07/06/17 07/06/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now!w! pres. trump: this continental no longer confronts the specter of communism, but today we are in the west and we have to say there are dire threats to our security and to our way of life. you see what is happening out there. they are threats. we will confront them. we will win. amy: in a major speech in poland, presidident trump says western civilization is at

stake. he was often cheered by supporters of poland's right-wing government. we will get response and go to hamburg, germany, where protest ahead of the g20 have already begun. then we look at the crisis in syria ahead of trump's meeting with russian presidentnt vladimr putin. know the airstrikes. it hasas resulted not only staggering l loss of civilian life, but has also led to 160,000 civilians fleeing their homemes and becoming internallly displaced. amy: we will speak to abdalaziz alhamza, one of the founders of raqqa is being slaughtered silently. all that and more, coming up. welcome toto democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the trump administration on wednesday threatened military action against north korea over its nuclear weapons program, saying the u.s. was prepared to defend itself and its allies. the threat came a day after north korea successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile which the u.s. says is capable of reaching alaska. this is u.s. ambassador to the united nations, nikki haley, speaking at an emergenency meetg of the security council. their actions are quickly closing off the possibility of a diplomatic solution. the united states is prepared to use the full range of our capabilities to defend ourselves and our allies. one of our capabilities lies with our considerable military forces. we will use them if we must. but we prefer not to have to go in that direction. amy: haley said the u.s. would soon propose new sanctions

against north korea, adding the u.s. was prepared to "go our own path" if u.n. members didn't agree to its terms. meanwhile, russia and china urged restraint. russian ambassador vladimir safronkov called on the u.s. and south korea to stop large-scale joint military exercises, while urging north korea to halt tests of missiles and warheads. he also called on the u.s. to dismantle the thaad anti-ballistic missile system. >> the deployment of the thaad system in northeast asia is a serious blow to the strategic stability of the region, including for russia and china, and certainly does not serve to dean and gore rise the korean peninsula based on the principle of e ensuring peace and stabiliy in the region. amy: thehe new south kororean president isis also oppopose tte thaad missile system a and last month orordered an investigation after learning thafour morore missssile launchers had beenen

brought into s south korea. in poland, presisident trump sad in a major speech today the future of western civilization is at stake as he won against the threats of terrorism and extremism. thep spoke near the site of 1944 warsaw uprising agagainst e nazis. trump repeated his recent attacks on cnn, calling the network fate news. trump also said russia probably meddled in the 2016 u.s. elelection, along with others. pres. trump: mistakes have been made. i agree. i think it was russia, but i think was probably other people and/or countries, and i see nothing wrong with that statement. nobodydy really knows. nobody really knows for sure. amy: president trump will next travel to hamburg, germamany, or he will join other leaders of the world's top economies at the g20 summit, including his first

meeting as president with his russian counterpart, vladimir putin. ahead of t the talks, thousandsf people converged on the city for protests. this is protest spokesperson georg ismamael. >> we want to discuss the fact that 20 dangngerous criminals sm around the world are meeting here who are respoponsible for e highest military expenses, who are involved in all of the wars of the world, who are significantltly responsible for climate cacatastrophe, and who e responsible for r freezing or greatly slinking our salaries. amy: on wednesday, 1000 demonstrators covered themselves head-to-toe in gray and shuffled through the streetets of hamburg in a procession of zombies symbolizing political apathy. in iraq, the united nations warned wednesday up to 20,000 civilians remain trapped in mosul l as isis fighters battleo control their last stronghold in the city. u.n. humanitarian coordinator for iraq lise grande said

civilians remain in extreme danger, adding that the destruction in western mosul was unprecedented. >> western mosul missing the worst damage of the entire conflict. in those neighborhoods where the fighting has been the fiercest, we're looking at levels of damages andd comparable to anything else that is happen to iraq so far. amy: the united nations warned the price of restoring basic infrastrucucture to mosul will p $1 billion. meanwhile, in syria, thousands of residents continued to flee raqqa as u.s.-backed militias intensified their assault on the isis-held city. on wednesday, escaping civilians arrived at an open-air relief camp outside raqqa complaining of constant airstrikes, artillery raids, and e extreme hunger. we left because of the fighting. we were afraid. we have children.

