11/20/18 11/20/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! pres. trump: people can come in but they have to come in through the ports of entry. to make, that is a very important thing. we're not leading them in, but they are trying to flood our country. amy: once again, a federal judge blocks a trump immigrant ban, this timtrump's asyluman weeks after the president announced new immigration les deny asylum to migrants who entered the country outside

ports of entry. we will speak with one of the lawyers who sued the trump administration over the ban, baher azmy. then, less than a month after a gunman opened fire at a pittsburgh synagogue killing 11 jewish worshipers, we speak with investigative reporter a.c. thompson on the rise of neo-nazis in america. havee past few years, i been reporting on the resurgent of the white supremacist movement. i've seen its ideas migrated to the mainstream. i have seen violence in cities across the country, and now this. what looks to be the deadliest attack on the jewish community in american history. i fear there will be more to come. they make on the same day robert bowers opened fire in the pittsburgh synagogue, a neo-nazi he was communicating with took his own life and washington, d.c.

the mets brother has since been arrested on weapons charges. the brothers were both to the violent wasn't from assist group atomwaffen. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. a federal court in california put a temporary halt monday to president trump's order denying asylum to anyone who enters the united states outside the legal port of entry. trump announced the move earlier this month, a purely in response to the central american migrant caravans he turned into a major flashpoint in the run-up to the mid--term elections. u.s. district judge john tiger, who ruled on the case, wrote -- "whatever the scope of the president's authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose the condition that commerce has expressly for bidden. failure to comply with entry requirements such as arriving at a designated port of entry should bear little if any weight in the asylum process."

after headlines, we will speak about thompson asylum ban with baher azmy of the center for constitutional rights. the trump administration will begin to draw down the nearly 6000 troops stationed at the u.s.-mexico border as early as this week, with all active-duty military expected to leave their stations within a month. in the run-up to the midterm elections, trump deployed military troops to the border to protect against what he called an "invasion" of central american migrants, at one point suggesting he could send up to 15,000 troops. defense secretary jim mattis visited soldiers last week and admitted there was no clear long-term plan for the military deployment. this comes as cnn is reporting president trump is planning to grant authority to u.s. troops to intervene if customs and border officers are physically attacked by migrants or if migrants attack any federal property. the pentagon had previously denied a request from homeland security to allow troops to perform law enforcement duties,

which could constitute a violation of the posse comitatus act. as more migrants from several central american caravans arrive at the mexico border town of tijuana, some local residents are protesting their presence, echoing language used by president trump referring to the migrants as an "invasion" and chanting "mexico first." some demonstrators clashed with police as they protested outside of a migrant shelter sunday. this is honduran migrant karina rosales addressing the recent protests. >> they have the right to protest because they don't like that we are here. but in spite of everything, they, the mexicans come are good people. they are the same as us, but we're only passing through. we won't stay here. amy: an estimated 3000 central american migrants are in tijuana to request asylum in the united states, with more arrivals expected in the coming days. in chicago, a gunman shot and killed three people at mercy hospital monday. the victims include a doctor, a

police officer, and a pharmacy technician. the gunman was also killed at the scene. chicago police said the shooter was previously in a relationship with the first victim, dr. tamara o'neal, who was shot outside the hospital in the parking lot before the shooter ran inside the hospital when police arrived on the scene. the other two victims were identified as pharmacy resident dayna less and police officer samuel jimenez. the majority of domestic violence deaths involve firearms. a study by the gun control advocacy group everytown for gun safety found the majority of mass shootings between 2009 and 2016 were committed by intimate partners or family. earlier this month, doctors around the country started sharing photos of bloodied scrubs and operation rooms on social media after the nra told doctors to "stay in their lane" after the release of new recommendations from the medical community to reduce gun violence. the photos went viral on social media with the hashtags

#stayinmylane and #thisismylane. the death toll for the northern reachedia camp fire has 79. the number of missing persons has dropped to 700. the wildfire is now 70% contained as search and rescue efforts continue in paradise, which was decimated by the flames, with nearly 12,000 homes destroyed and over 150,000 acres burned. with area shelters filled to capacity, displaced residents now face the question of where to go. hundreds of people living in a walmart parking lot in the city of chico were asked to leave over the weekend, although many camps were still up by monday. this is displaced resident amy sheppard. >> as of right now, we're just making a day by day, hoping we can get back up to our property and start to rebuild our lives again.

