03/09/20 03/09/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i was at the ceremony when the gunshots started. i rushed toward the door to get the door to get out of the area but suddenly, my foot was hit by a bullet. amy: since last month's peace plan, there have been nearly 80 attacks in afghanistan. the violence could derail the deal that calls for u.s. troops to withdraw over the next 14 months. we will speak with "washington who just won the

george polk award for his investigation "the afghanistan papers" that reveals how presidents, generals, and diplomats have intentionally misled t americapublic about the longest war in u.s. history. the mossoberinghings to read fm he was jushow many peoplenvolved the w were ve blunt a candid that e sttegy, th w strategy under obama and bush and trump, they all said it was worthless. amy: then erik prince, founder of the mercenary firm blackwater and brother of education secretary betsy devos, recruits x spies to help infiltrate liberal groups. among them, the michigan chapter of the american federation of teachers. that is according to a new "new york times" expose. we will speak with matthew cole who first broke the story of air prince's ties to the trump

administration last year. all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin with we begin with news on the coronavirus pandemic. the death toll in italy has soared to at least 366, with over a third of the deaths recorded within the last day. authorities have now put around authorities have now put around 16 million people on lockdown in the north of italy as they attempt to contain the fast growing pandemic. all schools nationwide have been ordered closed in italy. pope francis delivered his sunday sermon via livestream after the vatican acknowledged its first case of coronavirus earlier is week. in saudi arabia, the east of the country has been put on lockdown and schools nationwide have been closed. iran has confirmed at least 49 new deaths on sunday, bringing its total toll to just under 200.

in quanzhou, china, a hotel that was used as a conavirus quarantine center collsed saturday, killing at least 10 people. it is not known what caused the collapse. over 106,000 people have been confirmed with the disease worldwide, with around 3600 dead. here in the united states, there is growing outcry over the trump administration's mismanagement of the outbreak and lack of access to tests. known cases of coronavirus now exceed 500, with 22 recorded deaths. at least 19 of those deaths have been linked to the life care center of kirkland, washington -- considered ground zero of the u.s. outbreak on the west coast. u.s. outbreak on the west coast. the facility said 90 out of 100 workers have symptoms of u.s. outbreak on the west coast. the facility said 90 out of 100

workers have symptoms of coronavirus. states including oregon, washington, california, maryland and new york have declared states of emergency. new york governor andrew cuomo slammed the cdc for delays in responding to the outbreak and for not allowing private labs in new york state to test for the coronavirus. over 100 cases have been identified in new york as of sunday. columbia university has canceled classes after a member of its community was exposed to coronavirus. the university of washington and seattle and other washington area schools have shifted to online classes. stanford university in california has also shifted to online classes, and rice university in texas has also canceled in-person classes. the conservative political action conference, or cpac, said one of its attendees has tested positive for the disease, positive for the disease, causing senator ted cruz and arizona congressmember paul

gosar to self-quarantine after positive for the disease, causing senator ted cruz and arizona congressmember paul gosar to self-quarantine after interacting with the individual at the conference last month. three attendees at the aipac conference in washington, d.c., last last week tested positive for coronavirus. 18,000 people attended the conference, including a number of lawmakers. vice president mike pence secretary of state mike pompeo speakers. the aipac meanwhile, low-wage and hourly workers are calling attention to the fact that they are being rced to work even when they are sick, which is directly counter to cdc recommendations for containing coronavirus. on friday, workers from fast food chain chipotle walked out of a new york city restaurant in protest of the company's practices, which they say puts them, their coworkers, and customers at further risk. millions of workers do not receive paid sick leave. across many different businesses across the country and different sectors. in washington state, activists from the shutdown north west

