04/05/19 04/05/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> we have boeing arare sorry fr the lives lostst in the recent 7 max accident. amy: after months of dismissing the concerns of flyers, boeing has for the first time admitted wrongdoing in the ethiopian airlines flight that crashed last month, killing 157 people. this after the first wrongful death case was filed against boeing and the faa since the

crash. it was announced by the family of 24 year-old samya stumo. this is not an accident. this is something that could have been prevented. and as somebody who has lost the dearest person in my life, i want her death not to be in pain. i don't want anyone else to die. amy: we'll hear from samya stumo's s family and speak with her great uncle, consumer advocate ralph nader. >> boeing is used to getting its way with the. this time, however, it is in really hot water. if it continues to do gets heels itselfis going to expose and its exexecutives to potenenl criminal prosecution because they are now on notice with two crashes, i indonesia and ethiop. amy: it was the second fatal crash of a boeing max 8 in five months.

then we look at how the trump administration is pushing for nato countries to increase military spending, to the benefit of manufacturers like boeing. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the house of representatives has approved a war powers resolulutn calling for an end to u.s. support for the saudi-led war on yemen, which has killed thousands of civilians and sparked the world's worst humanitarian crisis. thursday's vote fell largely along party lines. ththis is california demococratc congressmember barbara leeee, wo backed the resolution. >> we hehelped create and worsen the world's greatest,t, largest huhumanitarian crisis. 22.2 million yemen, ththat is 75% of the populatation, needss humanitaririan assistance. at least 85,000 childrdren under

the age of 5 -- - ,000 have didd and war related hunger disease. amy: it is the first time congress has invoked thehe war powers act of 1973 to end a u.s. president's unilateral decision toto wage wawar abro. the resolution passed the senate last month after seven republicans joined minority democrats. this is the resolution's co-spoponsor, vermont independet senator bernie s sanders. > article o one sectionon eif the coconstitution is pretty clear. it is the united states congrgrs , not the president, who has responsisibilities in terms of warmaking. tragically, for many years under democrat and r republican abdicatedts, congrgress its responsibility. today, the congress says we are taking that responsibility back not just for yemen, but in the future as well. amy: president trump has signalaled he will veto the resolution. ethiopia h has released

prelimiminary findings from its investigation into last month's fatal crash of ethiopipian airlines flight 302, which killed all 157 crew and passengers on board. ethiopia's transport minister said pilots of the boeining 737 max 8 jet followed normal procedures but were unable to overcome a flaw in the plane's software that automatically pushed the plane's nose down. the report found similarities in the technical failures experienced by pilots of october's indonesian lion air flight 610, which also crashed just minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board. boeing has grounded all 737 max aircrafts while they work on fixes to the planes' software. on thursday, boeing ceo dennis muilenburg releasesed a video apology. >> we e have boeing arare sorryr the lives lost in the recent 737 maxx accidents. from t the days immediately following the lion air accident, we have had teams of our top engineers and technical experts

working t telesslyy in collaboration with the federal aviation administration and our customers to finalize and implement a software update that wiwill ensure accidents like tht of lion air flight 610 and ethiopian flight 302 never happen again. amy: meanwhile, "the washington post" reported thursday that boeing is working on an additional software fix for another problem, this time related to aircraft flaps and other flight-control hardware. these issues are reportedly classified as crititical to flft safety. we'll have more on boeing after headlines, when wewe'll speak wh renowned consumer rights activist ralph nader, whose grandniece samya stumo was killed in the ethiopian airlines crash. president trump pulled back thursday from his threat to immediately close the southern u.s. border, saying instead he'll put tariffs on mexico's auto industry unless mexican officials do more to stop the flow of migrants and drugs to the u.s. over the next year. trump said h he was giving mexio a one-year warning to comply with his demand.

pres. trump: is the drugs don't ifp -- mexico can stop them they want -- we are going to tariffs the cars. if that does not work, we're going to close the border. amy: the president backed away from a threat to close the u.s.'s southern border this week amid widespread warnings over severe economic consequences. this week, mexico's interior secretary said her government would not militarize its border "under any circumstances" and would provide security to central american migrants. but hundreds of migrants hoping to cross to the u.s. say they've been held up in southern mexico near the guatemalan border. this is 30-year-old cuban migrant dennis hernandez.. >> we are waiting for our humanitarian visas, bubut we hae not received a r response of wht wewe are not being given these papers. are organizing a peaceful hunger strikike. we have been here for eight days . there is been no violence over here and we are being igngnored. just s silence, which is like torture. it is like a psychological war.

