01/13/20 01/13/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we are gathered here today because of some romney leaders, because of some people's inadequacies -- iranian leaders, because of some people's inadequacies. our children were killed. that is why we gathered. where do we go? protestersn have gathered.

we will speak to ali kadivar, former student protester who now teaches at boston college. then lawrence wilkerson, former chief of staff of f secretary state colin popowell speaks o ot against a new war in the middle east. today t to makes war. how else do we intererpret 19 straight years of war and no end in sight? it is part of who we are. it is part of what the american empire is. amy: then fire drill friday. nearly 150 people were arrested on capitol hill in a climate protest led by actress jane fonda a-day to drdraw attentiono wall street's ties to the fossil field industries. >> wire the big wall street banks and other international financial institutions still helping them drill and frank and mine and process and export? it is called suicide investi..

is insane. amy:e will hr frojane fonda, elma kevin, and others. all of that and more, coming up. welcomome to democracy nowow!, democracacynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. defense secretary mark esper has acknowledged he didid not see specific evidence that iranian general qassem soleimani was planning attacks against u.s. embassies at the time he u.s. forces assassinated him in a drone strike at the baghdad international airport a week ago friday. this is despitite trump'p's clas soleimani was planning to attack embassies. pres. trump: i can reveal i believe it would have been four embassies. and baghdad certainly would have b been the leader, bt i think it would have been auto. he could have been militaryy bases or a lot of other thining, but it was imminent. and then all of a sudden, he was gone. amy: that was president trump speaking on fox on friday.

but this is esper speaking with cbs "face the nation" " host margaret brennanan sunday. >> he did not cite a specific piece of evidedence. >> arere you saying there wasn't one? clubs i did not see onone with regard to four embassies. i sure the presidency that probably -- my expectation was there were going to go after our embassies. amy: nbc is reporting president trump authorize the killing of qassem soleimani seven months ago. meanwhile, "the washington post" has revealed u.s. forces unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate a top iranian commander in yemen on the same day soleimani was killed in a drone strike in baghdad suggesting soleimani's death was part of a large u.s. campaign to targrget iranianan commanders. abdul reza shahlai, the commander of the yemen division of iran's elite quds force, survived the assassination attempt which killed at least member of the quds force. this all comes as "wall street journal" reports president trump

said he been facing pressure to deal with soleimani from republican senators that he viewed as important supporters in his upcoming impeachment trial in the senate. iranian protesters have taken to the streets for a third day after the iranian military acknowledged it accidentally shot down a a rainian aiairliner last week, killingng all 176 people on board. iran initially denied downwning ththe plane but t then iran's rerevolutionary y guard took responsibility for what authorities described as a disastrous mistake. the plane headed to kiev was downwned just after iranian fors fired 22 rockets at military bases in iraq housing u.s. troops in retaliation for the u.s. assassination of iranian commander general qassem soleimani. there are reports iranian forces have fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse the protesters. britain's ambassador to tehran rob macaire was briefly detained in iran, with officials claiming he participated in protests over

the downed jet. ambassador macaire denies being at the protests. he said he was attending a vigil. the victims of the plane crash included 82 iranians and 57 canadians. among those killed was indigenousus iranian phd stutudt ghanimat azhdari. an impeachment news, the h house of representatives is expected to vote this week to name their impeachment managers and send the articles of impeachment to the senate. three republican senators have said they want the senate to call former national security advisor john bolton as a witness during the senate impeachment trial. utah republican senator mitt romney, lisa murkowski, and susan collins. 51 senators can vote to subpoena witnesses and meaning of one more republican senator joins the 47 democrats, the group could force sesenate majority leader mcconnell to subpoena

bolton, who has said he would testify if f subpoenaed. in election news, vermont senator bernie sanders has been endorseded by one of new hampshire's largest and most influential labor unions. seiu 1984. meanwhile, author and spiritual leader marianne williamson has ended her presidential campaign and has vowed to support the democratic nominee. six candidates will take the state tuesday night for the seventh democratic presidential debate in des moines, iowa. the last one ahead of the iowa caucuses. a group of 13 former bipartisan white house press secretary's, foreign service, military officials come have written a cnn opinion piece demanding the trump administration resume its press briefings. white house press secretary stephanie grisham has yet to hold a single b briefing since becoming president trump's chchf spokesperson in july. in immigration news, buzzfeed reports the trump administration