detention center coalition are calling for health inspections at the immigrant jail and the release of a plan to help prevent the spread of coronavirus among prisoners, and to treat any infected individuals. while touring the cdc friday, president trump respondeto a reporter's question about letting passengers from the grand princess cruise ship, which had been quarantined off the coast of san francisco, disembark. pres. trump: i like the numbers being where they are. i don't need to have the numbers thate because of one ship wasn't our fault. amy: 21 of the 3600 people on board the cruise ship have been found to test positive for coronavirus. but only 46 people were tested on board the ship. passengers are set to start disembarking in oakland, california, today. last week, trump said at least a million tests would be available by the end of this past week,

but states around the country have been complaining of the the test kits and the actual numbers of cases remains unknown due to insufficient testing. in financial news, markets worldwide continued to tumble today. the collapse of an alliance between opec and russia compounded the plunge, causing the worst one-day crash in crude prices in nearly 30 years. bernie sanders and joe biden have received high profile endorsements as voters in six states prepare to head to the polls tuesday. new jersey senator and former 2020 presidential candidate cory booker just announced he is endorsing former vice president joe biden and california senator and fellow former presidential candidate kamala harris threw her support also behind biden sunday. >> i believe in joe. believe in him.

i have known him for a long time. one of the things we need right now is a leader who really does care about the people and who can therefore unify the people. and i believe joe can do that. i am supporting joe because i believe he is, and who has lived his life with great dignity. he is a public servant who has always worked for the best of who we are as a nation, and we need that right now. amy: civil rights leader reverend jesse jackson, who ran for president in 1984 and 1988, endorsed bernie sanders sunday. endorsed bernie sanders sunday. sanders backed jackson's 1988 presidential bid and has said his own campaign was inspired by jackson and his rainbow coalition. in a statement, reverend jackson said the needs of african americans are not moderate and americans are not moderate and that "a people far behind cannot catch up choosing the most moderate path." this is reverend jesse jackson speaking at a bernie sanders rally in grand rapids, michigan, sunday. >> i stood with mr. sanders

today because he stood with me. [cheers] taste forr lost his justice of the people. because heh him stands with you. because he stands with you. amy: michigan, which jesse jackson won during the 1988 primary, is one of six states holding primaries or caucuses tuesday. the others are mississippi, missouri, washington, idaho, and north dakota. due to coronavirus, officials have urged voters not to lick their envelopes. bernie sanders also campaigned in flint, ann arbor, and detroit ahead of tuesday's vote. he attacked joe biden's support for trade deals, including nafta and permanent normal trade due to coronavirus, officials have relations with china, which he says have cost americans millions of well-paid jobs and hurt unions. also on sunday, the group justice democrats, which helped

propel congressmember alexandria ocasio-cortez to her electoral victory in 2018, endorsed bernie sanders. meanwhile, remarks by joe biden meanwhile, remarks by joe biden at a missouri rally have come under scrutiny as some are raising questions about his possible mental decline. during a seven-minute address, he appears to struggle to finish a sentence, mistakenly saying he is seeking re-election. a turning this primary from campaign that is about negative attacks into one that therefore because we cannot get reelected -- we cannot win this reelection -- excuse me, we can only reelect donald trump if in fact we get engaged in this circular firing squad. amy: biden has spoken candidly about struggling with a stutter when he was young. but in an interview with axios biden denied that such mistakes are due to his stutter, saying, "look, the mistakes i make are mistakes." joe biden and bernie sanders will debate sunday in phoenix,

will debate sunday in phoenix, arizona, ahead of the state's primary next tuesday. the sanders campaign has criticized the format of the cnn/univision debate, which will see both candidates seated and includes taking pre-approved questions from audience members. jeff weaver, sanders' senior adviser, said, "why does joe biden not want to stand toe-to-toe with senator sanders on the debate stage march 15 and have an opportunity to defend his record and articulate his vision for the future?" erik prince, the founder of the mercenary firm blackwater and brother of education secretary jeff weaver, sanders' senior betsy devos, helped recruit betsy devos, helped recruit former spies to infiltrate and gather intelligence about a democratic congressional betsy devos, helped recruit former spies to infiltrate and gather intelligence about a democratic congressional campaign and the michigan chapter of the american federation of teachers. that's according to an explosive new "new york times" report that exposes previously unreported details about the ties between prince and project veritas, a right-wing group that often sets up sting operations targeting journalists by recording covert videos.

