11/20/19 11/20/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracacy now! >> i w was concerned. what i heard was inapproropriat. to mr.rded d my concerns eisenberg. it is improper foror the presidt of the united states to demand a foreign investigation into your citizen and a political opponent. improper,al, inappropriate, and wrong. that is how witnesses on the third day of impeachment hearings describe president

trump's actions president -- pressuring ukraine to investigate his political rival joe biden and his son hunter. even thehe witnesses requested y republican lawmakers criticized the president's actitions. >> in n hindsight, i now understand that t others sawaw e ideas of investigating burisma as equivalent to investigating former president -- former vice president biden. i should have seen that connection differently. had i done so, i would have raraised my own objections. amy: we will get the latest on the impeachment hearings. then to iran where security foforces have kikilled over r 10 protesters. and we marark trans remembrance day, a day that honors the thousands of transgender and gender nonconforming people who have been killed around the world. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

army lt. col. alex vindman testified in a televised house impeachment hearing over whether president trump withheld military aid from ukraine to pressure the ukrainian president to investigate trump political rival joe biden and his son. among his statements, then men said he could not believe what he was hearing when he listened to his july 25 phone call between president trump and ukrainian president zelensky. during the call, trump pressured celestia to investigate his political rival joe biden and his son, who served on the board of ukrainian natural gas company burisma. vindman, the director for european affairs at the national security council, testified along with jennifer williams, russia advisor for vice president pence. i tuesday afternoon, house investigators heard the testimonies of kurt volker, the former u.s. special envoy to ukraine, and tim morrison, former senior director for european and russian affairs. today u.s. ambassador to the

european union gordon sondland will testify to lawmakers. he is a wealthy hotel magnate and real estate developer from oregon who received his ambassadorship after donating $1 million to trump inauguration. his lack of diplomatic explants led one policy advisor to complain silent was a national security risk. in iran, amnesty international says security forces killed over 100 protesters during ongoing nationwide demonstrations sparked by a sudden hike in fuel prices last week. the report also warns the death count may be much higher, with some suggesting as many as 200 haveve been killed. onon thursday, iran announced a rise in n the cost of gas rangig frfrom 50% to 300%. on sunday, soon after the protests broke out, iran imposed an almost complete internet blackout. we'll have more on n the iranian protests later in the broadcast. in bolivia, police and military forces killed at least five pro-morales protesters and

injured dozens more tuesday, in at least the second massacre against evo morales' supporters since the longtime bolivian president was ousted in what he calls a military coup. tuesday's massacre occurred in el alto, near the capital of la paz, where protesters had been blocking a major fuel plant. police and military forces used helicopters and armored vehicles to the protest site. witnesses say military units opened fire, killing at least fi young men. this is one of the victims relatives. one that were in the back to come and drug him inside. what are they gointo do with him now? are they going to disappear him? now they are saying therere areo people d dead. there are peoplele dead. their brothers are here. there are e people dead. >> the bullet went through him.

when the doctors are saying he is g going to die probobably. the press is not saying ything. they say there are no clashes. amy: tuesday's killings follow the massacre near cochabamba where security forces killed at least nine morales supporters. this all comes as germany has secured access to bolivia's vast reservoir of lithium, a key raw material used to produce cell cell phone and electric car batteries. shortly before his ouster, the bolivian president evo morales said he planned to cancel the agreement with germany, but the right-wing government of self-declared interim president jeanine anez is movivi forward.. the region is home to 50% of the worlds lithium reserves.s. the u.s. senate unanimously approved a bill tuesday aimed at protecting human rights of hong kong pro-democracy protesters. the senate bill would allow the president to impose sanctions and travel restrictions on people who are found to be responsible for the arbitrary detention, forger, forced

confession of any individual in hong kong. the act will now go to the house of representatives. beijing quickly denounced the bill and hong kong official said it would harm relations between the two countries. the u.s. senate also unanimously passed a second bill that would ban the export of tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets to hong kong's police force. mitch mcconnell has urged president trump to voice to port for hong kong protesters. trump had previously promised chinese president xi jinping the united states would remain quiet about the protests as the two countries pursued trade talks over the summer. the united nations human rights agency has re-affirmed that the united nations still considers the israeli settlements in the occupied west bank illegal under international law, despite u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo's announcement monday that the united states no longer considers them illegal under international law. this is the united nations' rupertrt colville. >> on the situation regarding inael and the settlements