has been preparing to expapand s travel ban, which already bars citizens of seven mostly majority-muslim countries from entering the united states. the draft documents obtained by buzzfeed don't have the name of the countries being considered, but there are reportedly seven slots for countries presenting a "risk" of "terrorist travel." this comes as texas republican governor greg abbott announced friday that his state will no longer accept refugees this year -- becoming the first state to officially reject refugee resettlements under a new trump administration rule issued in september. meanwhile, in ciudad juarez, mexico, state police have evicted at least 100 mexican and central americican asylum seekes from a camp near the u.s. border, threatening to separate parents from their children if the asylum seekers didn't move. the threatened separation of families recalls the trump administration's policy of forcibly separating parents from their children during the zero tolerance crackdown that began in 2018. and in more immigration news, at least 12 migrants have died

after their boat sunk in the mediterranean as the group attempted to reachch italyly. in the philippines, authorities are urging nearly half a million people near the capital manila to evacuate their homes after the taal volcano spewed ash into the air sunday. authorities are now warning about a possible explosive eruption or volcanic tsunami. the taal volcano is one of the world's most dangerous volcanoes. meanwhile, i in puerto r ro, a 5.9-magngnitude earthquauake rad the islaland on saturday. there e have been popowerful trs almost daiaily after a 6.6.4-magnitude e earthquake s k puerto rico o last week.k. about 96%f electricic customers have had their electrical service restored by sunday. in france, the government is backing down on its effort to raise the retirement age, as transportation workers and other unions continue a massive strike now entering its sixth week. on saturday, the french government caved to some of the

protesters' demands and said it would temporarily scrap the proposal to raise the full-benefits retirement age, the most controversial part of french president emmanuel macron's proposed pension overhaul. despite the concession, some unionized workers remain on strike today across france. in taiwan, voters reelected president tsai ing-wen in a rebuke to beijing. president tsai has promised to preserve taiwan's sovereignty, even as china has tried to exert more political power over taiwan. saturday's election in taiwan comes amid months of protests in hong kong where demonstrators are calling for increasing political independence from maininland china.. in malta, lawyer robert abela is slated to be sworn in as malta's next prime minister today, after former prime minister joseph muscat was forced to resign over the murder of investigative journalist daphne caruana galizia. malta's richest man, gambling tycoon yorgen fenech, has been charged with complicity in the journalist's murder and has been

arrerested in a separate money laundering case. fenech is also linked to muscat's former chief of staff. two iraqi journalists have been assassinated in the southern city o of basra, sparkrking fear among journalists across iraq. local television correspondent ahmamad abdelsamad and his cameraman safaa ghali were killed in a drive-by shooting. meanwhile, in mexico, radio presenter fidel avila gomez was found dead in the state of michoacan last week, marking the first murder of a journalist in mexico this year. the committee to protect journalists says mexico is one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists, with more journalists murdered there last year than in any other country except syria. an illinois judge has ordered the chicago police department to turn over documents detailing nearly five decades of misconduct allegations againinst police officers. judge alison conlon ordered the police department to turn over the files after ruling that the department had willfully and intentionally failed to comply with the illinois freedom of information act. the documents will be published on the website of the invisible institute, which covers police

misconduct and abuse in chicago. the gameme show jeopardy! has sparked outrage. t the churcrch of t the nativi. >> what is palestine? >> no. > what is israel?l? clubs that is it. which means you get to go first in double jeopardy. amy: in fact, the church of the nativity is located in the palestininian territory y of the west bank, which is occupied by israel in violation of international law. palestinian and human rights activists have called on jeopardy! to apologize. in new york city, at least 100 women protested against accused sexual predator harvey weinstein outside the manhattan courthouse where the disgraced hollywood mogul is standing trial for rape.

[chanting] amy: this anti-rape anthem was developed by feminists in chile and has since gone viral. the women also took aim at president trump, who has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment by at least 25 women. this is one of the protesters, zakiyah ansari. assault onpresenting women's bodies, from assault on two oldtion rights -- white men trying to take control of our lives. i have seven daughters. this is personal to me. the reality is, we all know someone. oppression of women.

amy: and in south africa, the lgbtq community is mourning the death of transgender activist nare mphela, who was found murdered on sunday. in 2017, she won a landmark discrimination case against her high school that accused the principal of encouraging other students to harass and humiliate her over her gender identity. friends and fellow advocates describe her as being a selfless, determined, and outspoken advocate for transgender rights. south african police have taken her boyfriend in for questioning. some believe her murder may have been a hate crime. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. iranian protesters have taken to the streets for a third day after the iranian military acknowledged it had accidentally shot down a ukrainian n airliner last weeeek, killing all 176 pepeople on board. the dead included 82 iranians and 57 canadians. iran initially denied downing the plane, but then iran's revolutionary guard took responsibility for what authorities described as a