we almost died of hunger and no one helped us. displaced now and live in the open-air. these are our house belongings. we just managed to get them today. this is what we have. these are the lalast things we owned in the hououse. amy: some 200,000 people have been displaced from raqqa, with more expected to flee as fighting intensifies. u.s.-led airstrikes have killed hundreds of resisidents in what u.n. investigators have called a staggering loss of civivilian life. we will have more on raqqa later in the broadcast. inin venezuela, dozens of supporters of president nicolals maduro stormed the national assembly wednesday, attacking opposition lawmakers with rocks, sticks, and firecrackers. video from the chaotic scene showed two members of the assembly with blood running down their faces. atat least seven lawmakers were reportedly injured. speaking at a military parade celebrating the anniversary of venezuela's independence, president maduro condemned the

violence. >> at the door and in some of the gardens and always of the national assembly, there were incidents of unrest and violence . i absolutely condemn these acts. amy: at least 90 people have died during weeks of political turmoil in venezuela as opposition protesters hoping to topple president maduro has set up checkpoints, staged as a protests, and assassinated a judge who jailed in opposition leader. memeanwhile, a vezezuelan popole officer who led a helicopter attatack last week on the country's interior ministry and suprpreme court released a new video wedndnesday vowingng a sed wave of attacks. oscar perez apparently recorded the video while in hiding after abandoning his helicopter during his escape. quick there are 30 million venezuelans and they will have

countryson the entire to silence us. and we go to the street will be there with you. you are not alone. amy: opposition leaders have accused president maduro of working with perez to stage last week's attacks. maduro called the attack terrorism and an attentive coup d'etat. in virginia, prisons officials are preparing to kill a condemned man using a three-drug lethal injection cocktail that critics say will lead to a torturous death equivalent to drowning. 32-year-old william morva is scheduled to receive the lethal drugs at 9:00 p.m. this evening at the greensville correctional facility. according to autopsy records, the last prisoner killed by virginia six months ago, ricky gray, died after thehe same letl injection method brought on acute pulmonary edema -- effectively drowning gray in blood-tinged fluid he coughed up

during the execution. morva's attorneys argue the approach is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual. in chicago, a wave of violence over the long holiday weekend claimed 102 victims, with 15 people killed and 86 others injured by gunfire. police say amateur fireworks confused and overwhelmed the computerized shotspotter system, which uses microphones to track gunshots and alert police. the youngest person injured was a 13-year-old boy seriously wounded by gunfire on friday. in new york, employees at the bronx-lebanon hospital remain in mourning after a doctor killed one of his former colleagues and injured six others in a shooting rampage at the hospital on friday. dr. henry bello used an ar-15 assault rifle he purchased legally from an upstate new york gun store, even though he had a criminal record for unlawful imprisonment and left his hospital job in april over unspecified personal problems. meanwhile, u.s. congress member

steve scalise is back in intensive care as he recovers from multiple surgeries after he and four other people were wounded. he is at risk of infection after being shot in the hip. he was attacked on a baseball field. and in turkey, amnesty international is demanding the director of its turkish operations and seven other human rights activist after they were detained by police wednesday at a workshop. in a statement, amnesty international's secretary general, salil shetty, called for the release of ididil eser d those detained with her, adding -- "eser's incommunicado detention and that of the other human rights defenders attending a routine training event is a grotesque abuse of power and highlights the precarious situation facing human rights activists in the country."

and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. in a major speech in poland earlier today, president trump said the future of western civilization is at stake as he warned against the threats of terrorism and extremism. trump spoke n near the site of e 1944 warsaw w uprising against e nazis. pres. trump: this cotton no longer conference the specter of communism, but today we're in the west and we have to say there are dire threats to our security and to our way of life. you see what is happening out there. they are threats. we will confront them. we will win. but they are threats. wewe are confronted by anotheher

oppressive i ideology, one that seeks to export terrorism and extremism all around the globe. america and europe has suffered one terror attack after another. we are going to get it to stop. nermeen: president trump's speech was often interrupted by applause. supporters of f the right-wing polish government were bused into here trump's speech according to reports. trump arrived in poland wednesday and met with their president before his warsaw speech. whole and has one of the furthest right governments in europe and really defying european union rules by refusing to allow refugees into poland. amy: meanwhile, the israeli isspaper reports trump facing criticism after becoming the first qs president in decades to skip visiting the warsaw uprising monument. the warsaw ghetto uprising

