09/17/20 09/17/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amamy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> there actually hasn't been such a significant attack on the freedom of the press and the first amendment, just the , since of our republic mymy case in 1971. amy: pentagon papers whistleblower daniel ellsberg testifies at the extradition hearing of wikileaks founder julian assange, urging britain not to send him to the united states.

where he faces 175 years behind bars. we'll find out why. but first, we speak to award winning sudanese journalist nima elbagir about her stunning new see in an expose called "yemen: a crisis made in america." numbers ond serial armaments in yemen back to saudi arababia, the e uae, and the u., provoving the u.u.s. governments profited from the chaos of the war in yemen and eight agencies threatsthe aid drawdown to wreak more havoc. amy: plus, we will go to the greek island of lesbosos where 13,000 migrants are homeless after a fire destroyed most of or unsanitary dangerous camp, most of europe's largest refugee camp. we urge the greek government

let us get out of here because life is tough here. we have experienced hunger and thirst. it has been for days that i did not drink some water or have food. i am searching for water. otherwise, our children and i will die of thirst. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the head of the centers for disease contntrol and prevention warned wednesday that u.s. residents should not expect to receive a vaccine for the coronavirus until at least mid-2021, contradicting presesent trump's claim that at least 100 millllion doses coulde distributed by the end of 2020. dr. robert redfield was speaking at a senate hearing on thehe federal government's response to the covid-19 pandemic. >> if you are asking me when it is genenerally going to be available toto the american pubc so we can begin to takee

advantage of vaccine to get back to our r regular life, i think we're probabably lookoking at le second quarter, third quarter 2021. amy: president trump lashed out i dr. redfield, telling reporters in the white house press briefing room that the top u.s. public health official misspoke. pres. trump: i think he made a mistake when he said that. it is incorrect information. i called him and he did not tell me that and i think he got the message may be confused. amy: trump also contradicted the redfield overr. masks, saying a vaccine would be much more effective than facial coverings at stopping the spread of the coronavirus. his comment came after dr. redfield estimated a potenti coronarus vaccine mighononly be 70% effecveve at nerarati an iunune reonsese, king widespre m mask e crcrital too ending the panandemic in the future. >> these face masks are the most

powerful public tool we have. i will continue to appeal for all americans, all individuals in our country, to embrace these face coverings. for 6, 8,we did it 10, 12 weeks we would bring this pandemic under control. amy: meanwhile, president trump acknowledged that at least one white house staffer tested positive for the coronavirus on wednesday. white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany refused to name who was infected but said high-level delegegations from babahrain, the united arab emirates, and israel who gathered a at the whwhite house tuesday, incluluding pririme minister b benjamin nenetanyahu, were not affected. onon wednesday, israeli journaliststs who returneded hoe from coverering the whwhite houe event were ordered to quarantine and submit to an epidemiological investigation. israel is the first country in the world to go to a second nationalal lockdown this weeken. the united states reported nearly 1000 new coronavirus

fatalities on wednesday, with the official u.s. death toll nearing 197,00000 -- by far the worst in the world. nearly 40,000 new cases of covid-19 were confirmed erer 24 hours,any of thedriven by large outbreaks on college campuses. on wednesday, members of the big ten college athletics conference reversed course and said the fall football season will proceed this year, even as they acknowledged many players will contract covid-19 as a result. president trump celebrated the announcement, tweeting -- "it is my great honor to have helped!!!" big ten institutions said they would establish a cardiac registry for infected student-athletes, writing -- "the registry and associated data will attempt to answer many of the unknowns regarding the cardiac manifestations in covid-19 positive elite athletes." in response, sports law professor alicia jessop tweeted

-- "the u.s. has an ugly history when it comes to medical research and the black community -- from the tuskegee syphilis study to the use of henrietta lacks' cancer cells unknowingly by her. if the big ten did not receive informed consent from players, it will add to this litany." glgloballyly, confirmed coronans cacases of rapidly approaching 0 million, with over 940,000 recorded deaths from covid-19. india recorded nearly 98,000 positive cases over the last 24 hours, the highest one-day toll for any country since the starat of the panandemic. meanwhile, oxfam reports a small group of wealthy nations -- represesenting just 13% of the world's population -- has secured contracts for more than half of the world's future supply of coronavirus vaccine. oxfam warns this could leave two-thirds of the world's population without access to a vaccine until at least 2022.

on the gulf coast of the united states, at least one person was killed and over a half a million customers were left without power as hurricane sally brought torrential rains and severe flooding to coastal communities from the florida panhandle to mississippi. in pensacola, a section of three mile bridge was destroyed after a barge slammed into the structure, cutting off access to the city of gulf breeze. officials say parts of florida received four months' worth of rain in just four hours.s. attorney general william barr told federeral prosecutors to coconsider b bringing sedition charges against protesters who destroy property, accusing them of plotting the overthrow of the u.s. government. that's according to "the wall street journal," which also reports barr asked the justice department's civil rights division to consider bringing criminal charges against seattle mayor jenny durkan for allowing black lives matter protesters to set up a police-free protest zone in her city.