>> now life is really hard, especially with the little ones trying to keep them happy and healthy and fed. the food has been given free by so many, so many sources. people are coming everywhere with food. problem,not been a helping with clothing, too. amy: meanwhile, rain is forecast in northern california from wednesday through friday, prompting a flash flood warning for the region, as major storms threaten to further complicate living conditions for those sleeping outdoors, as well as hamper ongoing search efforts. "the washington post" reports the justice department considered breaching the confidentiality of u.s. census data and sharing the information with law enforcement officials. a 2017 email between a justice department attorney and the acting assistant attorney general john gore reportedly suggested avoiding questions from a democratic congressmember about whether census data could ever be shared with law

enforcement, in case "related issues come up later for renewed debate." this comes as several lawsuits are challenging the trump administration's efforts to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census. advocates say the move could deter immigrants from completing the census and could impact everything from redrawing of congressional maps to the allocation of federal funds. the guardian is reporting that members of the billionaire sackler family could soon face criminal investigations over their role in fueling america's opioid epidemic. prosecutors in connecticut and new york are considering charges of fraud and racketeering against the sacklers, whose company purdue pharma produces the prescription painkiller oxycontin. earlier this year, "the new york times" reported purdue executives knew oxycontin was highly addictive as early as 1996, the first year after the drug hit the market, but still promoted it as less addictive than other opioids.

a lead attorney taking on purdue pharma, paul hanly, said of the sacklers -- "this is essentially a crime family -- drug dealers in nice suits and dresses." the sacklers are known worldwide for their patronage of the arts. and the sackler name appears on museum exhibitions including the met in new york and the tate in london. "the washington post" is reporting white house senior adviser and presidential daughter ivanka trump used a personal email account and private email servers to send hundreds of messages to cabinet officials and aides in violation of federal records rules. ivanka reportedly sent the emails through a domain name she shared with her husband, jared kushner, who's also a senior white house adviser. when questioned by other white house officials over the practice, ivanka trump reportedly said she was unfamiliar with some details of the rules. ahead of the 2016 election, donald trump repeatedly led chants of "lock her up!" at

campaign rallies as he attacked his opponent hillary clinton over her use of a private email server she used as secretary of state. in texas, democrat gina ortiz jones conceded to conceded to republican incumbent will hurd monday in a congressional race democrats had hoped to flip. so far, democrats have so far -- so far, democrats have claimed 37 seats in the house of representatives. three democratic senators are suing to remove matt whitaker from his role as acting attorney general, saying the appointment is unconstitutional and aimed at derailing special counsel robert mueller's investigation. in a statement, rhode island senator sheldon whitehouse said -- "the stakes are too high to allow the president to install an unconfirmed lackey to lead the department of justice -- a lackey whose stated purpose, apparently, is undermining a major investigation into the president." joining the lawsuit are senators mazie hirono of hawaii and richard blumenthal of connecticut.

16 democratic congress members and congress members-elect released a letter monday saying they oppose nancy pelosi's bid to resume her role as house speaker in january. they write they are "committed to voting for new leadership in both our caucus meeting and on the house floor." two of the letter's signatories are in races that have yet to be called. pelosi will need 218 votes in order to secure the house leadership position. so far, no challengers to pelosi have been announced. long-serving congressmember john lewis has joined other lawmakers in supporting incoming new york congressmember alexandria ocasio-cortez's call for a green new deal. lewis is the highest profile congressmember so far to back ocasio-cortez's resolution to create a bipartisan committee that would work on a plan to bring the u.s. to a carbon-neutral economy and adopt 100% renewable energy. the proposal for the committee also seeks to bar lawmakers who have accepted money from the

fossil fuel industry. other lawmakers who support the formation of the committee include congressmembers ro khanna, carolyn maloney, and the incoming deb haaland, ilhan omar and rashida tlaib. on monday, climate activists from the youth-led sunrise movent disrupted an event with dnc chairman tom perez in rhode island to demand the democratic party do more to cbat climat change and back congressmember-elect ocasio-cortez's committee. >> as we speak them and nearly 1000 people are missing in the california fires and over 77 haveerished. totophave 12 years clime change. poticians li you have t demonstrated the leadership we need to meet the scope and sca of this isis. we neeyou to stand up for our generation. we are asking the dnc reject all contributions frofossil fue lobbyistand execuves and

