10/19/17 10/19/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! > the president executive o r is an important step to ensuring we know who is comining into o r country. necessary order that we are proud to defend. amy: president trump's latest attempt to bar some citizens of eight mostly muslim countries from entering the u.s. suffers a second defeat as another federal judge rules trump's own words helped convince him that the

latest policy will be found unconstitutional. we'll get an update from the center for constitutional rights. then to america severing opioid epidemic and how congress undermine efforts to restrict the flow of pain pills that led to tens of thousands of deaths. we will look at the secretive family making billions from the opioid crisis. that is the sackler family, owners of the comedy that invented oxycontin. we will speak with christopher glazek, the reporter who broke the story. then to guantanamo where detainees onunger strike have accused officials of a sudden change in practice that could result in them starving to death as doctors stop force-feeding them and are no longer monitoring their medical condition. we will go to london to speak with clive stafford smith of reprieve, , which represents eit guantanamo prisosoners. >> if someone is going to die from starvation, should you go

against their will and force feed them or not? when the british did that to the ira, we let them die. amy: all that and more, coming up. wewelcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. a federal judge in maryland has blocked parts of president trump's most recent travel ban, dealing a second blow to trump's effort to block citizens from eight countries from entering the united states. in wednesday's ruling, maryland district judge theodore chuang said president trump's own words convinced the judge that the latest ban is a "inextricable re-animation of the twice-enjoined muslim ban." this ruling comes only one day after a federal judge in hawaii blocked most of the latest version of the travel ban just hours before it was set to take effect. the two rulings temporarily halt the parts of the ban that would have blocked all citizens from

iran, libya, syria, yemen, somalia, and chad from entering the united states. both the maryland and hawaii orders do allow the part of the ban blocking some north koreans and venezuelan government officials to go into effect. this is trump's third proposed travel ban and the first to include chad, a small african nation that has been a major ally to the united states. more details have now surfaced to show that it appears chad was included in part because it had run out of special passport paper, and therefore, failed to submit a recent sample of its passports to the u.s. homeland security department. we'll have more on the rulings blocking trump's latest travel ban later in the broadcast. in somalia, thousands of people poured into the streets of the capital mogadishu wednesday to protest the massive bombing on saturday killed more than 300 people and wounded 400 more. the protest was a response to a call by mogadishu's mayor to

show unity in the face of the attack, which has been blamed on the militant group al-shabaab. this is mogadishu resident fatina nor. for every somali family that has lost their loved one in the attack. that is all we can hear to protest. we're ready to defend against the attack. i call for somali people to be united in our country. amy: on wednesday, pope francis also prayed for the victims of the attack, which was the worst in somalia in a decade. >> i would like to express my grief for the massacre that took place a few days ago in mogadishu somalia, that killed more than 300 people, including some children. this terrorist act terms serves the most -- deserves the most condemnation. i prefer the dead and wounded, their families, and the entire population of somalia. i encourage those who work with

enormous difficulty. amy: in afghanistan, at least 43 afghan soldiers have been killed in a taliban attack on an army base in southern kandahar province. a separate taliban attack in the north of afghanistan killed six police officers. this comes only one day after a wave of taliban attacks against the afghan military left at least 80 people dead on tuesday. u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson said wednesday he holds the burmese military responsible for brutal ongoing ethnic cleanansing campaignn against rohihingya minorities, which hakilled thohousands and drdriven a half a million rohina into bordering bangladesh. >> while we are extraordinarily concerned by what is happening with the rohingya in burma, i've been in contact with suu kyi, the leader of the civilians out of the government -- as you

know, this is a power-sharing government that has emerged in burma. we really hold the military leadership accountable for what is happening with the rohingya. amy: human rights wawatch and other groups have calllled on te u.n.n. council to impose an embargo against selling weapons to burma over the ongoing violence. israel remains one of the major weapons suppliers to the burmese militatary. in washington, c controversy continues to grow over how president trump treaeats the parents of u.s. soldiers killed in combat. "the washington post" reports president trump called the father of a a soldier r who dien afghanistan and promomised himim $25,000 from trump's personal account. but chris baldridge, the father of army sergeant dillon baldridge, says the white house instead sent him a condolence letter -- with no check included. after questions from reporters, the white house now says the chececk has been sent.

