11/25/19 11/25/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new, york k this is democracacy now! >> egypt's last remaining indedependent medidia oututlet e lastst place thatt p provides verticalal news coverage. th a arrested d one o of our colleagues from his hohome. oururnext day they r raided ofoffices and cacap does lockedn there for several hours. fifinally, everyone wawas relead and mark the severe escalation against a free press in egypt. amy: in a major blow to press

freedom and egypt, security forces raided the office of the country's last independent media outlet. we will speak to mada masr sharif abdel kouddous, also a democracy now! correspondent, who was detained for three hours during the raid. then pope francis visits hiroshima and nagasaki and because the possession of nuclear weapons immoral. -- and because the possession of nuclear weapons immoral. >> i wish once more to be clear the use of atomic energy for purposes of war is today, more than ever, a crime not only against the dignity of human beings, but against any possible future for our common home. c catholices as seven peacace activists awaitit senteg for breaking into a nuclear weapons facility in georgia. we will speak to one of the plowshares 7, martha hennessy, the granddaughter of dorothy d y , founder of the catholic worker

movement. plus, we will speak to pentagon papers whistleblower daniel -- beingabout the blocked from testifying at the plowshares and his reaction to the firing of u.s. navy secretary richard spencer following president trump's pardoning of three soldiers accused or convicted of war all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. u.s. defense secretary mark esper has fired the secretary of the navy richardrd spencer's ouster came a week after president trump overruled luke perry leaders and pardoned three u.s. service members who havee been accused or convicted of war crimes. men included navy seal eddie gallagher who has been accused of multiple war crimes, including shooting two iraqi civilians and fatally stabbing a captive teenager in the neck.

gallagher was convicted of posing with the teenaged courts but acquitted of premeditated murder. esper had opposed trump's decision to intervene in the case as well as the cases that ththe two otother soldiers accud of convicted of war crimes. we will have more on this case after headlines. in washington, released state department emails further implicate secretary of state mike pompeo in president trump's effort to pressure ukraine to investigate his political rivals, joe biden and his son hunter, which is at the center of the ongoing impeachment hearings. the documents released show friday pompeo repeatedly spoke to presidedent trump's personal lawyer rudy giuliani in march while giuliani was orchestrating a smear campaign aimed at ousting u.s. ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch. in more impeachment news, the top republican on the house intelligence committee, devin nunes, has been accused of meeting with a former ukrainian prosecutor in vienna in 2018.

thprosecutor, viktor shokin, is a keyigigure thehe publicics attatas on joe biden d his so nunes hanot confmed particating inhe meeti and s deniedarticipang in the effort to g up daming informion abouthe bide. the billnaire foer new yk city mayor michael bloomberg has formally entered the 2020 rarace for the democratic presidential nomination. bloomberg has already spent $37 million on television ads for the next two weeks alone. vermont senator and presidential candidate bernie sanders slammed bloomberg's bid, saying -- "we do not believe that billionaires have the right to buy elections." south carolina republican senator lindsey graham says he blocked a resolution to formally recognize the armenian genocide during world war i at the request of the white house. graham told the news outlet axios that a white house official asked him to object to the resolution. graham says he agreed because turkish president recep tayyip

erdogan was in town, saying -- "that would've been poor timing. i'm trying to salvage the relationship if possible." the resolution, which passed the house last month, would make it u.s. policy to commemorate the killing of 1.5 million armenians by the ottoman empire as genocide. supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg has been released from johns hopkins hospital in baltimore after being treated for chills and a fever. a spokesperson for the 86-year-old justice says ginsburg is home and doing well, after being administered intravavenous antibioticanand fluids. ginsburg is the leader of the supreme court's four-member liberal wing. if she were to leave the bench, president trump would likely have an opportunity to nominate a third supreme court justice. in hong kong, millions of people went to the polls for district elections sunday, handing pro-democracy candidates a stunning victory. pro-democracy candidates won

nearly 90% of the seats, 400 of 452, amid the ongoing massive pro-democracy protests that have rocked the chinese-ruled territory. this is one of the winning candidates, kelvin lam. >> they are not happy with how to deal with the predecessor, particularly in the last five months. ,opolice reality is over t the p i think. and i think the hong kong people should reaeally, really leverage on this task for more democracy in the future. amy: egyptian security forces raideded the office of egypt's last independent media outlet, mada masr, over the weekend, arresting editor in chief lina attalah, managing editor mohamed hamama, and reporter rana mamdouh. the raid of the cairo office came one day after security forces also arrested mada masr's senior editor, shady zalat, at his home.

