06/22/17 06/22/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> saudi arabia and original coalition have taken strong action against militants in yemen. amy: as the u.s. moves ahead with massive arms deal with saudi arabia, their king has deposed his nephew as crown prince and replaced him with his son, the senate presiding over thdevastatating u.s.-backed saudi-led war in yemen.

we w will speak to human rights watch aboutt what this means for the war in yemen as well as the group's new report on torture and disappearances, and secret prisons in yemen. then we go to london. >> the government should be doing more, honestly. they're not doing enough. and they have failed because this is a natural disaster. -- it is a national disaster. amy: hundreds of protesters condemn the government's handling of last weweek'ss devastating apartment fire that has killed att least 79 people. we will l get the latest in london. than more from naomi klein on "no isis not enough." all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. republican majority leader mitch mcconnell is scheduled to release the senate's plan to repeal and replace the affordable care act today, pushing for a rapid vote ahead

of the j july 4 holiday on a bil that was crafted in secret. a drug versions are given to do yesterday, seen by "the washington post" from the resembling a house bill that passed narrowly last month. it would see draconian cuts that would slash medicaid, the federal health program covering low-income and disabled americans, even more than the house bill, though over a longer period of time. the bill was crafted by 13 republican men in closed-door session. on tuesday, three democratic senators visited the congressional budget office demanding to see a copy of the bill as the cbo works to score the legislation to predict its impapact on health i insurance coverage and the u.s. economy. meanwhile, president trump visited cedar rapids, iowa, winston for campaign-style event and it promoting the republican push on health care. the rally was interrupted by .rotesters during the address, the president defended his cabinet,

by far the wealthiest cabinet in history, including billionaire commerce secretary wilbur ross. pres. trump: and i love all people, rich or poor, but in those particular positions, i jujust out one a poor person.. doeses that make s sense? amamy: through p public and natl committee compiled -- the republicanan nationanal committe compiled a vast trove of data detailing personal information on virtually every u.s. voter, and then left the information unsecured on the open internet for nearly two weeks earlier this month. that's according to the internet sesecurity f firm guguard, which reports the rnc gathered more than a petabyte of data -- or more than one quadrillion bytes of information -- on 198 million voters' addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and social media posts. the data was compiled by the republican firm deep root analytics on behalf of the rnc, and included so-called advanced sentiment analyses of voters' views on hot-button issues like gun rights, health care, and abortion. upguard discovered the data was available for download from june 1 to the june 14, meaning it

could now be in the possession of hackers, foreign governments or i identity thieves. in newly released video, two military psychologists who helped devise the bush administration's interrogation program defend their roles in helping the cia torture detainees in u.s. custody. on wednesday, the "new york times" published video depositions of james mitchell and bruce jessen, who were questioned over torture as part of a lawsuit brought by the aclu on behalf of several former prisoners. this is james mitchell being asked about his support for the simulated drowowning technique known as waterboarding. >> you thought waterboarding was a bad -- a painful thing, right? >> i thought it could be done safely. i thought he would be uncomfortable. it sucks. i don't know that it is painful. it is distressing. >> us on interview with you with someone being breaking the leg and being waterboarded, you said

most people choose having their leleg broken. do remember that? >> no. amy: the videos' release came as the associated press reported that hundreds of accused terrorists have been swept up in a secret network of prisons in yemen, where u.s. military officials participated in interrogations where torture is routine and extreme. the ap reports one methohod cald "the grill" involved tying detainees to a spit and rotating them over flames like a rotisssserie chihicken. the pentagon acknowledged the report, but denenied any knowlee of human rights abuses.. in south sudan, the united nations says parts of the country are no longer under a famine, but that the country remains in crisis with some 6 million residents remaining severely food insecure. this is james elder, a spokesperson for unicef. >> it no with the latest data people, one inin two of every south sudanese, a

struggling to find food every single day. amy: the group famine early warning sysystems networork warn wednesday that conflict and drought fueled by climate change have left an unprecedented 81 million people needing food aid in 2017. the u.n. warns three countries remain at risk of famine -- somalia, nigeria, and yemen, where a massive cholera epidemic has added to residents' miserery amid a u.s.-backed, , saudi-led bobombing campaign. we will have more on yemen after the headlines. in the gaza strip, egypt trucked an emergency supy y of diesel fuel to gaza's only power plant wednesday after israel further restricted the amount of electricity it provides to the palestinian territory. the restrictions limited most residents to just two to three hours' electricity, and compounded the misery of nearly 2 million gazans as summertime temperatures soar. the power cuts left homes dark, spoiled food in refrigerators, and led to the release of raw sewage into the mediterranean. meanwhile, president trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, jared kushner, visited israel

