11/22/19 11/22/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> this is the sentiment of the people. the people our board of social injustice. there are killing our cultural identity. our indigenous communities are in danger. the labor reforms do not benefit the colombian people. amy: hundreds of thousands take to the streets of colombia the largest national strike colombia has seen in years. we will go to cali for the

latest. then we look at the fight to fight -- we look at the fight to block julian assange coming to the united states following the dropping of the investigation into sexual assault allegations for the third time that the founder of wikileaks has long denied. we will hear from the united nations special rapporteur on torture who visisited assange in londndon's belmarsh prison. >> we all came to the conclusion he showed all of the symptoms typical for person exposed to psychological torture over an extended period of time. amy: we will also speak to tariq margaretndon and ratner kunstler, the editors of the new book "in defense of julian assange." all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. on capitol hill, the p preside's former top adviser on russia

and europe told the house impeachment inquiry thursday that donald trump sacrificed u.s. foreign policy goals by pressuring ukraine's leaders to announce an investigation into his political rival joe biden and his son. the advisor, fiona hill, said she came to realize the president was personally directing his attorney rudy giuliani and u.s. ambassador gordon sondland to pressure ukraine into helping trump's reelection bid by smearing one of his main political rivals. >> he was being involved in a domestic political air and -- errand and w we were involved in national security policy. in national security policy. and those two things just merge. said it was ukrainian operatives, not russians, who meddled in the 2016 election. >> right now russia's security services and their proxies have

geared up to repeat their interference in the 2020 election step we're running out of time to stop them. in the course of this investigation i would ask that you not promote falsehoods that so clearly advance russian interest. amy: dr. hill said she warned ambassador sondland his efforts in ukraine on behalf of trump would blowup. another witness, david holmes, and eight at the u.s. embassy in kiev, testified he overheard president from discussing investigations into the bidens with ambassador sondland over a nonsecure cell phone at an open air restaurant in kiev, ukraine. late thursday, adam schiff gaveled the impeachment proceedings to a close. >> this president believes he is above the law, beyond accountability. in my view, there's nothing more dangerous than an unethical president who believes they are above the law. and i would just say to people

watching here at home and around , in the words of my great colleague, we are better than that. adjourned. amy: as the house intelligence committee wrapped up its final public hearing, president trump lashed out on twitter, writing -- "corrupt politician adam schiff's lies are growing by the day. keep fighting tough, republicans, you are dealing with human scum," the president tweeted. his latest outburst came as the "washington post" reported top white house officials met privately with republican senate leaders thursday to discuss limiting trumpmp's impeacachment trial to just two weeks. a senate trial could come as early as january. if the house votes for the articles of impeachment. in colombia of thousands of , hundreds people took to the streets thursday in the largest national strike the country has seen in years. labor unions, students, teachers, indigenous and

afro-colombian activists joined in peaceful marches across urban and rural colombia as anger mounts against right-wing president ivan duque and his cabinet. the peaceful movement was met with police repression and tear gas in bogota, cali, and medellin. colombia shut down its borders with venezuela, ecuador, brazil and peru in response to the strike. after headlines, w we will go to colombia for the latest. in bolivia, military forces tear gassed a massive funeral procession in la paz thursday, as supporters of ousted president evo morales carried coffins of slain protesters through the streets. thousands of demonstrators were mourning the eight indigenous protesters killed by the bolivian police and military tuesday in el alto. but security forces descended on the procession as it drew near the presidential palace. cocoffins were l left in the sts as tear gas forced the demonstrators to disperse. it was the latest act of

military repression since the coup that forced evo morales out of office almost two weeks ago. at least 32 people have been killed in the violence that followed, mainly indigenous people killed by bolivia security forces. bolivia's ousted president evo morales called wednesday for an international truth cocommission to investigate his ouster. from ththe north, we are informed the united states does not want me to return to bolivia in the right wing and bolivia, a massacre led right, expressed that people can't return to bolivia. amy: evo morales was speaking from mexico where he is in exile. to see our coverage of what is happening in bolivia, go to democracynow.org. in iran, a government blackout of all internet traffic has entered its fifth day, leaving tens of millions of people accustomed to hi-speed data cut off from the outside world. the blackout came amid a government crackdown on protests over soaring increases in the price of fuel.