the occupied territories come as part of the u.n. secretariat, we continue to follow the long-standing position of the united nations as the israeli settlements are in breach of international law. a change in the policy position of one state does not modify existing international law, nor his interpretation by the international court of justice and the security council. amy: to see our interview with palestinian human rights attorney noura erakat on the u.s. announcement, go to democracynow.org. the pentagon's defense intelligence agency says isis is rebuilding itself in northern syria following trump's abrupt decision to move u.s. troops from key areas, , earing thehe y for a turkish invasion against syrian kurdish fighthters. the new report by the pentagon's inspector general says isis hass used the turmoil in the ararea o rebuild itself and increase its ability to launch attacks abroad. "thehe new york times" reports e navy seal's are expected to oust

accused war criminal eddie gallagher from the elite commando force only days after president trump cleared gallagher of any judicial punishment and restored his rank. gallagher has been accused of shooting two iraqi civilians and fatally stabbing a captive teenager in the neck. a california military jury acquitted him of murder charges in july but convicted him of a lesser offense. trump also pardoned to other u.s. soldiers who have also been accused of committing more crimes, despite being advisised against ththe pardons by his own defense secretary, mark esper. "time magazine" is reporting secretary of state mike pompeo is planning to resign and run for a u.s. senate seat in kansas next year. pompeo has come under fire during the ongoing impeachment hearings against president trump, with many criticizing him for failing to defend state department officials and protect u.s. policies against trump's

efforts to politicize foreign affairs. pompeo has not publicly confirmed his planned resignation. in immigration news, a federal judge in california has ruled the trump administration's asylum restrictions don't apply to the tens of thousands of people who are currently in limbo at the u.s.-mexico border. in july, the trump administration imposed a new rule aimed at prohibiting migrants from applying for asylum if they crossed through a third country beforere arrivingt the united states. the policy aimed to shararply limit the number of central americans, africans, and people from other regions who are eligiblele for asylum. but on tuesday, judge cynthia bashant of the southern district of california ruled that asylum seekers who arrived at the u.s.-mexico border prior to the july rule are not subject to it and can still apply for asylum in the u.s. meanwhile, a asylum seekers currently y arriving at the u.s. border can now be sent to guatemala after the new asylum pact between the u.s. and guatemala took effect tuesday. human rights advocates say the

trump administration's new plan is particularly dangerous for female and lgbtq asylum seekers. guatemala has one of the highest rates of femicide -- the murder of women -- in the world. buzzfeed reports that homeland security officials are still trying to work out basic details of the new plan to send asylum seekers to guatemala. one homeland security department brief states -- "there is uncertainty as to who will provide orientation services for migrants as well as who will provide shelter, food, transportation, and other care." in sweden, prosecutors have dropped an investigation into sexual assault allegations against wikileaks founder julian assange. assange has always denied the accusations. authority dragged him out of the embassy in april. he has since been jailed in

london's belmarsh prison. he entered the embassy to avoid extradition to sweden over the now dropped sexual assault charges. the united states is seeking the u.s.extradition to where he faces up to 175 years andrison unpacking charges 17 counts are violating the world war i era espionage act. the extinction rebellion hunger strikes come after a separate clclimate action in new yorork saturday in which 29 people were arrested. they were protesting the construction of a a fracked gas power plant inin dover. both connectic and new york residents oppose the power plant's consnstruction, sayingnt will pollute the air with harmful chemicals and greenhouse gasses, a major driver of climate change. and the british labour party says it will remove companies failing to take action to climate change from the london stock exchange if labour wins

the general election on december 12. the announcement came after britain's green party criticized labour for dropping plans to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030. in new york, authorities have brought criminal charges against two prison guards who were on duty the night serial sexual predator jeffrey epstein reportedly hung himself in a manhattan jail. the indictments against them say the two guards were sleeping, shopping online for furniture, and catching up on sports news, instead of checking on epstein and other prisoners every 30 minutes and that they then falsified prison records to claim they had performed their required rounds. the guards have been charged with conspiracy to defraud the united states and with making false records. new york has sued the e-cigarette giant juul, accusing the company of engaging in deceptive marketing and sales tactics aiaimed at targegeting g people. this is new york attorney general letitia james. >> and there is no doubt that juul, the largest e-cigarette

company, has caused this addiction. in fact, they hold 70% of the market. and that is why today we are taking action finanancing a comprehensive lawsuit against juul labc incorporated. they basically took a play from big tobaccos playbook pipe marketing its products in a matter that was appealing to underage youth. amy: the lawsusuit in your comes after president trump reversed course and decided not to sign a memo that would have banned those -- most flavored e-cigarettes, reportedly concerned that banning these vaping products could hurt his re-election products. and today marks transgender day of remembrance, a day thatat honors the thousandsds of transgender and gender non-conforming people who have been killed around the world. at least 22 transgender and gender non-conforming people have been murdered in the united