yorkding to "the new times," one former spy recruited by erik prince helped run a project veritas operation to secretly tape leaders in the michigan office of the american federation of teachers in 2017. the spy, named richard seddon, directed an undercover operative to gather and make public information that could damage the union. in another instance in 2018, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of former cia officer abigail spanberger, who ran a winning campaign for congress representing virginia as a democrat. the campaign fired her after discovering her identity. the campaign fired the person after discovering their identity. we'll have more on erik prince after headlines. in lesbos, greece, a swiss-run center for refugees burned down sunday as tensions continue to

announced iturkey would stop asylum-seekers fr crossing its border with greece. greek authorities again fired tear gas and water cannons at refugees as they approached the border. turkish president recep tayyip erdogan is meeting with eu officials today and has called for help with the millions of refugees that have entered the country fleeing war in syria. millions of women around the world to to the streets on a mark international women's day. in mexico city, at least 60 people were wounded as riot police clashed with protesters. tens of thousands of women blocked the city's main streets carrying signs that read "you're killing us" and "we want to live without fear." others carried purple crosses with the names of victims of femicide. today activists are calling for women across mexico to stay out of public life and not participate in the economy as part of a national strike against gender violence. in chile, organizers estimate over 1 million women and allies took to the streets of the capital santiago.

in colombia and argentina, demands for legal abortion took center stage. in guatemala took to the streets , hundreds to mark the third anniversary of the gruesome killing of 41 girls who were burnt alive for protesting sexual and physical violence at an orphanage outside guatemala city. protests also took place in the neighboring country of el salvador, hundreds, costa rica. large protests also took place in thailand, indonesia, the philippines, saudi arabia, and spain, united states, and pakistan. marches in turkey were met by police violence. in iraq, where mass anti-government protests have been taking place since last october, women marked the day at tahrir square with red and white roses and purple protest banners. on saturday in new york city, the mexican collective of independent women led a protest and performance in honor of the thousands of msi victims in mexico. this is araceli salcedo jimenez, whose daughter disappeared nearly eight years ago. >> there are many women that are

missing in the state. many women are missing nationally in mexico and nothing is done about it. today we face figures of 45,000 to 50,000 people missing in mexico, and it is not right that our president says, "i'm sorry" and then forgets. i can't forgive the person who took my daughter. i can't forget about my daughter. that is why today i am here in search of my little girl. no one had the right to take her from me. amy: buzzfeed news is reporting a 22-year-old guatemalan woman died sunday while in the custody of immigration and customs enforcement were ice at a texas hospital. the cause of death is unknown but the unnamed migrant had gallbladder surgery last month and was being treated for abdominal pain prior to her passing. this marks the eighth death in ice custody in the 2020 fiscal year. president trump announced he is replacing acting chief of staff

mick mulvaney with north carolina commerce member mark does. meadows is a staunch trump ally and will be trump's fourth chief of staff in just over three years. he previously led the house freedom caucus and has promoted the racist "birther" conspiracy theory about president obama. in other white house staffing news, adam kennedy, deputy communications director who has been with the administration communications director who has been with the administration since day one, is expected to leave his position later this week. he will reportedly be replaced by julia hahn, a former breitbart writer. house democrats requested a federal appeals court reconsider their recent ruling that allows former white house counsel donald mcgahn to defy a congressional subpoena seeking his testimony about possible obstruction of justice in the mueller investigation. the ruling last month says house lawmakers cannot ask judges to force the white house to make mcgahn available for questioning. trump has barred top advisers from giving testimony but house lawyers argued friday that lawmakers might have to resort to arresting current and former white house officials for failing to respond to subpoenas. bernie has unveiled his

