01/09/19 01/09/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! pres. trump: this is a humanitarian crisis, a crisis from the heart and a crisis of the soul. amy: as the government shutdown enters its 19th day, we look at president trump's prime time oval office address demanding $5.7 billion to build a wall on the southern border. after trump gave a speech filled with falsehoods, democrats offered their response.

>> we don't govern by temper tantrum. no president should pound the table and demand he gets his way or else the government shuts down. hurting millions of americans who are treated as leverage. amy: then we speak to longtime national security journalist william arkin, who just left nbc, denouncing the mainstream media's coverage of the trump administstration, the national security state, and perpetual war. >> a thing because of donald trump, there's a tendency on the part of the mainstream media to look to the fbi and the cia as institutions that somehow are going to save the american people from the president. the inadvertent effect of that is that there promomoting the vy institutions which are the recipients and the beneficiaries of war and the state of perpetual war that we live under. amy: william arkin perpetual war and the creeping fascism of

homeland security. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the partial shutdown of the u.s. government has entered in 19th day. soon to be the longest shut down in history. on tuesday night, president donald trump addressed the first primetime speech from the oval office. he urged congress to approve $5.7 billion to build a wall on the u.s.-mexico border but he opted not to declare a national emergency. pres. trump: over the years, thousands of ameriricans have bn brutallyly killed by those who illegally entered our c coury and thousandnds more lives wille lost if we don't act right now. this is a humanitarian crisis. a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul.

last month, 20,000 migrant children were illegally brought into the uninited states, a dramatic increase. these childrdren are used as hun pawns i vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs. directlys, it's contradict numerous studies that show immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than u.s. born citizens. fact checkers also disputed key aspects of president trump's claims from his claims about the drug trade, immigrant violence and how his proposed border wall would be funded. last week he claimed multiple former president said he should have -- they should have built a border wall while in office. all four living former u.s. presidents or their representatives have since denied the claim, saying they did not have this conversation with trump. after trump spokoke, senator c k schumer and house speaker nancy pelosi delivered t the democrats response, rebuking trump's claims, calling for an end to the gogovernment shutdown whihih

will soon becomeme the longest shutdown in u.s. history. we'll have more on trump's address after headlines with oscar chacon, executivive direcr of alianza americas. in the senate, democrats have blocked the first bill in the new session, which included the controversial combating bds act. the legislation aims to prevent opposition to the israeli government by allowing state and local governments to sanction any u.s. companies which are engaged in a boycott against israel. the bill received a vote of 56-44, falling short of the 60 needed to advance. democrats say they will block the bill until the governmentt shutdown is over. in environmental news, newly released data shows that carbon dioxide emissions in the u.s. increased by 3.4% in 2018, the largest increase in eieight yea. the spike cocomes despite a lare number of coal p plants closingn the past year. researchers say the increase can be attributed to a rise in emissions from transportation,

buildings, and factories. last month, scientists said carbon dioxide emissions surged globally in 2018, describing the alarming trend as a speeding freight train. in response to tuesday's report, may boeve of 350.org said -- "there are consequences to government inaction. without taking critical measures to cut fossil-fuel emissions much more drastically, we are locking ourselves into the devastating consequences of climate change, including rising sea levels, more severe hurricanes and storms, wildfires, and more. with a new congress in session, we demand they heed these warnings and step up to act at the scale of the crisis." deputy attorney general rod rosenstein is expected to leave his position as soon as the new attorney general is confirmed, this according to emerging reports. last month, trump nominated former attorney general for

george h.w. bush, william barr, for the position. barr is known for his expansive view of executive power and had previously sent an unsolicited memo to rod rosenstein, criticizing special counsel robert mueller's ongoing russia investigation. rosenstein was seen by many as helping to protect mueller from being fired and from other white house interference. if confirmed by the senate, barr will oversee mueller's probe. in november, trump retweeted an image from a pro-trump twitter account featuring rosenstein as well as robert mueller and a range of prominent democrats, including the clintons and barack obama, behind prison bars. text overlaid on the image reads -- "now that russian collusion is a proven lie, when do the trials for treason begin?" federal prosecutors are accusing former trump campaign chair paul manafort of sharing polling data during the 2016 campaign with a