all journalists have been released. the attack on the independent outlet came just a week after mada masr published a report headlined "president's eldest son, mahmoud al-sisi, sidelined from powerful intelligence position to diplomatic mission in russia." after the headlinenes, we wililo to egypt to speak with democracy now! correspondent and reporter with mada masr sharif abdel kouddous. in iraq, security forces killed at least 13 people sunday amid ongoing anti-government protests, bringing the total death toll to over 340 people. the demonstrators are protesting corruption and lack of jobs and basic services, including clean water and electricity. the israeli government is deporting the head of human rights watch's israel and palestine office, omar shakir, today. israel has accused him of supporting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement nonviolent global , a campaign aiming to pressure israrael over its treatment of palestinians.

a 2017 israeli law bans foreigners from israel if they publiclyly support the bds movement. this is omar shakir speaking in a pre-recorded video released today. >> after 2.5 years, , the israei government tododay will expel me over my human rights advocacy. this has never been about bds. it is always been about the israeli government's efforts to mumuzzle human r rights watch ht has had d exactly the opposite effect. the world hahas seen through ths for what it is. it is an attack on the human rights movement. amy: bolivia's self-appointed leader jeanine anez has signed legislation paving the way for a new round of presidential elections that would bar president evo morales from running after morales was ousted in what he describes as a military coup. ananez's new interior minisistes threatened morales with life imprisonment if he returns to bolivia. morales is c currently in exilen mexico. since his ouster, the bolivian military has carried out at least two massacres of his

supporters. in chile, photojournalist albertina martinez burgos was found stabbed and beaten to death thursday at her home in the capital santiago. the 38-year-old journalist was documenting repression against anti-government protesters at the time of her death, particularly violence against women. it is reported her recent photographs of the ongoing massive demonstrations against chilean president sebastian pinera have also been stolen. leaders of the coal industry knew as early as the mid-1960s that burning fossil fuels causes climate change. that's according to a recently discovered 1966 copy of the magazine "mining congress journal," in which the head of a now defunct mining research company wrote that the combustion of fossil fuels was increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, causing global temperature increases. he continued, writing --

"such changes in temperature will cause melting of the polar icecaps, which, in turn, would result in the inundation of many coastal cities, including new york and london." the recently discovered article shows both the coal and oioil industries have known about catastrophic climate change for decades, yet worked to cover up the evidence in order to continue burning fossil fuels. in new haven, connecticut, over 40 people were arrested at a massive protest during the annual harvard-yale football game. hundreds of students, faculty, and alumni from both schools rushed the field during halftime to demand the two universities divest their billion-dollar endowments from fossil fuels and companies profiting off puerto rico's debt crisis. london has stripped uber of its license to operate in the city, dealing a majojor blow to the wl street-backed ride-hailing app. london i is one of uber's bigget markets. london's transportation

regulator refused to renew uber's license, citing a papattn of failures that placed passenger safety and security at risk. uber can continue operating their while it appeals. dozens of doctors have written an open letter to the british home secretary warning wikileaks founder julian assange's health is so bad that he could die inside london's high-security belmarsh prison. the more than 60 doctors are calling on the british government to move assange to a hospital. assange is currently jailed on charges related to his decision to skip bail and take refuge inside the ecuadorian embassy yo avoid extradition n to swewedenn sexual assault charges that have just been dropped for the third time. assange now faces possible extradition to the united states, where he faces up to 175 years in prison for his role in publishing u.s. classified documents exposing u.s. war crimes in iraq and afghanistan.

to see o our recent interview wh nils melzer, the u u.n. special rapporteur on torture, about assange' health as well as inerviews with tariq ali defense of julian assange, go to democracynow.org. and in new york city, at least 58 people were arrested friday night protesting new york governor andrew cuomo's plan to add 500 police officers to patrol the subway stations to crack down on fare evasion. the march comes after a series of arrests in subway stations, including of a woman selling churros. this is chelsea, one of the protesters. >> priorities are out of whack that we invest more into criminalizing verty thanan actually fixing poverty. like, we would rather spend more time making poverty a crime than actually fixing poverty as an issue for people. like, that literally makes no sense.

with 250 billion dollars, you could literally have put that into a fund to help people get metro card so they could be ising the fair -- that convoluted. this whole city is convoluted. the mayor is convoluted. alall of the police are convoluted. everything they stand for is convoluted. amy: the city's plan to hire 500 police officers will cost $250 million over the next four years -- more than the mta says fare evasion would even cost the subway system over that same time period. activists denounced police brutality during the march, saying police tackled people and smashed them into cars. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin in egypt, where security forces in plainclothes surrounded and raided the office of the country's last independent media outlet over -- sunday morning, detaining three journalists.