and the occupied west bank wednesday in a short, whirlwind visit the white house said was aimed at reviving middle east peace talks. kushner was warmly welcomed in jerusalem by israeli prime ministster benjamin netatanyahu before traveveling to ramallah o meet with palestinian n authoriy president mahmoud abbas. kushner's visit came a day after israeli bulldozers broke ground on a new jewish-only settlement in the occupied west bank. a spokesperson for president abbas condemned the construction as a v violation of inteternatil law. >> resumption of these activities is a clear message to the american administration and .he efforts of president trump the american envoy is already in the area. wilillw, presidenent abbas be receiving him. this is an obstacle to the efforts of president trump to resume the peace process. amy: jared kushner's israel trip came as democratic congressmember elijah cummings demanded to know why kushner still has a top-level security

clearance afafter he f failed to report dozens of contacts with foreign leaders on his application, including russian leaders. meanwhile, china's foreign ministryry has confirmed t thate chinese government has invited kushner and his wife, president trump's daughter ivanka trump, to beijing later this year for an official visit. the invitation came as the guardian reported ivanka trump's brand continued to order shoes from a factory cited for labor abuses two months after the company claimed it had halted contracts with the manufacturer. the guardian report comes as three chinese activists with the group china labor watch continue to be imprisoned after they were arrested while investigating labor conditions at the shoe factory. in wisconsin, a jury in milwaukee acquitted a former police officer wednesday of charges of reckless homicide for shooting and killing 23-year-old african-american resident sylville smith. body cam video showed smith fleeing from then-officer

dominique heaggan-browown aftera smith wasop before shot in the arm, smith had a gun, but the video shows he threw the weapon away and had his hands on his head when he was killed. the killing sparked an uprising last summer that saw wisconsin governor scott walker call out the national guard after local residents set fire to police cars and several local businesses. in minnesota, new videoeo shows the four-year-old daughter of diamond reynolds consoling her heartbroken mother, who's handcuffed in the back of a police squad car minutes after saint anthony popolice officer jeronimo yez shot and killed her boyfriend philando castile. the video fromast july s shows reynolds mourning castile's death anand cursing, before her daughter dae'anne begs her to stop, saying, "i don't want you to get shooted." cussing because

i don't what you to get shooted. amy: the release of the footage given day after police dashcam video was made public for the first time, showing officer yanez fired his gun seven times wiwithin moments of approaching philando castile's car.r. last friday, officer jeronimo yanez wawas acquitted ofof manslaughter. in arizona, prprisoners at a notorious open-air jail known as tent city have remained sleeping under thick canvas tents this week, even as a record-setting heat wave has pushed temperatures to nearly 120 degrees fahrenheit. some 380 prisoners are housed at the jail outside phoenix under a

so-called work furlough program employing them in day jobs under , supervision. many of the jobs involve outdoor manual labor. at night, prisoners return to tent city, where overnight temperatures thihis week bottomd out around 90 degrees. tent city has drawn condemnation from international human rights groups who say housing prisoners in outdoors in the desert is tantamount to torture. sheriff paul penzone p promisedn april to close tent city, which has housed as many as 1700 prisoners at a time. in the gulf coast, tropical storm cindy made landfall in southwestern louisiana this morning as forecasters warned the storm could bring up to a foot of rain and deadly flash flooding in places. cindy was blamed for at least one death in alabama on wednesday. the storm's lalandfall comes jut a day afteter the senate voted overwhelmingly to approve former alabama emergency manager brock long as head of fema -- the federal emergency management agency. his confirmation came more than 150 days into trump's

presidency and three weeks into this year's hurricane season. president trump has yet to name administrators to nasa and noaa -- two agencies that play a major role in tracking storms and climate change. and in detroit, michigan, a judge has dismissed all charges against water rights activists knknown as the "homrich 9," finding they were denied their right to a speedy trial after prosecutors spent nearly three years pursuing misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges against them. in july of 2014, the activists peacefully blockaded a facility run by the contractor homrich, which was hired by detroit to cut off the water to thousands of homeowners who were behind on their bills. the shutoffs came as the city more than doubled the price of water over a decade, and as detroit suffered through what was then the largest municipal bankruptcy in u.s. history. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