suspected russian intelligence operative. the accusation came to light after manafort's lawyers failed to read act the information from a court filing. the document shows special counsel robert mueller believes manafort lied to investigators about his dealings with the man. "the new york times" reports -- one "the document provided the clearest evidence to date that the trump campaign may have try to cordon it with russians during the 2016 presidential race." presentn lawyer who is at the infamous june 2016 trump tower meeting was charged by federal prosecutors with obstruction of justice in an unrelated case. the case however seemingly points to evidence of natalia veselnitskaya's close relationship with the kremlin, which she has previously denied. court documents show veselnitskaya was backed by the kremlin in her denial of money laundering accusations, raising

further questions about whether she was working for the kremlin when she took the trump tower meeting. the meeting, attended by donald trump jr., jared kushner, paul manafort, and others, came after she promised damaging information on hillary clinton in an attempt to help trump win the presidency. in october, reports emerged russia's government provided a memo to veselnitskaya ahead of the june 2016 meeting. in turkey, president recep tayyip erdogan condemned recent remarks by national security adviser john bolton, in which he -- bolton said turkey should protect syrian kurdish fighters as a condition for u.s. troop withdrawal from syria. turkey considers the syrian kurdish fighters to be part of a terrorist group. erdogan, after apparently refusing to meet directly with bolton during his turkey trip, said he had agreed with president trump that the u.s. would withdraw quickly while turkish forces would counter the remaining threat of isis on the ground. secretary of state mike pompeo

is in iraq today to discuss the syria withdraw in a surprise visit. in sudan, anti-government protests over the past month have resulted in at least 800 arrests according to government officials. among the arrested were professors from khartoum university, who joined the popular uprising. dozens were killed during violent clashes last month, as people took to the streets protesting the economimic situation of the countryry and e military regime e of presidentnt omar hasassan al-bashir, with my calling for the overthrow of the ruling national congress party. al-bashir is also accused of trying to censor news about the ongoing protest by arresting journalists, shutting down newspapers and webebsites, and disrupting the internet. los angeles policece have founda man's dead b body inside the wet hollywood home of prominenent democratic donor ed buck. the deceased man's identity has not yet been revealed, but

police have said he is black, making him the second black man to be found dead inside buck's home. in july 2017, 26-year old gemmel moore was found naked in buck's living room after he overdosed. buck was not charged in moore's death, but authorities now say they will review their investigation. ed buck has been a vocal supporter of various democratic politicians and causes for years and donated to the campaigns of barack obama and hillary clinton. in houston, texas, funeral services were held tuesday for jazmine barnes, the seven-year-old girl who was shot while in a car with her mother and three of her sisters last week. a second man, 24-year-old larry woodruffe, was charged with capital murder tuesday. woodruffe is believed to be the shooter, while eric black jr. is said to have driven the car involved in the shooting. police say the shooting was likely a case of mistaken identity. musician r. kelly could be under new investstigation in georgia,

days after an explosive docu-series aired on tv chronicling years of sexual abuse and misconctct algations. an attorney r r the milyly o jojoelyn savage, who they algege habeen brawashed a sexually asesed by. kekell has reported b been contacted by t fulton county ststrictttororne the vavage fily say ey h hav been threated d by rkelllly' manager for pppporti thehe documearary. the popur r r&b ngerer a producerasas beeaccucuseof sexual assau, , predory bebehaor andedophilifor two decade but s never en criminal convict. toee our rent inteiew out the cu-serie"survivi r.elly" anthe effos to brinjustice r. kel's victs, go tour websi at democrynow.org. ininew york ty, two seattle city councilors have warned activists and local leaders about the potential unwanted consequences of the new amazon headquarters due to be built in

queens. at a monday organizing event, they said that seattle did not respond fast enough to amazon's expansion, which left the city with a housing crisis as real estate prices soared. the councilors urged new yorkers to resist an unfettered corporate takeover and demand fair labor conditions. since amazon's announcement of its hq2 plans in november, community organizations and some local leaders have been protesting the move. last month, workers at a new amazon fulfillment center in staten island announced plans to unionize, citing safety, long hours, and l low pay as some of their concerns. in baltimore, maryland ice , agents have detained salvadoran immigrant rights activist roxana orellana santos after a routine check-in and might be preparing to deport her. santos had previously sued frederick county for civil rights violations and racial profiling after she was arrested while eating lunch on a curb in 2008.