the raid began sunday afternoon, when nine security officers entered the office of independent news outlet mada masr in cairo, seizing phones and laptops and holding the staff in the building for more than three hours. they then arrested editor in chief lina attalah, managing editor mohamed hamama, and reporter rana mamdouh. it came just a day after security forces arrested senior editor shady zalat at his home. all four journalists were released from detention sunday afternoon. the raid and arrests mark a sharp escalation in egypt's attack on press freedom under egyptian president abdel fatah al-sisi, who came to power after the 2013 overthrow of former president mohamed morsi. while virtually all other independent news outlets have been silenced, mada masr has been described as egypt's "last babastion of press freedom" and continues to publish investigative journalism. the raid came just days after

mada masr published a report by shady zalat headlined "president's eldest son, mahmoud al-sisi, sidelined from powerful intelligence position to diplomatic mission in russia." the article cited conversations with several government officials, including two members of egypt's intelligence services. according to the piece, there was a general consensus that -- "mahmoud al-sisi's rising prominence as a decision maker, as well as the increasingly frequent mention of his name in international and regional media outlets, had significantly harmed the public image of the president and his family and constituted a threat to the stability of the administration." the article said the president "immediately welcomed" the idea of removing his son from the post. more t than 4000 people have ben arrested since anti-government protests broke out across egypt in september, in the biggest wave of arrests since sisi came to power. several journalists were detained for reporting on the uprising.

reporters without borders calls egypt "one of the world's biggest prisons for journalists." we now go to cairo, where we're joined by mada masr reporter sharif abdel kouddous. he's also a democracy now! correspondent. he was one of those detained for hours during the raid yesterday but released as the editor-in-chief and to others were taken off to the prosecutor's office. they, too, eventually released. shsharif, welcome backck to dedemocracy now! can you talk aboutut what happed onon sunday? >> this all began saturday morning when we got news at about 3:00 a.m. that plainclothes police o officers d stormed i into shady zalat. n not wte that article. we do not put bylines on those ticles. but for r some reason, they did target him. theyey came into his apararent d

took h him away and we did notot know whehere he was. we immediately began p putting e word out and trying to getet as much c coverage asas possible, tryiying to put p pressure o on authororities release him. soso for saturday, the next day, this is the dayay of, we had decicided to m meet in the offft 1:3030 and we were writing moroe press releases, getttting thehek out,ndnd workingng on s shady's case. around 1 1:30, nine plainclothes security p personnel entered the office by force.. they moved in very quickly and aggressisively. they spread throughout the office. immediately, the first thingng they d did was t take away everyone's phones a and laptops. they were quite intimidadating. -- when w we asked

to they were, th r refuse to answswer. theyey became even more agitated at the q question. 16 6 freelancncers and staff a and the office and they corralled us all ininto the newsroom. they made i is initially stand against the wall.l. we were not allowed to talk.k. one byby one, theyy asked us to come out.. there wawas a pile of f lapts sd phones they y had confifiscated. we had to o identify our phone d lalaptop in hand over our natiol id card and d they kind of set them in piles on t t central table.e. ththey wrotete down peopleles d. they asked some people to unlock their phones,s, unlock theieir laptopops. they were looking through them. beforere puttingng them onon the table. then we sat inin the newewsroomd of t the entire t time, for abot ththree hours. different t officers pereriodicy would tatakehe chief editotor ad question h her as well a as joururnalist mohamed hamama who was takeken a couple of time they also questioned t two foren

and twoerers withthmada, members ofrarance 24vv crew that had come to do an interview shady' arrest. at about 4 4:30, theyy asked la anan to comed from thehe newsrom t table.ngings from the a horrible momentnt because we had t to stand theren the newsroom andnd watch as they were being taken ay not kning whatat fate awaiteted the. the entire group left excxcept e securityty agent state for sevel minutes to infnfor u us they wee being takeken to the prosecuto's office, which didid not t turn t to be trtrue. we asksked him which prosecuto's office and hee refused t to say. whenen we ask him to identify himself or the security y agency