i feel i it is a topic of racism with migration. i feel they are trampling over our human rights. amy: meanwhile, immigration and customs enforcement officers raided a technology repair company in allen, texas on thursday, arresting 280 people in the largest immigration raid in the u.s. over the last decade. president trump is traveling to california today to tour a recently-rebuilt 30-foot-tall sectction of steelel-slatted bor wall. the united nations security council has called an emergency meeting on libya after a renegade army commander ordered his forces to advance on the capital tripoli. the advance by the benghazi-based libya national army threatens to topple the u.n.-backed government in tripoli. the rebel force is reportedly better armed and controls a town just 60 miles from the capital. u.n. secretary-general antonio guterreses appealed d thursday a ceasefire. >> i want to make a very strong appeal for all military appealts to stop, and

for containinment, dede-escalatn both militarily and politically. amy: libya has been plagued by factional fighting since a u.s.-led nato intervention in 2011 toppled long-time authoritarian leader moammar gaddafi. in mozambique, the united nation's warns over 1.8 million people face an imminent food crisis after cyclone idai devastated infrastructure, displaced more than 600,000 people and left nearly 600 dead. meanwhile, mozambique's government said the number of cholera cases caused by contaminated food and water has topped 1400. back in the united states, the house of representatives voted thursday to reauthorize the violence against women act, a sweeping law signed in 1994 thtt provides legal protection to survivors of domestic abuse. thursday's vote was 263 to 158, with 33 republicans joining majority democrats. among those voting yes was

massachusetts freshman democrat ayanna pressley, who told the story of her mother sandy, a domestic abuse survivor. >> let us reject the myth that strong women, bold women, independent women do not find themselves in the throes of violence at the hands of someone who claim to love them. got herselfy shero, in such an abusive relationship, one that threatened her physical safety, her sanity, chipped away and her dignity and her joy. amy: the house vote to reauthorize the violence against women act came despite opposition from the national rifle association, which objects to a provision that would take guns away from dating partners convicted of stalking or domestic violence. that provision faces an uphill fight in the repupublican-conontrolled senat, where opposition to closing the so-called "boyfriend loophole" runs high. president trump said thursday he plans to appoint godfathers pizza ceo herman cain to the

board of the federal reserve. them an outstanding person, even if he dropped out of the 2012 race with three women accused him of sexual harassment while a fourth said she and herman cain had engaged in a lengthy extramarital affair. hermrman cain isis a longtimimec of the fed, calling for the u.s. to revert to the gold standard. president trump asked republican senator majority leader mitch mcconnell in february to speed up the confirmation of his hand-picked nominee for chief counsel of the irs, placing a higher priority on filling the relatively obscure position than on the confirmation of william barr as attorney general. that is according to "the new york times," which reports trump desmond,hael j previously served as a tax adviser to the trump organization. trump's push to prioritize desmond's confirmation came as democrats took control of the house of r representatives were they have the power to subpoena

records and request documents. this week the chair of the ways and means committee formally requested the irs turn over six years of trump's personal tax returns to congress. in london, wikileaks founder and ceo julian assange is reportedly bracing to be expelled from thte ecuadorean embassy, where he's been h holed u up since 2012 to avoid arrest and possible extradition to the u.s. where he could face prosecution under the espionage act. this week, ecuador's president lenin morenoccccused assange of leakaking privatphphotos of hihs family and vioiolating thehe ter ofof his asylum. but wikileleaks says moreno is upset because a wikileaks release known as the ina papers exposed the president's role in a growing corruption scandal. in a thursday afternoon tweet, wikileaks wrote -- "a high level source within the ecuadorian state has told @wikileaks that julian assange will be expelled within 'hours to days' using the #inapapers offshore skittle as a pretext and that it already has an agreement with the u.k. for his arrest." in northern virginia, u.s. army whistleblower chelsea manning