aski for thereen newealo incorpoted intohe decratic ptform. amy: sunse movemt is orgazing gre new deal y of tion arod the cotry toda prident iseportedl consering vitingroops in iraq and afghanistan. it would be his first visit to a war zone since he took office. trump has come under fire for skipping recent visits to a cemetery for world war i soldiers and france last weekend, followed by a missed visit to the arlington national cemetery on veterans day. on sunday, he attacked former navy seal admiral william mcraven -- who oversaw the u.s. operation that killed osama bin laden -- calling him a hillary clinton fan and an obama-backer during an interview with fox news. nissan chairman carlos ghosn was arrested in japan monday after an internal investigation revealed significant financial misconduct. ghosn is suspected of violating financial laws by filing false statements and under-reporting

his income by more than $40 million over a five-year period. the fbi has classified the far-right group proud boys as a "extremist group with ties to white nationalism." a report by washington state law enforcement from august revealed the fbi classification and stated that the group is actively recruiting in the pacific northwest. the report also said -- "proud boys members have contributed to the recent escalation of violence at political rallies held on college campuses, and in cities like charlottesville, virginia, portland, oregon, and seattle, washington." last month, new york police charged members of the group with rioting and assault after they attacked anti-fascist protesters on the streets of new york city after a talk by leader gavin mcinnes at the metropolitan republican club. later in the broadcast, we'll speak with investigative reporter a.c. thompson on the rise of neo-nazis in america.

in the gaza strip, an associated press camera operator was shot in the leg and wounded monday while covering a protest near israel's heavily militarized separation barrier. witnesses report 47-year-old rashed rashid was nearly 2000 feet away from the fence when he was shot by an israeli soldier. rashid suffered multiple bone fractures above the ankle and will need surgery. he was filming from an elevated area, looking down on the protest and wearing a blue helmet and a vest with the word "press" clearly written on it. the white house fully restored cnn correspondent jim acosta's press credentials monday, one day after threatening to reimpose its ban when a judge's temporary order expires in two weeks. cnn announced their lawsuit was no longer necessary. newly elected minnesota congressmember ilhan omar is at the forefront of a move to overturn a long-standing ban on

headscarves and other religious headwear on the house floor. omar is the first somali-american elected to the u.s. house of representatives and will become, along with rashida tlaib of michigan, the first muslim women in congress. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: and i'm juan gonzalez. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. we begin today's show in california, where a federal judge has temporarily halted president trump's new asylum ban, which attempted to deny asylum to anyone entering the country from outside of a legal port of entry. trump announced the move earlier this month as he escalated his attacks on the central american migrant caravans. pres. trump: people can come in, but they have to come in through the ports of entry. that is a very important thing. we are not leading them in, but they are trying to flood our

country. juan: well, monday, u.s. district judge jon tigar put a temporary halt on the order, writing -- "plaintiffs in the immigrants they represent will suffer irreparable injury if the rule goes into effect pending resolution of this case. asylum seekers will be put at increased risk of violence another harms at the border and many will be deprived of meritorious asylum claims. the government offers nothing and support the rule that outweighs the need to avoid these harms." amy: in response to the court's ruling, aclu attorney lee gelernt, who argued the case, said -- "this ban is illegal, will put people's lives in danger, and raises the alarm about president trump's disregard for separation of powers. there is no justifiable reason to flatly deny people the right to apply for asylum, and we cannot send them back to danger based on the manner of their entry. congress has been clear on this point for decades." we now go to san francisco, or we are joined by one of the warriors who sued the trump

administration over the ban. the center for constitutional legal rights director baher azmy . can you explain the judge's ruling and how significant this is? >> good morning. this is another important judicial ruling ccking arbitrary executive action by the trump administration. in this case, attempting to overrule years of their congressionally mandated asylum law byhe stroke of a pen. written vys clearly in the immigration and nationality act that individuals are entitled to apply for asym ether they make -- whether they enter the united states at a port of entry and subject to routine inspection or whether they enter outside a port of entry -- whether they cross with

the government would say unlawfully. thatis a protection codifies the united states obligation very long-standing and important international human rights principles, which fleeinges that refugees often unspeakable violence need to have a safe haven without being so regulated by the government. in light of the sort of practical reality, the refugees fleeing violence often with nothing more than the clothes on their backs, don't necessarily andrstand a port of entry other places to enter. so this is a significant victory for the rule of law and for the basic protections, humanitarian protections of asylum law. juan: the law even stipulates not just people who have crossed