amnesty internationalal says moe than 100 people werere killed ad over 1000 arrested at protests in 21 citieses, as iranian forcs fired live rounds into crowdwds from rooftops and helicopters. the fuel price hikes came after the trumump administration w wad away from ththe iran nuclelear agreement last year, imposing harsh h economic sanctctions on iran. israel's top prosecutor on thursday indicted prime minister benjamin netanyahu on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three separate cases. this is israel's attorney general avichai mandelblit. a day in which the attorney general decides to indict a serving prime minister with severe offenses of administrative corruption is a difficult and sad day for the israeli public and for me personally. amy: netanyahu is accused of trading political favors for positive press coverage and,

separately, for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of luxury goods -- including jewelry, cigars and champagne -- from a hollywood producer and an australian billionaire in return for favors. netanynyahu railed a again t the chararges thursday, calling them an attempted coup. he is the only sitting prime minister to be indicted in israel's history. bacack in t the united states,, former vice president joe biden was confnfronted by prototesters thursdsday at a campaign stop in greenwood, south carolina overer , thursdsday his support f for e obama administration''s deportation policicies. [chanting] the protest came after carlosojas of the immigrant rights group cosecha confrted biden er the 3 million people statesd from the united

under president obama record , a pace of deportations. biden responded to rojas, "you should vote for trump.p." more than 100 members of congress called thursday for president trump to fire senior adviser stephen miller after emails emerged detailing miller's long-time support for white nationalism, far-right extremist ideas, and racist conspiracy theories. in a letter to the white house, the lawmakers write -- "given mr. miller's role in shaping immigration policy for your administration, his documented dedication to extremist, anti-immigrant ideology and conspiracy-mongering is disqualifying." in california, over 1000 students linked arms and tried to physically block people from attending a talk by far-right tv personality ann coulter on the uc-berkeley campus thursday evening. police in riot gear escorted coulter and her fans inside berkeley's famed wheeler hall for the talk, which was hosted by the college republicans. students projected a giant sign reading "berkeley stands united against hate" on the outside of the hall.

while inside, a student was handcuffed and removed as she disrupted coulter's speech. six other protesters were arrested throughout the evening. the southern poverty law center has called coulter "an infamous far-right attack dog" with ties to white nationalist organizations. syracuse university has suspended four students in connection with a string of racist incidents, including a verbal assault on an african-american student. there have been at least twelve reports of racist graffiti and swastikas found on campus. and in one instance, students at the university's library received a white supremacist manifesto on their cell phones. on thursday, chancellor kent syverud signed a memorandum agreeing to 19 demands presented by student groups who organized a week-long sit-in protest of a campus building. in indiana, a white police officer has been fired after a viviral video showed him harasag two african-american men for

"acting suspicious" by spending over $ $1000 at a shopping m ma. deputy constable daryl jones was a security duty as officer at a nordstrom rack store in the indianapolis suburb of lawrence when he followed aaron blackwell and his cousin durell cunningham to their car in the mall parking lot, demanding to see their id's. blackwell recordeded the interaction on his cell phone. >> get y your drivers license o. show me id. >> call your supervisor. what you need my id for, sir? >> because you want to run your mouth to me. amy: officer jones called for backup, and an on-duty officer arrived, eventually telling blackwell and cunningham they were free to go. lawrence township chief constable terry burns said he decided to fire officer jones immediately after watching the video. facebook has revealed that ceo mark zuckerberg secretly met with president donald trump over dinner at the white house in october. also at the meeting, facebook investor peter thiel, a major trump donor and chair of the

data technology company palantir, a major defense contractor whose case management system is used by immigration and customs enforcement to surveil, track, and deport immigrants. it's not clear what thiel, zuckerberg, and trump discussed. massachusetts senator and 2020 presidential candidate elizabeth warren tweeted -- "this is how the government keeps working for giant corporations and the wealthy and well-connected. it's no wonder that companies like facebook have been allowed to consolidate economic and political power without any real accountability." wisconsin's democratic governor tony evers has signed a bill making it a felony to trespass on the grounds of an oil or gas pipeline. critics say the bill was inspired by alec, the american legislative exchange council, and pushed through the wisconsin legislature by the american petroleum institute. opponents of the law include members of the bad river band of lake superior chippewa, whose reservation is crossed by the embridge line 5 tar sands oil pipeline. the tribe's chair, mike wiggins,