he works for, he a also refused. 24 crews 24 -- f france leftft and the two freelancersrs were t taken to their homes so they could check otheir passport they were eveventually l go as well. and ranad mohamed hamamaa mamdouh were handcuffed to each other, put in a police truck, whicich drove them to a everettn the outskirts of cairo. shortly afterwards, the vehicle turned around and came back to the police station, which h is next to the mada masr office. i 6:15, they were all released. shortly before that,t, over a dy and d have after he was kikidnad essentiaially from hisis home, y calleded our lawyer d said he had been released o on the outskirts of c cairo. this is s a real moment for us f

joy, of almost disbelief because we were being held there for those three e very log hours, a lot was going to our minds. we did not know what was hahappening. woululd we be takeand interrogated? would we be e imprisoned?? if not all of us, then some e of us and whom? it really felt like the end d of mada masr.r. lina, the chief editor and cofounder, she looked around a of us statanding in the office i in the newsroom, in n s ofoffice occupied d by menen wih guguns, she said out loud, "mada mamasr 2013-202019." and heher eyess welleled up. we really thought it was over. whatat we did d not realize was standing t there, outside the door, there was a group of friends, lawyers of society groups, and r rresentativives oa couple o of embassies. they had heard the news.

they came anand refused t to lee when security a agents told them to. we d did not r realize statemess and artrticless in major nenewss being g published, callsls were being made. really, the solidarity worked. i thinknk it is this pressure tt finally got evereryone relelease because thisoeoes not happppen n egypypt these d days. if y you get takenen in, if youe arrerested, you rarely come e ot anytimime soon. so i think it was s a momement f victory and a moment of celebration. amy: sharif, did they take your phone d computer, makyou unlock it? >> they took -- ththey confiscad it, but i wasn't one of the people who was asked to unlock it, no. amy: when they ask people to do that, did d they start to go through their phones and laptops? >> yes. wewe could not t tell what theye going through because we are all in the room, but one person came out -- one person unlocked it

and they were scrolling g throuh something onhe phone. wewe don't know what messages -- tytypically, what has been happening, at least -- september 20, there was a small b but significant t protest agagainsti calling for his ououster and followed by massive crackckwn, and prpresident crackdown,n, the widest arrest sweeps with ,000 being g rested, including activists, lawyers, universityy professors, political l figuresi think k at least eight additionl jourlists hahave been arrested since then. there was also this attempt to strong-arm their way into any private conversations. if you're walking down the street and you look a certain way, young man or woman, they just come up to you, take her phone, make you unlock it come and go through your facebook, go through your whatsapp messages, or there is but no denying

refusing them. you can try, and said people have, but most people will unlock their phones. so they're going through these messages to see there's any political content. doing that to o average citizen. that was r right after the september 20 protest. it is kind of calmed down now. whenen going through our offices comeme i'm not rere what theyeye looking for. i'm sure thererealized we were journalist and there must be political content, but it is hard to know. immigrant reporters withohout boborders calls egypt one of the world's biggest prisons for journalists. arrested4000 peoplele since the antigovernment protest broke out across egypt in september. can you talk about the overall climatate to operate and also wt dodoes the words mada masr meann ararabic? increasinglye iss hostile. the last c couple of months it s

hard to describe what it has been like working here sincece september20. it takes a toll. your publishing and you don't know whawill come. you go to e officece and you don't know if you will be raidid ed. you worried -- you are worried your colleagues that a are more known will be arrrrested. thisis is the kikind of f atmose you are workrking in. when they arrrrested shady fm his home in n the early morningf saturday, , it hit very hard. the next day they raraidrf t office said journalists haveve no protection other thahan the vale otothers placece in them. wewe saw t that value on h huge display after shady's arrest, the raid on her office, witithl of these peoeople coming up physally outsiside of the buildiding and also making calls around world and t that is what hahappened with h shady, lina,

hamama. , have to thanank you perersonay amy, jeremy scalale, my family, forgrgetting thiininformatioion. this was invalaluable e for us. we are the luckyky ones. therere are -- i d't know the exacact figure, but i thihink ae closed and 30 0 journalists who are in prisoson. egypt is onef the top p jails of journalists in the world. they have rearrested one since five years in prison and going -- then hadnother w what th called probation where he had to submit himimself to a police station at 6:00 p.m. every day and would only get outut at 6:00 a.m. and onene of those days thy just took him from the polilice station. he is noin an maxiximum security wingng of a prison whwhere he nr sees the sun. he is never outside.e. he is not allowed any reading material. .hey really escscalated