this comes a as presidident trp continues toto face criticism fr reportedly telling myeshia johnson, the widow of u.s. army sergeant la david johnson who was one of the four green berets that died in the chair, "he knew what he signed up for but when it happens, it hurts anyway," trump reportedly told her. attorney general jeff sessions testified to the house judiciary committee wednesday as part of the ongoing investigation into whether the trump campaign colluded with russia to sway the 2016 presidential election. during his testimony, sessions insisted he has the right to jail journalists. this is sessions in question by minnesotota senator amy clover sure. >> we e commit to not putting reporters in jail for doing their jobsbs? i don't know i can make a blanket commitment to that effect.. but i would a this, we have nott takenn any aggressivive action

agaiainst the media at this poi, involvevee matteters that the momost serious national security i issues that put our country at risk and we willll utilize the authorities that wee have legally and constitutionally if we have to. amy: nbc is reporting a shakeup inside the democratic national committee has ousted some longtime officials over their opposition to dnc chair tom perez. the shakeup is part of it ongoing struggle between the insurgent progressive wing of by vermonteled senator bernie sanders, and the dnc's more centrist wing, which tom perez represents. among those ousted, the head of the arab-american institute, prominent center supporter, and the first transgender member of the dnc. in florida, governor rick scott

has declared a state of emergency in alachua county ahead of today's scheduled speech by white supremacist richard spencer at the university of florida in gainesville. thousands of people are expected to attend protests aimed at preventing spencer from speaking this afternoon. richard spencer was one of the headline speakers during the white supremacist rally in charlottesville, virginia, in august where the white nationalists and neo-nazis killed one anti-racist protester and injured dozens more. in b britain, government figures show hatate crimes have surged o record-high levels over the last year, with more than 80,000 hate crimes reported between march 2016 and march 2017. the researchers said the increase in hate c crimes was fueled b by the brexit v vote to leleave the european union, as well as the terrorist attacks in london and manchester. ababout 80% of the a attacks wee racially motivated. in the west african nation of

togo, soldiers shot dead at least four protesters wednesdady during the latest round of mass protests demandiding an end to the decades of rule by the gnassingbe family dynasty. wednesday's protest was the latest in months of massive demonstrations demanding that the president ouster and the reinstatement of constitutional term limits in togo. in mexico, the zapatista movement has nominateded indigenous activist maria de jesus patricioio martinez to run for president in the upcoming election in july 2018. patricio martinez is spokesperson for the national indigenous congress. she said the poor response helped convince her to run for the presidency. -- >> what do we have to do? we have to organize ourselves. this is a proposal. with organize ourselves and

extend our hands to all and put an end to this capitalist system. dispute throughout girl system. patriarchal system. states,k in the united many of come, together writing -- in new york city, two new york police officers are being investigated for rape after an 18-year-old girl said the two undercover officers handcuffed her during a traffic stop, put her in the back of an unmarked police van, and then -- while she was still handcuffed -- one

of the cops raped her and both forced her to perform oral sex on them. testing shows the dna of the two police officers, richard hall and eddie martins, was found on the teenager. the two police officers are claiming the act was consensual. journalist rita henley jensen has died at the age of 70. jensen was a domestic violence survivor who in 2000 founded women's enews, then the only independent daily news service focusing on women. she also founded the jane crow project, an investigative news outlet focused on how racial and gender bias affects women's health and reproductive rights. she died wednesday morning after a long battle with cancer. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. president trump's latest attempt to bar some citizens of eight countries from entering the us

has suffered a second federal court defeat. on wednesday, u.s. district judge theodore chuang ruled trump's own words helped convince the judge that the latest policy is an "inextricable re-animation of the twice-enjoined muslim ban" that trump called for on the -- that is likely to be found unconstitutional. this comes after a federal judge in hawaii blocked most of the latest version of a travel ban on tuesday, just hours before it was set to take effect. u.s. district judge derrick watson had previously blocked plans by the administration to ban refugees and travelers from six majority-muslim nations. this week he ruled the latest ban, "plainly discriminates based on nationality" in violation of the law as well as the "founding principles of this nation." amy: the revised ban removed sudan from the original list and added the countries of chad and north korea, and some government officials from venezuela. the new order also includes