a maryland court later found that santos' right against unreasonable searches and seizures had been violated. santos has been in the u.s. for over a decade after fleeing violence in el salvador. she has four children living in the u.s. civil rights leader angela davis has responded to the birmingham civil rights institute's decision to revoke a human rights award in her honor, sensuous stunned by the move. -- saying she was stunned by the move. in a statement, davis said -- "the rescinding of this invitation and the cancellation of the event where i was scheduled to speak was not primarily an attack against me but rather against the very spirit of the indivisibility of justice." davis will instead appear at an alternative event in birmingham in her honor. in california, governor gavin newsom introduced a healthcare proposal on his first day inin office that would strengthen the

affordable care act and expand -- expand health care access for undocumented youth to the age of 26. california's medicaid program currently covers undocumented youth up to the age of 19. the plan would also restore the individual mandate in california, which h was revokedn the 2017 gop t tax bill. and in new york city, mayor bill deblasio announced tuesday that the city will guarantee health care for all new yorkers. the plan is primarily targeting low-income and undocumented new yorkers. an estimated 600,000 people in the city are not currently covered by any healthcare plan. this is mayor deblasio speaking at a news conference tuesday. >> the ultimate solution is single-payer health insurance for the sole country or medicare for all. that is the ideal. that is what we need. [applause] and i strongly support the single-payer bill that will be considered in albany this spring

, because if washington won't act, then our state government should act. amy: 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. president donald trump addressed the nation tuesday night in his first primetime speech from the oval office. he urged congress to approve $5.7 billion to build a wall on the u.s.-mexico border, but he opteted not to declare a nationl emergencncy to force construrucn of the wall. pres. trump: our s southern borr is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs, heroine, meth, cocaine, and fetanyl. 90% floods acrososs from our southern border. morere americacans will die from drugs this year than were killed

in the entire vietnam war. in the last two years, ice oficers made 266,000 arrests aliens with criminal records, including those charged or assaults,of 100,000 30,000 sex crimes, and 4000 violent killings. over the years, thousands of americans s have been brutallyly killed by those who illegally entered our country and thousands more lives will be lost if we don't act right now. humanitarian crisis. a a crisis of the heart, and a crcrisis of the soul. amy: fact checkers disputed key aspects of president trump's claims. which he often repeats. on the drug front, the spike in overdoses is directly linked to the rising use of the opioid fentanyl which largely comes from china, not the southern

border. cnn reports u.s. government data shows most of the hard narcotics seized by customs and border protection comes at legal ports of entry, not from people trying to secretly cross the southern border. trump's comments on violent immigrants failed to note numerous studies that show immigrants are less likely to commit violent crimes than u.s. born citizens. president trump went on to blame democrats for the partial whichment shutdown, entered its 19th day. pres. trump: the federal govevernment remains shutdown fr one reason a and one reason onl, because democrats will nonot fud border security. mymy administrtration is doingng everything in our power to help those impacted by the s situati, but the only solution is for democrcrats to pass a spending bill that defends ouour borders and reopens the government. juan: after trump spoke, senator

minority leader chuck schumer and house speaker nancy pelosi delivered the democrats response. >> the fact is, women and children at the border are not a security threat. they are humanitarian challenge, is onlynge that deepened. the fact is, president trump must stop holding amerco p peope hostage, manufacturing a crisis, and must reopen the government. >> the president of the united states, having failed to get mexico too pay for his ineffective, unnecessary border wall, and unable to convince the congress or the american people to foooot the bill has shutdown the government. american democracy doesn't work thatat way. we don''t govern by temper tantrum. no president should pound the table and demand he gets his way or else the government shuts down. hurting millions of americans who are treated as leverage.

amy: as the partial government shutdown extends intnto its 19th day and will soon become the longest shutdown in history if it conontinues, boborder patrold tsa agents are being forced to work without pay. to talk more about president trump's oval office address, we are joined by oscar chacon. he is the executive director of alianza americas, an immigrant rights group based in chicago. oscar, i am sure you sat down and watched the 9, 10 minute speech a president trump where nothing he announced was new -- axa, overnight, "the new york timemes" reported d he did not n want to give the speech because he recognized nothing you said was new and he would not convince anyone else. but repeated, and because every network agreed to broadcast this lifetime every major corporate network, repeated falsehood after falsehood about immigrants