ththe canteen i is clos so he needs horrible food. he is just one of many. they arrested his lawyeyer when hihis lawyer was coming to the prosececutor's office to do lawyerly work. they arresested university professors t that before h haven untouched andnd political figurs that were never before arrested. there are people dying in prison. a former presidential candidate has had a couple o of heart attacks in prison. the conditions a are very bad. there's s a lot of medical negligencece. inr presisident's did die prison. mohamed morsi dieded in court, t as a result of his irisonmenen is what humum rights grgroups he documented as medical negligigence. it i is a veryy hostile e envirt to work in. again, even though thisis was a dark moment, i think for us and for mada masr an independent joururnalism in egypt, the response a and the sololidaritys

incredible. i rereally believe it is the ony reason we e got ouout, that this too damaging to authorities, , o damaging to thee reputatations,o much of f a political cocost for them, and they y just r release. we were waiting in those hours -- we were trying to make a a decisision and they decided to t us go. amy: i wanted to play a clip of president trump praising the egyptian president el-sisi is a two leaders met in the during -- the u.n. general assembly in new york. pres. trump: my friend, the president of egypt. he is a real leader. he has done some things that are absolutely amazing in a short period of time when he took over not so long ago, it was in turmoil. it is not in turmoil now. i i just want to say we have a a long-term great relationship. it is better than ever before. we are doing a lot of trading. amy: that is trump praising the egyptian president in september

at the u.n. general a assembly. hehe also recently referred to egyptian presidentnt sisi asmy favovorite dictatator." your response? >> thohose comments came as this massive crackdkdown was s happe. the dayy i think it was afr septemember 20, may have been on september 20, a i i said before, u.s. policicy has not changed that much. it is not a trump problem, it is a u.s.-egypt relationship problem that has supported various s different governmentss over decades. republicanan and democraratic administratitions have done so. at the rhehetoric does matter in this casase, also. when it isis happening and he is saying is doining a great job, e really does s give a green light fofor this. secret, t there's

a lot of documentation w what is happening in egyptpt. both the united states a and europe i think have decided that this is s a political cost -- nt a politicacal cost to them. they don't care. they are more focused on issues of migration and making sure that egypt is not letting people cross the mediterranean to europe.. therere has been a huge uptick n weapapons s sales to egypt frfrm countries like gegermany, franc, russssia. so this s is a r relationshihipt we have. againn, it is s a continuation f things but the rhetotoric reall, i think, gave the presisident ad yptian authorities, you k kw, a green light to do what they wanted and what they want t to o is arrested ththousands of peopl amy: finally, what does mada masr m mean? >> it is a play y on different kind ofut it t can mean

the jewel of egyptpt. that is nonot really what he was meant to mean, but it can also an kind of contentnt of egypt.. it is a little hard t to explain in english, , to be honest. but it is reaeally the last plae thatat is doing this kind of profofessional, critical, adrsarial journrnalism. and d i ve only been n working there for a year or r so, but it has bebeen aroundince 2013 3 and has done criticacal work. we will cocontinue to do work there becausese i think we can. amy: s sharif, we tip our hats o yournd ou colleagues bravery. sharif abdel kouddous, democracy now! correspondent and a reporter with mada masr, an independent media outlet in cairo. please, be safe. when we come back, pope francis visits hiroshima and nagasaki and calls the possession off

nucleaear weapons immoral. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. i world without nuclear weapons is possible and necessary. those were the words of pope francis this weekend as he visited hiroshima and nagasaki where the u.s. dropped the first atomic bombs in 1945, killing over 200,000 people. pope francis met with survivors of the hiroshima and nagasaki bombings and declared the possession of nuclear weapons to be immoral. in hiroshima, pope francis spoke at the city's peace memorial park. > the usese of atomic e enerr the purpose e of war is today or than ever a c crime not onlnly against t e dignity of f human beings, but against a any possie

future foror ourur common home.. these of atomic c energy for t e purpose e of war iss i ioral, jt as the psesessing of nuclear weapons is i immoral, as i alrey said two yearsgo. we w will be judged by this. fufuture generationsns will riso condn n our failuree if f we spe ofof peace but did not act t t bring itit about amomong the pes of the e eth. how can we speaeak of peace even as we build terrifying new weonons of war? how canne speak of peace evenn ase justify illegitimate actions s spepeeches filleded h discrimination and hate? amy: the pope's visit to hiroshima and nagasaki comes as a group of seven catholic peace activists are awaiting sentencing for breaking into the kings bay naval submarine base in georgia on april 4, 2018. the activists, known as the kings bay plowshares 7, were