illegally into the united states, but also people who are interdicted in international waters or u.s. waters who seek asylum as well, esn't it? >> think the interdiction piece on internationalaters is a little bit tricky. but what is totally unambiguous is the individuals who are inring the united states across t southern border are entitled to apply for asylum and make a casehat they have a well-founded fear of persecution and may suffer violence, torture, or death in return to the home countries. amy: it is interesting judge tigar said the government offers nothing in support of the new rule that outweighs the need to avoid these harms. the government offers nothing. can you compare what trump tried to do here with what he did when he first came into office, with

the so-called muslim ban? >> yeah, that was a really significant point that theudge made. and throughout the hearing, expressed skepticism about the factual bis for this rule. likey, it looks a lot the muslim ban. and i think is, in many ways, motivated by the same hostility .owards noncitizens so, you know, the muslim ban is a sort of total -- attempted total shutdown of muslims in airports. and this, combined with other actions that reflect deep hostility to asylum laws, looks like an attempted shutdown of the soutrn border, to central and southern americans. and it is true, there was not

evidence to justify this so-called emergency action. that the trump administration talked about a crisis, but the truth is, migration at the southern border are at .istorically low rates and apprehensions by customs and border protection outside of ports of entry are also at historic lows. a fraction of what they were in the year 2000. this is gratifying because in courts of law as opposed to an presidential press conferences or these one-off proclamations, courts can hold the executive branch tune obligation of reason -- to an obligation of reason and evidence and rationality. and i think what the court implicitly recognized here is this is arbitrary action that is

unlawful. juan: what about the procedural issue that this order was issued without any public notice or chance for public comments or any of the normal procedures that would come about as a result of this kind of administrative decision? >> yeah, that is a very important point as well. law,issued -- federal congressional law requires when agencies make substantial chges to agency rules am a they have to publish them an invite notice and comment. the administration attempted to bypass that important requirement by claiming a crisis in claiming for the fierce power. judgeis no crisis, as the recoized, that would permit and bypassid this

comment. the court was rightly skeptical of this sort of broad claim of foreign relations power, emergency executive power. and what is critical about the attempt to for the notice and, to pross -- which at its core, is an attempt to ensure transparency and democratic account ability and prevent your credit air, but -- by bypassing in this case and preventing our clients, ich are prominent, grassroots immigrant rights ganizatis that are expert in migration patterns and the consequences and impacts on asylum seekers, they were denied the opportunityo correct the false and misguided assumptions that underlie this executive order. and had they been able to

provide those comments, they would haveeen able to inform the public that ere is no migration crisis, the caravans are in fact routine and that in order to protect the safety of migrants, that apprehensions are at historic low, and that the attempted rationale here of the administration, sort of a tidy attempt to incentive to channel people from outside of ports of entry to ports of entry, is just wildly unrealistic given the realities on the ground. juan: given the fact that this is so obviously, this order was so obviously in contradiction to existing law, and as devoted as president trump's attorneys may be to him, they know how to read the law, whitey think -- whado you think was behind this effort of the trump administration to declare the span? >> i can't speak to what the lawyers were thinking, but i think -- th came through a little in the hearing as well.

given the absence of any rationale for this particular rule, this is starting to look like the obvious broad-based attack othe very nature of asylum law in this country. we can see that from not only this rule, but the family separation policy, which was desied to impose maximum cruelty and order tdeter individuals fromeeking asylum. from rhetoric coming from high-lev the mintration officials calling asylum in legal loophole, despite o decade-long obligation to asylum principles. and importantly, as we have revealed in another lawsuit filed in san diego, even at ports of entry, the administration is consistently denying individuals access to the asylum process by making misrepresentations about the

unavailability of asylum, by asking the mexican government to intercept individuals and sort of push them away from ports of entry, and by engaging the system of metering -- which is designed to slow down to a crawl the possibility of seeking asylum. and we have been hearing that, you know, there are anticipated weights of up to six week to access asylum process can even imports of entry, places that are extremely dangerous. in fact, drives people in desperation to try to cross outside the ports of entry. there's a deep humanitarian crisis happening in the northern tribal countries. and people are fleeing unspeakable violence and persecution. and our obligation under basic human rights principles is to accept applications and see if in fact they have a bona fide fear of return to their home countries. amy: baher azmy, what happens now?