said -- "over and over, we've seen peaceful, nonviolent protests met with militarization, threats of violence and actual violence from some of these corporate mechanisms." and more women have stepppped forward to accuse the late serial sexual predator jeffrey epstein of rape and sex trafficking. on monday, a woman identifying herself as jane doe publicly announced a lawsuit against epstein's estate, saying she was raped by epstein at his new mexico ranch when she was 15 years old. and on thursday, teala davies told reporters in new york city epstein frequently raped and sexually assaulted her at his homes in new york, new mexico, florida, the virgin islands, and france beginning when she was 17 years old. >> i was a litittle girl. breakk me a long time to free from his mind control and abuse. amy: on thursday, the attorney representing the women, gloria allred, said britain's prince andrew should be obliged to meet with investigators to disclose his ties to epstein.

virginia giuffre, who is one of several epstein accusers, says she was sexually trafficked by epstein and forced to have sex with the prince when she was 17 years old. prince andrew has denied the accusations. he said this week he's stepping back from public duties after he showed little remorse for epstein's victims in an interview with bbc newewsnight. >> do yoyoregret the whole franance trip -- frieship wit epstein? >>ow -- stillllot for t reon beiei i tt the peoeoe th iet and t oppornities ehert iasiven toearn him or because of him wer actual very usul. y: that prince arew on bbc. jeffy epsteihas counted esidentsonald trump and bill clinton among his friends. trump told "new york magazine" in 2002 -- "i've known jeff for 15 years. terrific guy. he's a lot of fun to be with.

it is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as i do, and many of them are on the younunger side." and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show in colombia, where hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets thursday in the largest national strike colombia has seen i in years. labor unions, students, teachers, indigenous and afro-colombian activists joined in peaceful marches across urban and rural colombia as anger mounts against right-wing president ivan duque and his cabinet. their peaceful movement was met with police repression and tear gas in bogota, cali, and medellin. in bogota, riot police fired tear gas at protesters who blocked major transportation routes. others gathered in bogota's historic simon bolivar plaza, singing the national anthem in unison, where they were also met by police forces shooting tear gas. a government imposed curfew was reported in the city of cali, the capital ofof the cauca regi.

the colombian borders with venezuela, ecuador, brazil, and peru were shut down in response to the national strike. the protests were triggered by duque's proposed labor reforms and cuts to the pension system as well as a recent military airstrike against a camp of alleged dissident rebel drug traffickers, which left eight children dead. this is one of the protesters in the capital of bogota. >> this is the sentiment of the people. the people are bored of social injustice. they are killing our social leaders, our cultural idea -- identity. the economic and political labor reforms do not benefit the colombian people. amy: indignation against duque's government has brewed since the u.s.-backed president took office in august 2018. social activists have continuously denounced duque's sabotage of colombia's historic peace accords, which were signed in 2016 after half a century of war, as well as the endemic of killings of indigenous, afro colombian, and other social leaders under his administration.

since the signing of the peace accords, at least 700 social leaders have been murdered in colombia. for more, we go to the city of cali, where we're joined byby lg time colombian activist manuel rozental. he has been involved with grassroots political organizing with youth, , indigenous communities, and urban and rural social movements for four decades. exiled several times to canada for political activities. welcome to democracy now! i hope we can keep you on the line. i know the line is a little tricky right now. the internet. but if you can talk about what happenened across colomb yesterday? >> it is u unprecededented, wiwt anany dot. there wewere millions, not thousands, millions s of coloiaians marching yesteterday. were a at differert marches inn cali yesteterday and i h had ner seen anything like this before. i have to clarify several things. one is this march and this

national strike was not convened by any single organization. it is the entire people of this country who are fed up and we just gave ourselves a day and convene ourselves to the streets. so no political party, no social structureno group, no controls this strike. it is a sentiment we all have against a government. number two is, immobilization was wonderful -- the mobilization was wonderful. everybody was out. their reasons were all the reasons. using uprising in chile and ecuador come everywhere else in latin america. everything that has been done wrong to all of the people everywhere hasas been done agait us in colombia for many, many years. not 18 children that were killed recently by the armed forces of