disastrous mistake. the plane was shot down just hours after iranian forces fired 22 rockets at mimilitary basesen iraq housing u.s. troops in retaliation for the u.s. assassination of iranian commander general qassem soleimani. last week, millions of iranians took to the streets to pay tribute to soleimani, but this week anti-government protests resumed in at least a dozen cities. vigils were also held by victims of the -- loved ones of victims of the plane crash. because ofred here some people's inadequacies. thechildren were killed in sky. that is why we gathered here together. where do we go? amy: there are reports iranian forces have fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse the protesters. last night, president trump used twitter to warn iranian leaders. he wrote -- "to the leaders of iran - do not kill your protesters." this comes as new questions are being raised about president

trump's claim that soleimani posed an imminent threat. last week trump claimed he was planning to attack four u.s. embassies at the time of his assassssination but defense secretary mark esper said sunday he had not seen evidence supporting trump's claim. in another development, nbc news is reporting trump first authorized soleimani's assassination seven months ago. meanwhile, "the washington post" has revealed u.s. forces unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate a top iranian commander in yemen on the same day soleimani was killed in a drone strike in baghdad, suggesting soleimani's death was part of a large u.s. campaigigno target iranian commanders. we go now to boston where we are joined by ali kadivar. he is an assistant professor of sociology and international studies at boston college. he grew up in iran during the iran-iraq war. he completed his undergraduate and first graduate degree at the university of tehran, where he was active in the student movement. professor, we have you on last week. now you have the iranian government admititting they

accidentally shot down the ukrainian flight that was headed closev, which has killed to 200 people, and you have from the millions in the streets tooring qassem soleimani once again antigovernment protesters in the streets. described all of these development. airplanek shooting the by mistake was again change in iran's domestic politics. the statement by the leadership of military said this was a human error, but this has been seen as beyond human error. this is a symptom of system failure, a system that has preferred the loyalty over for years the officialals of islamic republic have said they prefer people that are loyal to the regime to recruit to the regime and people

that have expertise and competence. i think that is one important issue that has been highlighted in this incident. second is the issue of acaccountabilityty. iranian armed forces are under the direct command of iran'ss leader ayatollah khamenei. he is also very much involved in the management of both military forces in iran. protesters have kept him accountable. there are no others. after this incident, khamenei expressed condolences but you express condolences for something you have not been responsible for. he has been responsible for this incident, but he is not apologized. no iranian official have resigned over this issue.

fromamong the chants protesters that they ask for resignation of mr. khamenei, iran's leader. you mentioned the millions of protesters in soleimani. those were iranian people, but that was coordinated by the government. the security of the protesters, they are guaranteed in that event. protesters that came to the streets in the last two days and today, this has been a very risky matter because they have been protesting the iranian government, the islamic republic . in protest in december, thee governmement kililled hundreds f people, perhaps even more than 1000. we still don't know about that. iran is a pluralistic society. there are different opinions. iranians disagree about different matters, but what we need is space that is safer all

iranians to be able to expressss their opopinions. the islamic republic does not allow that. so far they have not allowed protesters to grieve and to express their positioion and objection to this latest incident. comment onyou can this switch, from the millions out across the political spectrum -- after they were massive antigovernment protests -- and then they come out against the united states, against the death of -- the assassination of qassem soleimani. , today,in the streets are you getting worried that iranian forces have opened fire with live emanation -- ammunition on the protesters? and are some shouting "death to the dictator"? >> yes. as i mentioned, there e are various opinions in iraq.

the iranian regime has some supporters, butut i don't thinka majority of the iranian public support the iranian regime. the easiest side to see this is in the last 40 years, the islamic republic has not helped won fair and pre-election that allows the iranian opposition to have their own candidadates. .ranians will mourn soleimani there are anti-american sentiments. these protesters are also iranian. majoractually, one of the protests and tehran on the first day was at the university. the studentsts of the universit, part of the students released a statement that for them oppression and autocracy in the country -- you mentioned debt to dictator. yes, there targeting mr. khamenei is a dictator. he is the biggest share of power in the islamic republilic. he is not accountable to any other institution.