-- who broken on the offensive anniversary of the assassination of marlon 13, were recently convicted of three felony counts and a misdemeanor charge for entering the base armed with hammers, crime scene tape, baby bottles containing their own blood. they also carried an indictment charging the u.s. government with crimes against peace. the kings bay naval base is home to at least six nuclear ballistic missile submarines, each of which carries 20 trident thermonuclear weapons. the activists said they were following the prophet isaiah's command to "beat swords into plowshares." we are joined now by two guests. martha hennessy is what that's in new york, one of the kings bay plowshares 7, granddaughter of dorothy day, the founder of the catholic worker movement. and joining us from berkeley, california, pentagon paper whistleblower daniel ellsberg. his most recent book "the , doomsday machine: confessions of a nuclear war planner." dan ellsberg was blocked from testifying in the recent trial of the kings bay plowshares 7. we welcome you both to democracy

now! martha, can you respond to pope francis going to hiroshima, nagasaki come and sing nuclear weapons are immoral? >> thank you, amy. good to be here. i think we have before us a remarkable pope and he is certainly exhausting himself with this work of peacemaking and global solidarity building. he is in a quickly speaking out against nuclear weapons. he does support the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. my heart rejoices to hear his words and you see him. he is very purposefully going to places -- places of sin and sorrow and grief and pain. he calls it a separate mental act to go to the sites. i feel complete affirmation and

what he is trying to do. with regards to our own action of walking on to enable submarine base. amy: has he weighed in on your trial or your sentencing? >> i don't think so. he publicly, verbally, but knows what is happening. amy: so describe what you did very briefly. you have been on before and described it. it also, the sentence that you face. you were found guilty. >> yes, we were convicted, found guilty on all counts october 24. amamy: on those cocounts? close conspiracy, degradation of property, destruction of naval property, and trespass. we are awaiting sentencing. -- the e initial threat was 20 years in prison. i believe the prosecution is now calling for 18 to 24 month.

and the judge has a reputation of ruling perhaps in the middle-of-f-the-road. but i expect i will receive a minimum of one year in federal prison. amy: i wanted to go back to pope francis sunday holding a holy mass for over catholics at the 30,000 nagasaki ststadium. >> in the belief that a world without nuclear weapons is possible and necessary, i asked political leaders not to forget that these do not defend us from threats to national and international security of our time. we need to consider the catastrophic impact of theirir e from a humanitarian and environmental point of view. renouncing to strengthen a climate of fear, mistrustst, and hostility fueled by nuclear doctrines. different tobe in

thpapain of millllions of men nd women who still t today continue toto affect our consciences. no onene can be -- with the cryf the brother who calls for a his wound. no one can be blind to the ruins of a culture incapable of dialogue. amy: that is pope francis this weekend and nagasaki, japan. on august 9, 1945, the u.s. dropped the second use atomic bomb in the world on nagasaki three days before august 6, 1945, theyey dropped the first n hiroshima. nuclear weapons, martha hennessy, and the kings bay naval base, you left a copy of daniel ellsberg's book "the doomsday machine" at the side of your action. why? >> daniel ellsberg has brought .s such critical information the author of the pentagon -- releasing the

scandal and trauma of what the vietnam war was and the other half of the story laid buried for many years regarding the nuclear arsenal. he was an insider who had to do research on understanding what the nuclear chain of command was for pressing the button, and he found out it was rather chaotic. it was anchored to the president. there were many people who actually have the capacity to press the new their button. sharingthe necessity of his book and we wanted the peoplele working at the base to read a book and understand the history here. amy: dan ellsberg is joining us from the university of california, berkeley, who wrote "the doomsday machine: confessions of a nuclear war planner." historicespond to this

trip of pope francis to hiroshima, nagasaki, calling nuclear weapons illegal? this was your world. this was your work, dan ellsberg, as a high-level pentagon and rand corporation official. booklowshares 7 left your at the site, kings bay. you attempted to testify at their trial. you were blocked. what would you have said? >> i believe actions likike thes are necessary to moving this world away from nuclear weapons, as the pope has called for. many other approaches have been tried in the last 50 years and essentially have failed. there is a major reason that run through that history, and that hand,t we are, on one obliged by treaty of the highest law of the land, ratified treaty , nonproliferation treaty, article six, to move in good faith negotiations -- in

particular with what was in the soviet union, now russia -- with all nuclear weapons states for the effective elimination of all nuclear weapons. the u.s. has not considered negotiating for that goal for one minute of that half-century. there has never been a minute of good faith, of intent to carry out article six. so when pope francis, yesterday, makes -- puts -- urges the same goal on u.s. and all other countries, nuclear weapons states, it might seem redundant but it isn't. he is saying this should be taken seriously, and he could not be more right. of course, is a powerful voice in the world. he is undergone considerable education on this, as i have the people in plowshares movement. if he can pass that requirement