and about what is happening at the southern border. can you talk about this speech? >> absolutely. first of all, did morning and happy new year to both of you. clearly, the speech last night was a repetition of the very lies that this man, donald trump the u.s. president, has been saying since the moment he announced that he was going to be running for president. so what i saw in the speech last night was, again, a coming back, in some ways, even more lives than before, at the same racist, xenophobic attack, very much adding insult to injury. let's remember this is the president that has been systematically attacking immigrants, attacking refugees, using lies to try to make his case. and i'm not surprised to hear he was reluctant to make this speech because and wrecked respect, may come to regret the fact that he delivered a speech

which, as you said and i agree, did not convince anybody about the merits this president is asking. in my view, he was trying to use the very many failures of u.s. policy over many years to actually use it as justification to build a wall that anybody with a sense of respect for data, a sense of respect for evidence, would agree does not some problems may be legitimate. the drug trafficking problem, the fact there are a lot of people dying in the u.s. as a result of drug trafficking as nothing to do with the presence of immmmigrants in thehe u.s. are inve unless we agreement that these are basically lies supported more

than anything us by prejudice, namely racism and xenophobia, we are not going to ever be able to get sololutions to what is realy a problem, which is the humanitarian crisis we are facing where this president is clearly wanting to violate existing law am u.s. law and international law, when it comes to acknowledging the rights of people have to seek a asylum wih their own countries s have faild them as far as protecting and providing a way of life that is decent and secure. juan: even a basic premise that the president has repeatedly said that there is a crisis at the border, when as you say, the facts, if anyone who studies the facts knows apprehensions at the border, by the border patrol, are near all-time lows. back in 2000, there were 1.6 million people being apprehended at the border. it was lessal 2018,

than 400,000. one quarter of the number were apprehended last year than were apprehended back in 2000. so there has been a sharp decline in apprehensions. the differences, many of the apprehensions now are not of single men looking for work but are of families, children, so the system is not geared to handling and detaining families and children as it was previously when it was largely single men coming for work. i am wondering your thoughts about this idea there is a crisis at the border? >> this is a classical case of trying to provide a medicine for an illness that does not exist. this is exactly what this particular approach by this president is all about. keep in mind, from a strategy point of view, what this president is trying to do is to indeed get away with getting money for a wall that we don't need. it would be an outright waste of taxpayer money to put any money

into it. but what he is really trying to do is come if he gets away with this, then say that the problem is not really the border but the problem is people coming into the country in every other way. because in the end, keep in mind, this is in a administration that when it comes to immigration, it is driven by two principles also won, eliminate any possibility for people coming into the u.s.. number two, let's eject from this country people we deem undesirable. this is what the president is seeking to do. a falsen, he is using crisis -- i repeat, the only crisis we really have is a crisis that results from the lack of respect for these people who are fleeing their own countries to be able to come into the u.s. and apply for political asylum and be given a fair hearing on the merits of their asylum cases. that is the crisis that we have

that is affecting children, families, and again, this president is simply doesn't last night the speech was a clear case of ignoring entirelely with the problem realally is. he is making it worse. in fairness, he did not begin with this president. back several years, but clearly, he is making it a lot worse. juan: i want to ask you about the cost of this wall that he wants to build, $5.7 billion. the reports i've shown show this is for 234 miles of a wall. my rough math of that shows that this wall would cost about $6,000 per foooot across the border. it is an enormous expenditure for a very small portion of the border. even the mathematics of it don't seem to make sense. >> you are correct. and this is why i emphasized that this is simply one element

in a larger strategy that this administration is pursuing. i am happy to see democrats finally seem to be growing a strong backbone, and i hope they to opposeisdom clearly this particular attempt on the president to again continue in a strategy that ultimately seeks to base go desk basicalllly cs from anyone comig up and eject out of the country people they deem undesirable. it is important to understand that if you are really serious about building a wall, $5.7 billion is a joke. you would need literally hundreds of billions of dollars to build the kind of all that he promised he would build and that also promised mexico would pay for. nothing is farther from the truth. the responseo play

from bernie sanders. the democratic leaders pelosi and schumer did a joint response, but on facebook, twitter, bernie sanders responded to donald trump's speech. >> president trump tonight has told us whatat he believes we nd the wall. he gives me no pleasure to tell yoyou what most of you already know, and that is that president trtrump lies all of the time. and in his remarks tonight and in recent weeks regarding immigratioion and the wall, he continues to lie. just a few examples. trump has told the american people several hundred times -- and he mentioned it tonight -- that mexico would pay for thehe wall. that i is a lie. if t this wall were to be built, mexico would not pay for it, american taxpayers would. trump said that thousands and thousands of terrorists are enentering the u united states m