reproductive justice plan, which will provide universal reproductive healthcare to all americans and address racial disparities in maternal and reproductive health. the proposal ties in to his medicare for all plan and will work to combat the black maternal mortality crisis, protect and expand funding for planned parenthood, reverse trump's global gag rule, and require all judicial nominees support roe v. wade as settled law. and publisher hachette announced and publisher hachette announced he would no longer publish woody allen's memoir following major backlash to the news. on thursday, at least 75 hachette employees walked out of work in protest. earlier in the week, ronan farrow said he was cutting ties with the publisher, which released his book "catch and kill" last year, over the decision. ronan farrow said hachette did ronan farrow said hachette did not fact-check the book with his sister dylan farrow, who has accused woody allen of sexually abusing her as a child when he was her adoptive father -- allegations allen has denied. and those are some of the

headlines. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show with afghanistan. both president ashraf ghani and top afghan political leader abdullah abdullah are both afghanistan. both president ashraf ghani and top afghan political leader abdullah abdullah are both claiming they won the presidential election and are vowing to hold dueling inauguration ceremonies today in the capital kabul. ghani has been president since 2014, but abdullah claims the most recent election was spoiled by fraud. this is playing out in the middle of a u.s. negotiated a u.s. negotiated peace plan with the telegram, which calls for the u.s. and its nato allies to withdraw their troops over the next 14 months and for the start of direct talks between the afghan government and taliban insurgency. members of the taliban and the afghan government were set to start direct negotiations on tuesday, tomorrow. al jazeera reports there have been nearly 80 attacks in afghanistan since the u.s. and the taliban signed the peace accord. just 11 days after the deal, u.s. forces carried out an air raid on taliban fighters in helmand province. on friday, abdullah escaped

unharmed from an islamic state attack on a ceremony in kabul that killed at least 32 people. the taliban issued a statement saying they were not involved in the attack. this is mukhtar jan, one of the wounded, speaking to reporters. at the ceremony when the gunshots started. i rushed toward the door to get out of the area, but suddenly, my foot was hit by a bullet. amy: for more, we are joined by "washington post" reporter craig whitlock. he was just recognized with a george polk award for military reporting for his in-depth investigation called "the afghanistan papers: a secret history of the war." after getting a tip, whitlock fought for three years to get when the release of a trove of confidential interviews it conducted with people directly involved in the nearly two decade-long war. he ultimately obtained more than 2000 documents that revealed how

presidents, generals, and diplomats had intentionally misled the american public about the longest u.s. war in history. some people call the afghanistan papers "the modern-day pentagon papers." craig whitlock, welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. before we get into the documents, this trove of documents and interviews that you have unveiled, can we start by you explaining the latest news since the u.s. and taliban have reached this so-called peace plan, which did not include the afghan government and the bombings that have taken place over the last few days, and the dueling administrations that have just held their inaugurations of abdullah abdullah and ashraf ghani? >> to be blunt, it is a real politally in afghanistan these days. you have a number of players, different rivalries playing out in the political stage, but also in the war zone. yet the united states, which has been there for almost two decades and its nato allies.

the of the taliban who all the sudden are much more friendly and police forthcoming in these peace talks with united states, but then you have the afghan government which for years has been propped up by the united states but now is feeling a real split between the president ashraf ghani and his chief rival abdullah abdullah. think about the scene today in kabul. you had rival inaugurations with both abdullah and ghani timing they are the rightful president. the rightful president. in the midst of this, the united states is trying to get the afghan government, whoever it is led by, to sit down and negotiate with the taliban and the taliban is not even recognize the legitimacy of the afghan government. trying to sort all this out and trying to sort all this out and bring peace to afghanistan is going to be a real challenge, indeed. amy: and those negotiations between the taliban and the afghan government were supposed to start -- were supposed to begin tomorrow. is that right? >> that's right.