we begin today in saudi arabia, where king salman has deposed his nephew as crown prince and replaced him with his son, mohammed bin salman bin abdulaziz, who is now first in line for the throne. mohammed bin salman currently serves as defense minister and has been presiding over the devastating u.s.-backed saudi-led war in yemen. in response to the news, the huffington post's foreign affairs reporter akbar shahid ahmed tweeted -- "this is huge. man he is replacing was against qatar crusade+yemen war. saudi is doubling down on its most controversial actions." last month, president donald trump signed a series of arms deals with saudi arabia totaling a record $110 billion during a visit to riyadh. the arms deal includes tanks, artillery, ships, helicopters, missile defense systems and cybersecurity technology. united nations monitors have warned previous saudi-led attacks on yemen could constitute crimes against humanity. more than 10,000 people have died amid the ongoing u.s.-backed saudi-led war in yemen, which has also destroyed

yemen's h health, watater, sanitation systems, sparking a deadly cholelera outbreak. the united nations warns some 19 million of yemen's 28 million people need some form of aid, with many of them at risk of famine. for more, we're joined by kristine beckerle, the yemen and uae researcher for human rights watch. she was in yemen earlier this year. human rights watch in the associated press have just revealed the existence of a secret network of prisons in southern yemen were prisoners are tortured. we're going to begin. we are going to begin with the change, the shakeup in saudi leadership. explain the significance of the king now replacing his nephew with his son as crown prince. >> so i think when i saw the news yesterday, my first feeling was of surprise and my second feeling was of dread because my interaction with the idea of mohammed bin salman has been to

the war in yemen. he was the deputy crown prince and the defense minister, so he was the official responsible for the ongoing military campaign in yemen. it is not just because he was the defense minister, but because when people talk about the war in yemen, they talk about mohammed bin salman and now he has been the driver of this war. amy: he is very young. he is 31. >> a kid, basically. when you talk about what is going on in yemen, you look at the actions of saudi arabia and its coalition, it is hard to see a plan or strategy but easy to see devastation. efm in, cholera, and repeated have famine, you color, and repeated war crimes. when you say you're going to give this person more power and reform,n him commit to but marred by numerous abuses and the new u.s. administration, donald trump, court this young prince and say in his first trip abroad that he is going to go and sell the saudi's $110

billion worth of arms, i think the question now becomes with this new power, is mohammed bin i'man going to say, ok, now going to push rights reforms or are we going to see more of this reckless and dangerous and destructive policies we have been seeing out of saudi? amy: and the crown prince you replace, the kings nephew? many was implicated in abuses because he oversaw the interior ministry. 's interior ministry has been, for a long time, sort of a centerpiece of prosecutions of dissidents, of these sorts of things, abuse in detention facilities. the idea -- the hope would be with the replacement, saudi would take an opportunity to push reforms but the question is, is mohammed bin salman, a man we have not seen committee human rights reforms and reforms needed in yemen or at home, going to do those things? talk about what is

happening in yemen right now and the significance of this arms deal that president trump made with saudi arabia against saudi arabia, the first foreign country that he visited as president of the united states. >> one of the reasons why we have -- we talk about arms deals is not simply because of the fact of the arms deals, but the signal it ends. donald trump going to re-odd saying in a speeeech he praises saudi arabia's strong action in yemen, not mentioning human rights concerns and then saying, by the way, years another 100 $10 billion were the arms, since a pretty clear mesessage keep doing what you're doing, keep carrying out war crimes andd devastating yemeni civilian populations and we will still give you weapons. it is significant not only because u.s. should care the way it's weapons are being used in yemen, because it exposes the u.s. and u.s. officials to legal liability for aiding and abetting coalition war crimes in

yemen. human rights watch has already found remnants of weapons produced seven months after the start of the war, after violations were clear at the site of an entirely unlawful attack that killed over 30 civilians and now we're saying, don't worry, here are some or weapons you might really use in the war in yemen. it is significant for y yemenis and those exposing themselves to legal liability potentially. amy: talk about how devastating the situation is in yemen. describe ind to words, to be frank. you have what the u.n. describes as the world's largest humanitarian crisis. that means thousands upon thousands of cases of cholera, famine for millions across the country, and on top of that you have parties at war who have been fighting for more than 2.5 years who seem to have no regard for the ways in which t t war is affecting the civilian population. humaman rights watatch has docucumented over 80 unlnlawful schools,n attttacks as