has been released from solitary confinement after 28 days, and moved into the general population of the truesdale detention center. manning has been imprisoned since march 8 after she refused to answer questions before a grand jury about her 2010 release to wikileaks of hundreds of thousands of state department and pentagon documents about the u.s. wars in iraq and afghanistan. the u.s. district judge in virginia overseeing the case said manning would remain in jail until either she agrees to testify or the grand jury concludes its work. this week, manning drew the support of freshman new york congressmember alexandria ocasio-cortez, who tweeted -- "solitary confinement is torture. chelsea is being tortured for whistleblowing, she should be released on bail, and we should ban extended solitary in the u.s." the juststice depapartment on -- has blasted alabama's prison system as broken, saying prisoners are being held in unsafe, filthy, and overcrowded conditions while suffering from routine violence and rampant sexual assault.

in a sweeping new report, justice department investitigats found prison guards are woefully under-trained and under-r-staff, leadading to frequent rapes, beatings, and homicides that sometimes go unreported. the report comes just weeks after eight prisoners at alabama's holman prison ended a hunger strike against their solitary confinement after prison officials shut off waterr to their cells. new mexicoco's governor has sigd a measure decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana and the paraphernalia usused to consume it. previously, first-time marijuana users faced arrest and up to 15 days in jail. under the new law, those found with small amounts of ththe drug will face a penalty assessment, punishable by y $50 fine.. a bill to legalize the recreational use of marijuana cleared new mexico's state house but has stalled in the senate. and in baltimore, maryland, students at johns hopkins have launched a sit-in occupation of their campus administration building, protesting against their university's plans for an armed police force on campus, as

well as johns hopkins' contracts with immigrations and customs enforcement. students are demanding the cancellation of contracts with ice and a pledge to donate all monies received from ice to baltimore's immigration defense fund. they're also demanding voluntary recognition for all workers wishing to unionize and a student and faculty representative spot on the university's board of trustees. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. after months of dismissing the concerns of flyers, boeing has for the first time admitted wrongdoing in the ethiopian airlines flight that crashed last month, killing 157 people. this is boeing ceo dennis muilenburg speaking thursday. >> we have add boeing are sorry for the lives lost in the recent accident. it is our responsibility to

eliminate this risk. we own it. amy: the apology came on the same day that ethiopia released preliminary findinings from an ongoing investigation into the crash. and afafter the first american wrongful death l lawsuit against boeing was filed. the report fouound similarititin the technical issues experieiend by pilots on both the ethiopian airlines flight and october's indonesian lion air flight 610, which also crashed just minutes after take-off, killing all 189 people on board. both flights were on the boeing 737 max x 8 aircraft. the fafamily of 24-year-old sama stumo who died in the ethiopian airlines crash, filed the lawsuit against boeing and the federal aviation administration. the lawsuit was filed in federal court in chicago, where boeing is headquartered. it reads in part -- "blinded by its greed, boeing haphazardly rushed the 737 max 8 to market, with the knowledge and tacit approval of the united states federal aviation

administration. boeing's decision to put profits over safety and the regulators that enabled it, must be held accountable for their reckless actions." samya stumo's father, mother, and brother spoke alongside their lawyer at a press conferencece thursday. >> my name is michael stumo and i am samya stumo's that. will be up early in the morning on march 10 to say that a plane crash had happened in ethiopia. i did not believe samya could be on that plane. i could not lose another child. but she was on the plane. i could nonot breathe. faced and solved. we drove three hours to new york city to find the earliest airplane to go to. 20 years ago, we lost another child, to cancer.

he was two. nels were best friend. samya was frustrated she was not being taught how to read while we were in the hospital, so she taught her self to read. she was four years old. we bought aied, farm and move to it because life we discovered is short. we homeschooled samya and ourtwo sons. we needed to be together. pigs at the age of nine, driving a tractor and a jeep across the fields to hold water to them. she eventually went to high school and graduated early. she traveled the world from peru to denmark to tanzania, but despite job opportunities another continents, she pursued a job in washington, d.c., and was hired by think welcome a

.lobal nonprofit organization she wanted to be near her to us and to her grandmother, her grandfather, and her great uncle and great aunt. just in case something happened. something did happen, but it happened to her. her new employer sent samya to uganda to set up new offices. droveeing 737 max 8 itself and fully buried itself in the ground at hundreds of miles per hour. disintegrating into small pieces under the earth. home,w there to bring her but we learned there were no survivors. then we learned we could not bring home her body or even fragments of her body.