restrictions on citizens from iraq, as well as all citizens of iran, libya, syria, yemen, and somalia. both the maryland and hawaii orders will allow a ban on some north koreans and venezuelans to go into effect. the supreme court was scheduled to hear arguments this month on an earlier version of a travel ban, but canceled the hearing after trump issued new restrictions. the white house has vowed to appeal the latest ruling. for more, we're joined by baher azmy, legal director of the center for constitutional rights. welcome back to democracy now! explain what just took place. maryland court ruling after the hawaii judge ruled. >> so this is the third iteration of muslim ban, which attempts to close the previous versions that were just very facially, honestly directed at nationality with some legal pretense. the previous version simply banned all individuals from

these eight countries. this version had purportedly neutral rationale that these are countries who insufficiently -- share insufficient security information with the united states. but these two court saw through the rationale and agreed that the threat of discrimination from the first, to the second to the third is stitill intact. no miko let's go to attorney sessionseff thursday. >> the department of justice is resolutely focused on dealing with the terrorism threats that we face. they are real, the military tells us they can expect not a reduction after isis is defeated, but maybe even an increase in attacks.s. the president's executive order is an important step to ensuring that we know who is coming into our country. it is a lawful, necessary order

that we are proud to defend. and indeed, most may not know, supreme court has already vacated one quart's injunction against that order and we are confnfident we will prevail as time goeoes by and the supreme court. nermeen: that is attorney general jeff sessions speaking wednesday in defense of this and. imagine theif -- second group best segregationist government of alabama bans all black applicants to the university o of arkansas -- i'm sorry, arkansas. and then that gets struck down by the courts and he next decides to ban all applicants from 10 high schools to the university of arkansas, none of them happened to be all-black high schools. ascourt would accept that reasonable are nondiscriminatory. and that is what we have in the case of this latest version of the muslim ban.

amy: explain what happens now with these two federal courts, one in hawaii and i could not help but think about hawaii being one of the judges that struck down the ban because of what jeff sessions from lessee said on a right-wing radio show, how is it possible a man on an island in the pacific and stop the president of the united states. >> which speaks to the general insufficient regard the jeff sessions and trunk the administration have for democracy and constitutional principles. no doubt the government will attempt to appeal thehese injunctions, butut the courts of appeals in governing both of these district court have previously upheld the prior injunction so they probably won't have much success in the court of appeals and will ultimately seek review and the -- the department of justice has s given that the countrieies now listed on the bn are listed because of an extensive intelligence sharing

evaluation that the u.s. undertook in all of these different countries concluded that these countries don't have sufficient restrictions in place and that is why the countries were selected. in fact, it has nothing to do with muslims or anybody else. >> that is the justification, but i think it speaks to the lack of credibility this a administration has. had this been enacted by the bush and administration or the clinton administration, given the traditional deference court gives to the officials in the context of immigration, you would expect courts would step back. but this is just utterly implausible as a justification given the weight is simply reanimate the prior obvious discriminatory actions the government took. and given a sort of lack of a susufficient national security rationale, once you scratch below the service. inwere already invested

these countries. it is not like are not national security protocols in place. speaks to the lack of credibility this administration has in the realm of constitutional law. amy: i want to turn to another issue that deals with refugees. a federal judge on wednesday ordering the u.s. government to allow an undocumented immigrant teenager in custody in texas to have an abortion. the judge said she was "astounded" that the trump administration was trying to block the procedure. the aclu, which filed the lawsuit on the teenager's behalf, said the 17-year-old girl, who's living unaccompanied in a refugee resettlement shelter in texas, had been granted permission from a judge to terminate her pregnancy, but officials with the department of health and human services and other agencies refused to transport her to a women's health clinic for an abortion.

the justice department, which is defending the health and human services department, has not commented on whether it will appeal the ruling. > this is a remarkable action that the government took, and it reflects kind of three undemocratic strands or reactionary strands of the trump administration. first, the defect a attempt to block a court order by not allowing this young woman to have access -- not letting her out of the jail. second, a deep into but the to migrants and undocumented migrants or refugees. and third, this reactionary want to caste that they enforce. they do not want to come in their view, aid and abet one's constitutional rights. and this is jeff sessions at work in all three dimensions. nermeen: before we conclude, i

want to ask you about -- everybody has pointed to the fact that both the hawaii and the maryland ruling, the injunctions placed on trump's third version of the travel ban, our number one partial bans and they're quite distinct from one another. what are the differences between them and what do they still allowed to go into effect? is it just that t it will applyo ,itizens of north korea officials from venezuela, and citizens of north korea? >> i think in short, they are far more similar than they are both allowill stop the restrictions to remain in place in north korea and venezuela because those were not meaningful restrictions anyway. the maryland ruling is a bit more narrow because it only protects those who "have bona fide connections to the united states." so those who are applying for visas to the united states whwho may have existing connections to