markets, homes, hospitals. wewe heard r reports about them killing around 20 peopople at a market. what we have seen are these tacks continuing and very little response in terms of the international community pushing for either the attacks to stop or accountability for the attacks that havave already occucurred. amy: i want to turn to the u.n. emergency relieff coordrdinator addressing the u u.n. securityty council latete last month. >> yemen n now has the ignomimif being the world's largest food security crisis with more than 17 million people who are food insecure, 6.8 million of whohom are one step away from famine.e. crisis is not coming. it is nonot even l looming. it is here today on air watch and orordinary peoplee a are pag the prprice. is imimportant t to bear in mid that malnutrition n and c cholea are interconnected.. we can then hungry peoeople are more likely to conact cholera and lessss able to survive it.

estimates, 150,000 cases are projecteted for the nt six months. in addition to the broadly 60,000 cururrent suspected cases since last april witith 5000 asassociated d deaths. of ththis latest outbreak is, a as wellll is beig dedepressingly predictable, a direct consequence of f the coconflict. and had thee parties to the conflict cared, the outbreak was unavoidable. emergencyis the u.n. relief coordinator addressing the security council. i want to ask you, kristine beckerle, about the call for an arms embargo on yemen. >> we have been calling for an arms embargo on saudi arabia in particular given the sort of strength of the evidence that has mounted against saudi arabia ofparticular, in terms caring network runs and violations of the war in yemen. others have echoed that call.. amnesty and many other ngos.

what is amazing, just recently, 47 senators in the u.s. tried to block an arms sale to saudi arabia. yoyour thing governments across the globe does in u.k., arm cells are also sububject to judicial review. takething countries really steps but it is not enough because in the end, the u.s. arms sales go forward. in the end, donald trump went and said, here's $110 billion in arms. still providing significant backing to the coalition that are carrying out these attacks. also blocking and impeding the flow of aid into a country that is facing famine and cholera. amy: and the major winners, since trump talks about winners and losers, the weapons manufacturers in the u.s.? >> basically. you are seeing in a very gross of profitioritization over civilian lives. it is sort of, at what point do you take the step and say, it is

not worth it to sell another weapons deal when and not only means that the message you're sending to yemeni civilians is that you don't care and what you're saying u.s. officials involved in these deals, don't worry, just take the risk of potential legal liability and move forward and things will be fine? i think that is quite problematic again because this isn't a nenew more. these allegations are not secret. nothing is unknown. the u.s. and other arms manufacturers and sellers cannot say they don't know. the question is, now you know, when are you going to take the action you need to take? amy: a big report is just come it by human rights watch and says uae backs local forces. did you talk about the report will stop what is the title? backing abuseae's of local forces in yemen. we call upon them to resolve disappearances and grant access to detention sites. basically, over the last six

months, human rights watch has been investigating in the south and east of yemen, abuses in uae-led counterterror campaigns. i'm talking about forced disappearances, abuse, torture of children, and the forces running secret detention sites and the country. amy: how is uae involved in yemen? >> care member of the saudi led coalition -- they are a member of the saudi led coalition post of not only is u.s. aware of these allegations of abuse, but the u.s. is sending an interrogator -- interrogators into these prisons and involved in interrogations of yemeni detainees. the exact same places where we and the ap are reporting that former detainees have been telling us they are sort of rampant abuse. the big question even have his, so now the u.s. is selling arms saudi arabia newest

potentially complicit or involved in detainee abuse with the uae and yemen. amy: i want to read from the associated press's new report. they write -- they said they were beaten, sexually assaulted. according to a member of the elite, a yemeni security force set up by the uae, american forces were at times only yards away. kristine beckerle? >> we documented as well torture abuse of detainees at that exact same facility. we talked to one mother who had her son disappeared in the facility. cap saying things like, we just want to see our son. facility, yemenis who are following these cases potentially more than 100

people are detained there cometh a people of the disappeared, that they have no access too their families. people don't have access to the sites. now you are reporting the u.s. is potentially potentially more0 people are detained involved ine things. it is a serious allegation and it has access to some of the worst things we heard 10 or 15 years ago. amy: and the description of the grill, people strapped to a turning rod, a spit and they are put over and rolled over a fire like a rotisserie chicken? >> it is horrible allegations of abuse. this is including talking a former detainees who were held in these places who told us electric shock, forced nudity, threats against family members. the thing is, the ban on torture is one of the most fundamental prohibitions and international law, including not only directly engaging in torture, but being