i stood on that ethiopian agricultural field with my craterlooking at the sealing her. this should not happened anyone again. that is what we are here. >> we will now hear from samya's mothernadia. >> i am samya's mom. i learned thank you for learning so much from my only daughter. we would all want to be like samya, who was lighthearted. she brushed past negative inconsequential comments and focused on what is good and what could get done. samya was a binding force in our family. among her friends and her academic departments, she was extraordinary with logistics. getting people togetheher to hae goodod times, each, and dance

together, and feel connected. this led to marvelous cooperative projects, both socially and in anthropology and global health. samya could marshal and analyze data to the benefit of real people in need. she linked technical and human skills. there is a huge hole in our family and among her friends. we struggle to build up our connections as she did so effortlessly and with grace and fun. we are one of 337 families with such huge holes because this aircraft did not function. samya and her fellow passengers should not have died. those in charge of creating and selling this plane did not treat samya as they would their own daughters. need to demands

that planes be safe so that no one else dies. profits should not come before safety, and we are making this effort here to help prevent a third crash. >> thank you, nadia. our next speaker is samya's brother adnaan. >> my sister was my constant campaign in since she was boror. we were homescschooled together, played music t together, competd on the same sports teams throughout our childhoods in new england. we spent countless hours exploring the woods and fields around the farm and inventing fantastical worlds in the barn. samya had vivid memories of those childhood years. my sister was intensely competitive and never wanted to be the second child in anything

but age. outstripped meya in many ways. she is so much to teach me about compassion, self-awareness, sensitivity to others, focus, and just straight joyfulness. but what she had offer the world of global health was even greater. the next half-century to apply her intelligence and zeal to the institutional failings of international aid, and the world would be utterly changed. the butterfly effect of the ethiopian airlines flight 302 crash is massive. the potential of my sister and 156 others driven straight into the ground because of boeing's greed. i will keep samya's influence present in my mind and in my life. i knew her so well and i can imagine her advice and consolation in the rough times ahead. i feel the most hopeless when i imagine my young cousins in n te

future childldren of m my brothr and myself growing up without samya's tremendous presents a never even realizing what they have lost. >> my name is frank -- frank petrie. the history is that boeing 10 years ago was facing competition and it was facing competition from airbus. there is no secret. so around 2010, airbus was coming out with more fuel-efficient engines. boeing saw that as a threat to the international competition for the sale of aircraft. they knew they were behind and they needed to get their planes out in the marketplace that could compete with airbus quickly. ergo, the motivation. what they decided to do is they decided that they could not wait the amount of time it would take to fully redesign an aircraft,

so they took a shortcut. they use the existing airframe and what they did is they decided to put larger engines and more fuel-efficient engines on that plane -- except for a couple of problems. when you put larger engines on a plane that was that old and vintage, the plane was designed where the wings are very low to the ground. so when you put those larger engines on, you need more clearance. what happens is you need to move the engines forward and you'll also have to move the landing gears forward. when you change the position of the engines, you change the landing gear, you change the aerodynamics of the aircraft. , you do that happens those kinds of changes, you have to retrain pilots. because the beheading desk

behavesthe plane generally. it thrusts faster and more powerfully than the originally designed 730 seven model. rather than spend the time and forced air carriers to take time to train the pilots and to go through more costly training, the decision was that boeing would come up with its own -- have that would help the plane behave the same way behaved. 737 and they did that with the design of the mcas system. the mcas is an automatic system that would control the tendency of the airplane to buck upward. the when it since the plane in the nose for moving up, t the auautomatic signals would be set

to the mcas system and the horizontal stabilizer to push the nose down. now, that would all be done automatically without the knowledge of the pilots. and that is critical to avoid retraining. pilots could operate the plane the same way they operated prior iterations. the system would all take care of adjustments to the aircraft and its behavior tendencies automatically without any need to retrain pilots. on october 29, 2018, we know there was the lion air crash. that is when things begin to unravel. the dangers that had been concealed about the plane's tendencies and its aerodynamics now start to manifest themselves. piloteeting where some

union representatives were present, a boeing executive was quoted as saying they did not pass on the differences in the planes tendencies and the operation of the mcas system onto pilots because they did not want to inundate them with new information. in november 2018, as you know from the history, boeing and the , and our view, incomplete and ineffective airworthiness directives that failed to address the design problems and led people to believe that the problem could be cured by simply telling pilots to deactivate the system and everything would be fine.