on an insurgency, to the bishops, throughout ththe world, it will i am sure create conditions in which our own representatives will call on our executive branch at last to carry out what they are obliged to do in the treaty. what they have never done. and that is to negotiate seriously moving toward th elimination n nucle weapopons, verifiable nuclear elimination. amy: martha, "the new yorker" magazine wrote a piece with the headline "the pope and catholic radicals come together against nuclear weapons." >> pretty significant. i would like to believe that dorothy day herself, my grandmother, very much influenced u.s. catholic church in terms of holding on to the letting theeace and

u.s. bishops know how she felt about war. she opposed every war that occurred in her lifetime. the popend to see speaking out now. he is a pope after the heart of dorothy day. we can't express our gratitude to people enough, to people like dan ellsberg -- any of those who have come before us, the berrigan brothers, all in their effort -- the pope is that it is not enough to simply speak out against nuclear weapons. we must act. we must walk. we walked on the database. we need to raise a voice very clearly. and even be willing to put our bodies on the line to help the world to understand that the benevolence come the secrecy -- malevolence, the secrecy, from

beginning to end with this nuclear arsenal, the production, the maintaining, the threat of using -- it is the greatest evil in the world any of us can face in our lifetimes. amy: one of your sister protesters, the widow of philip berrigan, was one of the plowshares 7 last week she just celebrated her 80th birthday. she, too, faces these charges and was in prison for a year and a half as she awaited the trial. dan, what would you have said to ththe jury? >> what did i expect of the jury? amy: what would you have said and why were you blocked? >> judge refused to allow a defense of necessity or justification. a very old principle in english law, anaw and american, act under which many circumstances would be illegal, like blocking the roadway,

perhaps stealing allete preserve or to throw it to someone who was drowning, taking it from a nearby boat. an act like that that is meant to prevent an imminent greater evil, the death of someone, various things, would be legal, not merely extenuating circumstances, innocence, but would be legal because it was love right thing to do under these circumstances. i am convinced for my own experience that that is true of the acts here. i would never have thought of years, prison for 115 which nixon had in mind for me or indicted me for, in order to put out the pentagon papers without the immediate example of people, all of whom had been influenced by dorothy day, among others, by the berrigans, gandhi, martin luther king, and rosa parks. i was led by those people to study those works and then i saw

people enacting that in theieir own lives, risking prison to make this struggles possibible case that there was an emergency -- in this case -- in that case, to end the vietnam war -- and that it took special acts of conscience to wake people up to that necessity and get them to join and the protest. i felt the power of that act on my own lifee. i would not hahave thought of thesean act, copying papers and giving them to the newspapers, without that example. they put in my head the question, what can i do to help end this war now that i'm ready to go to prison, as theyey were? the question that needs to be asked more generally by people confronting climate change, confronting the nuclear emergency, confronting wrongful wars like yemen is, am i doing enough? am i doing all i could? including considering acts that would involve personal cost for

me or some risksks to my career? very few people can answer that comfortably in the notion there's really nothing m more ty can do. so acts like this have proven in the women's right to vote, in the unionization of autoworkers, for example, and other workers, and civil rights and gay rights. all of these things were proved essential, part, not all, but part of the movement to regain these rights and assure them that people were willing to challenge laws that were in the way of those rights. amy: martha hennessy, your grandmother dorothy day is -- in the process of beatification and canonization on the way to becoming a saint in the catholic church? >> yes. amy: i want to thank you both for being with us. martha hennessy, when is your sentencing? >> we don't even have a date

yet. said 90 days is what she were the judge said october 24. we are processing -- we are doing some motion filing. it takes time was that meanwhile, we just don't know. amy: martha hennessy, plowshares activist, thank you for being with us in the studio. dan ellsberg, we would like you to stay with us, author of "the doomsday machine: confessions of a nuclear war planner." when we come back, we want to talk to you about navy secretary richard spencer being fired following trump's hardening of three soldiers accused or convicted of war crimes. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. dedefense secretarary mark espen -- has fired the navy secretary richard spencer. his ouster comes a week after president trump overruled illiterate leaders and pardoned