monument. we're joined now by the polish nigerian journalist remi adekoya . he is a regular contributor to the guardian and the former political editor of the warsaw business journal. his latest article is for the guardian is "poland's courting of trump is a few supporters short of a picnic." we welcome you to democracy now! can you talk about the significance of president trump's trip to poland before he goes to the g20? were you able to hear that question? talking about the significance of president trump's trip? >> well, president trump obviously wanted to start off in a place where he would be greeted warmly. as you mentioned, the right-wing is in support of trump's worldview, bused in their supporters. trump gave this speech that was and of historical analogies

symbolism. he talked about how poland had endured invasion of nazi germany. after that, poland had to endure soviet communism. and he true inin analogy to what angoing on now -- he drew analogy to what is going on now. he said the fundamental question , which the west now faces, is whether they have the will to survive. of course, the rhetorical implication of that question is perhaps the west does not have the will to survive. this is important because countries like poland and a lot of the right-wing governments in eastern europe have been suggesting in the past one or two years that essentially, western europe seems to h have lost its self-preservation instincts. basically, too obsessed with political correctness and multiculturalism and not doing enough to fight the threat of islamic terrorism or even to realize that actually having a lot of muslims in europe can be a huge problem is the poland is

one of the main countries which refused to take in any migrants during the 2015-2016 margaret crisis -- migrant crisis. the fact that truck made this speech in poland is significant. his reception in poland was responsive. nermeen: can you talk specifically about what the similarities arere in the positions that the trump administration has taken and those of right-wing governments in eastern europe, including poland? >> number one, essentially, the polish government has said they're not interested in accepting any migrants. ,ort of an anti-migrgrant xenophobic stance in their policies. number two, they question the existence of climate change,

just like trump does. number three, in the case of the polish government, there are skeptical of what they see as german domination of the eu, which is a scene that trump also tossed in one of the interviews saying the eu is essentially a union which is dominated by germany. on these three issues, the polish government is very close to what donald trump saying. essentially, a very right-wing , which the world believes western civilization is under threat from brown people you from muslims especially, and has to close ranks and defend itself or else it essentially faceces extinction. nermeen: what about the significance of trump deciding to speak in poland and meet the polish head of state before going to germany or a meeting angela merkel? >> essentially, the polish -- essentially, they knew trump was scheduled to go theye g20 summit comes so

were the ones who reached out to washington asking for trump to visit poland on his way to the g20 summit. assuring him he would meet withh aa positive reception and it would be a good start for his european trip. there would bebe peoplple waitg and cheering. gegenerally, the polish people e supportive of his policies in contrast to other nations in europe. that it would be a good way for him to launch his european trip, giving momentum. this is not strictly true regarding the fact that poles are supportive the donald trumps trump's was. only 23% have confidence in donald trump to "do what is right" and global affaiai. we comparere ts to obamama, 50%f poles had confidence in barack

obama to do the right thing in global affairs. in only 23% have confidence in donald trump to do the right thing enrolled affairs. es as not the case that pol a whole are supportive of donald trump or his style of politics. but they were able to sell this to him, promising a warm welcome and getting him to make the speech. amy: remi adekoya, can you talk about your own story as a polish nigerian? what specifically are you thinking about? amy: your background. >> my dad was majoring and my mom was polish. i was born in nigeria and lived there for 17 years. i moved to poland in 1995 as a student and lived there -- since then, essentially. between the u.k. and poland. have seen changes in poland.

when i arrived, it was six years out of communism. there were very few foreigners in the country, as you can imagine. definitely very few black people. things were not always pleasant. with time -- there was a time in the late to mid 1990's when you could not walk on the street without having racial slurs hurled at you. after the end of common-ism and theoin the e.u. in 2004, economy improved and people's moods generally improved, folks world and more used to seeing foreigners on the streets. insultsnds of racial hurled on the street stopped and improved vastly. since this government came back in, 2015, they use the migrant crisis when they were millions of refugees within u.s. -- europe's borders, they use that to scare holes into essentially

making the argument that, look, look at what is happening in france and in countries like u.k.. that terrorism because of the muslims who are there. do we want that? obviously, we don't. so we can't allow them, the eu that is, to push on us this migrant refugees, muslims come and tell us we have to take care of them because some of them are terrorists so why take the risk? past fewn, for the years, there's been a concerted propopaganda effort to scacare s into believining excepting 2000 muslims is essentially inviting terrororism attatacks. an example of showing youou this propaganda which has changed, in 2015 at the bennnning of t the es werent isis when pol asasked if poland should accept some o of the migrants, it w waa slight majority thatat said we should.