complicit in torture or using intelligence gleaned from torture. allegationsthese are so -- i mean, the u.s. and the uae need to address them because at this point, it is not just the ap reporting o or human rights reporting or yemeni groups reporting this, it is not in the realm of rumors. it is, at what point he said, we have basically talked or documented 50 cases of abuse, you can't come back and say, you're unaware, you're not taking action not in -- basicale response was, there is no secret detention sites, don't worry about it. it defies the believe that we, the av, and others have documented these allegations of abuse and it isn't true. amy: one of the first military die was. military to still to six in yemen. in your report, say in 2016, u.s. deployed a number of special operation forces to assist uae efforts.

the u.s. is reported conducted joint rates with the uae against al qaeda in the arabian and peninsula. >> we documented the rate in january right after trump became president and he sent special forces operations into yemen. it was reported the uae was part of that. we spoke to family members and discuss with people in the town at the time of the raid. we said, that raid itself raised serious questions u.s. has violated the laws of war because you had a very high civilian death toll, including nine kids who were killed in that raid. these are the very same partners the u.s. is doing joint operations with, working closely against aqap, and reportedly involved in the very said attention campaign or we have documented disappearances, torture, abuse over the course of a year. empathizeof hard to

does emphasize how troubling this is. you have u.s. being a bad actor already and that is raising seriouous questions about u.s. complicity. now you have the u.s. working with the uae and yemen and counterterror campaigns in it's sort of like, i what point do you say, the partners we're working with engaged in these grotesque abuses should not be partners that we are engaging with. amy: finally, how does this fit into this risk they came out after donald trump went to saudi arabia? he actually claims credit for this. with the uae, gulf states, saudi arabia, breaking ties with guitar and at the same time yet the state department, rex tillerson, saying they're trying to heal this rift as donald trump is actually taking credit for the rift. what is happening here? what are they gaining by cutting off qatar? >> on qatar, specifically, they member of until this

rift and now they no longer are. there been a number of activists who have been publicly attacked or threatened because of a theeived links to qatar muslim brotherhood. this is another example of reckless policy that takes no regard for the impact it will have on civilians. one thing people are talking about, saudi arabia and the uae so we have this problem with qatar and they say all qatari nationals need to leave. but what about people who are married? what happens to those families? this question becomes, donald trump, saudi arabia, uae, what is the point of this and what are you thinking in terms of how the actions you're going to take , how can you at least mitigate the impact they have on sort of people with day-to-day lives? at this point in the gulf, you have repeated policy announcements over and over that have significant impact for civilians without people seemed

to take the actions necessary to mitigate those impacts. amy: kristine beckerle, thank you for being with us, the yemen and you a you researcher for human rights watch just in yemen earlier this year. we will continue to cover what is happening in yemen, the catastrophe there, the u.s.-backed s saudi attack on yemen and much more. this is democracy now! w we're goingack, to london to a massive apartment building fire. what does it mean? why are people protesting? stay with h us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy gogoodman. protests are continuing and london over lastst week's devastating apartment fire that killed 79 people. on wednesday, around 200 protesters, including survivors of the fire, march from west london to the british parliament to protest the government's handling of the fire.

[chanting] >> the government should be doing more. they're not doing enough. they have failed because this is a national disaster. it is not just -- it is a national disaster. [chanting] amy: last weeks of fire occurred at 24-story grenfell tower apartment building is located in a rapidly gentrifying west london neighborhood. many residents are recent immigrants and look and workers. the company that recently renovated the building admitted over the weekend it used highly flammable, yet less expensive, cladding during construction. the cladding is banned from use in the u.s. and european union, but allowed in britain. the building's residents say the renovation was largely aimed at making aesthetic improvements to

the exterior of the building in order to make it blend in with the new luxury high-rises in the area. labour leader jeremy corbyn has proposed requisitioning vacant luxury apartment buildings in order to house those who have been made homeless by the massive fire. >> t there are quite a lot of empty buildings. kensington is the country's richest borough and we have this area of poverty around grenfell tower. surely to goodness, if we believe in community, we must put the money in there to help those families in their hour of need. they should not be sleeping in shshelters for weeks and weeks n end. amy: for more we're joined by , mustafa almansur, the principal organizer of the grenfell protests. welcome to democracy now! great to have you with us. talk about what has happened at grenfell, what people around the world should care. >> thank you, amy, it is great to be here. is aunfolded in grenfell tragedy that wasn't expected and nobody for saul, of course.