so the judge has ruled temporarily blocked this ban. what is the next step? >> he has invited both sides to make additional evidentiary and legal submissions in the coming weeks, and has ordered another hearing in a month on december 19 where he will consider issuing a kind of final injunction barring this rule from going into effect. but from now until then, this rule is deemed unlawful. amy: and then eventually, depending on which side wins, this goes to the capitasupreme court? -- brett kavanaugh? supreme court? >> is hard to say if it will wind up in supreme court, but likely either side that loses to the appeals court. it would surprise me if it ends

up in the united states supreme court. amy: thank you for being with us, baher azmy legal director of , the center for constitutional rights. in san francisco right now or this judge handed down this extremely significant ruling, stopping trump's attempt to stop asylum seekers. when we come back, we speak with frontline propublica investigative reporter a.c. thompson on the rise of neo-nazis in america. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "radiator water" by human people. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: nearly a month after a gunman opened fire at the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh killing 11 jewish worshipers, we spend the rest of the hour on the rise of neo-nazis in america. tonight, new documentary airs around the country by frontline and probed and reporter -- for people got reporter a.c.

called "documenting hate: new american nazis." .> pittsburgh pennsylvania robert bowers storms in the tree of life synagogue within ar-15 and kills 11 jewish worshipers. >> with multiple casualties inside the synagogue. we have three officers who have been shot. members of the tree of life synagogue conducting a peaceful service in the place of worship were brutally murdered by gunmen targeting them simply because of their faith. >> another act of terror in america, the country can left to ask, where does this hate, from? could it have been prevented? 24 hours since robert bowers

stormed into the synagogue and said, i just want to kill nazje. the've been reporting on resurgence of the white supremacist movement. i've seen its ideas migrated to the mainstream. i've seen violence in cities across the country. and now this. what looks to be the deadliest attack on the jewish community in american history. and i fear there will be more to come. amy: synagogue gunman robert bowers had a long history of s andy railing against jew immigrants on social media sites, circulating racist memes. in his post, bowers made specific and repeated threats against jews, including one just before allegedly attacking the jewish synagogue. bringd " hiaus likes to on the same day he opened fire

on a pittsburgh synagogue, and neo-nazi named edward clark that bowers had been communicating with took his own life and washington, d.c. the man's brother, jeffrey clark, has since been arrested on weapons charges. the brothers were both linked to the violent white supremacist .roup atomwaffen for more, we go to speak with a.c. thompson, correspondent for frontline pbs and reporter for propublica. his investigation "documenting hate: new american nazis," premieres tonight on pbs stations and online at pbs.org/frontline. welcome back to democracy now! for the second of your series. he posted about what happened the same day bowers opened fire

in pittsburgh, and washington, d.c. wideout you begin their? fascinating aspect of this story and disturbing. so we all know what happened in pittsburgh. we're robert bowers, a man who was spewing anti-semitic racist invective online. he was using the platform gab to network with other white supremacist. he is accused of going into the tree of life synagogue and kelly 11 worshipers attacking police and so forth. the story that comes out of that , fascinating,rre and disturbing. and this is the story. we have two brothers and washington, d.c. they are part of the white nationalists scene and start at sort of hanging out with richard spencer and that crew. they gravitate more and more and more to the full nazi french. they get involved with vanguard america, which was marching in

charlottesville. tied to theroups murder of heather heyer control its fell. and what we know after that, looking through the chat logs of the extreme neo-nazi group atomwaffen division, we know that one of the brothers shows up in those chat logs of somebody who was hanging out with atomwaffen's northern virginia contingent. his online handle shows up in their, communicating with other northern virginia people. people from his area. of -- to to the scene the house where the two brothers shared recently, and they find atomwaffen literature as well. by this time, one of the brothers, edward clark him has committed suicide. he committed suicide on the morning of the synagogue massacre, right around the time of the synagogue massacre. and the other brother, jeffrey clark, gets arrested for weapons charges, for having high-capacity magazines,

ammunition magazines. and they find all of this racist literature, atomwaffen literature. now what we're looking at is beingtomwaffen division tied to this incredible act of violence in pittsburgh. and we're really not sure where the stories going to go from here, but it is a really interesting, disturbing development. juan: i want to turn back to your investigation "documenting hate: new american nazis." this clip is about the neo-nazi group atomwaffen. >> atomwaffen was founded in 2015 by brandon russell, a national guardsman in his early 20's. he moved into this apartment complex with three other members of the group. one of them, an 18-year-old high