he is not held a press conference ever. he is not accountable to iranians, to the press, or to any institutions within islamic republic. statement, they also oppose america's presence in the region. so iranian students are opposing both autocracy in the country and also imperialist presence in the region. they said the american presence has only brought insecurity and chaos to the region. but the students in this statemement have emphasized tha. the government cannot hide toind imperialist propaganda suppress the iranian people and not allow iranians to express their opinions. what are they called for? amy: keep going. >> they have called for a return to popular politics. they want the goverernment to lt people to have their voice, and

they have called for a return to social democracy and political freedom. in garage revolutionary guard senior says the plane was shot down by an iranian soldier who believed the plane was an incoming cruise missile. again, this was after iran had shot missiles at two iraqi bases, warning iraq in advance this commander blamed the u.s. for ratcheting up tensions in the region, which led to a mistakenly shooting down the passenger jet. this is what he said. the cost. that not we were readydy for full-scale conflict. because of the, hasty decision of one person, this great disaster happened. amy: and you have come after hearing the news in the thetry's west -- in

country's west after implement in the military operation against american bases, and major this incident had happened, i wish i wasas dead ad hajizadeh. how significant is this? >> people ask if they don't need for him -- why hasn't he resign? catastrophes is have h happenedn iran over and over. in one official has resigned the wake of any of this incident. -- if theylly think are really apologizing, why don't we see any resignation? also, iranians have spoken about the factt the revolutionary guad made sure nonot to kill one american. but for some reason, ththey mada

mistake in which they killed 176 cicivilians. there were also about 40 people that died in the stampede for soleimani's funeral. what is the value of iranian life for iranian officials? the islamic republic has claimed the gentleman seated be an anti-peer list force. why is it not caring about iranian life? they're so careful not to kill one american in their attttack o the american bases in iraq i'm about what we see such a mistake, and? -- to happen? , parent, wasntion there at a vigil for the plalane crash victims which became a protest, and then iran accused him of leading their protest.

he was soon released after britain got involved in put pressure on iran. >> yes, ma'am. he said he was there for a vigil . the iranian officials used this as evidence that foreigners are perhaps behind the protest. at this is all propaganda. any kind of opposition to the policies of t the iraranian government has been accused by a plug by the as foreigners. this is nothing new. this is just an insult on the agency of iranians. if this was an agitation are played by the ambassador, does this mean iranians have no agency? they cannot protest? amy: the significance of president trump tweeting in farsi his support for the iranian protesters? >> i don't think this helped at all. hardliners have accused americans of being behind any sort of opposition to the united

states. this only emboboldens the positn by iraranian hardliners. i personally do not see any sincerity in president trump's tweeeets. he has been iranians from entering the united states. he h has put sanctions that have hurt o ordinary people, and he s friendnds to destroy cultural sites in iran. i do not think that president trump really cares for iranian people. thahank you for, , assistantus professor of sociology and international studies at boston college. group up in iran during the iran-iraq war. completed his undergraduate and first graduate degree at the university of tehran, where he was active in the student movement. when we come back, we go to lawrence wilkerson. he was instrumental in green lighting the war with iraq, says that was a mistake and so was would be.iran

stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. we continue to look at policy the middle east with retired army colonel lawrence wilkerson, who served as secretary of state colin powell from 2002 to 2005. wilkerson witnessed and participated in the effort by

president george w. bush, vice president dick cheney, and others to promote lies to justify the disastrous illegal invasion of iraq in 2003. colonel wilkerson helped secretary state powell prepare 2000nfamous very fed, three, speech, before the united nations or can where power also claimed iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction. that would later say the cia lied to them. colonel to wilkerson and asked him about the escalation in the u.s. and iran today andhe 2000 rurun-up to war with iraq. >> ever since 9/11, the beast of the national secururity state, e beast of endless wars, the beast of t the alligator that cameme t of the swamp, for example, and bit donald trump j just a few ds ago, is alalive and well. america exists today to make war. how elelse do we interpret 1 19 ststraight years owar r and no d in sight??

it's part of who we are. it's part of what thehe american empire is. we are going to lie, cheat and steal, as pompeo is doing right now, as trump is doing right now, as esper is doing right now, as lindsey graham is doing right now,w, as tom cottonon is doing right now, and a host of other members of my political party, the republicans, are doing right now. we are going to o cheat and eal to do whatever it is we have to do to cocontinue this war compl. that's ththe truth of it. and that's the agagony ofof it. what we saw presesident trump do was not in presidedent trump's characteter, really. those boys and girls who were getting on those planes at fort bragg to augment forces in iraq, if you looked at their faces and, even more importantly, if you lookoked at the faces of the families assembled along the line that they were traversing to get onto the airplalanes, you saw a lot of donald trump's base. that base voted for donald trump because he promised to end these endless wars.