but i don't think that is going to happen if we don't even know who the rightful president of afghanistan is. know who the rightful president of afghanistan is. there was another precursor before peace talks could start tomorrow, and that was the united states had assured the taliban and government would release up to 5000 taliban prisoners being held by the taliban prisoners being held by the afghan government. president ghani has said no way to that, that he was now going to release all of these prisoners by tomorrow. that may be the subject of side negotiations, but again, you have all of these demands and contingencies and players and and contingencies and players and people saying they won't talk to each other. over the last few days, and donald trump special envoy, and afghan american, during shuttle diplomacy between the afghan would be presidents trying to get them to call off their inaugurations were a least work out some kind of deal that i was the he failed because both men went ahead with the respective

inauguration ceremonies. amy: and the u.s. strikes in helm on province among the 80 attacks that have taken place since the u.s. announced this brokered deal with the taliban? >> that's right. there has been violence on going. part of it is trng to figure out who is behind because another actor in is very complicated play, as it were, is the islamic state, which the united states considers a terrorist group. one of the ironies is the islamic state and the taliban do not get along at all. the islamic state and the taliban do not get along at all. the islamic state -- they are trying to fight and they are not part of any negotiations. the united states is trying to get the taliban to turn against islamic state. so really what you have here is a very complicated civil war, in a word, that is been going on for many years. in the united states is in the middle of it. think one thing people forget is the whole reason we went to

war in afghanistan was to fight al qaeda. we don't -- al qaeda doesn't really have much of a presence in afghanistan. you have all of these other factions, and that is what united states is in the middle of and turned to sort out and get all sides to calm down a bit and try and talk. again, that is going to be a monumental challenge. amy: craig, you're going to take a break and then we want to go deeply into what you found, this remarkable release of documents of the quotes of generals and presidents behind the scenes talking about the failure of the as the publicstan was being told something very different. is the award-winning staff writer for "the washington post" who uncovered "the afghanistan papers." we wilbe back with him in a minute.

♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman.

we are looking at afghanistan where there have been nearly 80 violent attacks since last month u.s. taliban peace plan was announced. the violence could derail the deal that calls for u.s. troops to withdraw over the next 14 end the longest war in u.s. history. we are speaking with "washington post" reporter craig whitlock. he just won the george polk award for "the afghanistan papers." shows how three successive presidencies, president george w. bush, and president trump bungled the war in afghanistan, , despite deploying 775,000 u.s. troops since 2001. morehan 2000 u.s. soldiers have died in afghanistan and 20,000ave been wnded. this is an excerpt from the video. .t begins with craig whitlock

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and trump, they all said it was worthless most amy: that is a clip from "the washington post" video produced by joyce lee that accompanies "the afghanistan papers." we continue our conversation with craig whitlock, the staff writer at "the washington post" who uncovered "the afghanistan papers." the death toll of u.s. soldiers, believed something like 150,000 died during this during 19-year period. is that about accurate? although, we will never actually know. >> that's right. those are estimates. there has not been a reliable of afghan civilians that have died throughout the duration of the war. the united nations has tried to keep track for the last 10 years. it is much harder to count the number of dead of afghan insurgents, but also impossible to get a reliable number of afghan security forces.

the afghan national army o afghan pice. because their losses have been so steeped in recent years that the afghan government cues that number classified to avoid destroying morale in the ranks. amy: talk about what you found. talk about the tip you got and take us on the journey that took you years to get the explosive documentation that you got. >> sure. this all started the old-fashioned way in reporting reporting back in august of 2016 when i got a tip. at that time i just finished so years covering the pentagon. i was on the investigative desk. i got a tip that lieutenant general michael flynn had given a very blistering interview to obscure government agency called the special inspector general for afghanistan. flynn had just retired from the army. he was becoming well known for campaigning for trump and

ofding the crowds enchants "lock her up" about hillary clinton. he was also a highly respected military general. when we found out he had given long interviews about the afghan war, we wanted to know what he had said because he was a pretty forthright officer when he was in the military. we asked the inspector general could get a transcript of it. at first i said, sure, should be a problem. we then had to file a freedom of information act west, which is the federal public records law to obtain government information. we thought we were going to get this in a matter of a couple of weeks. as the campaign went on and trump won, inspector general started dragging its feet. when michael flynn was named national security advisor to trump, the next day the inspector general denied our public records request. we wanted to know what flynn said but in the meantime, we also had her the inspector