everybody welcome to the shock and horror of what unfolded early morning on wednesday, last -- theay, and people resisidents in n the neighborho, everybody rushed to do whatever they can do. the local fire services and emergency services were on the scene rapidly to help rescucue o they could rescue from this 24 story building. it seemed the fire started on the third floor and within a matter of six minutes, half of the left side of the building was engulfed in fire. within the hour, the entire in theg was incinerated fire kept on until the following morning. our fire services did what they can do with the various stretched resources -- very

stretched d resources. they were not able to reach beyond the 22nd floor just because itit became too difficut for them to do so. the structure was not safe enough for them to go beyond that, either. we also saw the local fire services, they managed to deploy whatever resources they had at their provision but were unable to meet the needs and had to call in the support of fire services from neighboring boroughs and neighborhoods. peopleis led to a lot of that are s still unaccounted fo. it is a 24 story building. we believe there are 520 residents who are stayiying in that building. so far we have a count of 79 people who have been declared as ththe victims -- fidelity's from thee incident. the remaining, we still don't

know about, and of course there is a number, a small number of survivors who have been taking careof, are being taken of by the local council as well organizationsry on the g ground. amy: canan you tell us about yor ia ibrahim in the building that was on fire? >> sure. it is very difficult for many of us to conceiv that this is the case. when we woke up on wednesday morning and we were told by midday we were told there were six fatalities. there was a sense of a sigh of relief, ok, in this huge tragedy, 24 story building, all of it burned down and we've only lost six people. that is actually quite a remarkable feat done by the fire

services. in terms of evacuating people. we felt a sense of relief. i felt a sense of relief, to be honest. six lives are six lives, but he could have been far greater. that evening, i remember i sent a message out to my family saying, hey, we are breaking fast. .et's gather round i g got a response fofor my sisr saying, do not know what happened to rania ibrahim? i discovered her close friend rania who lives on the 23rd floor with her two young daughters were there and she had messaged my sister on her cell phone saying, hey, i'm stuck here and mental not to get out of here, pray for us, is anything you can do to help? and she stayed put because the foley's advice was to stay put. -- the police advice was to stay

put. there was too much smoke and fumes in the building and the best advice they gave was to put wet towels underneath their doors to prevent the fire from going in while the r rescue services attempted to go in and rescue. amy: mustafa i want to play what your friend rania ibrahim started streaming live on facebook as she was trapped inside with her two daughters. >> hello. come here. come here. hello? come. quick, quiuick. hello? [indiscernible] hello? ok, i'm going out. hello?

amy: later in the video, you hearar and neighbor calling for help. >> we are stuck on the 23rd floor! hello! there are too many people stuck upstairs. amy: the footage cuts when rania ibrahim's phone dies. she and her two daughters died in the fire. i know this is extremely painful, mustafa. rania and her daughters among the 7979 people at this point killed. there were no sprinklers in this building? they did this massive renovation on the outside to make it match luxury buildings around it, but no sprinklers? >> it is a travesty. describe how scalele it feels and the of disaster and how much it has

moved and hurt people in london and around the world. rania was crying for help. not only that, we hear that many of her neighbors also came in and sought refuge in her apartment. and she let them in. we can hear in the video her neighbors coming into the door saying, close the door behind, close the door behind because they're trying to gather in apartments they felt were safer. of course, nobody really made it out of rania's apartment. , amy.ntioned s sprinklers there arewas in that building. and not only that, there are no fire retardant holdings in the building. there is only one fire exit. it is a set of stairs from the 24th floor all the way down. one set of stairs. not only that, the police advice to wet towels --we are hearing people who have called their

loved ones saying they cannot because their water taps were empty. everybody was using the water taps in the building on the 23rd floor, the 24th four, the water pressure was so low, they were not getting any drops of water. they could not even do that. amy: members of the grenfell tower assssociation had warned r years of popontial safefety hazards in and around the building. in a startlingly blog post on the grenfell action group's website, members write -- "it is a truly terrifying thought but the grenfell action group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the kctmo, and bring an end to the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders." this is what bloomberg reports

that theresa may's immigration minister brandon lewis was formerly the housing minister in a position he declined to require developers to install sprinklers. >> well, look. this isn't new to us. inther area south of london, 2009, caught fire and we had six fatalites there. the expert corner on that case, her recommendationsns were that sprinklers become mandatory, part of health and safety -- fire safety regulations for high-rise buildings. note recommendations were enacted and they were left as optional elements. in ourion-wise, it says fire and safety regulations that as long as they meet the overall