colombia, forcing the resignation of the minister of defense. according to the former presidential candidate and member of the senate, more than 300 children have been killed by the colombian army in eight years. 800 [indidiscerble] have been murdered since the peace agreemement in 2016. -- linked to drug trafficking, murder everywhere. we are f up. so we marcd.d. we mobilized and w eressssed our r anr. i catellll y clearly, today presenent duque in ththpresident hihind h, have nothing to d inowerer icolombmb. like theombia

opleho march yesterd likeim. amy: let me play colombia president yvonne d duque speakig about the role of the military and anticipation of yesterday's national strike. forcess these military which have always guarantee the implementation of democracy, the ones that have always guarantee freedom of speech in our territory. i also take this as the opportunity to say it is the military forces which should guarantee peaceful protest as an expression of democracy, but there also the same forces that should protect our citizens so that thehere is nono vandalism r aggressions, nor a allow t that anyone shall pretending usurp the functions of the military forces. amy: if you can respond, manuel presidentto what duque said about the military ensuring freedom of speech and peace. we can't hear you.

we are going to try to reconnect with him in a moment. but i wanted to also ask about earlier this month, five indigenous leaders massacred in the semiautonomous indigenous reservation of nasa tacueyo. among those murdered was cristina bautista, the chief of the area. president ivan duque vowed to deploy 2500 military troops to the region. he blamed dissidents of the farc guerrilla rebel group who opposed the country's peace accords, but police still haven't made any arrests and no suspects have been named in the massacre. since the signing of the peace accords in 2016, at least 700 social leaders have been murdered in colombia according to the institute for development and peace studies, with afro-colombian and indigenous activists at the forefront of the violent targeting. earlier this month, democracy ,ow! spoke with your partner

and indigenous leader. this in a skypepe interview abot that massacre and wewe asked her what her message was to the american audience about the ongoing violence in colombia. the u.s. govevernment has for decades funded the war on drugs in colombia and currently backs the government of right-wing president ivan duque. this was her response. >> as a woman, i would ask the pepeople, the prorocesses, and e movement to understatand what is happening in colombia, the war they are inflicting upon as is precisely to guarantee the reproduction of the patriarchal, colonial, and capitalist system to accumulate wealth there i in the unitited states. who is prorofitingith this blood with death, with displacement, with the destruction of our autonomy here. understand we are being subjected to war to guarantee the preservation of a system that not only exists in

colombmbia, but in different pas of the world and that the challenge we have as peoples and movements is to try to o e beyond this state ththat inflics war. we need d to self organize, defd ourselve autonomously, and have autonomous resistance be on thte is just beyond the institution, which is the one killing us. amy: that is vilma almendra. we are speaking to her partner manuel rozental, both colombian activist with decades of experience and grassroots political organizing with youth, indigenous goodies, urban and rural social movements. we will continue to cover the mass protests and colombia again yesterday with well over a million people in the streets of the country, the largest mass protest colombia has seen in years. this is democracy now! when we come back, we will talk about the defense of julian assange. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

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

we turn now to the case of julian assange, the founder of wikileaks. earlier this week, swedish prosecutors have for the third time dropped an investigation into sexual assault allegations that assange has long denied. the move comes as assange's legal team is fighting efforts for him to be extradited to the united states where he faces up to 175 years in prison on hacking charges and 17 counts of violating the rarely invoked world war i-era espionage act for his role exposing u.s. war crimes in iraq and afghanistan. a full extradition hearing will take place in february. julian assange has been locked up at london's belmarsh prison since april when he was dragged out of the ecuadorean embassy by london police. he had taken refuge e inside the ecuadorian embassy for over seven yearars to avoid extradition. later in the program, wewe will speak to tariq ali and margaret

ratner kunstler, co-editors of the new book "in defense of julian assange." but first, i want to turn to nils melzer, the united nations special rapporteur on torture. he recently spoke at columbia university. >> about a year ago when julian assange lawyeyers first ctatactd me and askeded me to intervene n , i was very hesitant isget involved because i had visceral reaction -- i did not know anything about the man. i had never don't with the case -- i had never dealt with the case. received many requests a day of potential victims of torture or other human rights

violations to intervene on their behalf. i wasn't going to get into this case. it took me another three months when his lawyers came back to me and said, well, there are rumors he might be expelled from the embassy of ecuador in london imminently and jusust look at aa few documents and make up your mind. somehow -- i lookoked at the documents. i have to admit as soon as i scratched the surface a little bit, immediately, things did not add up with the images i had in my mind of this man. got into this, the more fabrication i saw. i just saw there was nothing to back up all of these -- this public narrative that happened about julian assange in the media. or at least, that is where i got it from.