general had conducted hundreds of interviews with other key figures in the war from military commanders to ambassadors to white house officials. we were trying to find out what all of these people said in these interviews. lo story sho, we defiled two to eedom of two information act request to compel the inspector general to release these interviews. it took three years for us to get our hands on them and we are still not done. we still have litigation pending to get more information and the identities of a lot of these people who spoke about the war. at the end result were about 2000 pages of documents of interviews that have been kept under wraps for a number of years, in which people who are in charge of the war admitted the strategy was a mess, that they misled the american public, public, and that there were fundamental flaws with how the war was being fought for over 18 years. that is what we finally brought to light. amy: in this clip from "the

washington post" video released as part of the afghanistan papers, you asked the special inspector general for askedhe speci insptor genel for afghanisn reconsuction jn soo about y the pars were not reased earer. we don't havelassifie authity, soe have tsend it review.e agencies matr of fac some ofhe marial may in the ynn view but know oer inrviews, w classifd. cls of the 400nterview releed, only abou 15, 1of th have anclassifi infoation rected thelothes but we sll have review e inrmation. also ha tohen go thrgh thwhole proce on i >> bou are n try to ow ro it? ose no. none has aed uto slow ll it and woul't. of any spector genera i' probablbeen the most fthcomingn informion. we are firm believers in open

a's and transparency, but we have to follow the law. expin the you can significance of who he is and what he was saying. >> this is john sopko, the special inspector general for afghanistan reconstruction. he is appointed by congress. his job for the past more than a decadeow has been to been to investigate fraud, waste, newbies and the war zone. we are spending billions and billions of dollars and his job is to report to congress and the public when money is being wasted or spent efficiently. he is kind of like an auditor, if you will. do office in 2014 decided to a side project. the side project was called "lessons learned." th country assumed back in 2014 that the war was coming to an end. president obama had said combat operations were over and he was going to pull out all u.s. troops by the and of his

residency in 2016. well, that did not happen but these interviews that the inspector general had done with hundreds of people involved in the war were sitting on their computer filesnd in their ,ffices in northern virginia and they started to do some public reports on the subject about lessons learned with mistakes made in afghanistan, but what we found is they left out the harshest commentary, the most trident criticism from these interviews that we did in which we published -- it is important to recognize that everything "the washington post" obtained was obtained legally and it is public information. none of this was leaked to us. the public owns them. they have a right to see what they are, yet it took the inspector general more than three years to release all of this information to us. when he says he was not trying to slow roll it, well, i think most people would take that with a big grain of salt. over three years, many, many

countable number of ople have died in afghastan. billionsbillions and more dollars. we certainly think it would've helped to have this information come to light a long time ago. amy: on capitol hill in january come the top government watchdog for afghanistan reconstruction told lawmakers that u.s. officials have routinely lied to people throughoute u.s.-led war in afghanistan. this is special inspector general john sopko testifying before the house foreign affairs committee. >> the problem is, there's a disincentive, really, to tell the truth. when we talk about mendacity, when we talk about lying, it is you about the casualties" or "i can't tell you how good the afghans weapons are" or "this or that." it turns out everything that is bad just lying about a

particular program, it is lined by omissions. by saying, "oh, i everything that is bad news has been classified over the last years. amy: this is congress member joe connolly of virginia questioning the special inspector general john sopko in january. just give us some examples of hubris and especially mendacity? >> some of the statements made about the great success on life expectancy. it was statistically impossible to double the life inspected the in the time given. --hink it is a commerce of combination of hubris and mendacity. the next thing you know, we will be walking on water in an aide program. program.ducation of childrenlions were of children were in school. they knew the date it bad but they still reported. as if there were millions of children. is that hubris and mendacity? probably a combination of both. amy: if you can respond to what

amy: if you can respond to what the inspector general sopko said , craig whitlock. explain

as the word "insane." were told to spend as much money as possible building schools, clinics, roads -- anything to just make it look like they were doing were told s much something and that in retrospect, it did not make any sense and they don't know if any of it did any good. amy: not to mention the money spent bombing the country the same time. >> exactly. most people would say that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. we are bombing the heck out of the country but in all of this money simultaneously trying to blow it up.