a a couple of months ago, two months ago after two years of this government propaganda, right now 75% poles of our against accepting any migrants. you see the propaganda just within two years. thus you see the effect of the propaganda within two years. amy: let me ask about the speech that president trump just gave in warsaw that is being billed as a major addressss. hehe actually spent a good amout of time talking about the warsaw uprising. he was not talking about the warsaw ghetto uprising -- in fact, as far as i could see and listen, i don't think he referred to the jewish ghetto at all. now, in "the new york times," they said poland's chief rabbi and other jewish leaders issued a statement thursday morning that was critical of the white house decision not to visit a monument to the warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943. every american president and vice president was visited warsaw since the fall of

communism in 1989 has visiteted the monument. he said we deeply regret that president donald trump, though speaking of public barely a mile a with from the monument, chose to break without laudable tradition alongside so many other once. he spent t time talking about te warsaw uprising by the polish home army, but not about the warsaw ghetto uprising. >> and from what we heard, from we have heard from our sources, the polish government has a significant amount of input into that speech which donald trump gave. iam almost done to 5% sure -- wasn't in the room with them -- it was the polish government who made the suggestion of where he should speak and generally made suggestions of what he should talk about and what would like him to focus on. this is a message very much targeted --

targeted --much sorry, we miss those last words. targeted toy much -- we seem to have lost your audio. we thank remi adekoya so much, polish tangerine, regular contributor to the guardian and the former political editor of the warsaw business journal. his latest piece for the guardian we will link too "polanand's cocourting of f trua , few supporters short of a picnic." we go toome back, hamburg, germany. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. we go now to hamburg, germany, where thousands of protesters are expected to attempt to disrupt the g20 summit or president trump is heading next. on wednesday, anti-g 20 protesters danced through the

streets of hamburg under the "i prefer to dance than g20." wednesday's protests come after actions earlier in the week when german police attacked protesters with water cannons as thousands demonstrated against the summit and trump. the, the scene is the protest groups as centered around exportation of people and global resources. this is a protester. the water cannons yesterday were completely unnecessary. peaceful.here was in general, i think it is really bad that the g20 summit is being held in hamburg. or not a radical left-winger anything, but i think the police provoked the people and enencouraged violence on the streets. they almost wanted to be violent. around 7500 people took

part in the protests. organizers put the figure at 18 the dearden director of global justice now. welcome to democracy now! talk about why the protests are happening at the g20. >> two reasons. one, people here in europe don't want donald trump or the other right wing populist leaders coming into their country. but i think it is more than that. the very policies which caused trump in the first place, the neoliberal, that we've seen your after year after year, exactly those politics are on the agenda of this g20. the leaders like angela merkel, the leader of germany, they said we realize that there been

mistakes and things have gone wrong. but the policies being put forward are the same tired and broken policies that put forth for the last 20 or 30 years. many people are saying, if we want to undermine the ideas, the values, the policies of donald trump, we need something radically different. indeed, one of the best selling dailies h here, the lead article said, we need a radical set of policies and these 20 people are not the people to exprpress or implement those policies. nermeen: can you describe the scene and hamburg? how many protesters are there? what do you expect will happen tomorrow when the g20 summit opens? -- talkedght i was on really enthusiastic protesters. the night before, and the police

have been a lot more provocative. you're talking about many, many, many thousands of protesters so far. one of the things that is clear is that these test for loser being provocative in order to put people off coming to the really big protest that are happening tomorrow saturday. and that may be already working. submit will bring their kids into the city because they're scared. i am here at the counter summit, the background noise is the noise of activism. everyone here is extremely thoughtful we're having many debates about what we want to see as opposed to the g20 world that has been created. people are scared. people are scared about what is happening in the world. the world is in chaos and trump is a kind of symbol of that.