no need to worry, the plane was safe. unfortunately, history had to .epeat itself 156 people lost their lives. the other information a came out just a couple of days ago, if we could -- john? written by letter the chairman of the senate committee on commerce, science, and transportation dated april 22, 2019. there are copies here if you want it. you can read it for yourself. but it had received information from whistleblowers that the faa inspectors whove were not properly trained or qualified to do their job of

that lack of that training, lack of qualification included individuals who were involved in the 737 737 max. 8.737 max in light of that information, it was left to boeing to police it self with respect to safety concerns about the airplane. it is reported in the senate letter that the faa may have been notified about the deficiencies as early as august 2018. , a failure. >> to hear all of these details, to hear about all of these correspondents and the

,nformation prior to the crash your reaction is visible some of you. but if you could articulate how you are feeling hearing about what seems to be lapses leading up to your loved ones crash? >> obviously, this could have been prevented and that is what makes me cry. because all of these people -- it is not just samya. one family lost their whole family. grandparents, parents, children. another guy lost his wife and his one-year-old child. i mean, this is repeated 157 times. we have met so many of these families. this could have all been prevented, and that is why when we read this statement from the pilot -- that is why i am crying. it is just horrible.

like, it is not like it was an accident. this is not an accident. this is something that could have been prevented and should have been prevented. the people who died in indonesia , there's probably should've been prevevented, but certainly their d deaths should not have been in vain and more deaths happened. that is why we keep tatalking ababout a third crash. that is entirely possible based on the whole situation that exists now. my uncle said, these plane should be grounded. i don't know another way we could be sure that this is an going to happen a third time -- isn't going to happen a third time. as somebody who is lost the dearest person in my life, i want her death not to be in vain. i don't want anybody else to die. smy: that was samya stumo' momother, father, and her brothr as well as the family's attorney . when we come back, we will speak with consumer advocate ralph

nader. samya stumo was his great niece. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we look at the wrongful death case against boeing, after preliminary investigation into last month ethiopian airlines crash revealed details about the aircraft manufacturer and whether he gave pilots s proper inststruction. ththese findings were releaseded thursdayay in ethiopia based on the analysisis of a team of 18 investigigators.s. they come less than a month after the ethiopiaian airlines flight 302 crash, which killed all 157 people on board. the report found similarities in the technical issues experienced by pilots on both the ethiopian airlines flight and october's indonesian lion air flight 610, whwhicalso crashshed just mimins after take-off, killing all 189 people on board. both flights were on a boeing 737 max 8 aircraft.

under enormous public pressure, the faa grounded 737 max aircraft while boeing works on fixes to the plane software. on thursday, the first american wrongful death lawsuit was filed relating to the ethiopian airlines crash. it was filed against boeing on behalf of the family of 24 year-old samya stumo, who died on the flight. samya was the great niece of -- was the grandniece of ralph nader. ralph nader joins us now on the phone. he is a longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic and former presidential candidate. he is the author of many books, including "collision course: the truth about airline safety." ralph nader wrote an open letter to boeing titled "passengers first, ground the 737 max 8 now!" ralph, our condolences to you and your whole family. a number of members of which we mother and samya's

father and brother. can you talk about the significance of this first american wrongful death lawsuit and what is being alleged? 's death and all of the , havepeople on that plane to come big changes. people watching this program for listening to you, amy, they think this is going to happen to someone else will stop if we from stop this 737 max ever flying again -- there is no fix for engineered instability and the prone to stall problem of the 737 max -- 5000 of these planes will be sold all over the country and all over the world. so there will be millions of passengers in these planes with a plane that should not be allowed to fly. this lawsuit filed yesterday under the law of torts is

designed to pursue the truth too get all of the informatation out of boeining, out o of the faa. there willll be lalawsuit proboy filed against the faa undeder te federal tort claims act. so the whole process is reformed so that the faa is not a whole soul d delegator pushed by membs congress in europe year to delegate inspection, to delegate self-regulation to boeing that of regulating it. that has to be completely changed. there's a lot of culpability here. homicide, bones criminal negligence is now well documented is that there will be more whistleblowers and more information coming out from all corners. but the congress there is a serious responsibility. it has been stopping aviviation safety reform, supporting white house cuts in the budget of the