this gets to your other point, you brought up about the taliban negotiations have been going on in recent months. there are a number of interviews in the afghanistan papers from people who say, you know, we had better opportunities to do this when we had more levage, including as far back as 2002 when there was a real opportunity, perhaps the best opportunity, to negotiate a peace till the taliban then because it was largely defeated. power, on its heels. that would've been the time, particularly when the television was most interested in talking, we could have singed a peace thatwith -- in afghanistan may have at least minimized the need for us to be there must've instead, the war has gone on for ar after year. i think you have to remember back in 2002-2003, everybody we were victorious in

afghanista militarily, we were for the moment. there was a real reluctance to negotiate with the defeated enemy. i think this gets back to one thing. we never understood who we were fighting or why they were fighting us in afghanistan, so we kind of thought the talan would disappear. so integrated in the fabric of society, that was a fundamental mialculation. and here we are 18 years later trying to negotiate with them when the taliban is, frankly, stronger than ever, so it has much much tougher opposition. amy: craig whitlock is a staff writer at "the washington post" who uncovered the "afghanistan papers." we will link to this remarkable expose at democracynow.org. at awe come back, we look new "new york times" expose that reveals how erik prince, the mercenary firm blackwater, brother of betsy devos, recruits ex-spies.-

stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. erik prince, the founder of the mercenary firm blackwater and brother of education secretary betsy devos, helps to recruit former spies to infiltrate and gather intelligence about democratic campaigns and labor organizations, including the american federation of teachers.

that's according to an explosive new "new york times" report that exposes previously unreported details about the ties between prince and project veritas, a right-wing group that often sets up sting operations targeting everyone from planned everyone from planned parenthood to journalists by recording covert videos. according to "the new york times," one former spy recruited by erik prince helped run a operation to secretly tape leaders in the american leaders in the american federation of teachers' michigan office in 2017. the spy, named richard seddon, directed an undercover operative to gather and make public information that could damage the union. in response to "the new york times goes report, derek martin said -- "there's not a lot of dots to connect here. secretary devos' brother was directly involved in a spying scheme in her home state against a teachers' union she's been hostile with for years. if this doesn't clear the bar for an immediate congressional investigation, nothing does."

in another instance in 2018, the in another instance in 2018, the same undercover operative who gathered information about the american federation of teachers infiltrated the congressional campaign of former cia officer abigail spanberger, who was running -- and would eventually win -- for congress representing virginia as a democrat. the campaign fired her after -- fired the operative after discovering the operative's identity. well, for more, we're joined by the intercept's matthew cole, the investigative journalist who first broke the story of erik prince's ties to the trump administration last year. prince's ties to the trump administration last year. his latest piece "the fbi is , investigating erik prince for trying to weaponize crop recently been published. it is great to have you with us. let'slet's talk, matthew come at this explosive front page "new york times" piece that really is coming off your investigation. >> what "the new york times" was able to do is figure out where erik prince's team of former veritasd helped project

and operations. what i reported last year for the first time was that prince they often find people who are at the bottom of organizations. at the bottom of organizations. not the leaders, but people who were working sort of ground-level -- same things i probably should not say on camera but often reflect an individual's viewpoint rather than an entire organization.

than an entire organization. they then cut that video and blast it out and make a media spectacle out of it. in some cases, some of the things they have done have been legitimate. it. in some cases, some of the things they have done have been legitimate. most of what they have done has been illegitimate, but without fail, they focus only on liberal and progressive organizations, whether it is democratic campaigns -- now we know and newsunion organizations. and news organizations. they are not interested in looking at anything on the right side of the political spectrum. amy: back to what erik prince did in recruiting these spies. >> prince prayers has helped fund them. yet understand project veritas got its funding, nonprofit from conservative organizations, the mercer family, the erik prince family, betsy devos -- which is erik prince plus vs brother -- they have been -- dylan amy: erik prince's sister.