amy: can you talk about trump's first?n to go to poland before going to the g20 where we understand that the german chancellor angela merkel will be emphasizing the issue of climate change, which donald trump rejects? is absolutely right. the reason he decided to go to poland as he thought the right-wing populist government in poland was more likely to be supportive. we know they bust in protesters there to cheer him on. one thing that trump was to do because he believes in this kind of zero-sum economic gain where asrica must make its gains everyone else's expense, one thing you want to do is weaken the competitive trade. one of those being europe and one of those being china. he sees those as america's big competitors. so by originally supporting the

brexit referendum in britain and now by going to poland, he is trying to drive a wedge and stoke up nationalisms in europe and to weaken europe. he thinks it is the best way the united states can make economic gains. that is why he went to poland. as heo knows that as soon arrives in hamburg, he is going to be met by tens of thousands of people protesting against him. he doesn't want that to be the media shots that are immediately sent back to the united states. you want a nice, supportive audience. that is why he is gone there. rather -- has rathe underestimated the mood. the problem isr, his kind of global economic policies aren't

just about economics -- we're seen too often in history help how trade wars. the problems with angela merkel's position, she wants to present as a moderate g20 leader against the nasty populist like trump. she actually wants nothing different. she was stuffing different onene stuffing difffferent. -- she wants nothing different. you and output the worst of both worlds. i think ththat speech in poland will takake so getetting o overy some of the other g20 leaders. amy: and president trump announced in poland that: will patriot missile system from the united states, congratulating them there. the significance of this, going from country to country to announce weapons deals? >> he did the same in n saudi

ararabia a few weeks ago. before they made this decision to suspend relationships -- everywhere he goes around the world, he's using weapons and oilitary to try to s divisions. the campaign is eager to try to avoid. one thing we want to do is to try to create a world based on cooperation, a better understanding of each other, , d a world that can work the interest of the few. we will need t to [indiscernibl] the direction trump is going is very dangerous to the future, not just of the united statates, but the whole world. nermeen: couldld you explain the significance of the g20 summit, who is involved, what heads of state, and why it is so

significant? what are the issues on the table that heads of state are members of the g20 will be deciding? g8sure, so he's to have the -- we used to have the g8. that was set up from the because leaders at that time did not want to [indiscernible] the g20 was during the financial crisis, the g8 realized he needed to bring more countries on board if they were going to hold sway in the world. so they brought exextra coununts on board like argentina, saudi arabia, turkey, like mexico, but they still represent the most powerful leaders on earth. and they discuss everything from the global economy to terrorism to aid in development, to

migration. the big issues that affect everybody in the world. of course, with donald trump, and also some of the other nationalist are going to be here dogan so forth, you have reached in the duty of those global elites. they don't agree with each other anymore. this is going to be a different g20 than ever with the before. normally they come out with a nice statement that says, we are really worried about all of this stuff, but we will continue these policies that and if it the business -- all of the stuff we have seen for so long. what you will find is a really serious disagreement. in one of the big concerns angela merkel has is that they don't come out with any being full communique. we know she does not agree with trump on climate change or other issues. this is probably the most significant g20 there has ever been. you really have a global elite

divided on itself. we will be watching in the coming days to see what comes out of that. as long as we know that they don't have the solution to the world's problem, the people need to take center stage because it is only mass movement of people that are going to ever the catastrophe of runaway climate buildup.e military amy: let's go back to president trump speaking today just minutes before we went to broadcast in warsaw, poland. pres. trump: the fundamental question of our time is whether the west has the will to survive. do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and

destroy us? thehe largest economies in the most lethal weapons anywhere on earth, but if we do not have strong families and strong values,s, tn ak and we will not survive. amy: nick dearden, can you respond of president trump frorm where you are in h hamburg, germany, in the midst of an activist's a's in the g20 protest with the g20 just about to meet tomorrow? chillinga really message the remotes many people here that we are in germany. reminds many people here of the catastrophe that the world went through in the 1930's. talk of closing borders of might is always right. it is very ominous and of the kind of politics -- it is very reminiscent of the kind of

politics we have seen in the past. that should chill all of us. one thing i think trump is going to find when he gets here is the protest movement in the streets -- actually, it is strongly optimistic and lively and diverse. that is the only kind of movement that can beat trump's message at the end o of the day. merkel' attempt tos say business as usual, everything must go on, that is not going to work. we need radically different solutions. what trump is playing on is the fear, the positive test inequality being created, the racism being created by these free-market policies over the last 20 years. trump to me is like a kind of poison that seeps into the millioion different cracks in a global economy, in our broken society. wehave to amend that said -- have to mend that society reported do anything a about trump. amy: thanknk you, nickck dearde,