the southern border. that isis also a lie. according to a state department atport released in september " years end, there was no credible evidence indicating that international terrorist groups have sent operatives via mexico into the united states."" sanders' not bernie opinion, that t is a directt que from trump's own state depapartment. trump recently s said that some ex-presidents told him that they should have built a wall. that is a lie. ex-presidentsg have statated clearly t that thy never t talked to trump about their desire to build a w wall. trump s said we neeeed a wall to prevent carere when another illegal drugs from coming into the country. another lie.

according to donald trump's own drug enforcement a administrati, the most common method mexicacan cartels use to transport illegal drugs over the souththwest bordr is through legal ports of entry using passenger vehicles. and on and on it goes. amy: that is independent senator bernie sanders of vermont giving his response to president trump's oval office address, which every major corporate network ran last night. if you can,, respond to what senator sanders said and also talk about what you think needs to happen now. and the fact that to accomplish what trump wants to, he has shut down the government, at least a quarter of it, but included in that is homeland security. so as he talks about his concern tsat homeland security, the agents at the airports, prison

guards and the border guarards n the border are being forced to work without pay. >> i agree with everything senator sanders said. i was saying pretty much the same thing before i heard the recording of his response yesterday. i really believe what needs to happen is a much stronger response, not only by members of congress, but by citizens of the united statetes of america. we need to understand that this is a president that seeks to create crisis, that seeks to create chaos to then use chaos and crisis precisely to continue to feed the fear campaigning that he does in order to get away with what he wants. in the end, we must understand

that, yes, the united states of america has been for years in a years in a bad need for a brand-new immigration policy. clearly, what is happening now and what the president is proposing is absolutely no solution. we need to understand the first thing we need to do is acknowledge that immigration has been a true benefit for the .ountry, an asset in our nation and also for the countries of origin. then we need to acknowledge once and for all that the policies that we have in place need to be brought in sync with the 21st century. let me give you one quick example. we often in the united states of america celebrate when a cocorporation becomes more profofitable because they move abroad, leaving people without jobs in the u.s. but we fail to acknowledge t the fact that hard-working people and places in central america were in mexico should also have the right to be able to come and work in a country like the u.s.

if they consider they will be up to get a better pay and return for r their labor. that is at the core of what is wrong with our immigration policy. we need to affirm the rights of people to living in a community with their families. because family is central for the well-being of human beings. these are principles that we must absolutely understand, that have to be at the core. we alslso need to approach these from a foreign-policy perspective. if we really don't want people to come, let's really work to make countries like honduras, salvador, guatemala places people do not want to leave because they have an opportunity for a decent way of life in their own nation. until all of that happens, i think we're going to contntinueo be just basically fooling ourselves thinking that with building walls or simply funding more immigration enforcement the way we have been doing a for the past 25 years is going to solve a problemm t that, again, israel

but the solutions we have been so far talking about seem m to t measure up. thank you forcon, being with us executive director , of alianza americas, an immigrant rights group based in chicago. this is democracy now! when we come back, the next guest just left nbc, writing a memo talking about perpetual war .nd the national security state its representatives are populating so many of the pundit positions of all of the major networks. 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: william arkin described the mainstream media in a scathing letter last week announcing he would be leaving the network. he accused the media of

warmongering while ignoring the "creeping fascism of homeland security." a issued the critique after 30 relationship with nbc, calling for trump-free media days and a reckoning about how the network encourages a state of perpetual warfare. in the memo, he writes -- find it disheartening we do not report the failures of the generals and national security leaders. i find it shocking that we essentially condone, continued american bumbling in the middle east. and now africa through our reporting. ignorant,trump is an impostor and yet i'm alarmed at how quick nbc is to mechanically argue to the contrary to be in favor of policies that just spell more conflict and more war." amy: for more, we're joined by william arkin, long-time nbc reporter and analyst. he is the author of many books, ."cluding "top secret america