this constant thing over the years. i looked into the case and i decided -- this is a very politicized case. -- and a publicized case. i need to make sure i have a solid basis. i requested the british authority to allow me to visit him and i took two medical experts with me, a psychiatrist and a forensic expert. both have worked with torture andims for decades establish symptoms that might ill-treatment. they know how to distinguish these things. we visited julian assange in belmarsh prison for four hours. i spoke with him for an hohour just to get a good first impression, then we had a physical examination for an hour by our forensic expert, then we

had the two hour psychiatric examination. all three of us had the same impression -- certainly had the and they had a diagnosis, welcome to the same conclusion he showed the same symptoms that are typical for a person that has been exposed to psychological torture over an extended period of time. now, i have the results. i have to say, personally when i met him the first time, the only time i met him, actually, he impression rational -- a lot of anxiety i could feel. stressed and on a stress level where he could never relax. and something that reminded me of many of the victims of torture at interrogation centers that have been detained for a long time.

intellectuals that have been in isolation for a long time that we show that kind of reaction pattern. asking me questions and what i would start to answer, he would always -- already come to the next question. very intelligent questions but he could not even compute my answers. already the on that point. -- because he had been in a very controlled environment for more than six years, we could identify the causes -- there were a number of causes, factors that influenced his life . it was not somebody we picked up on the battlefield and we did not know what happened to them. the last six or seven years, he has been exposed to the same environment that involved but it to make theasy calculation and conclude what were actually the causes that have produced these symptoms.

now, we also have to be clear from a culture and treatment --spective, not everything not every anxiety and stress level of pain-and-suffering is torture. just because you show that symptoms doesn't necessarily mean that someone tortured you. because there is an exception in the torture definition -- essentially, torture is elaborate and purposeful infliction of severe pain-and-suffering in order to achieve some kind of a purpose -- coercion, compassion, intimidation or something like that. but there is an exception where there is pain-and-suffering that is inherent in lawful sanctions. when you have a lawful, legal proceeding, somebody is lawfully detained, obviously they would be stressed. the longer it last, the more they would be stressed. that obviously is a levevel of anxiety that is inherent in a lawful measure. the question was, was the detention lawful?

when i looked at all of the evidence, and i'm not going to go into every single detail here, but where applying the law, then he would not have been sentenced to a 50-week imprisonment simply for bail violation in the u.k. for a case that at the time was not even ending anymore. violated d that bail condition because he had received asylum from political persecution, given by a u.n. never state, ecuador. and that is not a grave violation of the bail condition. in the u.k., bail violations don't repeatedly lead to prison sentences. it is a fine or maybe minor symptoms that might even be --

might not even be served. that was clearly excessive. saw british judges showed from the first day when he was arrested, showed extreme bias against him, called him narcissist, although at that hearing he said nothing. i'm a professor. overaller the u.k. and state in one of the leading ones. to me, that was very odd. i thought, we have an excessive sentence. we have judges calling -- insulting him saying nothing, basically. we had a judge leaving the extradition proceedings until recently who had a documented conflict of interest. her husband had been exposed by wikileaks. the defense lawyers had tried to make that case and it was simply ignored. until two weeks ago, i believe, julian assange never had access

to legal documents. so how do you prepare a defense, which is a basic human rights when you're facing all of these proceedings, and you don't even have access to your legal documents? in the extradition hearing, the judge asks him, sir, have you read the u.s. indictment? he said, i haven't received it. that is not the rule of law. this is not about defying the law. that is not lawful. we look at the swedish proceedings. it is the same thing. it is totally arbitrary. the state conducts a preliminary investigation -- he has never been charged of anything in sweden. he is not charged of sexual offenses. never has been. the case has been opened and closed becauause there was no evidence for any offense at all. a different prosecutor takes it statementased on the