the united states. in the hawaii one applies more broadly to anyone who seeks to enter the united states. amy: we will leave it there, but we will continue to follow this all the stuff baher a azmy, legl director of the center for constitutional rights. when we come back, the opioid epidemic. we look at a particular family that has profited handsomely from it. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaiaikh. we turn now to look at america's staggering opioid epidemic, the secretive family making billions from crisis and how congress undermined efforts to restrict the flow of pain pills that have led to tens of thousands of deaths. president trump's commission on combating drug addiction and the opioid crisis has said "america is enduring a death toll equal to september 11 every three weeks." but this week, his nominee for drug czar republican congressmember tom marino had to

withdraw from consideration after a "washington post"/"60 minutes" investigation found he led a drug industry-backed effort to weaken the u.s. drug enforcement administration's ability to crack down on addictive opioids and keep them off the black market. the ensuring patient access and effective drug enforcement act passed in 2016. it made it nearly impossible for the drug enforcement administration to intervene in cases where large, suspicious shipments of opioids are delivered to pharmacies bound for the black market. the drug industry lobbied heavily to win passage of the bill, contributing $1.5 million to its 23 congressional co-sponsors. marino alone accepted nearly $100,000 in campaign cash from the industry. this is joe rannazzisi, who ran the dea's office of diversion control, which regulates and investigates the pharmaceutical industry, speaking to "60 minutes." >> if i was going to w write a

book about how too harm the unitited states witith pharmamaceuticals, the only thig i could thinkk of thatat would immediately haharmed is s to tae the e authority of way from m te investstigative agegency thatats trtrying to force the cocontrold substancnces act and the ridiculous and -- relations implement it. bill introduced by the marino and marsha blackburn was promoted a as a way to ensure tt patients have access to the pain medication they needed. >> congressman marino has said he's proud of his work on the 2016 law, which passed without opposition in the house and senate and was signed by president obama. meanwhile, calls are going to look at the major pharmaceutical companies who fuel the opioid crisis. a new investigation by esquire magazine reveals how the sackler family, owners of the company thatat invented d oxycontin,

downplayed the risks of the drug's addiction and exploited doctors' confusion over the drug's strength. it is headlined "the secretive family making billions from the opioid crisis." it begins -- "you're aware america is under siege, fighting an opioid crisis that has exploded into a public-health emergency. you've heard of oxycontin, the pain medication to which countless patients have become addicted. but do you know that the company that makes oxy and reaps the billions of dollars in profits it generates is owned by one family?" for more, we are joined by chchristopher glazek, the reporr behind the investigation. christopher, welcome to democracy now! is famous inackler the art world because it is hard to go into museum where you don't see in a trim named,

whether we are talking about the museum, atan museum and london -- i mean, all over. why don't you explain how we know the name and how we don't name when it comes to oxycontin and how significant oxycontin is when it comes to the opioid to democrat stop >> the sackler family is interesting because in some ways it is republican and other ways it is very private. you will see their name on university campuses the most every ivy league school has an institute or museum named for the sacklers. cornell,umbia, nyu, kings college london, sussex. the list goes on and on. and in the museum world, too. there are named rooms or wings at the guggenheim, louve, the tate, the met. some people know the sackler

name, but the sacklers themselves are rarely interviewed. they never give interviews and are rarely seen in public. almost nobody in the world understands the major sources of their fortune is oxycontin. one reason is the sacklers never put their name on the compapany, never put their name on their product. there's a reasason i wanted to o the piece. more than 200,000 people have died from prescription drugsgs since oxycontin was released in 1996. we have an accountability crisis, also. we tend to think of big social problems like drug epidemic as a product of these large, impersonal forces that are hard to understand. there is some truth to that, but he can distract from a lot of social actions come from individuals. nermeen: how did you come to learn of the sacklers involvement? it is interesting. i had read quite a bit about

purdue pharma, which manufactured oxycontin which in 2007 had to plead guilty to criminal charges for what was called criminally misbranding prescription drugs. they had to pay a hugee fine and three other top executives went down. there has been a ton of writing about that, but i must know writing about the fact the company is almost 100% owned by one family and that family filled more than half of the board seats and supplied top executives for the company. one thing that emerged is when they signed on to this huge settlement that got a lot of press in 2007, is is like the top leaders of the company took the fall because the ceo at the guilty to aplead misdemeanor. but he wasn't the ceo during the period covered by the settlement or the crucial period of oxycontin's promotion and marketing. doing that time, it was a member of the sackler family. the sackler name appeared nowhere in the guilty plea.