welcome to democracy now! so you left nbc with this explosive memo that not only indict nbc, your network, basically nbc, they might not like us but does not stand out among the crowd of corporate networks in dealing with this issue of perpetual war. >> everything i said in this letter, which was a good by letter to my colleagues at nbc, applies to all of the mainstream networks, applies to cnn and fox as well. so i'm not really singling out nbc. i was just most familiar with it. and my decision not to renew my contract was really one of thinking to myself that i wanted to stand back and think more about what we needed to do in order to change our national security policy. we have been at war now for 18 years. i don't think anybody could

argue there is a country in the middle east that is safer than it was in 2001. the generals and the national security leadership that runs the country and also as the commentators and the analyst who populate the news media, really are not people who we can look a as saying, wow, they won a massiveved objective. the are the architects of perpetual warfare. it seemed like there need to be a different voice and a solution. i want to step back myself and think about how we of perpetualera war and build some real sesecurity, bothth in the united states and abroad. juan: i am wondering, in terms of your coconcerns about the coverage of president trump and of the trump era and your concncern about the fixation --t really is an obsession almost of all of the networks with covering him not just on a daily

but hourly, minute by minute basis. >> let me just say i'm here at democracy now! and i should not bite the hand that feeds me, but you started your broadcast today making fun of the president and his remarks last night about the border. it is almost impossible to avoid. a circus.mp runs everyday he gets up and unzips his pants and we go, oh, my god, what is he doing? the next day he repeats and we repeat. so i think to some degree he sucks the oxygen out of the debate. he changes the discourse. in we have not figured out yet in the news media, every part of the news media, how to get beyond that. aboutm not arguing only the mainstream. i think everyone is stuck in the donald trump circus. amy: i have to take issue with you saying "making fun." "fun" is not the word of would

use. we did focus on what he had to say. the more the networks broadcast directly what he has to say, this is the information i get out to the american people and it is so critical to take on each point. in that case, for example, that immigrants commit more crimes a natural born americans, which is not true. and it is absolutely critical each time those comments are made to counter them. but let's get to the issue of who populate the network tv shows? issue youalidating an have criticized for so long and investigated for so long, the national security state. >> i have been associated with television for 30 years. i have been a journalist for about the same period of time. but it is not my background. my background was in army intelligence and there i wrote books about the military. i was called upon to be a journalist because there was a desire on the part of "the los

" and "themes washington post" and nbc to have experts helping people to understand an incredibly complex issue, national security. in those days when i started, we used to have civilian experts on the air. people were not former government officials, not retired generals, people who might be university professors were activists who worked and nongovernmental organizations or experts who are associated with think tanks. something happened post-9/11, something happen in this intervening years in which those people virtually disappeared from the airwaves. we don't seeee as many anymore. in fact, we increasingly see journalists who are the commentators on what is going on. that is a tricky position because journalists are supposed to be unbiased, but at the same time, they are supposed to be explaining to the public what is going on with inside

information. the end result is we become shallower in our coverage, particularly in an area like national security. we have just become so shallow that we are not really able to see the truth, which is that we are at war right now in nine countries around the world where we are bombing, and we heard the report in yemen on a day-to-d-dy basis. to me, the crisis is we condone perpetual war by virtue of our lack of reporting and investigation, and then second, we filled the airwaves or we filled the newspapers with stories about the immediate and don't give an adequate amount of space to deeper investigation or what i would say would be net assessment investigations and what really is going on. whether we should or should not withdraw troops from syria, whether we should or should not withdraw troops from afghanistan, whether we should or we should not improve our

relations with russia, whether we should or should not pursue denuclearization in the korean peninsula -- all of these questions deserve a high degree of investigation and reporting beyond the question of whether or not donald trump is a buffoon . and we just don't do it. we're just not doing it. to me, i'm not necessarily interested in prescribing the why, i'm interested in changing the culture some can better inform ourselves about national security so that the citizenry can play a more powerful role in influencing our national security policy. juan: i want to expand on that. back in the 1970's, the old socialist economist used to talk about the huge percentage of the american population that voted livelihood directly to the defense industry. one of the things in your top-secret exposes is that the cold war ended and the threat

supposedly in terms of state threats receded to the united thees, but yet obviously, military maintains this huge spread across the world. more important, through homeland security the militarization internally of the country, as you point out, has gone to the point where people don't even know how extensive the homeland security apparatus is of this country and the number of people that have top-secret clearance. it seems to me the number of people working for this apparatus has actually g grown despite the fact that the threats, the existential threats of the united states have receded. >> there is no question that national security establishment has grown and has become far more powerful than it ever was. but here is the change. we have shifted from the industrial age to the information age. consequently, we have also shifted from the dominance of