states so far this year. most of them were black transgender women. over 3000 trans and gender non-conforming people have been killed around the world since 2008. we will l have more on a transgender day of remembrance later in the broadcast. 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. "i couldn't believe what i was hearing."" those were the words of army lieutenant colonel alex vindman during tuesday's house impeachment hearing describing his reaction to a july phone call between president trump and ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky. during the call, trump pressured zelensky to investigate his political rival joe biden and his son hunter, who served on the board of a ukrainian natural timeompany burisma as the his father was vice president. vindman, who is the director for european affairs at the national security council, testified

along with jennifer williams, a russia adviser for vice prpresident mike pence. here they are being questioned by democratic congressman sean maloney of new york. >> y you heard the call with yor own ears, right? not secondhand, not hearsay, were the president speak. you heard his voice on the call. >> correct. > your concnclusion was whate said about investigating the bidens, "unusual and inappropriate." >> that was my testimony. >> mr. vindman, wewere treated o a white house meeting where you heard mr. sondland raise investigations that you thought were unduly political. i believe that is how you described them. you went to nsc council and reported it. >> correct. >> later, you are on the white house call. you heard it with your own ears. >> correct. >> not secondhand, not hearsay. >> correct. >> you heard the president's

voice on the call. >> i did. >> you heard him raise that subject again that ambassador sondland had raised before about investigating the bidens. >> i did. >> when you heard him say that, what was the first thought that went through your mind? >> frankly, i could not believe what i was hearing. it was probably an element of shock that may be in certain regards my worst fear of how our ukraine policy could play out was playing out. this iss likely to have significant implications for u.s. national security. amy: army lieutenant colonel alex vindman responding to a question from democratic congressman sean maloney of new york. earlier during the hearing, vindman detailed why he was so coconcerned with trump's acacti. >> i was concerned by the call. what i heard w was inappropriat. i forwrwarded my concerns to mr. eisenberg. it is improper for the president of demand a foreign government

investigate a u.s. citizen and a political opponent. i was also clear that if ukraine pursued an investigation commit -- it was also clear if ukraine pursued an investigation into the 2016 elections, the bidens andd b burisma, it wouould be interpreted as a partisan play. this would result in ukraine losing bipartisan n support, undermining u.s. national security, and russia's strategic efforts. juan: the second hearing on tuesday featured testimony from kurt volker, the former u.s. special envoy to ukraine, and tim morrison, former senior director for european and russian affairs on the national security council. both witnesses were requested to testify by republicans but volker debunked conspiracy theories about ukraine pushed by trump's personal lawyer rudy giuliani and others. volker also revised part of his private testimony and admitted he should have reporteted trum's actions. >> in hindsight, i i now undersrstand that others saw w e

idea invnvestigating possible corruption i involving burisma s equivalent to investigating former president -- vice president biden. i saw them as different. the former being appropriate in the latter being an acceptable. in retrospect, i should've seen that connection dififferently ad had i done so, i would have raise my own objections. amy: during tuesday's hearing, republican lawmakers repeatedly criticized the impeachment process. devin nunes, t the ranking membr on the house intelligence committee, accused democrats of attempting to overthrow president trump. >> welcome back to act to of today's circuits, ladies and gentlemen. we are here to continue with the democrats telus is a serious, somber, even prayeyerful process of attempting to overthrow a duly elected president. endhey are successful, the result would be to disenfranchise tens of millions of americans who thought the president is chosen by the american people. one koba democrats defended the impeachment process.

here is how house intelligence commitittee chair adadam schiff closed tuesday's marathon hearing. >> indeed i thihink when the foununding fathers provided a remedy for that remedy being impeachment, they had a very concerned that the president of the united states may betray the national security interests of the country for personal interests.s. they put that remedy in the constitution, not because they wanted to willyly-nilly overtrtn elections, no, because ththey wanted a powowerful anticorruptn mechanism when that correction ine from the highest office the land. we are adjourned. chairouse intelligence adam schiff speaking tuesday. today, u.s. ambassador to the european union gordon sondland will testify, the wealthy hotel magnate, real estate developer in oregon. he received his ambassadorship after donating $1 million to trump's inauguration.