it was like 100 pages. it appeared all over this of a document that was attached, a nonprosecution agreement. basically, the government said, we are not going to prosecute any of these 200 entntities relalated to the sackler family. amy: christophpher glazek, tells the story of the sackler family, their rise, the rise of oxycontin. go back decades. >> the sacklers were basically three brothers from brooklyn who came from a jewish immigrant family. r really --ir start the oldest brother, arthur sackler, and medical advertising. he was a really important pioneer in medical and specifically from suitable advertising. one of the first people ever inducted in the medical advertising hall of fame, actually. when he came on the scene and the 1940's, there really wasn't much pharmaceutical advertising. there were door-to-door salesman that would basically try to push their drugs on doctors. what arthur realized is you

could use print advertising to reach a much larger number of doctors, more efficiently. he was the first person to convince the journal of american medicine to insert a color brochure advertising particular drug -- at that time, it was antibiotic. of overs a big scandal antibiotics. his huge first influx of cash came from valalium. he designed the marketing theaign and made valium most widely prescribed drug in america. amy: what was his trek? >> there was another drug that had been on the market the same as volume called librium will stop almost indistinguishable. how are we going to market this one? librium had been marketed pretty nearly four in zaidi function. -- anxiety faction. his idea was to take valium and marketed for every kind of problem. they play with this concept

called psychic tension, which was purported to be the source of indigestion, of depression, of sleep problems, restless leg syndrome. amy: the word before "stress." >> yes. so in this way he was able to vastly expanand the range of potential patients and indications, in that way made the first $100 million drug. nermeen: what kind of used in italian have versus librium -- did valium have versus librium? >> it was used by people suffering somatic problems. different physical manifestations that may or may not have their root related to anxiety. valium -- librium was narrowly targeted for people have a specific anxiety issue. it was not quite the thing that it is today. was most's valium

prescribed. >> yes. amy: move on from there. >> arthur became a huge art collector, established the family's foothold in the art world. throughout his entire world, he had passed on jobs and businesses to december brothers so he was involved in the purchase of this really tiny pharmaceutical company in 1952 called purdue pharma, which was on its last leg. it basically meant a patent medicine cutler. -- peddler. there was a tonic that was market of all kinds of purposes. if you have a headache, sex problems, whatever problem. shell --ht this finanancially troubled shell. for years, purdue pharma was not a major player in the pharmaceutical world. it had one really good product, but a dean, a quite in the 1960's, which is a disinfectant. it was just as the vietnam war was an thing up. the government bought huge

quantities to treat wounded soldiers. in the pharmathene. then they got and the pain business and that is when the money started flowing in. the company lore is there was a doctor in london with some of the family members moved to was associated with the hospice movement. you have a time releaease asthma pill that is in selling much. what if yoyou made a time releae morphine tell? we have these hospice patients who have these iv's and it is hard to give them enough pain medication to help them sleep through the night. a time released morphine pill could be transformational. they made this and it came out in the united states in 1984 as ththe predecessor to oxycontin. it was targeted exclusively at the cancer market. it was amazing. it helped cancer patients sleep

through the night. addiction did not matter if you were a terminal cancer patient. there was a problem with it. its patent was going to expire in the 1990's. the company did not have to replace it and it was basically its golden goose. other executives were brainstorming, what can we do about the patent expiring? aey said, what if we create new time released paint pill that don't use morphine, we use another derivative of the poppy plant, oxycodone. we create a time release oxycodone kill and instead of marketing it to cancer patients, we marketed to 30 million back pain patients, menstrual problems, people with toothaches? what if weweake this p powerful drug that we know works for this one purpose, but kind of give it to everybody? and ththat was the billion-dollr idea, that14 billionn

gave the sacklers what is likely the largest fortune and pharmaceutical history. nermeen: one of the problems with the term -- i realized myself when i was reading your piece, there is a lot of confusion between oxycontin, the cotton.nd could you explain what that distinction is and whether the chosen ralph was precisely so the confusion to be created? >> i talked to employees that the company. there is some reference to this also in sim internal comedy documents. mscontin, they're basically the same. they're like librium and valium, likely indistinguishable. morphine had a stigma. people thought that meet you were dying. ordinary doctors, general practitioners, they weren'n't going to prescribe morphphine. that sounds like serious stuff. oxycodone had a different brand because it was in percocet and