three u.s. service members who have been accused of or convicted of war crimes. the men included navy seal eddie gallagher, who is accused of war crimes including shooting to iraqi civilians and fatally stabbing a captive teenager in the neck. gallagher was convicted of posing with the teenage corpse but acquitted on premeditated murder. on thursday, trump criticized the navy for moving toward holding early review hearing to decide if gallagher should be ousted from the elite seal commando unit. trump tweeted -- "the new york times" reported spencer threat to resign after trump's tweeted but there also reports spencer attempted to reach a backroom deal with trump that would have allowed gallagher to keep his trident pin. a backroom geomet he was going outside the chain of command outside of the defense secretary

mark esper. in a a statement on sunday, mark esper said he w was "dedeeply troubled by this conduct." he would understate -- still with us in berkeley, california, dan ellsberg, one of the world's most famous whistleblowers. in 1971, he was a high level defense analyst when he leaked a top secret report on u.s. involvement in vietnam to "the new york times" and other publications that came to be known as the pentagon papers and played a key role in ending the vietnam war. can you make sense of what took place? what is very clear is president trump wanted -- that president trump pardoned those that were accused of or convicted of war thees and wanted to restore in thef eddie gallagher

navy seals. the navy seals wanted to oust him. dan ellsberg, what is going on here? this, amy, not from my y last 40 years as an antiwar activist or antinuclear activist, but in 15 years before that, which included three years in the marine corps when i was a company commander, very proud of that, rifle company commander, first lieutenant before that, training officerer of the third battalion secocond marines, befe that a platoon leader of emperor, r rifle platoonss. i came to teach the laws of war and i believed in them very strongly. in the marine corps, before i was in, i entered that very much with the notion of jujust war. something that president trump has never been exposed to because he has had no military experience whatever. he has never worn the uniform. but his for gone spurs have kept

them from learning how stupid and absolutely off-the-wall his statement is that these men come all of these men, including the accused ones, have been trained to be killing machines. therefore should not be prosecuted when they kill. that is not what he would have learned. what he would have learned in the army or marines or the seals. those people are trained to kill discriminate late. they are trained not to kill noncombatants or prisoners. and three men involved here, among them are accused and what is been convicted, of doing exactly that. of killing prisoners and killing -- ordering the deaths of noncombatants. very serious charges. the president shows he has no interest in what the realities of this war. he sought from the beginning to stop any inquiry. the latest move yesterday, which appalled me and i think should be -- it corresponds to a

turning point in my own life, and it should be a turning point for a lot of senior officers in the pentagon right now. there are a lot of lies going on . it rememinds me of an incident 0 years ago last month, which thetly triggered my copying pentagon papers on october 1, 19 69. and that was the day after i read in the paper that president nixon had stopped, had terminated and must unprecedented murder trial of special forces officers, then an elite corps just as they are i n one of the prisoneners here, one of t the defendants was special foforces, green b beret stop anf course the seaeals are involved. if a athing, eveven more an elie force, i was a even more elite than the much larger marine force.

marine corps. i must say i never believed i could have physically measured up to the training course that seals have to go through. but i do know and they do know has ase military honor its core, the notion that discririminate killing is murde. that you kill people under orders when they are endangering our country or a country's security, not these people -- these people have been credibly accused of killing. i would say the president is a domestic enemy of the reversal code of -- the heart of military law, just as i perceive him as a domestic enemy of the constitution and the sense in which all of these people in congress, the officials, the white housese, and the marines have all taken the same oath. and that is an oath not to

secrecy, not to question isdience to legal orders, it an oath to defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic. i repepeat, i think the senior officers of the military right now who have been trying to persuade president trump over the last week and more altogether that this action -- set of actions he is undertaking is dishonorable and undermines discipline, honor royalty and the entire armed forces. it is up to them to look in the mirror and ask themselves whether they can honorabably see this commander-in-chief. i would say they could not. and that means the next resignation should be that of rear admiral green, commander of the seals, who knows that this is direct contradiction of his efforts to improve morale and

moles and ethics in the seals. it destroys that. he cannot honorably serve the president under these conditions, nor can the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, any of the j jnt chiefs s of staff,f, or the e secretary of defense esper, all of whom are reported to have perceived how disastrous this catcher military it those culture would be if is continued. and the presidedent has a legal right as commander-in-chief to do what he has done. they do not, i would say, have either an obligation or a moral basis for accepting g such ordes rather than r resigning and doig sosomething else. taking with them the documents that will show the realities of the situation. amy: dan ellsberg, thank you for

being with us. we will do part two and posted online at democracynow.org. daniel ellsberg, author of "the doomsday machine: confessions of a nuclear war planner." [captioning made possible by democracy now!]