which purported victim, adapted, changed by the police without consulting the victim in order to have a stronger basis for rape case. it goes on and on and on. strange evidence that has no dna on them, which supposedly the condoms have been used. one contradiction after another. sweden never gets s beyond the stage of up luminary investigation, w which means sosomeone alleged rape and they have still not decided whether they want to charge him or not -- after nine years. that is what has kept him in detention in the ecuadorian embassy for so long. and under that constant pressure. the pursuing's secret evidence, jury selection,

which obviously that area will result in a certain amount of fire within the jury. we have a history of the so-called espionage court, which has been problematic. 17 of the 18 charges, basically, that areto activities the basic business of any investigative journalist, which brings in the whole freedom of press and freedom of opinion here. and the 18th charge, the first one the first one u.s. join us on supposedly help --ttempted to julian assange supposedly having attempted to help chelsea manning with a password but not succeeded. time tries to type in a

password in a decoder it doesn't work, you get asked what i did to the u.s. for espionage. i was a something is slightly disproportionate. something does not add up in all of these proceedings. the asylum arriving of julian assange by ecuador and terminating citizenship. that is done without any legal prococeeding whatsoever. the president just decides, that is what we're going to do today. he has been informed come he will be kicked out of the embassy. we have no due process proceeding whatsoever. u.s., ecuador, sweden -- all of these have severe rerelations of due process consistently. this is not about [indiscernible]

this is not about applying the law. you have to take a step back. amounts ofd enormous information that governments wanted to stay secret, remain secret. obviously, most famously or infamously the murder video , it isome in my view evidence for war crimes. in this case is that everybody focuses on julian allegationshaving [indiscernible] whatsoever evidence for any of these. true.f these were but no one looks at the war crimes. i think that is the big story.

that is why i get passionate about this case because here is some of the disclosed evidence for war crime, including torture, murder, all kinds of corrupt activities going on, and everybody focuses on julian assange and his domestic obligations. and therefore, there is no justification for detaining him in isolation and havining him ununder this conststant pressure where he knows he cannot trust anybody -- no official authority. he will certainly be exposed to u.k.,itrary trial in the and extradition trial. end, u.k. judges will say, we cannot extradite him if there is death assurances.

deaththere is a penalty. [indiscernible] ill-treatment the he has suffered, i am absolutely convinced he will not get a fair .rial [indiscernible] amy: that is nils melzer, the united nations special rapporteur on torture. he was speaking about julian wikileaks founder, speaking at columbia university this past octobeber 15. when we come back, we will speak with tariq ali in london and margaret ratner kunstler here in new york, editors of the new book "in defense of julian assange." stay with usus. ♪ [music break]

amy: performed by harry

belafonte. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. at the caseto look of julian assange and we're joined now by the coeditors of a new book called "in defense of julian assange," a collection of essays by leading activists, journalists, and whistleblowers who lay out the story of wikileaks and assange and the need to defend attacks on journalism and the public's right to know. tariq ali joins us from london, historian, activist, filmmaker, author, and an editor of the new left review. here in new york, civil rights attorney margaret cocounselor rs with us. tariq q you're in london, not tt far from the belmarsh prison where julian assange has been held since april, since police went in and took him out of the ecuadorian embassy where he had political asylum for over seven years. this past week, the swedish government announced, i believe it is for the third time, that

they have ended their sexual assault investigation into julian assange. he was never charged and he always denied the allegations. can you talk about the significance of this development and then talk about what is happening with julian assange as he awaits whether britain will agree to extradite him to the united states, where he faces well over a century in prison under the espionage act that is rarely invoked in this country, that world war i-era law. tariq ali? >> amy, the situation in relation to t the swedes is quie peculiar. they have been at loggerheads amongst themselves as to whether to charge julian with anything since the focus began. when they first started off, the

two female prosecutors disagreed. one said there is no case to answer, the other pushed for an investigation. she won out. but every time assange offered come andnterview him, question him in london, they refused to do so. and many of us close to juliann and defending him right from the beginning felt there was something fishy, that they did not really have a case. and julian, who gave up his side of it, was absolutely convinced that the reason this was being done was to lock him up in the swedish prison until the americans were ready -- until the american government was ready to extradite him. he said there can be no other explanation. and with the swedes now dropping the case for the third time and saying it is more or less over

