troops to brasilia. glenenn greenwald and jeremy scahill, both cofounders of the intercept. jeremy has just started a new weekly podcastst called "intercepted."

when we comeme back, we speak wh toronto journalist and activist desmond cole. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we are broadcasting from, well, the stadium where the blue jays play. that's right, we are in toronto, canada, at the skydome. juan: "i choose activism in the service of black liberation." those are the words of our next guest, desmond cole, explaining why he left his bi-monthly column at "the toronto star."

last month, cole protested a toronto police services board meeting and was subsequently told by his editor at t "the s " that he had violated the nenewspapers'' rules on journalm anand activism. in his writings, cole has longng criticized the controversial police practice of carding -- stopping, inteterrogating and collecting data on indndividuals without probable cause, a practice which disproportionately targets people of color in canada. in 2015, he wrote a widely read piece for toronto life titled, "the skin i'm in: i've been interrogated by police more than 50 times -- all because i'm black." last month, cole brought a police board hearing to a halt byby refusining to leave t the speaeaker's chair r until alll information gathered f from carding was destroyed. >> i standnd u up for the childn of this city that you guguys refuseo prprott, pararticularlyy the ack children.

and i plan to stand here in protest untilil you commit -- until you commimit today, , herd now, to restricting the p police having our information going forward. you're going to ruin another generation of childrdren's live, and i'm not going to allowow you to do it. >> thahanks, desmond. [applaususe] > please hahave the courtesyo let the e other peopople on thet -- >> no. >> speak. we can stall. so let''s adjourn the meeting fr 10 minututes, please. board members? amy: you were just listening to desmond cole derailing a toronto police services board meeting last month. shortly afterwards, desmond was called into the "toronto star's" office and told his protest had violated the newspapers' code of conduct. the newspaper's policy and

journalistic standards manual states -- "it is not appropriate for star journalists to play the rorolesf bothth actor and critic." desmond cole says this is not the first time he has been reprimandeded by the newspaper. last year, the chair of torstar corp., who was also serving as as the "star's" acting publisher at that time, asked to meet with desmond. the chair, john honderich, reportedly told cole he was writing about race too often, and advised him to diversify his topics. well, democracy now! invited john h honderich or a spokokespn for the "toronto star" to join us on the show, but they declined our request. the newspaper's director of community relations and communications pointed us to a column by the paper's public editor, kathy english. the column is headlined "journalists shouldn't become the news." well, for the remainder of the hour, we're joined now by desmond cole, former columnist for "the toronto star" and now a freelance journalist, activist, and radio host on newstalk 1010. desmond welcome to democracy , now!

>> it is great to be here. amy: talk about what happened. >> i think you described it very well. i have been a columnist since about september 2015. surprise to the newspaper i was engaging in activism.. in fact, what the toronto star" reporters have been covering my columnists a became a for the paper and have been describing me as a freelance journalist and activist. the idea i broke their policy is nonsense because the policy of the paper is inconsistent at best and is not applied to other writers and columnists of the same paper that also engage in different forms of activism. my analysis ofof what happened o me is that because i am working in the service of black liberation, because i and fighting white supremacycy, and because that requires me to engage in acts of civil disobedience as i did d at the

police board meeting, john honderich to whom you mentioned, became too uncomfortable with my actions to feel comfortable apporting me going forward as columnist. so they madede up this nonnsnse that the idea i was breaking the rules of the newspaper, rather than simply saying, we're uncomfortable -- wraps john honderich and otherers were receiving a lot of phone calls. i disrupted a police serviceces board memeeting in which t the r of the city ofof toronto was present. i know it's things like that make our government t and many o our business and even newspaper leaders very uncomfortable. that is their problem. come tohn honderich meet your go and try to interfere in my content as an opinion writer in the city, that was ludicrous and that is really the story. why is one of the most powerful people of "the toronto star" coming to me andnd trying to divert my work and try to suggest i should be talking about this or that?

that wasn't, in my view, his role. he was out of line also because i have brought a lot of attention to issues "the s star" has been covering for years a ad dodone it successfully. this is about a powerful person on a power trip and the inappropriate actions he was taking more than a year ago of until now to try to silence me. juan: what you raise ababout the publisher, someone who has workeded in commercial media for 40 years, i can't remember ever a publisher of a newspaper -- i was a staff columnist -- having a meeting with one of the commononests or reporters to discuss the content of their work. >> it doesn't happen. john honderich tried to make it seem like it was normal for him in his position to come to somebody who was writing once a week to have this big conversation about my content. he tried to make a scenene liket wawas a normrmal thing. certainly,y, the media in canad,

have been afraid to pick up on that thread of this issue. they have preferred to have this really ridiculous faux existential conversation about, what does this mean for journalism? what is journalism anyway? can one be a journalist and an activist? this has all diverted that i took a stand against police keeping records on innocent tople because everyone upup the mayor of our city of toronto has said that practice is illicit and has to stop, but they have not followed through. so all of these conversations about my tactics as an individual to try to silence that, these are classic diversionary tactics when the black people takake a stand. amamy: you have said you have bn stopped over 50 times. >> stopped are follolowed in my car or question and asked for infoformation. in kingston, ontario, world university, that is here in

toronto, different parts of this province. even when n i leave the province of ontarioio, no matter where em in the country, it is extremely hard as a younger black person not to attract the attention of police. i am terrified when these interactions happepen, but agai, the reason we have been having this conversation about carding -- amy: explain w what that is. >> y you did a a great job in te intro. it is a practice of not only stopping people, c civilians who arare not suspected of a any cr, but documenenting your interactions with them and keeping them in a database. so keeping noncriminal records of civilians. this has been a rampant practice in the city of toronto. there are vevery, very few black families and individuals this practice has not touched in one way or another. or recently, we have been talking about how even police stationed in our schools are engaging in surveillance against

students. our collecting information on students a so-called school resource officers who are posted in our high schools when they're supposed to be building relationships, as they like to put it, with our kids. so these records, the stock criminal records, can follow people when they try to apply for a job, apply for school positions that require background checks. and they create a kind of picture of somebody doing something wrong or just trying to live in their community. this has disproportionately affected black people in toronto, but also queer and trans community's, fueled mental health issues, the kinds of people in our society who are horrible and easy targets for police -- vulnerable and easy targets for police. this is not a referendum on myself or the number of times i have been stopped. this is a rampant police practice that is about oppressing and documenting people of color and other like

marginalized groups. amy: we will be asking you what you would be writing about. that is desmond cole