requirements, the developers are fine. that is what we see in grenfell tower. it is not that grenfell tower did not go through safety checks. it did. there were 16 independent inspections of that building, led by the local council which hazards inpot the the problem areas that have been highlighted by the residence association for years. the community sees something is a problem, on the part of the contractors, they will only do the minimum to maximize their profit and lower their costs. if taking it away with installing a cladding that was combustible and a noncombustible inflammable one would have cost to them to bounce more, they would still cut the cost. we are a number of 5000 pounds would have been required to have the entire building cladding in a nonflammable material. blame and who is

responsible? the gmo would say, well, we gave it to ride in and they followed all of the requirements and met the regulatory requirements. tenants hadsee the a different complaint and it was not listen to purely because the tml could get away with it. and t the council didid not havo listen to themem. amy: mustafa almansur come you're calling for an independent investigation. your setting one up yourself? >> the call for independent investigation, i'm in, theresa may had declared a public inquiry will be held. the general public, their such mistrust. since the event, for the first three days, four days, there was no presence, no visible presence

of the local authority. on the ground. the only people who were out there opening their doors, providing shelter, food, clothing, and gathering donations or the general public. this is what led to my call for wasprotest on friday, which attended by over 1000 people. people came because they realized that the local authorities who have the resources in their hand are not actually mobilizing any of the resources. they felt unheard. i tried to reach out to the local council and they were too busy to answer the calls, so we went and protested outside the building. we had a set of demands we sent into the council leaders. they came back after half an hour with responses that were just fluffy post up from our demands, if i can share them -- amy: yes. if you can briefly go through them. >> that the council make a

commitment to re-house the victims of this tragedy within the borough. there is a concern, underlying concern, that north kensington, which is the north side of the ,orough for which the council local government is responsible for, and the south side, but particularly north kensington where grenfell tower is, it is an impoverished area. there is an attempt on what is called social cleansing to remove the impoverished families out of north kensington into neighboring boroughs where they can be moved to because kensington and chelsea is the most expensive borough in london where permits go anywhere from $15 million -- 15 million pounds to 200 million pounds each. in that we have an impoverished community living in social pay for rentle to

and are living in subsidized accommodations and then not being listened to. we also have a local council, which is dominated by a ,articular political party members of whom the social economic class is not the same as that of the community in north kensington. if you look at south kensington, the more affluent part of the area, we don't have any of these issues. funds are being invested in that area. not only for regeneration, but for local services, kim unity organizations, etc. -- committee organizations, etc. whereas grenfell tower and neighboring areas are suffering from gross negligence. the borough failed to respond to our request adequately. the response was, we will do our

best to rehouse them as closely as possible. not accepted by the protesters. secondly, there was a request for commitment in terms of a package, financial package for the victims. how much will be council and what will they do to compensate for the losses suffered by the residents of grenfell tower because of the negligence of the council and their failure to take care of the concerns or pay any heed the concerns that have been highlighted since 2014? the council, again, failed to respond to that with a specific package. they said they will do their best and they are mobilizing their funds. during that conversation, during that protest, central government , better response from our prime minister theresa may who was thing interview that very moment. she knew of the protest and she livea commitment on air

saying we commit 5 million pounds, not knowing of course that actually, the community has only raised in excess of 8 million, 9 million pounds by that time. so her coming out from central government and committing 5 million pounds was seen as a joke. a makeup mustafa -- >> i was with the residents yesterday in a community stakeholder meeting. to know, they do not know what i 5 million pounds is because it is that you filtered through to the people who need it. amy: last year -- let me ask you, last year the 72 of the conservative, the tory mps who were also landlords, voted against the labor amendment to ensure rented homes fit for human habitation? >> yep. absolutely. there is actually 128 conservative mps at last count, ,hich is 39% of the parliament

who are landlords themselves. here's a fundamental failure in a democratic institution where the legislator has a conflict of interest with legislation. so when a motion was tabled, they quickly vetoed that and did not allow or did not push that through, which if it had pushed through, we would've seen sprinklers been installed. we would have seen nonflammable cladding and material being used in building construction. however, we have a case of passing law through a body, through the parliament, which has conflict of interest because they themselves are landlords. , is not an profit interest to support such regulation. what we do there is important. and until we have to go to break. when we come back, i want to go to the grenfell protest where