the military-industrial complex, if you will, to a much more insidious a much more difficult to diagnose information complex. so the advent of contractors, the professional military -- which means the military itself touches fewer and fewer lives in america -- all of those work together to make the national security state more and more embedded within our society, but yet at the same time, more difficult to get to, more difficult to understand. so most people would be surprised to learn, for instance, that amazon is one of the largest defense contractors, that they are building the cloud and they are building the data centers which support the intelligence community and support the military. and there are other civilian companies that we associate with being civilians who were also terrific beneficiaries of the militaries largess. diagnose properly where we stand today, the point

of the top-secret america investigation was to show the wild growth of all areas of national security and this new invention of homeland security, if you will. but at the same time, to point out it was not something that was necessarily segregated from our society, it was more embedded within our society. and that made it more and more difficult to analyze properly and to do something about. amy: you talked about the people who populate the networks as pundits and you have been a fierce critic of the national security state -- or at least understanding who it is who is explaining things to us. running from politico, former , to beector john brennan reborn as a tv news to come he just cashed in at nbc news as a senior national security and intelligence analyst observed his first expert views on "meet the press." spook to elevate nbc2 parity with cnn, which employs

former director national intelligence james clapper, former cia director michael hayden in similar capacity, other lesser-known national security veterans drive under tv's almost too numerous to list including chuck rosenberg, the former acting dea administrator, chief of staff james comey, counselor to former fbi director robert mueller, former chihief f fbi counterintelligence, the deputy national security advisor under bush at nbc fran townsend, homeland security under bush. it goes on and on and on. these are now the pundits. so we have a situation like president trump announcing he will immediately withdraw u.s. troops from syria and have the troops that are in afghanistan, yet this massive attack on him that is actually led by the permanent national security state under the guise of pundits on television. just what you said

stands for itself, amy, but i would add to it that i think the real crisis is that when we have a panel discussion on television , and the mamainstream press, ad even the mainstream newspapers,, wewe don't populate that panel with people who are in opposition. we have a single war party in the united states and it is the .nly one that is given voice really, the crisis is not so much that there are experienced government officials speaking out, the problem is that there aren't critics who are sitting next to them saying that you are full of it. to me, we need to balance that. i think probably because of the phenomenon of donald trump, let's just be honest about it, really what we see on tv now is former obama administration officials masquerading as analysts who are nonpartisan, when in fact they are partisan.

fewer retired see generals and fewer retired admirals who sometimes are useful in terms of explaining the profofession of arms and the conduct ofof military operations in favor of these political figures who have a partisan view. i just don't think the american public gets well served by the fact there isn't a broad range of opinions on those panels. i want to see peace nets, academics, historians. i want them to as much have a voice in terms of understanding aat is going on as i do see former obama administration official. amy: we have to go to break that we will come back to this conversation and talk, among other issues, that one of your statements -- don't even get me started with the fbi. what we now line is as historically destructive institution and much more. arkin,peaking to william long-time nbc reporter and analyst who just left the

network penning a letter , critiquing the network for supporting perpetual warfare and his criticism, talking about the creeping fascism of homeland security. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we are talking with bill arkin, long-time nbc reporter and analyst, leaving nbc after many years, wrote a letter that has been called d the perpetual war letter, critiquing the network, his own and ththe oththers, for encouraging "the trump circus." he is appeared in major newspapers across the country. author of many books.

bill, i want to ask you about another mention in your letter where you say, as perpetual war has become our lives, given in improvisation never deviated to my argument at nbc or at my newspaper gigs that terrorists will never be defeated until we better understand why they are driven to fighting, and at maintain my central view that air power in its broader sense, including space and cyber, is not just the future but the enabler and the tool of war today. on both of those issues, the question of understanding what drives the terrorists and also this whole issue of air power and particular perspective you have on it? >> we have a way of war and there is an american way of war and a russian way of war. an old-fashioned way of war. states engages in warfare in the middle east, and parts of africa as it does today, it does so in a certain