percodan. general practitioners would prescribe percocet for injuries. they were familiar and comfortable with it. percocet has a small dose of oxycodone. there was another confusion, people thought oxycodone sounded like codein. morphine sounds strong. they were basically playing on this misconception that doctors had and they acknowledge this that doctors t thought oxycodone was weaeak, even know it is more powerful than morphine. amy: let's turn to a joint investigation between "60 minutes" and "the washington post." is speaking witith cbs correspondent bill whitaker. >> that is out of contrtrol. what they wawant to do is do wht

they want to do and not worry about what the law is.s. if they dodon't t follow the lad drug supply, people die. that is just itit. people die. this is an interesting t that allowed -- industry that allowed millions and billions of drugs to go into bad phpharmacicies ad doctors offices that distribute them out t to peoplee who h hado legitimate need for those drugs. >> who are t these distriibutor? >> thehe three largest arere cardinal health, mckesson, and a nurse or oregon. they controlol probably 85% o o% of the d drugs going downstrea. >> you know w the implication of what you're saying, ththat these they weweres new that pumpmping drugs into american communitieies that were killing people. that is not an implication, that

is a fact. that is exactly what they did. amy: whistleblower joe rannazzisi speaking with cbs correspopondent bill whitaker.r. in another part of the interview,w, he talks about pain clinics. >> pain clinicics overnight popping up off anan entrance rap or exit ramamp on an interstate. >> had youou ever seseen anythig like that before? >> never. in my o opinion, this made the look k likeepipidemic nothing. slingingen't k kids crack on a corner. these are professionals doing it. they were just drug dealers in lab coats. >> you k know what a chilling picturure that paints? >> i do, because i watched them get arrested. i was the one who approved the cases. amy: that is joe rannazzisi, who ran the drug enforcement administration, the das office of diversion control, which regulates and investigates the

pharmaceutical industry, speaking with cbs correspondent bill whitaker he became a whistleblower. christopher glazek, talk about the significance of what this man said. >> the opioid epidemic has many different actors in different parts of the chain. this investigation focused on the district leaders will basically, the people who carry the opioid pills from the manufacturers and give to specific for missy's. there's been a lot of litigation focused on them. --e thought they knew that that had reason to know that maybe certain pharmacies were involved in the diversion. they have this ongoing struggle with the dea about what is to seize and under what circumstances. in my view what you want to do when you look at the crisis, look at where the real profits are. it is not with the distributors, it to seize and under what circumstances.

is with the manufacturers. people kind of think they are following the money. mckesson and cardinal are huge giant companies, but you want to follow the margin because that will tell you who is controlling the market and who is a minor toll taker. manufacturer, purdue pharma, which created this market, created this business, they had much more detailed information about where pills were going. they knew down to the prescription level what doctors were prescribing what. the distributors did not know that. all the distribution of was about -- just to readers knew was about pharmacies. purdue had the aerial vision of the entire t thing. ?my: where is purdue >> nermeen: part of the money, the money the sacklers made fromom purdue and selling oxycontin, in a foundation they have called the richard and beth sackler foundation, could you talk about where they chose to donate some of that money from the

foundation. >> we live in a billionaire democracy is the billionaires exert tremendous control. of the sacklerrs family have different political leanings. richard sackler, the top executive during the time that ,xycontin was mainly promoted has given money to a variety of ananti-muslim groups. he i is given money to many gros designated as hate groups. he has even money to an organization called true the vote. if you go what appears to be his facebook page, he seems to have brexit types. for also seems to be a gold bug or concerned about inflation and things like that. other members of the s sackler family are not right-leaning. some are left-leaning, actually. richards foundation and the

money they gave from oxycontin is gone to a number of causes that raise some eyebrows. amy: so what is happening with oxycontin now? talk about the number of deaths a day. talk about the bill that passed last year and was signed off on by the president, not by president trump, but president --ma, that now has led to the choice to be the drug czar having to withdraw under trump. >> right. what that legislation did is hamper the ability of the dea to seize suspicious shipments. issue.uite a complex whether it really is the most important aspect of the opioid crisis is something you could debate. it seems pretty galling that trump nonominate marino was so involved in the legislation to be the drug czar. like you don't want the fox guarding the chicken coop.