prince's sister. >> air prince decided what project veritas it was better training and the training specifically was to get from former spies. a former spy,es americans buy, to do the training. that training failed. the former spy quit because he the former spy quit because he thought there were not serious people. it wasn't going to stop erik prince. after -- amy: he was with trump and election night. >> after the election and not ration, air prince arranges for train mi six officer to project veritas at the prince family ranch in wyoming. what he gives them is a series of weapons training, secret video camera, undercover video camera work, he's teaching them to be spies. at the time, o'keefe and one of the other project veritas members tweeted out and put on instagram what they were doing.

they describe it from a classified location and special training and describe the organization not as journalists -- which probably and today james o'keefe will stay and defend himself, they were describing themselves as the next great intelligence agency. that is key. what i reported last year was after air prince trained them, erik prince sought to use project veritas for zone operations and a business abroad as undercover spies. it is important to understand that when you start to mix spying with domestic political operations, you are looking at a system of domestic black bag jobs. that is where we see erik prince now is moving in that direction. that is what is really frightening. amy: talk about these two examples "the times" poses, the michigan chapter of the amerco federation of teachers, and then abigail spanberger's campaign. >> project veritas of been long

trying to feed their people into the senate. there were efforts on the house and in congress with a picture of people -- literally, a photo facebook, that identified veritas undercover members so they could be caught. what they got was better at what they were doing. in this case, they were caught. there were suspicions facebook,s reporting last year that veritas thebeen involved in michigan.ederation in there was an obvious connection herebetween betsy devos and antagonism and antipathy toward the teachers federation and in michigan whereerik and betsy grew up. amy: and where there is a primary tomorrow. >> what veritas did was they used the british spy to help run the operation. undercoverwho were

were not former spies. there were not for intelligence officers. there were not for intelligence officers. what they had were the professionals running the operation from the outside, directing them, giving them training and now they're going to direct them. that is what "the times" was able to find was how prince had help run andies to help run and sort of elevate and improve veritas' ability to get inside organizations and pull documents out. amy: how did it affect the michigan federation of teachers and abigail spanberger, interestingly, she is a former cia official. she has worked for the cia. she was able to find the spy within her organization and fire them. >> congress -- the democrats in congress have a list they share because they all know they are being targeted by project veritas. able tocase, there were

catch the person who had come in as an intern to work in the office. inin michigan, the expose that project veritas did in a video they put out resulted in a lawsuit. the federation -- the teachers federation has been suing suingt veritas project veritas for a variety of crimes under the notion that this had been a spying operation and not some disgruntled whistleblower. that is often what veritas presents itself as an organization that gets whistleblowers from the inside. in fact, what they're often doing is feeding people inin f'n doing is feeding people in under false pretenses and the next full trading data and information. amy: they also succeeded in getting an abc reporter suspended, david wright. hook ice to work for abc. the abc case is a fantastic example of what they do. reporter to give his

personal reporter to give his personal opinions who makes a statement and qualifies what he's about to say is not in his professional capacity but his personal capacity, and then blast it out as liberal bias in the media. amy: talking about medicare for all. >> it was absurd. one thing i need to mention here about project veritas is that in 2017, they tried to get "the washington post" to run a full story during the roy moore scandal down inscandal down in e senate seat election. they sent one of their operatives in posing as a victim, sexual assault victim of roy moore. the idea was to get "the post" to run a fake story. let that sink in. amy: 10 seconds. amy: 10 seconds. >> they were caught. we believe there was some awareness or coordination by the trump white house in a administration that project veritas was targeting "the washington post." if that is the case, that is literally selling fake news and

trying to cede and propaganda. amy: and now we will do part two and put it online at democracynow.org. matthew cole is an investigative journalist for the intercept. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-