way.y. yes, it is true there are special operations, commanders on the ground, and they in fact get down into the dirt and into the mud with the people that we are fighting. the by large, the american military is highly technical, information-dominant - -- dominated by aircrafaft drones, space, cyber, etc., not necessarily the tool that isis synononymous with the enenemy. do very well in those conflicts in a w way becae theree is disproportionate amout of force between the two sides. but more importantly, the american way of four is to be very precise, and that is not necessarily what isis appropriae in fighting a conflict in syria ---- if you believe we should be fighting in syria in the first place. so it t should not be surprising to most people that the united states, when it bumbles and these countries in the middle east and africa, does not do very well. and when we try to teach our

allies on the ground how to be better fighters, how to be better militaries, we make an error of china make them ourselves. that is not necessarily either what is needed. we have two problems. we have a presence in the middle east which has grown a normal sleep since 9/11. i believe that military presence in itself provides the stimuli for creation of more terrorists. everyone has said this since 2001. it it is reached a crisis point today because even as the taliban were defeated were al qaeda was driven into a small number as the united states was able to maintain some level of security in iraq, what happened was new groups emerged, new groups cap popping up and now we see isis, house of bob and somalia and organizations emerging in niger and mali etc.

the net assessment of our presence in the middle east, first of all, has to be, what is it that is about our presence itself that is the stimuli for the creation of local and foreign fighters and their growth? ournd, what is it about military and the use of our military forces that is inappropriate or not appropriate for the conflicts in which we fight? you might not want to be in the middle east at all and you might know when to be in africa -- i can make a very strong argument that we should just get out of afghanistan altogether, that there is no reason for us to be yria, etc., but of the same time when we are there, we are not applying military force in the proper way. so there is a double analysis that is required, both strategic analysis at the highest level -- which we have failed to do because we don't have qualified civilians in positions of national security leadership. and second, this sort of more

tactical analysis that the types of wars wewe fight we do it in e wrong way. amy: how many countries is the u.s. arming now? >> we are bombing nine countries. in the last year we have bombed nine countries. in the middle east, pakistan, afghanistan, iraq, syria. juan: you'u're not counting yem. >> and yemen. that's it. previously, there were some fighting going on in uganda and even as we speak about the problem in latin america, there is military action that is taking place on a day-to-day basis in colombia and ecuador, some parts of central america as well. the united states still has forces in honduras, etc. the scope and scale of the american military actions around the world is far greater than what most americans perceive. but let's be clear about

diagnosing the issue. it is less and less manpower -intensive. it is more focused on drones. it is more focused on air power and space and cyber. so we do not see the kinds of injuries and deaths that we were seeing a decade ago during, say, for instance, the surge in iraq. it is become more invisible as a result of this style of american warfare. as a result of that, it is almost as if the national security state has the ability to do what they want to be doing economist lee with very little intervention on the part of the civil society. amy: william arkin, you also write "don't get me started with the fbi. what we now lionized historically destructive institution." >> there's a crazy collateral damage of donald trump. and that is that there are a lot of liberals in america who believe the cia and the fbi is going to somehow save the country from donald trump. i'm sorry, i'm not a particular fan of either the cia or the

fbi. the fbi in particular has a deplorable record in american society from martin luther king in the peace movements of the 1960's all the way up through win others have been persecuted by the fbi. there is no real evidence the fbi is that competent of an institution to begin with in terms of even pursuing the prosecutions that it is pursuing. them.t we lionize we hold them up on a pedestal that somehow they are the truth tellers, there are the ones who are getting to the bottom of things when there's just no evidence that that i is the cas. amy: what t you mean by the creeping fascism of homeland security? creation ofinst the the homeland security department in 2003 to begin with. first of all, i don't like the word "homeland security" because it sounds brown shirty to me. second of all, it was created to be a counterterrorist

organization, a domestic counterterrorist organization. and all during the obama administration, we heard the secretary of homeland security saying, we are counterterrorism. but since then, we have seen their creeping in the cyber security, then creeping into election security. we have seen ice empty said become the second and third-largest federal law-enforcement agencies in the country. now homeland security sort of has become a domestic intelligence agency with really an unclear remit, really with broad powers that we don't fully understand. and we tend to say, again, donald trump's homeland security to permit, donald trump could not find the department of homeland security if somebody set him on the streets of new york, of washington dc. it is not donald trump's homeland security department, it is our homeland security department. i think it is important for us to recognize this is a department that is really

operating on its own behalf and out of control. amy: we have to leave it there. since her letter has gone so much attention, has nbc interviewed you? >> nbc has not interviewed me. i'm gratified to the responses i've gotten.

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