faa, supporting the repression of engineering integrgrity in te faa, not to mention b boeing. 330 members of congress take campaign contributions from boeing. and even worse, just about every member of congress takes freebies from the airlines. all kinds of upgrades and fee waivers that are not accorded other ordinary mortals. so out of this tragedy in indonesia and ethiopia may come restructuring of aviation safety. toaircraft manufacturer, not mention boeing, should never begin two free disasters that are preventable by established, long known engineer and safety practices. and that is what we are all pursuing to try to make something come out of these

tragedies to save the lives of people in the future. amy: ralph nader i want you to respond to boeing statement in response to the preliminary investigation report of the ethiopian airlines crash, you know, it also came after the first wronongful death lawsuit, your family's lawsuiuit against boeing. this is the e ceo releasing this vivideo yesterday along with the company's statemement. >> we are boeing are sorryry for the lives lost in the recent 737 max accident. it is apparent in both, the augmentation system known as mcas activated in response to erroneous angle of attack information. the e history of our industry shshows mostst accidents are cad by a chain of events. this is s e case herere. we know we can break one of those chain links andnd these to accidents. as pilots have told us come erroneous activation of the mcas

function can adddd to what is alreadady high workloaoad environment. it is our responsibility to eliminate this risk. we own it and we know how to do it. immediatelys following the lion air accident, we have had teams of our top engineers and technical experts working tirelessly in collaboration with the federal aviation administration and our customerers to finalize and implement a softftware u updatet will ensure accidents like that of lion air flight 610 and 302 n neveright happen again. amy: that is the boeing ceo. it was a video released yesterday after the lawsuit and after the per luminary findings. ralph nader, your response? >> it is pretty close to admission of fault. i don't see how they will defend the civil lawsuits. they're facing a criminal probe from the justice department and the fbi with an active grand jury. as flyer's rights director paul

hudson, who you will be hearing from come has pointed out again and again, deregulation means death. it means the repudiation of a structure of aviation safety that people expected to be able to trust. an early admission by the manufactcturer before even e first deposition. amy: ralph, we are about to go to paul hudson, but before we go, your family has filed suit against boeing and a complaint against the faa. the significance of boeing and the faa? .> well, they're both at fault as paul hudson will point out, there has to be legislation in congress. blumenthal is about to put a bill in to re-empower and bring back the delegation to boeing back into the faa to make it a strong regulator. he is also going to propose

criminal penaltities, believe it or not, the faa statute does not have criminal penalties for willful and knowing violation. i think we will see a lot of change. but don't take anything for granted. unless flyers organize, less they join groups like flyer's righghts, a lot of these probes, congressional best divisions, departments of transportation investigations, justice department investigations can be pulled back due to political pressure by boeing and its allies in washington. what cannot be pulled back are the civil lawsuits that will increasingly be filed against boeing and other defendants. amy: we are bringing in paul hudson into this conversation, president of flyer's rights, the largest nonprofit airline passenger rights organization in the u.s. it operates a hotline for passengers at 877-flyers6, publishes a weekly newsletter, and maintains a staff office in d.c. for advocacy on behalf of airline passengers' rights and

also served on the faa's aviation rulemaking advisory committee since 1993. paul, talk about the significance of what has taken place -- and i would like to have you start by responding once again to dennis muilenburg, but this is a different statement. it was a phone call news conference he had last year on the telephone in 2017. in it he was praising the faa under the trump administration for its efforts to deregulate and "streamline" the certification process. he even specifically mentions the max aircraft. he made the comments on a conference call with investors and the media. focus onerall deregulation and simplifying processes is one that we have been a strong proponent for. the administration has been very in gauged across government

agencies and with industry to find ideas and ways and opportunities to simplify and streamline things like the faa certification processes is one place that we are seeing some solid progress. that is helping us more efficiently work through certification on some of our new model aircraft, such as the max as it is going through flight tests and entering into service. so we're a reducing some benefits there is some of the work being done with the faa. a reducing benefits there" this streamlining with the faa. if you could talk, paul hudson, what the ceo is admitting as he praises the faa under the trump administration in 2017. there is an old expression of law, be careful what you asked for, you might get it.