people died in this tragic fire, to where you are spokesperson for a mosque where a car drorove into a crowd w who had just t ce out ofof the moosque. we're talking to mustafa almansur. stay with h us. ♪ [music break]

amy: recorded with more than 50 artists to raise money for the victims of the grenfell tower fire. 79 people at discount have died. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. early monday morning, a driver plowed into a crowd of muslims near a north lonondon mosque, leaving one person dead and

injuring 11 others in what british officials are calling a terrorist attack will stop during all sport accelerated and swerved into a crowd of worshipers who had left nighttime prayers, marking the muslim holy month of ramadan. witnesses say all sport shouted "i'm going to kill all muslims. i did my bit" a survivors of the attack and him to the ground until police arrived. president trump has f failed to pepersonally acknowledge the attack as was the begin murder of muslim teenager in virginia, prompting critics to attack his silence. the white house has commented on the finsbury park a taxing the have reached out and offered to happening way possible. a president trump himself has not commented were tweeted directly. instead, taking to twitter to attack democrats and endorse republican candidates. still with us in london iss mustafa almansur, the former spokesman for the finsbury park

mosque. can you tell us about what happened on monday? >> yes, can i just touch on grenfell before a move on? i've a point i really wanted to share. then i will touch on this finsbury park incident. fermenting anger on the ground in protest are going to continue. vacuum of leadership. the people who are really doing things on the ground are voluntary organizations and they are the very people who are at the front line and they are those whose funding has been cut by the current government. not only that, the public services like the fire services, their funding has been cut over the years. from seven fire stations to three fire stations in number of where we had this actual catastrophe. people's feeling is there's this huge rich-poor divide.

elections are just an exercise to get legitimacy for government . people are not listened to at all. here's a fundamental failure of democracy in the state in britain and that is what really needs to be looked at. it is not that our government was ignorant or incapable of dealing with the tragedy at grenfell. it seems from the community perspective, there was intentional negligence and total dismissal of the class of people who they cannot relate to. and that is something that needs to be looked at and wowork out s to how we move forward in civil society whereby people are able whoelect representatives represent their interest and have not only representative power, but also have power to make changes happen on the ground and are able to empower local organizations who are

embedded within the community so they can take action. you mentioned funds beingg raised. a lolot of funds are being raisd from around 40 million has been raised. but how does it get channeled to the end beneficiary? that question is still unanswered because we have so much red tape around the system of governor, so we have local and international level, t that does not permit people -- local people to participate in democracy in an active way. moving onn from this conversation, yes, we come to finsbury park. amy: interestingly, in grenfell tower's, a large number of the residents are muslim. a very diverse area. i think the first man to be identified confirmed dead was a 23-year-old syrian refugee. >> absolutely. and that is the case. there's a large contingent of moroccan and algerian residents in the area, particularly in

that building. surprise surprise, that does not surface in any of the media whereas if it was even a local burglary and it was carried out by an individual who is deluded, then whether or not they would take it a consideration what the situation of that particular criminal was, they would mention it was a muslim or an arab robber. have one minutes ago. i was wondering if you could comment on the attack on your mosque. >> absolutely. this took place straight after muslims were coming out of the mosque during the night prayers in the month of ramadan. i think it was handled very well by the local imama who called for calm and they depended down the attacker until police took them away. rightfully, we have had a huge amount of support from the local community.

the general public have come in droves showing this of the and support. the worshipers of this mosque, and there there today, never been there every day since the attack. they've come to the mosque come in giving out food during breakfast time in n the evening. the government response has been slowed, but they haven't big knowledge did at last they have knowledge did as a terrorist attack. that is quickly disappeared from the front lines and we are seeing the person good carried out the attack has been declared as being mentally unwell. that is where we are. the muslim community, however, feel under threat and rightly the central government has dedicated resources in terms of police demers outside mosques to provide extra security for the attendees. amy: i want to thank you for being with us, mustafa almansur the principal organizer of the , grenfell protest and the former spokesman for the

finsbury park mosque. we will play more of naomi klein in the coming days. 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. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

laura: mayday, and much of the world, is a work of achievement. of laboren a day protests going b back over 200 years. going back of defies even f further. a celebration of sprpring, rebih and defense of thehe commons. on this program, we celebrate the resilience of activivists ad their demands. it hasn't changed that much over the e ur