for joining us director of the , global justice now. the group releasing a statement titled, "campaigners tell the g20: your model l is brokeken, y radical reform can underermine trump." we will go back to hamburg tomorrow at the meeting of the g20. this is democracy now! when we come back, we will be joined by one of the founders of raqqa is being slalaughtered silently. ♪ [music break]

amy: attribute to berta caceres. berta caceres them at the indigenous environmental leader who was murdered in honduras. her daughter bertita zuniga caceres was just the victim of an assassination attack. you can go online at democracynow.org to see our

conversation with her from her home in honduras. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace rereport. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: we turn now to the look at the crisis in syria one day ahead of president trump's meeting with russian president vladimir putin in hamburg. their meeting comes as thousands of syrians continued to flee raqqa as u.s.-backed militias intensify their assault on the isis-held city. some 200,000 people have been displaced from raqqa, with more expected to flee as fighting intensifies. u.s.-led airstrikes have killed hundreds of residents, in what u.n. investigators have called a staggering loss of civilian life. reports say as m many as 50 airstrikes were hitting rock that each day. u.s. backed forces expect the fight to oustt isis from itsts defective e capital to take at least three months. amy: according to the syrian network for human rights, more than 5300 civilians have been

killed in syria this year -- this includes over 1000 killed in airstrikes by the u.s.-led coalition. on wednesday, escaping civilians arrived at an open-air relief camp outside raqqa complaining of constant airstrikes, artillery raids, and extreme hunger. we left because of the fighting. we were afraid. we have children. we almost died of hunger and no one helped us. we are displaced now and live in the open air. these are our house belongings. we just managed to get them today. this is what we have. these are the last things we owned in the house. amy: we are joined in our new york studio by abdalaziz alhamza . he is a syrian journalist and

activist, cofounder and spokesperson of raqqa is being slaughtered silently. welcome to democracy now! we have seen n so many of the vivideos put out by y your grou. if you can start off by talking about what is the situation in raqqa right now? you have donald trump and vladimir putin expected to meet tomorrow for the first time inin hamburg will step the top of the list of their agenda is isis. >> there are thousands of airstrikes targeting the city daily. it is led by the u.s.. fun --re malicious militias funded by the u.s.

in the beginning of this year from january to june, most of the people said they got killed airstrikes.national have been killed, mostlyly by u.s. airstrikes. there is notime, electricity or water. people are suffering. there isis no way to flee the city. escapeople were lucky to the last couple of weeks. right now it is so hard. eveven when people are trying to go to the river to get some water, they're being killed by the airstrikes. amy: i think people would be very surprised to hear this because when they hear the name of the city raqqa, that was here isis stronghold. when they hear people are dying, they would think it is at the hands of isis. that right now you're saying it is the u.s. coalition airstrikes.

>> yes. june, 358 people have been killed. 177 by the airstrikes, the u.s. airstrikes. by the u.s. and 60 by isis. most of the people are getting kikilled by the u.s. airstrikes. they randomly bomb the areas. targetey started to civilians.s. people goingng to the river tott theieir water. even when they tried to get water, there being killed. people are not only suffering by isis, their suffering from all sides. especially by airstrikes. nermeen: could you explain who the militias are and why the u.s. is backing them and what their specific role in raqqa has been in these last few months? established it in 2014 to

defeat isis in some areas. -- ypg mostly why pj kurdish group militia groups. minorities.e ypg. controlled by why pj it statarted witith kobani. they were trying to p protect their areas. what about the fact, as we beeeen talking about the fact that u.s.-led coalitition has ld to this extraordinary loss of life among civilians in raqqa, can you talk about what people when the u.s.ted

strikes began, the us-led strikes began and whether there was any hope that t it would be successful? started astrike couple of years ago. the airstrikes were more careful ththan right now. it is like a conflict. like we have to expect people are getting killed. randomly killing, random airstrikes. takee were it would nott that long, that they would be more careful, target isis gathering, not killing people everywhere that even people trying to get water. amy: s syrian defenense force. i ins, pepeople had expereriene other territories controlled -- they been committing this