school dropout named devon arthurs, would bring atomwaffen to the attention of authorities. >> friday night, 18-year-old devon arthurs confessed to killing his roommate. >> he said a fourth room mate participates in neo-nazi chat rooms. >> the, thread that connected all four roommates was neo-nazi beliefs. >> why had he a poorly shot two of his roommate? his father agreed to talk to me about what happened that day. offices working in my and the cell phone went off and it was my son. sorry, idad, i'm really messed up. i have really messed up. i said, what is a matter? what is going on? two guys that were staying

or whatever, they are dead. i shot them. they upset me and i shot them. i tried to hold it together. i said, put the gun down or any weapon down come and go turn yourself in right now. right now. all i was hearing was "i'm sorry, dad. i'm sorry." i said, just turn yourself in. he said he began gravitating toward neo-nazi ideas when he was 13 or 14 years old. he was really interested in the military. >> that is what he said. that's what you think he was interested in? >> there were two other brothers and another member of that rotc that were obviously into the neo-nazi stuff. >> so you think he was joining the rotc group because there were other kids that were into not see is him and the group? >> deftly.

kochrothers said his relationship with the sun became increasingly strained. >> we were barely talking. >> devon ended up dropping out of high school. he moved into the apartment with the atomwaffen members. would not -- would be figured out what brandon was going to do, he could not live with himself. that is all he is ever said to me. refused toe pole ta to us about the case. when i obtainevideo of devon arthurs interview, over and over he tellsetectiveabout atomwaffen. >> atomwaffen is a neo-nazi organization. the things they were planning were horrible. the are planng to ki civilians. were they specific in their plans? reactors,nes, nuclear

synagogues. juan: nuclear reactors, synagogues. that was neo-nazi devon arthur in his police interview after allegedly shooting and killing two fellow members of atomwaffen . to. thompson, take us back the founding of atomwaffen and how the group has developed. >> it is a really interesting story. atomwaffen develops the way a lot of groups developed now, out of the online world. it starts with young men conversing on a fascist forum. meson russell would post me about how he loved school shooters, loved adolf hitler. you posted a picture of himself t-shirt shotgun with a that said "natural born killers" it.a nazi eagle below

enjoy 15 he said, hey, i'm starting this group. i have been thinking about it for a long time. if you want to get involved, contact me. we're going to be about the militant stuff. we're one to be about sort of armed struggle for the fascist cause to take over the race wart' and start a and impose our fascist ideas on this country. and that is how he got followers. people joined up with the group that way. and it networked using the internet, using monarchy medications tools so there had been no other group created all of -- nodes of the group all of the country that are sort of linked using encrypted chats, using various tools to keep them in communication. we now think there is somewhere between 50 and 80 members of the group. we know there are members in canada, people in australia have gotten involved. we know the group is linked to five different murders. juan: what about their

ideological guru that you talk about, james mason? who ise and wh is his relationship to the group? >> james mason was kind of an them secure figure in the neo-nazi. he a been involved with the american not the party of george lincoln rockwell. you been involved with other neo-nazi groups, but he was not really a main player. mason still is he says, hey, we ,re not going to create naziism fascism in america through the ballot box. your not going to do it through politics, through political protest. we're going to do it through the gun. and the way we're going to do this is terrorism, assassination, accept hyper violence, and just general chaos . we're going to collapse the system and we will take charge. that message, which he promulgated in a newsletter " has beenege wa

adopted by this new generation. they have sort of adopted him as their guru, as their intellectual eminence. important are these people? how many are there? and let's go back to when president obama first came into office. this report on the threat of white supremacy and domestic terrorists that was squelched by right-wing congressmembers, demanded it not be released. is this what they were tracking? >> this is exactly what they were tracking. i think we should say also it was retracted eventually by the obama administration. yeah, that is when this whole thing starts picking up, 2008, 2009. firstresistance to the african-american president in this country. you see dissatisfaction from veterans coming home from wars

that have been very hard on them and returning to a disastrous economy and having difficulties fitting in in some cases. you see anger about potential gun control legislation will stop what has happened since then is all of these things have escalated. now we're in a much more dangerous ways that even daryl johnson and dhs was predicting at that time. one of the things he predicted is he said, look, i'm concerned that these returning veterans will get involved with these groups. we have seen it in the past. it may happen again. and that is exactly what has happened. the vast bulk of her service members are decent, wonderful people. my father and grandfather served in the army. but there has consistently been this small i'm a hard-core members who get involved with these white power groups atomwaffen like atomwaffen and and up doing pretty serious damage to the country.