he promised to drain the swamp. well, as i said, an alligator from that swamp jumped out and bit him. and when he ordered the killing of qassem soleimani, he was a memember of the nationonal secuy ststate in good standing. and all that state knows how to do is make war. amy: i want to turn to president trump. pres. trump: we took action last night to stop a war. we did not take action to start a war. amy: george w. bush had the opportunity to assassinate soleimani. president obama had the opportunity to assassinanate soleleimani. they didn't. trump did. and you had dealings with soleimani. you were just explaining, in part 1 of our discussion, what he did in afghanistan and how vice president pence was lying when he talklked about him being involved in the 9/11 attacks. >> here you have one of the most egregious things o of what we dd and one of the biggest reasons

that neither the two previous presidents decided to do what donald trump did. we have just, as we did d with torture from 2002 to 2007, 2008, as we substantiated for the world that torture was ok, we have now ok'd the e killing of recognized members of other states' government. that is what soleimani, no matter how heinous w we may papt him. hehe was a memember of an established state's government, and we assassinated him. that is a very dangerous precedent to havave set. you may hahave heard t the membs of the russian duma, vladimir putin himself and others in russia talking about this dangerous precedent. had it been the israelis who do this, amy, they would have done it and sent flowers to tehran. it would have been completely covert. there would have been no boasting, no public thumping of the chest and so forth. that's the narcissist in the white house that caused that to happen.

but even if you were doing it that way, you would have to think about this consideration that eventually it would become public thahat you had done it. and you, b by doing it, had sanctioned the killing of other state actors. now, what we're looking at here, for example, let's just put the shoe on the other foot. we're looking at someone coming inin to washington and assassinating one of our leaders,s, whethther it be a congressman oror member ofof the executivive branch or someone else. we have just sananctioned that.. we have become the law of the jungle, rather than, as we have been since 1945, the greatest supporter of international law and the e rule of law in general across the face of the globe. with t torture and with killing otother state recocognized individuals of their government, we have become the t tiger, thee lion, the bebear, the alligatorn that junglgle. it's not a very, very good precedent to have set, as the russians indicated. the chinese have said similar things. it's a terrible precedent to have s set.

and now we have to steel ourselves for what the reaeactin might be. and as i said earlier, the strategic initiative is now in tehran's s hands. they can didide now whwhether or not it's a major escalation that they perpetrate or just something that sort of fritters away over time and doesn't cause the u.s. to execute a bombing package against the targets, for example, thahat donald trump has suggested. i don't t want to o be in that woworld, butut that's where we . al-sisistani said it best t in . al-sistatani, by the wayay, wasa big help to us in 202003 and 20, when the insurgency was developing, that d donald rumsfefeld, of course,e, said 't there. al-sistani helelped. and hihis statement the othehery that he did d not want iraq q te the battlegrouound of settttling scscores was a perfect descriptn of what is h happening. dodonald trump is trying to sete a score, and it's everything from he doesn'n't t want to do t obamama did to he ththinks his maximum-tension campaign is working when it's not. that's all it's about.

and incidentally, we have another failure in diplomacy perpetrated by donald trump developing right now in the korean peninsula. so wait until you see what the strategic results are of kim jong-un's posturing on the peninsula and iran's at the same time. we used to have a saying in the pentagon when we were doing war planning. we hoped t that the north koreas and the iraqis, at that time, now the iranians, don't decide to collude and attack at the same time. well, donald trump has set that kind of strategic situation up now with two major diplomatic failures, mostly because of the narcissism and the lack of competence that he himself has exhibited, but also because of the national security state and its desire to keep these wars going. amy: can you elaborate on what soleimanii did back when you wee in the bush administration? you u were working with him. >> w well, what wewe had in thte first days of ouour reactition n

afghanistan was not really a military action. it was a cia action. donald rumsfeld actually got furious with the army because it couldn't get intoto afghanistan fast enonough. if you look at a map, you will see why it couldn't get into afghanistatan fast enough. of course, we had toto go over o pakistan, uzbekistan, and ask them for overflight rights and for logistics rights and soo forth in order to even get into afghanistan. but what you h had was you had essentially a war between the taliban, mullah omar and his group, what was left of al-qaeda, and the northern alliance -- which the cia had been suppoporting all along. they had killed massssoud, the "lion of panjshihir," the guguyo was reallyly leading the northtn alliance, totoo. al-qaeda had killed him about the same time they didid the 9/1 attacks. so it was really chaotic. when w we did get some special operators in, and we got a lot of aircraft inin with, of cours, prececision-guided munitions, tn we began to turn t the tide. and wewe began t to get to a situation where -- i canan tell you, we werere almost apoplelecc at the time -- we didn't know who was going to invest kabul.