and we come back, we will speak to andy kroll, washington, d.c., bureau chief for rolling stone. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. our guest and washington, d.c., is the d.c. bureau chief for rolling stone, andy kroll. he has been closely covering the trump impeachment hearings. we just played a series of clips . the hearing was around 10 hours long with various a brakes, ending about 8:30 eastern last night. what most stood out for you? theset stood out across two marathon hearings to me was how unequivocal these four witnesses were. they were ambassadors. they were career staff. they were nonpartisan. they were picked by democrcrats and republicans for these hearings. how much in agreement they work that president trump's request,

his pressure on the ukrainian president to investigate as lieutenant colonel thehem and pt it, private u.s. citizen in a domestic political rival was not how beyond the pale that was. these words like improper, inappropriate, unusual, and wrong to describe this request by the president and then obviously, the campaign that followed that request, that surrounded that request, really, to get the ukrainians to investigate joe and hunter biden and to also investigate a conspiracy theory since debunked about the 2016 presidential election. there is no disagreement, there is no dispute among these witnesses coming from various different backgrounds, political backgrounds, government backgrounds, experience that what president did was wrong -- what president trump did was wrong and that they felt like they had to tell someone about this. and even speak up in public with this impeachment inquiry about what happened on that call and

what president trump did. what about the republican responses to some of the testimonies? especially vindman. he is going after him personally, questioningng, suggesting questions about his loyalty as well. >> i have watched every minute of the public impeachment hearings so far. i have read every page of the transcript. trust me, that took a long time. the republican response is what these witnesses have said have done everything but actually questioned facts and try to get at the truth of what happened. what we saw yesterday was a pretty good cap solution of that. you devin nunes come the top republican on the intelligence committee, attacking the media, attacking democrats, attacking the witnesses. you have other members on the committee questioning, as you just noted, the loyalty and patriotism of someone like

lieutenant col. vindman. lt. col. vindman was born in what is now ukraine and came to the u.s. as a toddler with his twin brother and his family. he went on to serve in the iraq war, earned a purple heart, continued to serve after severing his injury for almost a year in iraq in essence been a public servant who has sworn an oath to the constitution on several occasions. questioning his loyalty because an official with the ukrainian government to now know jokingly, offered vindman a position in the ukrainian cabinet. and this was brought up -- join amy: he said to become defense secretary of ukraine. he said each time he was offered that, whether or not it was a superior.old his >> he did. not only did he turn it down, obviously, he reported this to his superior. lieutenant col. vindman said yesterday y he is an amerirican. he nevever entertained this notn once.

he got a comical. frankly, this line of questioning -- which was also echoed i was a by the white house on twitter -- was really a way to get at -- to challenge the patriotism of someone who served in the iraq war, purple heart, government career public servant, sworn an oath to the constitution. juan: i want to ask you about the burisma and hunter biden issue because it seems to me that this is going to be lasting damage to the candidacy of joe biden because regardless of what the facts are, the reality is now that the republican party attempthed on to this to paint joe biden, through his son, as the swamp of washington. what is your sense as you have been covering this very closely, what the potential long-term damage is s to biden oththis? this -- i will put my answer in two categories here.

the first one is, yes, what you have just described is true. what we see in these hearings and what we have also seen from president trump himself, his son, his surrogates, is an attempt to tarnish former vice president biden as a presidential candidate by saying he was involved in some kind of corrupt deal whwhen he was vicee president, with ukraine, because his son hunter biden took a board position with his energy company burisma holdings, scandal plagued company that tought hunter biden on lilly help burnish his image because hunter b biden just hahaven't hd the last name biden. that is happening right now, that campaign against joe biden. it really is the origin of this whole impeachment inquiry, which was the president's personal lawyer rudy giuliani to associate -- two asassociates of giuliani, trying to web up a controversy around joe biden and

hunter biden in ukraine. the second part i will say quickly is that hunter biden did not have any particularly sterliling qualifications to ben the board of a scandal plagued ukrainian natural gas company. you don't bring on hunter biden because he is an expert in the industry for $50,000 a month. you bring on hunter biden because his last name is s bide. ththere is an appepearance of a conflict of interest there. george kent raised that issue several years ago as he testified, that he thought it had the appearance of conflict. that is something that is worth looking at as well. it is something we have looked at and others have as well. i want to make sure that is clear, too. amy: i guess the question is, with the republicans keep on raising this during the presidential campaign because it also will remind you of president trump and his involvement in this. i want to go to ukraine special envoy kurt volker who was a witness, requested by the

republicans. >> third, i did not understand that others believed in the investigation of the ukrainian cap for many breeze met, which had a history of accusations of corruption, was tantamount to investigating vice president biden. i drew a sharp distinction between the two. at the one in person meeting i had with mayor giuliani on july 19, he raised and i rejected the conspiracy theory that vice president biden would have been influenced in his duties as vice president by money paid to his son. as i previously testified, i've known vice president biden for 24 years. he is an honorable man and i hold him in the highest regard. amy: there is ambassador volker defending biden. andy, talk about the significance of the change testimony of volker and then talk about what is happening today, the significance of solid and i is changed testimony -- sondland and his change testimony in the damage he could do. , special envoy