issue, though, given the fact this group is so small, mentioning -- your mentioning many of them, out of military experience. the reality is, our country is been in perpetual war so there has been constant churn of soldiers going out to fight the enemy, learning how to kill and coming back to the country. i'm wondering your sense of the situation of perpetual war, how it has affected not just veterans who by get involved in these extremist groups, but also who might be susceptible once they are back instantly like to this picture painted by trump or another political conservative of the need to fight the enemy? you put it exactly right. that is actually what we hear from the veterans who have gotten involved with the white power movement. they say perpetual war. they say, we have been sent of these wars that have been disastrous, that have ruined our

friends, that we've seen horrible things happen. and now we feel broken and damaged, and we're looking around for answers. and where there finding answers -- honestly, some of them are finding answers and progressive politics and decent causes. and some of them are finding answers and neo-naziism. i was reading chat messages sent by one member of atomwaffen who serv in afghanistan. he said, the small moral part of me that still exist has nightmares about the people i know being blown up, about seeing them blown up in combat. he says, and i feel guilt automaticwas a squad and with the built bed machine gun and i remember killing women and children inadvertently, exit only, and i feel great guilt about it. the thing that happens is this guilt and anger is being channeled into this obviously incredibly neo-nazi ideology.

this perpetual war is having damaging effects. amy: a.c. thompson, we have to break for 30 seconds. his investigation "documenting , hate: new american nazis" premieres tonight on pbs stations and online at pbs.org/frontline. when we come back, we continue with a.c. thompson to look at the connections between the u.s. military and white supremacy. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: we're continuing to look at the rise of neo-nazis in america in the wake of the pittsburgh massacre in the spate of hateful killings in the u.s. still what this is a.c. thompson, correspondent for frontline pbs and reporter for propublica. his investigation "documenting hate: new american nazis," premieres tonight on pbs stations and online at pbs.org/frontline. in his invtigation, thompson spoke with professor catharine belew, author of "bring the war home" links which in the military and atomwaffen. >> we're looking at a current division, atomwaffen and they're actively recruiting military members. does that surprise you? >> not at all.

that is a strategy pioneered by the white her movement and the paving of my study and continue throughout the post vietnam period. throughout american history, there is always the correlation between the aftermath of warfare and this kind of vigilante and revolutionary white power violence. theou look for inance at ku klux klan membership, that one more consistently with the return of veterans from combat in the aftermath of wathan they do with anti-immigration of populism, economic hardship or any of the other factors that history effectively used to explain them. nationalist fervor, populist movements, those are all worst predictors. toks postwar periods tend respond with an upsurge and white supremacist activity? >> always. >> shell is a long history military men who became key figurein the white power movement. george lincoln rockwell, world war ii veteran and founder of the american nazi party.

richard butler, world war ii veteran and founder of the area nations. louis beam, vietnam veteran and grand dragon of the kkk. timothy mcveigh, gulf war veteran, and oklahoma city bomber. >> it is important remember, too, that returning veterans that join this movement and active duty troops, we're talking about a tiny, not even significant percentage of veterans, but within this movement, those people who did serve are playing an enormously important role in instruction of weapons, in creating paramilitary activist mentality and training. >> when we speako people involved in this movement today, they talk about leaderless resistance. can you explain that to me? basically what we would understand as self-styled terrorism. the idea that you can recruit a small number of committed activists, organize them, and

then they will behave on their own in a cell without direct ties of movement leadership. if we think about the obama city bombing and timothy mcveigh as the ideal soldier of leaderless resistance. he is an infantry unit and involved in white power groups while on post. use consistently involved in this movement right of to th movement -- moment of the oklahoma bombing. we have th memory of that as an active one person. as a result, i think we have never really delivered a divisive stop to this. >> because we don't understand oklahoma city as being an outgrowth of an organized movement that has been around for decades, that is modeling the military, that is involving military members, that the authorities have never really been able to put a stop to it. >> that's right. the military response to white power actism like the court response and the police response to white power activism, reflects the many ways our