we didn't know that t we hadn't just turned d kabul ovover to te nonorthern alliance, and thus ta continuation of the last 30 yeyears of warfare. so we were very anxious to make sure everything worked the way we wanted it to after that so-called victory. and one of t the people e -- onf the groups that helpeded us the mostst, as you might imaginene,e the iraninians because the iranians looked at t the taliban as their enemy, too. you may recall that the taliban had killeded some iranian diplomomats and others in ththe months prior. so the i iranians s were all f r eliminatating the taliban as the legitimamate government of afghghanistan and so pitched ino help. as i said, oncnce president bush had given his speech about the "axis of evil" and i included dn in t that, their dese e to help was not ququite as ardt t as it was before. but they, nonetheleless, rerealizing, as iran almosost as does -- i hate t these people wo saththey'rere irratioional. they're far more rational than we are.

let me say t that again. the leadership in tetehran is fr more rational than the leadership in washington. so they decided d they would continue to help us, because, after all, the enemy of my enemy -- you know,w, all that old, god business about the enemy of my enemy is my friend.. and d they did in factct contino help us, allll the way through e bonn conference. and soleimani was part of that at the time. amy: you just said esper, pence, pompeo, trump. explain what they're lying about right now as we hear them talk about he was just about to engage in another attack on u.s. personnel. >> well, the first thing they're lying about, as a military prprofessional, i i know cold. no general, especially not one at the level that soleimani was operating -- no general reaches out and killlls someonone. nonor does h he reach out to a m and say, "kill someone." nor does he reach out to a squad or a platoon or a company and say, "kill s someone."

he givives ordrders at the top,s strategigic purposes and prininciples and general guidelines, and he boosts morarale, and he travels around, and he t talks to the teams ando on -- - exactly what suleimani s so good d at. so to say that soleimani, himself personally, was an intitimate threat cocome as i sd before, -- imminent thrhreat is, as i said before, laughable. and ththe fact that esper and pompeo, who have somome manner f expepertise in military affairi, are e saying these things makes them even more egregious liars than otherwise. if john kerry got up there a and said something like that, or if wawarren christopher got up thee and said something of that, kerry even with his vietnam experience, yoyou coulgigive thm a little bit of leeway. but these guys are supposed to be experts in the very fields that t they're talking aboutut. theyey're anyththing but expert. they are warmongers. they are warmongers par excellence. mikeke pompeo and vice presisidt pepence, they both lonong for te

rapture, foror the end timimes,r jesus coming down to the earth and killing all the unbelievers with his f flaming sword. this is what they are all about. this is why they alloweded the embassssto move toto jerusalem. go b back and check the e remars that were made at that time, the prayers that were given and so forth. this is, in a word, a very differenent u.s. administration, but in the same hands of the military-industrial complex, of the national security state,e, f all the people who wanant warfae to be the raison d'etre of this empire at the same time. so you're looking at an incompetent leadership, coupled with a leadership that's ruthless and brutal and knows where it wants to go. and with iran, it's regime change, period. and if they have to go to war, that's what they want. and now they've got it to the point where it's going to be extremely difficult -- i'd put the chances at 50/0/50 -- for us

to extricate ourselves from this march to war. and this war will put iraq to shame in terms of its consequences in blood and treasure. amy: so i want to go to the reasons for it. and i know you have to leave, so we'll do this quickly. 2020 presidential hopeful elizababeth warren w spepeakingn cnn's state of the union with jake tapper. >> next week, the president of the united states could be facing an impeachment trial in the senate. we know he's deeply upset about that. and i think people are reasonably asking, why this momement? why dodoes he pick now to takeke th higighlinflflammatory, , higy dangererous action that t movess closer to war? we'veve been at war for 20 0 yes inin the middldle east. we need to stop p the wawar in e mimiddle east, not e expand it. >> senator, are you suggesting that president trump pulled the trigger and had qassem soleimani killed as a distraction from impeachment?

>> look, i think people are reasonably asking about the timing and why it is that the administration seems t to have l kinds of dififferent answers.. amy: so that's presidential candidate senator elizabeth warren. last week, right after the assassination, the oscar-winning filmmaker michael moore e tweetd front pagerk times" from the front-page banner december the front-page banner 17, 1998. headline read -- "impeachment vote in house delayed as clinton launches iraq air strike, citing military need to move swiftly." colonel wilkerson, can you respond? >> for 15 years, amy, i've taught this to over 400 students on two campuses. national security decision-making is what it's cacalled. one of the infnfluences s i emphasize is domestic politics. i would be a traitor to the academic curriculum which i teach, i would be a traitor to