volker singh someone who had spent years on the front lines of these issues, he saw no connection between the work that vice president joe biden did ukraine and what president trump , rudy giuliani, and others were trying to push, this narrative that because hunter biden was on the board of this energy company, that vice president biden have been corrupted or influenced or had taken actions to benefit the company hunter biden was working for. we don't have evidence of that. that is why ambassador volker referred to that as a conspiracy theory. again, hunter biden's position on this board is something worth looking into more. there are things we need to learn. at the line that the president and his allies are trying to draw in such an obvious way is not there right now. today, we have ambassador sondland, the president chief diplomat to the eu, testifying. this will probably be the most consequential witness of this entire impeachment proceeding. ambassador sondland, more than

anyone else, had first-hand knowledge, first-hand involvement in the effort to get the ukrainians to make a statement saying they would investigate the bidens and that they would investigate -- this debug conspiracy theory -- involving the 2016 election. sondland was on the call with a president. he conveyed messages to the ukrainian president and ukrainian senior officials. he has more first-hand knowledge of this whole episode more than anyone else apart from the president himself. juan: of course, his direct communications with president trump put him in the position of being effectively the potential john dean of this particular impeachment hearing in that he could directly pin the president, if he so testifies, to the attempt to shake down the ukrainiann government. >> that's right. what you're going to hear a lot about today is a phone call that

ambassador sondland received from presidentnt trump himself n july 26. remember, that is the day after this now infamouous july 25 call between president trump and the president of ukraine during which president trump says "i need you to do me a favor, though, i need you to investigate the bidens and investigate this conspiracy theory about 2016." the day after that, president trump calls ambassador sondland on his cell phone in ukraine, which means it is almost certain russia had a way to listen in on this call sing as they control most of the cellular network and ukraine, and on that call president trump asks ambassador sondland, are they going to do these investigations? ambassador sondland says, yes, they are. ambassadoror sondland says, they love y your ass. basically saying they are in your pocket, they will do what everyone him to do. and then they have a part of

this conversation that i found the most striking, which is president trump is asked what he cares about in ukraine, how much he cares about ukraine. his response, according to someone who overheard the call, ththat was sittingng with ambasr sondland in key have come is that he ononly cares aboutut the investigation. he doesn't t really care about ukraine or the conflict with russia and the eastern part of ukraine. he does not care about ukraine's attempts to stand on its own two legs as a d democracy. trump cares about is these investigations. he said that to ambassador sondland on that july 26 phone call. expect to hear more about that today when sondland testifies before the house. amy: tryingg to completely distance himself from sondland, san yardley knows the guy. so you have sondlandnd, the ambassador to the european union -- you can talalk about the significance of this coming from oregon, hotel magnate -- not that the republicans are so

dimmer -- different from the democrats in choosing the ambassadors as large contributors to inauguration or their parties, but that he is the ambassador to the european union, ukraine is not in the european union, and the other one controlling all of this is the private attorney for president trump rudy giuliani. a criminal investigation also being launched against tm, giuliani. >> that's right. when you think about it that way, you begin to understand why the president's national security advisor a at the time john bolton described this whole effort as a "drug deaeal." you understand why john bolton, as we learned yesterday, told his deputy tim morrison, one of the witnesses in this impeachment inquiry, any time morrison brought up something involving this supposed drug deal, bolton's response was the same, "tell the lawyeyers." even someone like john bolton, as hawkish as they get someone

who leaps at the chance to invade a fororeign countntry or lunch of f foreign intnterventi, even he saw how messed up this was, how the individuals carrying out this "drug deal" were far over their head andd really had no clue what they were doing. as you rightly point out, ambassador sondland is known mostly for operating and running hotels and giving $1 million to trump's inauguration, bipartisan tradition in this country, but usually those donors to the president, those wealthy hotel years and financiers,s, delphi themselves actually carrying out foreign policy in a country that is critical to our nationall secucurity and a hotspot in the world. amy: we will continue to follow all of this. andy kroll, thank you for being with us, washington, d.c., bureau chief for rolling stone, closely covering the trump impeachment hearings. democracy now! is broadcasting them life all day online, live

strereaming them democracynow.o. . at when we come back, we look at -- wes internrnational s look at iran. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: we turn now to iran, where amnesty international says over 100 protesters have been killed in nationwide demonstrations sparked by a sudden hike in fuel prices last week. on thursday, iran announced a rise in the cost of gas ranging from 50% to 300%. iranian state media says anan addiditionalal 1000 people haven arrested. the amnesty report also warns the death count may be much higher with some suggesting as many as 200 have been killed. amy: on sunday, soon after t t protests broke out, iran imposed an almost completete internet blackoutut, makingng it nearly