-- and one reason they give for being over, the women concerned who made these allegations, it is a long time since they made them and, you know, they're confused, they can't remember. well, i would just point out that much literature on rape written by women and men says the one thing a woman who has been raped never forgets is that particular event. she can forget many other things, she won't forget that. so the fact the women who charged him are not prepared to come forward is in indication that something was wrong from the beginning. in any case, what this has done since the first time april when julian hasas been locked up in a top security prison, belmarsh, the liberal newspaper "the guardian" has finally come out and defended him, using the fact that charges have been dropped by the swedes and said he should not bebe

extradited, that it would be an outrage if he was, all he did was publish information which "the guardian" published in its pages, "the new york times" a"blished, "republic published in italy. it would be a severe attack on civil liberties. at long last, something is beginning to move on the mainstream front to defend julian. should not be, he imprisoned at all. he was given the maximum withnce for not complying the bail legalities. it is very rare for anyone who has done that to serve a full sentence. that sentence was served ages ago. so why is he still being kept in a maximum security prison? it is a vindictive punishmhmenty

the english judicial system on the authority of the government -- which o obviously, once this- to set a appease the united states. and to punish julian. they want him to be in this state that he is, has been described by the united nations repertory a few minutes ago -- repertory a few minutes ago on this program. they want to demoralize and destroy him. otherwise, he showed even if he has to be imprisoned, which i he't except for a minute, could be in an open prison where conditions are very different. so the english traditional system is behaving like no authoritarian system. it has to be said one should not have any illusions about it. the judge, was supposed to be trying this case, is linked, we now know, to a whole number of -- her husband has bought many,

many dubious links to the american arms industry, etc. i don't want to go into that in detail. it will probably come out. but more important, a few days ago, she gavave bail to two peoe from asia, south asia, who are accused of murder in their own countries, as having killed hasle, and the extradition been demanded. she quite happily, without a care in the world, gave them bail. so why keep julian in prison and not t grant him bail or move him to another prison? situation.palling amy: there is another news that came out that you reference. in september, spanish newspaper el pais revealed the cia worked with a spanish private security company to spy on julian assange inside the ecuadadorian embassyn london where he had sought political asylum for over seven

years. ecuador had hired the firm undercoverer global sl to protot ththe embassy, b but the firm reportedly also secrcretly handd over audio andnd video to the ca of meetings assange had with his lawyers, journrnalists, dodocto, and visitors. the firm installed secret video cameras inside the embassy and placed microphones in the embassssy's fire extinguishers d in the women's bathroom. the hehead of the firm i is noww being investigated by spain's national court. >> yeah, this is going on. strong published a very report and there was a lot of anger in spain, not just from the usual suspects. people were extremely angry that a spanish firm had carried out illegal surveillance of julian assange. not that he was particularly surprised. none of us are. one expects this to happen, but it still is shocking that it can

happen so easily. and this firm and its bosses are under assault now -- legal assault in spain, and hopefully they will have to answer something or the other. i mean, that would make it clear watchesto anyone who these things, these people have filmed and recorded, all it would do if a neutral person watch them is to s strengthen te case in defense of julian assange. and say he is basically what he is, a publisher a and a journalt who publishehes material that is sent to him, that he gets hold of, in order to do what? so that the public knows. because we live now in society where governments either tell blatant lies or conceal stuff from their citizens who they feel are best treated as

children, not in front of the children. well, julian assange and wikileaks, the organization, broke with this and published everything. incidentally, quite a lot of what they published showed behind-the-scenes, quite a few american diplomats were aware of what was going on and actually telling the government in washington this has gone too far. in relation to various things. so they come out quite well. so it is not even the case this material encouraged terrorism or any nonsense like that, it just provided any citizen anywhere in the world of a chance to have a look at what was really going on. and this has been julian's name and life, or recently, obviously, to do this. i think we should be in no doubt that the reason they're doing

this -- the british, the united iss to make it a deterrent. is to tell any other people who publish unauthorized material, look, this is what happens. look what happened to julian assange. we locked him up. we tortured him. we want to lock him up for life. in the aim is to frighten people off full stuff of course, he won't work. it never works. but sooner or later, someone upset by witnessing the atrocity, someone working for the government, and this will come out again. this is never prearranged. if someone like snowden gets angry and reveals the information. so even as a deterrent, which is what their aim is, it isn't going or cost of amy: tariq ali, i want to go to one of the most explosive documents that wikileaks revealed. i'm going back to 2010 when wikileaks published the shocking