society has not been prepared to deal with this kind of movement. juan: that was professor catherine belew speaking with a.c. thompson. why is it then the military and the federal government, its counterterrorism efforts, places such little attention of the billions of dollars they spend idealingrterrorists with home-grown, right-wing extremist terrorists? >> that is a great question. i don't think anyone really knows the full swer to that. one thing we should say, there is been more aggressive action from the fbi and the department of justice recently on this front. so we saw a wise up or involved in the rise above movement who were active in charlottesville and other protest recently get arrested on writing charges. we see the fbi looking at this connection between atomwaffen in

the pittsburgh massacre. i think in general, there is been this massive turn towards focusing on 9/11-style terrorism and the sort of sense that the white supremacist, antigovernment terrorism embodied by people like timothy mcveigh, embodied by people like wade page -- eight neo-nazi who went into a sikh to buy wisconsin and killed six worshipers -- that that is not that important. i think there has been a loss of the expertise on white supremacist terrorism within the federal government th --rything now is jyoti-style jihadi-sow terrorism, some people don't have the institutional knowledge to go after the white supremacist. amy: a.c. thompson, for this report, you interviewed a member of atomwaffen, well, you call him john. you disguise his voice.

his face is blurred. this is a clip. >> back in new york, our john, agreedurce, to talk over video chat with me and my colleague ali winston. >> atomwaffen is a nazi extremist groups seeking to spread terror. the main activity is lone wolf. >> you sound like you're talking basically about terrorist acts? they don't see themselves as terrorists, rather the united states as e ultimate terrorist. like adolf hitler said, how do you meet terrorism? you meet it was stronger terrorism. atomwaffen is about 60 guys. you have what is called initiates the guys were in the process of becoming members.

in order to become a member, yet to prove yourself. >> how many initiates would you say there are or were? initiative dish more initiates the numbers. all it takes is one to do something like this. that is what dylann roof said. amy: dylann roof, of course, is the young man who opened fire in interesth an in. disguisepson, you john's face, his voice. this journey you go on confronting white supremacists or those who want to talk about

them is dangerous for yourself as well. can tell us who john is, how you found him, and then when you find james mason, him talking about trump emboldening these people? >> what i should say about john is the reason that john's voice is disguised, his identity is disguised -- similar the other former atomwaffen member, is they are not scared of the authorities or public, but the current atomwaffen members coming after them and their families and killing them. that is why their disguise. that is the sort of fear people have been talking about these groups when they have been inside his terror organizations. we went out to texas because atomwaffen is clearly driven texas,cell of people in houston, texas. there is him and named john cameron denton. he goes by the online handle rape. everyone in the group calls him rape. we confronted them at a heavy

metal festival in houston and said, hey, you're talking about killing people all of the time. you're making threats to people online. your celebrating mass murder. we would love to interview you your views. he did not want to talk, but we guy demsually get the mason who is sort of been the inspiration for this group who is an advisor to the group to talk to us. what he said was pretty fascinating. juan: what did he say? saye expected that he would , overthrow the government, smash the state, impose fascism. and he did celebrate timothy mcveigh, celebrated james alex fields -- the man accused of killing heather heyer -- he did say "i welcome the chaos." but the thing that he said that surprised us is he said, "but you know, i'm sort of reconsidering these days. we have trump in office now and

i really see trump as an ally, so i don't really know where things are going to go from here and i'm sort orethinking my philosophy a little bit." and that surprised us. that was a little bit of a shock to us. amy: very quickly, you have the thousand oaks killing of 12 people. that man served in the military. jrotc. in in the yoga studio intel as he. he was in the military. in the last 10 seconds we have, how do you think this can be doubt with? thing, we one key need military authorities to really keep an i on the types of people coming into the service and the things they're doing in the service. and when he sort of general thoughtfulness and vigilance on this. amy: i want to thank you for being with us. again, a.c. thompson, correspondent for frontline pbs and reporter for propublica. his investigation "documenting hate: new american nazis," premieres tonight on pbs

stations and online at pbs.org/frontline. that does it for our broadcast. 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

♪ welcome to nhk "newsline" this wednesday, november 21st. i'm raja pradhan with the latest from tokyo. tokyo prosecutors are trying to uncover the murky flow of funds to nissan motors chairman. carlos goen was arrested on suspicion of underreporting his earnings. nhk has learned he received tens of millions of dla respect in stock-based compensation but the payment never appeared in the company's securities rep.