boeing got it. faa basically the not just being the oversight, but being the certifier. we now have a situation not only would the 737, but it was pretty somewhat to o that previouslslyh the 787 dreamliner and 2013 that was grounded with battery fires. you have a situation where the manufacturer designs the systems , manufacturer's employees test the systems, manufacturer's employees chosen by the manufacturer -- in this case boeing -- certifies the system. and the faa is basically a bystander. so while safety was never econonomics, it has become really a paper saying

not onlyththe faa relying on the manufacturer for pretty m much evererything, butt having its own people that are confident and not consult -- tent and dealing with outside experts in vetting the systems. amy: ralph, even when the faa and nasa were grounding the 737 max planes under enormous popular pressure, president dennisontinue to praise muilenburg and has talked about boeing some 200 times in the last three years of public, praising them and has nonot criticized them at all. paul hudson, what shohould trump be doing right now? >> he should be meeting with the people that represent airline passengers and the victitims of these air crcrashes, number one.

103.ughter died in pan am after that, president bush met with families. that put in motion things that eventually greatly improroved te security for aviation. if the president can take phone if hefrom the boeing ceoeo, can meet over and overer again with airline executives, he can after this disaster, which, by the way, not only f families,ng and the it really affects ththe united states commercial aviation industry. unless trust is restored and restored quickly, people are not going to want to fly on those planes. we have lotsts of people telling us, how do i avoid that thatat plane? even if they put it back on service, people are not going to trust the faa, not going to

trust boeing anymore. they need to have outside experts. and it may be the planes data be recalled. it may be that the whole thingg needs to b be scrapped. but whatever is done, it has to be done quickly and it has to be done transparently. amy: we're going to end with greatnader, samya stumo's uncle. ralph, you are famous over the decades for calling for recalls of c cars. are you demanding the same thing right now, but in this case, airplanes? >> yes, they should recall the 300 plus planes that they have sold to these airlines, domestic and foreign. they should never allolow that plane to fly again. they should simply sell the 737 with improved amenities, discount the planes to compete with airbus. and people should know the airbus engineers in the 320 were allowed to do their job. in boeing, they were not allowed to do their job and that is all

going to come out. bubut we have to escalate corporate crime and violence to the level that we do under our law to individuals. members of congress return contributions from harvey weinstein for his assault on women. and now they should return all of their contributions from boeing for the corporate homicide of boeing in preventablble deaths of 346 peoe from indonesia to ethiopia. we have to begin recognizing that deaths and injuries and disease and property damage are massively greater from preventable corporate crime, fraud, and violence than the aseet crime version, as bad that is. i hope some of that will come out of this horrible tragedy that involved by wonderful grandniece samya stumo. leadership, compassion, intellectual rigor written all over her. she would have saved a lot of lives in her 50 years of work in

africa and south america. and boeing snuffed it out, along with 345 other innocent people. amy: ralph nader, thank you so much. again, our condolences on the death of your niece. ralph nader is a longtime consumer advocate,e, corporate critic, and former presidential candidate. his grandniece samymya stumo did in ethiopian airlines flight 302. paul hudson is president of flyer's rights. when we come back, the military, as the trump and administration pushes nato countries to increase military spending from often to the benefit of companies like boeing. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman.

as returned a look at how the trump p administration is pupusg nato countries to increase military spending, often to the benefit of weapons manufacturers like boeing. during an oval office meeting tuesday with nato secretary general jens stoltenberg, president trump falsely claimed his father was born in germany -- trump claimed his own father was born in germany and once again demanded germany and other nato countries increase their military spending from 2% to 4% of gdpdp. pres. trump: we have worked together in getting some of our .llies to pay their fair share it is called burden sharing. asas you knonow, when i came i s not t -- it was not so good andt is catching g up. we have seven of the 28 .ountries are currently current the rest are trying to catch up. they will catch up. some of them have no problems because they have not been paying and they are very rich.