u.s. military video s showing te indiscriminate targeting and killing of civilians in baghdad, including two reuters employees, a journalistst and his driver. theyey were kikilled in the attk along g with eight other p peope and two childrdren were injured. at least eight people were killed. the video was made july 12, two thousand seven, by u.s. military apache helicopter gununship. the video was taken from the gunship.p. they are focususing with a targt down on the ground and these two reuters ememployees, the up-and-coming videographer who is 22 years old had a camera, as did his driver, a 40-year-old father of four. you hear thee men, the soldiers laughing, calling back to base to see -- they were not rogue -- to see if they could get permission to open fire, which was granted. it is a chilling video as they

laugh and curse and you see the men killed below. so at that time, julian assange was in the united states when this was released. and we talked to him in a studio in washington, d.c. this is well before he took refuge in ecuadorian embassy. this was april 201010, about the video they had called "collateral murder." >> when we first got it, we were told it was important and it showed the killing of journalists, but we did not have any other context. we spent quite some months after breaking the decryption looking closely into this. the more we looked, the more disturbing it became. this is a sequence which has a lot of detail. i think in some ways, it covers most of the bad aspects of the aerial war in iraq and what we must be able to infer is going on in afghanistan. these are not badad apples.s.

thisis is standard practice.e. yoyou can hear it from the tonef the voices of the pilots that this is in fact another day at the office. these pilots evidently have become so corrupted, morally corrupted by the war, they are looking for excuses to kill. a that is julian assange in the united states after this video "collateral murder" was released. we are joined by tariq ali in london and margaret ratner kunstler here in new york. they co-edited the book "in defense of julian assange." margaret, you are human rights lawyer. talk about why you have released this book at this point, and the significance of what we just saw, the video showing the killing -- reuters, after nameer and sayid were killed, they demanded of the military to give

them evidence of what had happened and the military did not release this video, even admit they had it. this brings in chelsea manning and a brings in -- who is in -- thisll come although brings in chelsea manning who was let out of jail after seven years, but now she is back in jail and another but related case. >> it is closely related in fact. chelsea manning's release -- sending that material to julian assange was prompted by the reuters request for it. she had heard reuters was after it, so she looked for it. she wanted to help and explain what happened. then she was so shocked -- amy: she was an intelligence officer in iraq. >> she was so shockeked when she sought but she could not help us in it on. she tried to sit it on to other sources, "new york times" and other r news plalaces, but julin took it and released it, as s yu can n see.

thiswhat you have edited volume now "in defense of julian assange"? >> there's been so much distraction of what is really at stake. enoughght if we put out information about what impact was happening, what -- the threat to julian and the threat to the constitution, the first amendment, that people would come back and understand it and get together and fight against this because that is the only way that this is going -- that julian will not be brought to this country, will not be jailed for the rest of his life, and the first amendment will still exist. amy: explain what is happening. he is in jail right now and faces 100 75 years in prison if he is extradited to the united states for espionage? >> correct. there are 17 charges that cover espionage in this indictment. this is the first time that a reporter has ever been charged

with espionage. that is because the press and reporters have always been held up as the most important and only way to reveal what is happening in government. so far, it has never happened before. the espionage charge is not meant to cover this kind of activity and the espionage charge in this indictment are in fact a violation of the first amendment. perhaps i could read -- joinn amy: really have 10 seconds. >> this is from hugo black concur in the new york times case. "in the first amendment, the founding fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to facilitate -- fulfill its essential role in our democracy. the press was to serve the government from anotheher governors. the government's power to kids or the press was a abolished of the press would r remain forever free to censure the governrnment was of the press was protecteded so it could bear the secrets of government and inform the peoplele. only a a free press, unrestraind

press can effectively expose this deception and government. amy: i want to thank you, coeditors oftariq,

announcer: this is al jazeera. >> from doha, this is al jazeera. massive crowds gathering again in chile to protest against the government for a second month. and these pictures from al jazeera's camera in colombia. more protests over the proposed reforms to the tax and pension system. there's also rare positive news out of yemen. the u.n. envoy says air strikes by the