impossible for protesters use social mededia to share images r information. the civil society group netblocks, which monitors internet access worldwide,e, sad iran's usage e had decreased to% of its normal level. for more we go directly to washington, d.c., to speak with iranian-american journalist, negar mortazavi. she is the diplomatic correspondent for the independent. her most recent piece is headlined "as u.s. weighs in on iran protests, critics highlight american culpability for economic crisis." welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. can you explain how these protests broke out and also how your learning about what is happening within all must complete internet shut down? >> good morning. thank you for having me. as you said, the sudden increase in gas prices on thursday night basically ignited the protest on friday. we have to remember that fuel prices are heavily subsidized,

have been heavily subsidized in iran. still with almost ready percent increase, it is much lower -- 300% increase, it is much lower. this has been an economic problem for the government, the ham out of money they have been spinning on subsidies. the government has been struggling to somehow manage this stop it seems like they basically rolled it out were mismanaged it in the worst way possible and ignited these nationwide protests in almost 100 cities across the country. the protest got pretty violent and a crackdown from -- the few images that we see coming out, it is a brutal crackdown happening from security forces. the video o o sececity forceses directctly shooting at proteste, severelyly beating protesters, d just pushing back. the government has also complained dozens of banks and properties, gas stations have been vandalized, set on fire, and that their r leaders and

coordinators are being basically inspired oror this is ignited by the enemy y from the outside. babasically, what this comes don to is a grievance, an ongoing grievance, not just economic but political grievance, the iranians have had. these protests are not new. we saw widespread protests at the end of 2017, beginning of 2018 and dozens of cities across the country. this is in a way the continuation of that. it is combined with the fact there is high levels of corruption in different factions of the iranian political system. a lot of this management of the resources. it is basically a rich country when it comes to oil and gas and natural resources, and people just don't feel like that it is trickling down to the economy to the ordinary and average person. and then combined that also with crippling economic sanctions

from the united states, and it just creates an economic crisis that is hurting average iranians, especially working and middle classes, the most vulnerable segments of the society. especially when they see the high corruption within government officials and feel like ordinary people are the ones who are taking the pressure off sanctions, it t just adds to the anger r and makes -- turns this into a political fight and not just economic. juan: what is been the impact of this internet shut down on the ability of people to communicate and organize the protest? we are seeing increasingly governments resort to this. we saw in you do it in cashmere. egypt has tried it against its protesters. what is impact from what you can tell? >> it is extraordinary. people are still organizing and gathered in the streets. iranians launched

revolution without any internet or anything back then. it is not difficult for people to organize come to tell people where to meet at what time and thinks. remember, phone lines are still open so people can communicate over the phone. as far as organizing, i don't think it is had a terminus effect -- although, it is easier to organize over social media, and that is what the young people have been doing in recent years. that is one of the reasons the internet is shut down. maybe the more important reason is for the images in the videos and the photos to not get out or not be published on social media becacause that iss how foreign-based media basically and reporters are going to see exactly what is happening on the ground, their brutatality, the severe and as of the violence. and some images have made their way o out. they are pretty brutal. we are not really getttting a fl pictcture, a a visual picture of what is hahappening on the grord because of this almost total internet shut down. amy: talk about the places in

iran where the protest is most intense and why it is happening there, even more so than in tehran. >> tehran --speak to most people in tehran and in the many neighborhoods it is fairly common, also very heavy security atmosphere, major cities, other cities that have heard the same thing, that most neighborhoods are quiet but very securitized. it seems like the unrest is more in the suburbs and the lower income suburbs of tehran, southern tehran. and some other major cities -- one has seen a lot of unrest and casualties, the number of people toused and the arrests seem be high. smaller cities and towns across the country, also to provinces in the south and southwest, the both order areas, both have a high number of religious

minorities, ethnic minorities subject ofong been discrimination and also economic disadvantage when it comes to the central government. there's a lot of different layers of grievances in these areas. and one of the two provinces where it is the center of the unrest and repression, one is the province where all of the oil sits. it is an oil-rich province, basically where the country gets all of its resource or main source of income from, but ironically, the population that lives in that province does not see much of the economic benefit of what basically the natural resources there sitting on so it adds to the anger and grievance, combined with ethnic and religious and basically minority discrimination that it has been facing for years. amy: immediately, we see trump weighing in support of the protesters. if you could talk about the significance of that.