the truth i if i didn't say, "of course thahat had something to o with it." and watch out,t, because t there will be more because there will be more impeachment. amy: any final words, colonel wilkerson, as we move into this period withl president trump saying if iran responds to the u.s. assassination of one of their leaders, that the u.s. will hit 52 sites, including cultural institutions -- which is, by the way, considered a war crime -- 52 for the 52 hostages iran took more than 40 years ago? >> if that were the case and we actually executed such a package, we would solidify 80 million people in a way that for the next 30 years would cost the lives of countless americans,

businesspeople, tourisists andno forth throughout the region and peperhaps throughout t the worl. i i know what the packages look like for bombing iraran. i worked, , to work on the s sos as they y invaded afghanistan, d we thought they were going to drive south to chabahar or bandar abbas, to wararm water ports in iran. so i did some of the battle plannining for fighting thee soviets in iran. i know the territory. i know the strategic depth. i know the mountntains and soo forth. i can tell you rightowow that the bombing packages that we haveve that will call onon al ud and multicarrier operations in the nonorthern sea of oman, andd khalid in saudi arabia, incirlik, perhaps, in turkey, and so forth, are not designed to do that. so if they are designed to do that, in other wordsds, modifie, and if they do that, we will have started a catastrophe inn the middle easast that will mak, as i said, iraq look like child's play. and make a retetired united stss

army colonel lawrence wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to secretary of state colin powell during the invasion of iraq. to see part one, go to democracynow.org. 150 peopleext, about were arrested friday at the climate protest in washington. we will hear from jane fonda, naomi klein, bill mckibben, and joaquin phoenix. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. nearly 150 peoplple were arrestd on capitol hill friday in a climate protest led by academy awaward winning actor and activt jane fonda. fonda has been leading weekly climate demonstrations in d.c., known as "fire drill fridays" since october. for fonda's last and 14th protest, actors martin sheen and joaquin phoenix, journalist naomi klein, and dozens more lined up to get arrested as they demanded a mass uprising and swift political action to thwart the climate crisis. jane fdada then marched was supptersrs dn phililelphia avenue to ase bank branch where environmtalist bl mcbben andore than0 of otrs were cupying e space to draattentioto the bk's ti to the fossil fl indury. 10, cluding kibben, were rested. the day of aioion wathe e lach

of the "stop the money pipenene," aampapaigto halal the flow of cash frobabanks, invemement fms, , aninsurarae companies to the fossil fuel industry. the day of protests began with jane fonda outside the capitol. >> so what is in store for the climate movement in 2020? as you all know, we cannot burn oilof the coal, gas, the that is in the ground. we cannot burn it all and stay within the parameters of what science tells us we must do. we have to cut our fossil fuel years.ns by 50% in 10 that is a massive undertaking. and we can't do it if the fossil fuel industry keeps expanding. are fossil fuel companies continuing to expand? why are they still drilling and fracking and mining? and why are the big wall street

banks and other international financial institutions still helping them drill and frack and mine and procecess and export? it is called suicide investing. it is insane. and one of the worst offenders is j.p. morgan chase. itit is one of the largest sours of capital for the fossil fuel industry in theieir quest to drl and frack and mine. and we cannot let chase and other financial institutions continue this way. and now i want to bring the woman -- i want to bring her to the stage. please welcome naomi klein. clubs a lot of us will get arrested today, but let us remember we are not the criminals. we are not the criminals are the people who are letting this world burn for money. those are the criminals. [applause]

and we are going to clear away all of the debris, the debris of the climate change deniers funded by fossil fuel money. we're going to clear away the distractors telling us everything else is more and try -- more important stop clear way that you're. fairway the debris of the doomers, the ones were telling us we may relax and watch the world burn because they think they're going to be safe. we will wear away the debrise ofr the dooms and clear away the debris of the dividers. we will build the most united and powerful movement that we have ever seen. >> now i want to introduce a woman of the cheyenne river sioux reservation. >> right now, again, my ancestral homeland that are facing yet another threat, the

keystone xl pipeline, which will snake right underneath the cheyenne river for which my tribe is named. theill no longer stand by decisions made by our world leaders for the sole purpose of profit. it is time now that we rise up. rise up, my brothers and sisters. rise up and stand against one million species extinction. rise up and stand with the original caretakers of these lands, the indigenous people. and stand against cultural genocide, because i, environment catastrophes, and illegal resource extractions. now that we awayition into a new era from the fossil fuel addiction. the land for which we stand on has been taken by force to fuel this addiction up police profit and greed -- pollution profit