outrageous.m pretty it is a great thing that has been brought to light. the key poioint about the opioid crisis is that what triggers addiction -- people can talk about diversion, black market drug dealers. that is a small part of it. tot people become addicted oxycontin by taking it as prescribed. it is the number of prescriptions. who is driving the prescriptions and the total volume of opioids circulating through the market? nermeen: you cite a piece in "l.a. times" which concludes that the american market frocks the cotton is actually diminishing. could you explain why that is and how this drug is now being marketed, quite successfully, rod? >> exactly. oxycontin is run into a lot of regulatory problems in the u.s., bad press. kind of borrowing from the big tobacco playbook, when you run into problems in your home market any of these lawsuits,

maybe it is time to go abroad. that seems to be with the sackler family is doing. there have international comedies related to pupurdue whh sell pain products abroad. the cdc in this country issued this warning last year basically saying that we are not sure that opioids are good for long-term pain at all. that maybe opioid use is not effective for chronic pain because it changes your pain threshold and becomes less effectivive over time. this was the death blow for the chronic pain market here. it now you have the company going abroad, reprising its greatest hits from the 1990's. they released a study in colombia's and we believe more than 40% of the population suffers from chronic pain. amy: in may, dozen members of commerce in a bipartisan letter to the world health organization that warned the sackler-owned drug companies were preparing to flood foreign countries with legal narcotics. the letter mentions the sacklers by name and notes they own purdue pharma, and reads --

"purdue began the opioid crisis that has devastated american communities. today mundipharma is using many of the same deceptive and reckless practices to sell oxycontin abroad." mundipharma is owned by the sacklers, and d "the l.a. times" reporting the company circulated a press release in colombia that suggested 47% of the population suffered from chronic pain. your final comment on all of this, christopher glazek, where it goes now? >> the big question is complicity. it is a tricky question. implicitversity because such a huge amount of money from sacklers? is a third-generation sackler, do they have some burden or complicity to address here? question.complicated the solution to the complexity is not secrecy. what we have seen again and agaiain of people have taken sackckler money in the sacklers himself have concealed their connection to oxycontin, and

economic the solution of the problem. amy: christopher glazek, journalist and editor whose new expose was just published in esquire, headlined "the secretive family making billiois from the opiod crisis." we will link to it. when we come back, we go across the pond to london to talk about what is happening south of us in guantanamo. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: roger waters performing "we shall overcome" accompanied by alexander rohatyn on cello in our studio. waters led the "countdown to close guantanamo" campaign on behalf of prisoners at the u.s. naval base in cuba. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: we turn now to guantanamo, where hunger

striking prisoners say u.s. military officials have stopped force-feeding them and are denying them basic medical care in a move the prisoners anand theieir lawyers say threatens to kill them. in an op-ed for the guardian, hunger striking guantanamo bay prisoner khalid qassim writes -- "they have decided to leave us to waste away and die instead. now as each night comes, i wonder if i will wake up in the morning. when will my organs fail? when will my heart stop? i am slowly slipping away and no one notices." qassim has been imprisoned for 15 years without being charged with a crime, and writes that a hunger strike was "the only peaceful way i thought i could protest." he is one of 41 men remaining in guantanamo. 10 were charged or convicted before a commission, but the rest are being held in indefinite wartime detention without trial. amy: human rights lawyers have long opposed force-feeding in guantanamo, saying the brutal way its implemented is akin to torture. but those same lawyers say they

oppose the sudden and suspension careedings a basic radical -- medical care since their clients health is precariously declining and such feedings may mean the difference between life and death. the international legal charity reprieve is now calling on supporters to join a solidarity hunger strike with the prisoners. among those who have heeded the call are british labour party mp tom watson, pink floyd co-founder roger waters, comedian sara pascoe, actor david morrissey, director and actor mark rylance, and french-born actress caroline lagerfelt. for more, we go to london where we're joined by human rights lawyer clive stafford smith. he is the founder and director of the international legal charity reprieve, which represents eight guantanamo prisoners. clive stafford smith, welcome to democracy now! why don't you lay out what is happening, what people may remember during the obama years is the force-feeding that prisoners called inhumane. they called it torture. now explain what is happening.