recruitmentt or they started to in vivillages in the countryside in raqqa. people were afraid to be forced to join the army. committing human violations. amy: i want to go back to how your organization began you are the cofounder of raqqa is being slaughtered silently. , howus back a fewew years you got involved. >> my friends and i, we started to do it these activities in 2011 and started being activists. when isis came and took control of our city, i was forced to

leave -- amy: talk even before isis. site of protest against assad. there were many demonstrations at the time in march 2012. there were like 300,000 persons on the streets. raqqa was the first city from assad control. [indiscernible] january 2014, when isis took over control of the city was

that my colleagues and i decided to complete our work to be not and at that assad am time no one had heard about raqqa or isis, so we started our organization to alert the international community and media about what is going on in raqqa. same -- most of the media organization to enter the country and cover what is going on. with isis, they rescinded all l of them. is the: you said raqqa first city to be liberated from assad control. where did isis come from? >> they arrived after raqqa was liberated. the fighters came from iraq. -- isis is not a new thing.

front.ra they came together and established isis. amy: i would like to ask about the origins of isis, both in iraq and in syria. kofi annan, the former united nations secretary-general spoke at the munich security coconference in he suggested the 2015. u.s.-led invasion of iraq created the islamic state. moree second and much proximate cause of the instability we are witnessing today was the invasion of iraq in 2003. i spoke against it at the time and i'm afraid my cononcerns hae been proved wewell-founded. decision that fateful was compounded by postinvasion

decisions, disbandment of security forces, port hundreds of thousands of trained and disgruntled soldiers and policemen under the streets. amy: that his former u.n. secretary-general kofi and and speaking in 2015. can you respond to what he said about the origins ofof isis and what you think will happen in raqqa once isis is routed from the city? >> the iraq war provided in environment to have isis and other groups. there was not a government -- that h help to create these kind of extremism groups or provided a good and vomit for the extremist -- good environment for the extremists to come. the same thing happen in syria.

control without any government -- that help to create that. we have al qaeda before raqqa was liberated and that also helped. a lot of things started with taliban. the same thing that will happen in raqqa when isis will be defeated. the thing that all of the governments are focusing on how to defeat isis by arms. to defeat isis as an organization. for us, isis is an idea. it started with the taliban and ended up with isis. no one was focusing on defeating the idea.. we defeat isisis o on the as a group. we have a war geneneration of chilen who h have been liviving with isis for like three years. in raqqa, there was no tv channels, no satellite, no

informrmation. people were e stuck with isisis propaganda. if the international community will not work on defeating the idea of isis or extremism, we will end up with a new kind of group in the fututure l like is. we are afraid for the next generation. no one was focusing on defeating the idea. and you go i want to o go to a clip of ghosts" about your group raqqa is being slaughtered silently. >> at first glance, they seem like other milititant groups. but we soon realized that this group was unlike anything the .orld had seen before >> they painted our city black enshrouded it in darkness.

we cannot t sit by and watch raa being slaughtered silently. of "city of a clip ghosts" that has played at the human rights film festival here in new york and is continuing to play now around the country. so your approach was to video come in to film them to use of cell phones, to get images out to anyone who wanted to see a different view of what was happening in your city. >> yes, so it was to show the reality of what is going on. and otherolled raqqa areas and they started to promote their propaganda. so we decided to film what is going on to show it was the reality -- the other side of the life, the reality of the life. that is an we decided we'd not be only a media organization.

we started doing activities in raqqa. we started different campaigns. we ended up doing a magazine to teach out to the larges member of people in raqqa to educate them. amy: tomorrow, trump and vladimir putin will meet. what about russia's role right the united states and syria? forussia has been blamed the conflict come the same as the u.s. in 2016,ike before -- killed people more than anyone, especially in aleppo. .hey were killing civilians amy: now the numbers being killed, more of being killed by the united states and russia than by isis? >> yes.

--would be great if we had no-fly zones. we been talking about no-fly zones. areas forking to have the civilians to go and stay to be out of the conflict between all of these countries. it is not a local issue anymore. this like a proxy war between russia, yes, iran -- u.s., iran. countries are fighting each other. we want to have the syrian people out of it. right now, this or the people want to just survive. or they're thinking about how to be alive for the next day. they don't care about the international cononflicts that e taking place in raqqa and syria. amy: thank you for being with us, abdalaziz alhamza, cofounder is spokesperson for raqqa

being slaughtered silently. that does it for our show. 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!]