and greed. it is time to rise up and stand with the indigenous people. >> i'm going to give you bill mckibben, who is not here. he is currently occupying the chase bank. [cheers] from which he speaks. >> there are about 25 of us chase the j.p. morgan bank branch. this really marks not only the escalation of fire drill friday's, but it marks the real national launch of this stop the money pipeline campaign. now, we have got to be here because chase bank is the single biggest funder of fossil fuels on planet earth. they put $196 billion into oil

and gas over the last three years. they are the ones -- they are the ones who are paying for the carbon bombs, ok? they are carbon major just the way exxon or shell or bp are carbon majors. so that is why we are here today doing cicivil disobedience andnd bebeginning what is going toto a winter and spring of massive civil disobedience, of massive unrest about the financial system. if banks like chase bank stopped funding the fossil fuel industry, they could not go one building pipelines. they could not go on making new coal mines and building new terminals and doing all of the other things that are making our planet week by week less habitable. when we look at those pictures from australia, yes, we see the absolute horror of people whose

lives are turned upside down and animals that are killed and ecosystems that are wiped out, but we also see fully visible in those flames the dollar signs that led to that conflagration. that is what is at the bottom of the crisis that we face. >> i very excited to announce our next speaker. tara houska. >> the last time i was here speaking behind a rally podium so much of this one, i came from a resistance camp and standing rock. i saw my friends tear gassed and maced and bitten by dogs. i came from watching cops chase indians on horses across the plains shooting at them. history happening again and again. this time around, i'm coming from a resistance camp in minnesota where 200 yards of a proposed pipeline route that was to go through my people's territory.

then not started bulldozing yet, but they're said to the next couple of weeks. they're arming themselves to the teeth in northern minnesota, which is really crazy to see. my messages for all of us. we have power. .e have so much power they pull out their tanks when we stand on -- unarmed in front of their machines because they are afraid of us. they use water cannons and attack dogs when we say no with our bodies because they are afraid of us. they kill land offenders in the global south that are unarmed protecting their territories because they are afraid of us. wantn build the world we and we can demand this when changes at the same time. >> please welcome joaquin phoenix. >> something i think that is oftentimes talked about in the environmental movement or in the

conversation about climate change is that the meat and dairy industry is the third leading cause of climate change. i think sometimes we wonder what can we do in this fight against climate change, and there's something you can do today, right now, and tomorrow, by making a choice about what you consume. my name is ariel. my name means thunder woman in my language. i'm very lucky to not have a colonial name. i just have indigenous name. i want to honor the traditional territory of the and accosting people whose land we are a top of now. we must recognize the history of the united states is a history of settler loan realism rooted in white supremacy, african

slavery, and policies supported by the church and state of genocide and land theft. these systems attempted to demonize, devalue, and extinguish indigenous peoples leg witches, political and cultural structures, ideological perspective, and way of life. all of this was done with the end goal of raising us from the landscape and from human consciousness. it is time for us to abandon these patriarchal and colonial ideologies rooted in things like .he doctrine of discovery we have always been here and we were never discovered. [applause] our people, the very core of the word means to flow from the earth. the land is a very essence of who we are.

our identity is intrinsically linked to the land. it nurtures our bodies, our mind, our culture, and connection to our role on this planet as stewards. my 5% of the global population is indigenous peoples but we protect and steward 80% of the world's biodiversity. we occupy between 22% and 65% of the landmass. we are the protectors of the land. today, humanity is facing a global crisis. climate change. indigenous peoples are not only threatened by colonial policies to eradicate our civil and human rights, but are very culture, our identities which are directly linked to our places of origin are now threatened by man-made climate change, precipitated by colonial ideologies rooted in manifest destiny in man's dominion over nature. we must stop this now. >> and now we have martin sheen!

[applause] my ex-husband. [laughter] thank you, jane. this woman has been one of my heroes nearly all of my adult life. and clearly, the world will be saved by women. men. god they outnumber us you know, the arsenal a story of a man who arrives at the gates of heaven and asked to be let in. st. peter sayays, just t show us your scars. the man says, i have no s scars. st. peter r says, what a adiot. -- what a pity. was there nothing worth fighting for? we are called to find something in our lives worth fighting for. something that unites the will of the spirit with the work of the flesh. something that can help us lift

up this nation and all its people to that place where the heart is without fear and the head is held high, where knowledge is free, where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls where words come andfrom the depths of truth tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection. where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the toary, desert sands of cabot, where the mind is led forward to ever widening thought and action -- into that have been of freedom, dear father, let our country awake! amy: actor martin sheen and more than 100 40 others arrested at the fire drill friday's climate protest in washington, d.c. a special thanks to chris belcher.

that does it for our broadcast. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

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