>> i will and good morning to everyone. back under president obama, we had force-feeding, which was a large swath of the medical community that says it is unethical. of the way it is done in guantanamo bay is gratuitously painful. "theal craddock said in new york times" they were making it inconvenient by making it more painful. just recently, starting on september 20, we learned that president trump's team down there has added dishes twist. -- pernicious twist. they've stopped force-feeding the prisoners for now and they said to the prisoners that the prisoners can go forward and they can starve themselves until their organs fail. until they get serious until illness. until they go blind. and at that point, they're going to start force-feeding them again to stop them from actually

dying. they wait until they are half dead, zinke them have a live, zinke them forever at the cost of $11.8 million per prisoner in guantanamo bay. nermeen: what t is the justification for that? why do this to them now? >> well, they're trying to coerce the prisoners out of their peaceful protest. this is just wrong. politician pakistan who is a strong supporter of one of my clients has written in " today,hington post the idea that the e trump administration would try to bully these guys who have been on hunger strike for four years, for just one thing -- give me freedom or give me a fair trial -- that they should use this sort of medical malpractice to bully peoeople out of it is just disgusting. amy: tells the story of your clients ahmed rabbani and khalid qassim.

who are thesee of 41 men who remain languishing at this u.s. prison in cuba. >> there are 41 people at a cost of $500 million that could be well spent on something else. of those, 15 of them are potentially going to have some form of trial, fair or unfair, in guantanamo bay. the rest are forever prisoners who aren't going anywhere. some of them are by definition low value or no value detainees. let me tell you about ahmed rabbani. in the all corroborated senate cia torture report. ahmed rabbani was originally sold to the u.s. for a bounty isi, he said he was a really bad dude. when they got him, ahmed said i'm a taxi driver from karachih. indeed, in the senate report, it says this is what he says, but

we don't believe him. he then spent 545 days in the dark prisons of the cia torture expxposedncluding being to an old torture that was done by the spanish inquisition. what did they get for thatat? absolutely nothing except they abuse this poor guy beyond measure. he was taken to guantanamo bay where he patiently waited for his release back to his wife and son, who was a lee 19 months at the time he was detained. then after losing patience and nine session 2013, decided, what can i do? he went on a hunger strike. he did that and then he was force fed. he has been force fed for four years. , if you can pounds believe it. he is just a shadow of his former self. there he is. in some ways, khalid qassim is worse. he is absolutely nobody. i hate to say that. it sounds disparaging.

i am not. he is absolutely nobody from yemen and yet he is still in guantanamo also. nermeen: you say ahmed rabbani weighs 92 pounds. at what point will he start being force fed again? the idea is, as you pointed out, they don't actually want these people to die. >> that is a good question. if you look at the mededical literaturere, when you get under 30% -- 30% below your normal body weight, that is when you are in real danger of f dying. he i is 33% belowow his normal y weight and the was in much of him to begin with. he is in danger. i spoke to him yesterday underprivileged call. he is not sounding good. there's a whole syndrome, medical syndrome of hunger strikers when you lose and you begin to get psychotic and to where you can't make voluntary and confident decisions.

-- confident decisions. these guys just want justice. but what i'm afraid with ahmed, he is getting beyond the point where he can make sensible decisions. you just might end up doing something really stupid and ending up dying there. amy: you are calling on apporters to join in solidarity hunger strike. are you doing this? can you talk about what you're calling on supporters to do and what you are calling on the trump administration to do right now? >> sure. look, let me first say i don't want any of you to hurt yourself medicallyd not be quite as stupid as i am. i did five days of a solidarity hunger strike. just because i think it is really important when i talked to my clients that i can say, "we will take on your protest. i just what you to eat a little bit to keep yourself alive." and i hopethis week to goodness the judge is going or to the government to behave

themselves properly. in terms of what we want. if i may, i some notes from yesterday. this is the message that ahmed rabbani has for president trump. "what is the benefit of keeping this place open that is spending over $500 million here on this place that they could've saved the money, sent us away. whatever, and not have this headache. show mercy, president trump, if there is any, in your heart. use the money to get your soldiers from your people, not wasting it here. help the poor people, the needy in u.s. you have fires, hurricanes. use the money for that. whate set them free or do we've done in america for the last 200 years, give them a trial. i would love to have that trial. amy: clive stafford smith, they are being with us, human rights lawyer and a director of the international legal charity reprieve, which represents eight guantanamo detainees. 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!]

(dramatic music playing) goodbye, baby. (gunshots) great noir poses the question: why me? that sense of knowing what you are doing is doomed and you can't stop from doing it.