you compare to what is happening in hong kong, whatever deal he made with the chinese leader not to criticize chinese response to the hong kong protesters. of coursrse, very different inn iran right now. >> honestly, i don't know why president trump has not tweeted about iran. usually quick to tweet. in a way, i think it shows this has no significance to him, especially now that he has all of his attention on the impeachment hearing. nothing has came from president trump, not even a simple statement. feel the statement heard was a short one from the white house. secretary pompeo has also weighed in multiple times and some u.s. ambassadors have also weighed in. at the same time, like i argued mips and have spoken a critics, even on the democratic side in congress, it is just not seen as a very genuine message of support or sympathy when it comes from the trump administration because this administration is basically part

of the reason of the economic misery, the pullout from the iran deal, basically president trump in a lateral exit from the nuclear deal while iran was committed to the agreement. and then the real position of these economic sanctions on iran are one of the reasons that iranians are suffering economically. of course, combined with their own governments s mismanagement and corruption, everything i mentioned, but u.s. officials have actually acknowledged and sometimes even proudly boasted about how u.s. sanctions are hurting iran economically. so coming out and basically showing this message of support and sympathy for the people of iran are basically suffering economically does not seem very genuine. juan: an unprecedented league of intelligence documents has shed on how iran has taken control of much of the iraqi government in the wake of the 2003 u.s. invasion.

the leak to the intercept includes 700 pages of intelligence documents from 2014-2015. and one document, iraq's current prime minister is described as having a "special relationship with iran." the document show a number that went to work with the caa and went on to work with iranian intelligence that expose detailed information about the cia's activity in a rack. i'm wondering your response? >> it is incredible. the details of the report are incredible but it is not news that iran has had and in .uilding all of this influence a big portion that is public and out there. the grandows part of strategy or maybe the lack of u.s. government in the region following the invasion of iraq and basically trying for all of these years to add to influence or control parts of the power structure there while iran, the

next-door neighbor, has been basically doing the same thing even more successfully. it is not just in iraq. a network of influence, proxies is basically across the region in multiple countries. it has given iran an advantage in some ways when it comes to any kind of confrontation -- which i think, again, goes back to the issue of president trump basically unraveling this only diplomatic channel that was open with iran and basically bringing us to the brink of a conflict for this impasse of a situation where there is no path open for diplomacy. iran's influence in the region has not decreased, if not increased. it seems like iran's maligned behavior in the region has not changed. i'm not sure what the goal here is for the u.s. administration

or for president trump, but it just does not seem like they are moving toward a very positive destination. amy: we willll certainly contine to follow these issues in iran. for people to see our interview with one of the authors of the report in the intercept, and this massive, unprecedented league of iranian documents, you can go to democracynow.org. negar mortazavi, thank you for being with us iranian-american , journalist. correspondent for the diplomaticcorrespondent for the independent based in washington, d.c. we will continue to follow developments in iran. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: we end today's show rereflecting on transgender dayf remembrance. over 3000 transgender and nonconforming people have been killed around the world since 2008. this includes at least 22 so far in the u.s. this year mostly black transgender women. among those who have died in the u.s. this year was a transgender woman who died in rikers island

in june after she was arrested on misdemeanor charges and then was sent to jail for months because she could not afford $500 bail. amy: that same month, chanel lindsay was murdered in dallas shortly after a video went viral showing her being attacked by a mob of men shouting homophobic and transphobia slurs. also in june, transgender salvadoran woman died in i's custody, immigrations and customs enforcement, where her family says she was repeatedly died medical care. active essay today is that celebration of the community's resistance and are calling on people to fight for policies that would protect trans lives. for more, we stay in washington, d.c., where we are joined by lala b zannell, longtime transgender rights advocate and the co-producer of the womanity project feature film lala's world, an upcoming documentary series on the experiences of a

black trans woman living in america. we welcome you to democracy now! talk about the origins of this day, of the transgender day of rememembrance. all, , thank you for havingng me. i justst want to do a correctio. when you talalked about the vido that went viral, that was malaysia volker. i want to make sure that we get the name right so o people can understand what happened and to honor her name. amy: and tell us what happened to her. it wawas a video that went viral when she was brutally assaulted. nono one should be brutally attacked like that, no one helped her. after that, shortly, she is no longer with us. to further the insult, also even when they went to trial, the fence on the others was trying to dead name her in this trial and the judge threw that ouout. to try to distance t the ties wt

happened to make i it seem likit wawas just two men fighting when we know she was a t trans womana woman, a and that cost a lot o f hate vioiolence as well. day for trans people across the country to take a moment to celebrate the living while using that moment to honor the ones that we have lost in this movement. like,o it has become, excuse my french, christmas to some people. it is also a month where we get so many phone calls from colleges, from newspapers, from all of these organizations that want to do something and feel that having trans folks come in these spaces, sayingng the name, light a candle, and going home and that makes it seem like you have done the work when you have not showed up the rest of the 364 days of the year. and so f for thihis year, a lotf