but we're looking at the 2% of gdp level. at some point, i think it is going to have to go higher to that, probably should behind. amy: the next day stoltenberg addressed a joint meeting of the house and senate. marking the 70th event of nato. >> must spend more on defense. this has been a clear message from president trump. and this message is having a real impact. [applause] reducing the defense budget, all allies have increased the defense spending. amy: the push for military spending comes as acting defense secretary patrick shanahan is under investigation for improperly advocating on behalf of boeing, where he worked for 30 years. meanwhile, the pentagon blocked delivery of f-35 fighter jets to nato nation turkey because it refused to back down on buying an antiaircraft system from

russia. the u.s. air force has suspended deliveries of boeing's kc-46 pegasus tanker over safety concerns. for more, we're joined in washington d.c., joe cirincione, , president of ploughshares fund, a global security foundation. welcome to democracy now! as you can see, we have spent the hour talking about boeing. and one case, the first american wrongful death lawsuit against boeing and the faa, and now we are looking at a larger picture around the u.s. relationship with nato and what trump is trying to do with nato countries under the guise of f increasing national security, which is pushing them to buy not only more weapons, but more u.s. weapons. can you comment on this? do you think that is the motivation for president trump'ss criticism of nato? >> the debate on nato is

dominated by this obsession over the 2% solution, that somehow what we need to do is get all of the european countries to spend 2% of their economic outpuput on defense -- as if this is going -- as if this is needed or is going to fix our problems. at this is out of touch with reality. the european countries by themselves spend about $240 billion every year on military weapons and forces. they outspend russia four to one. russia spends about $66 billion each year. so they are splinting -- spending plenty on defense. decided we have to get them to spend more we can's not strengthens of because it diverts the resources from things like the for example, settlement of migration of migrants, one e of the issues tt has been brought up the last three years or the basic health and welfare.

why is this happening? i think it is a push from the defense contractors. boeing is one of the top five defense contractors in the u.s., in the world, and it benefits from increases in defense spending. so we should be questioning whether we need to spend more and whatall on this we're spending. to have shortfalls in nato? fix those, but we can by spending more wisely, not spending more. amy: can you talk about this in terms of nuclear weapons? >> the united states still keeps about 150 hydrogen bombs station in europe. these are vestiges of the cold war. we used of thousands. the republican a adminisistratin undeder george w.. bush pulled t hundreds, but the obama administration was afraid to pull out the remaining 150. what are we doing with them? we are spending $10

billion to modernize these s onons, to put new tail kit them, to make a more accurate for use. who is benefiting from that contract? boeing. they make the tail kits. we're giving boeing millions of dollars to modernize and obsolete weapon that we will never use, that we will never use. this is the kind of wasteful spending going on in nato and that the focus is distorting what we really need to do to solidify theto to alliance. it is not about money. the biggest problem nato faces is the presidentnt of the united states who keeps putting in doubt u.s. commitment to the alliance, who keeps putting in doubt whether the u.s. will come to the aid of nato allies if they are attacked. this is the biggest issue, not how much we spend. amy: talk about president trump continually talking about nato memembers paying their fair sha.

>> this is a bipartisan obsession. this 2% solution. i think the president is using this as a stick to hit the nato allies. president trump the first president since world war ii who does not see himself as a leader of the westernrn alliance, does not see h himself as a leader of nato. he looks a at our european allis as economic rivals. so he wants to use this issue to hit them over the head. if there's such a thing as a truck policy or trump doctrine, it is this. he does not believe in allianceces. he does not want the european countries to be yo united. the fear in nato, and this is what the secretary-general was trying to assuage in his visit it ishis week, is that not the europeans are not

spending enough on defense, it is that the u.s. is pulling back -- that the u.s. who founded nato is reneging on its commitments, and president trump every day, every time he talks about nato, does something to increase those fears. amy: the role of john bolton, joe cirincione? >> he is a serial arms control killer. that.never bebelieved in he is the hidden hand behind president trump's decision to pullll out of the intermediate nuclear forces treaty, the treaty that ronald reagan negotiated to pull out to get rid of nuclear weapons that we were stationing in europe, what they called intermediate range nuclear weapons. he never liked the treaty and it was negotiated. he is in favor of more weapons, not less. because rick killing the treaty, the u.s. is now said to build a new ground launched cruise missile that could be placed in

your. the nuclear arms race is back and you're largely because of john bolton. amy: joe cirincione, we will do a web exclusive with you on democracynow.org. joe cirincione is president of ploughshares fund, a global security foundation. [captioning made possible by

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