trans folklks are reclaiming ths space and reclaiming this moment because we've had such a hard year with hihis administstratio. instantocusing on versrsus impacact, t ting to cue events thahat are places of hehealing and places that are nt traumama for t trans folks. because every time a trans woman, particularly a trans woman of color dies, it is like you'rere always in n anxiety, as in the realityty that yoyou coue next. soso we want t to be authentic t honoring t those thahat are here alive and workingg w with ororganizations, working with groups, working withth each othr to comome up with tangibible solulutions so that next yearr - the goal was not to bebe keep on having, , , the numbmbers are higher and higher.r. ththe goal is to o have more trs womemen of color not being kild for who they are. if we lose some along the way, it should d be for natural causs and not f for you being killed r who yoyou are. on thihis day, we challenge peoe

to show up for us daily, not just during tdor. there have been lots of events acrossss the country that i've been watching that have been informed in doing that. and that is very, very important. also, policies and laws are amazing. but we also know it is not always ending g because people n still vovote against thohose policies and laws. we know this admininistration is clearlrly gave and is a veryry t -- frankly thahat transgender people are the target of this regime. as stateng you can do lawmakers, local l lawmakers and organizations, corporations, as common n neighbors inn your neighborhood, the bebest w way r you to combat that is to show up for trans folks, free toto callt trtransphobia when it happens sn your neighborhood, for you to not just free to honor and protect those in your neighborhood, for you to your

schools until schools that you don't mind trans folks go there and they need safe spaceces to o to the bathroom and they are allowed to play in sports and allowed to go to the prom as their authentic selves. you show up to your job they in this space, we're going to hire trans people and not allllow transphohobia, we are not goingo discscriminate.. when you see violence happening, don't just p pull out your phone and record but you actually be a bystander to end violence against trans women of color. juan: you mention the attacks of the trump administration. what about the role of the mass media as well in terms of being possibly complicit in the violence against trans people? years,ink that over the translators and trans fofolks around the country like monica roberts who doeses her ownwn bl, translators that work it out magazine and other places. i think we are trying to take

over the narrative and try to be on top of the mist enteringng ad the deadening that happens in the m media. and being on t top of telling te media how to talk about our stories and reach out to the leaders in progressive areas where that happens i in media ao needs to spin the narrative that our lives are real, our existence is real, and t that or experiences are real. i will give you an example. say you're watchching your morng news this mornining. and porch light,t, there is a tragic thing that happenened and say a a woman was kikilled. the news reporter will say " sally,y, beautiful mother of fo, beautifuful -- she would do church, beautiful in, was tragicallyly murdedered." that is the narrative, right? is "atrans person, it trans person was murdered." then they will find the name they had, whicich is a a ad nam. they will bring up the criminal record.. they will try to insinuate they

were indulging in sex work orr they were fooling someoeone and not being their authentic selves. and that is not the narrative. if you look at the numbers, there e have been lots of people who knew f fks they wewere attacheded to. there's a lot ofof intimate partner violence, which is the same thingng as domemestic viol, that happens for trans p people. for folks who love them cauausig ththem harm. for r folks, eveven if family members somemetimes cause them harm. look at the young gayy guy k kid by his o own father. there is aesisistance o of que erness who are in the intersrsections of race anand tr gender. and theyey are living in these areas that d don't have the political education or the general educucation to understad what trans issues are because they''re not having access to ththat in school because they don't want that in school because it is not deemed as important. but it is impmportant.

it is just like u.s. history. it is just like racism conversations. gender is a part of this world. itit is a part of this communit. it has been here for a long time and it will continue to be here. amy: can you tell us your own story? >> hold on just a minute. the microphone is falling out. amy: your own story. just talk about your own experience as a black trans woman and what you think is most important for people to understand. peoplple who are just like meme who are black and brown, i need you too underststand i experirienced the same racism ce the same things that you are conflicting anand battling withn this countryry. i am expressing the same thing. i just get an extra layer because of my sexuality. i was blessed to be able to have a mother who loves and affirms me.

i told my y mother at 15 years old. my mother is a a pastor. i'm m a preacher's kid. it was very hardrd for her as aa paststor to really understand. one thing she never waverered fm itit she loved her c child. and no m matter what this transition in my life or how she -- she didn't let her lack of understatanding stopop loving m. my mother loved me through thiss whole process. my f fily h has loved me and supported me,e, and that is very important that yourr family love and support you through the process. amy: lala b zannell, thank you for being with us, especially on this transgender day of remembrance. transgendergtime rights advocate. we will continue to cover trans issues. we urge you to tune in today. democracy now!'s live streaming the impeachment hearings today at democracynow.org beginning at 9:00 a.m. eastern. d spreading out will be

at a conference marking the 20 thei anniversary of the 1999 seattle,nst the wto in the battle of seattle. we will both be together and moderating and speaking at the forms that go for two days he