the american civil liberties union condemned barr's remarks, writing in a statement -- "treating protest as a form of sedition won't stand up in court, but that is clearly not the point here. this is a tyrannical and un-american attempt to suppress demands for racial justice and an end to police violence." this comes as "the washington post" reports the pentagon's top military pololice officer sought to deploy a microwave "heat ray" weapon against protesters in washington, d.c.'s lafayette square as black lives matter protests spread to the doorstep of the white house in early june. meanwhile, attorney general barr wednesday compared stay-at-home orders during the pandemic to a form of house arrest, saying -- "other than slavery, this is the greatest intntrusion on civil liberties in american history." michael caputo, the top spokesman for the department of health and human services, has

announced he will take a 60-day leave of absence for unspecified medical reasons. caputo has faced calls to resign after accusing government scientists of "sedition" claiming there was a "resistance unit" inside the cdc attempting to undermine trump. caputo is a longtime associate of roger stone, who was appointed to his post at hhs despite having no health care background. cnn is reporting acting homeland security secretary chad wolf is expected to defy a house subpoena to testify today. this comes just days after a federal judge ruled that wolf is likely serving unlawfully as acting secretary. on capititol hill, senate republicicans wednesday confirmd two more of president trump's judicial nominees to lifetime appointment on the federal bench. david duke and stephen mcglynn are both longtime opponents of reproductive freedoms, including the right to an abortion. their confirmations came four months a after the democrcratic-controlled house

passed the $3 trillion heroes act most of republican senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has refused to schedule a vote on the coronavirus relief bill, calling it an unserious liberal wish list. in nebraska, a grarand jury hass indicted a white bar owner in omaha in the fatal shooting ofof james scururlock, a blacack protester. sclolock was s shot dead on may0 during protests over the killing of george floyd. he was 22 years old. the local county attorney initially declined to bring charges but brought the case to a grand jury. the bar owner, jake gardner, had claimed self-defense but a special prosecutor said evidence from gardner himself undermines that claim. dedemocratic lawmakers have e jd the calls for an investigation into reports that t a doctor in georgia has been performing hysterectomies on immigrant women held at an immigration and customs enforcement prison without their consent.

the shocking claim first came to light in a whistleblower complaint filed by a nurse named dawn wooten, who works at the irwin county detention center in georgia. wooten appeared on msnbc onn tuesday night.t. >> i i had seveveral detained wn on numererous occasioions that d wooten, a and say ms. i had a a hysterectomy, whyhy? i had n no answers asas to why y had thosose p procedureres. one lalady walked up to me here this last t time around betwewen octobeber 19 untntil july y 2 ae sasaid, what is he?? is he ththe uterus s collector? does h he collect u uterus is? i asksked her w what she meant. shee s said come everybody thati talked to has had at hysterectomy. amy: in related news, ice has temporarily halted the deportation of pauline binam, a cameroonian mother who says she was involuntarily sterilized while detained in georgia.

binam was already on the plane wednesday when her deportation was stopped. she has lived in the united states since the age of two. mightl crisis have led to her -- in other immigration news, the trump admiministration has asked the supreme court to decide whether it can exclude undocumented immigrants from the census numbers used to determine each state's share of seats in congress. a federal court in new york recently blocked the trump administration from dodoing so. and the caribbean nation of barbados has announced plans to remove britain's queen elizabeth as its head of state. in a statement, the government said -- "the time has come to fulllly leave our cololonial past behin" and those are some of the headlines. this is demomocracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i am amy goodman, nework joinined by my cohost nermeen

shaikh. nermeen: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: more than nine months into the coronavirus pandndemic, the united nations is warning that millions in yemen, south sudan, northeast nigeria, and the democratic republic of congo now face famine due to the compounding crises of economic devastation, violent conflicts and lack of access to humanitarian aid. u.n. official mark lowcock said a lack of funding for humanitarian relief has pushed already precarious populations to the brink of starvation. in yememen, where 80% % of the population depends on humanitarian aid, the united states, saudi arabia, and united arab emirates have all slashed aid to the country. this comes as the u.s. backed saudi-led coalition continues to bomb yememen, where millions fae hunger, didisease, and extrememe poverty in what had been called the worst humanitarian crisis in

the world even before the pandemic. in a moment, we will talk about the crisis in yemen with nima elbagir. she was in the 2020 royall television society television journalist o of the year. she is a senior international correspondent for cnn. at first, we are turning to her report for cnn called "yemen: aa crisis made in america." in this pact children's ward in the main hospitital in the north of yemen, anxious mothers -- vipeperntion attention. this little girl, her mother telllls the doctor r she has fie brothers, all malalnourished. but she is the o only one they n affordrd the medicine for. this motheher of an eighght-month-oldays her lilitte boy can no longer lift up h his head. he i is too weak.

this little belly is painfully swollen, telltale sign of malnutritionon. >> this is a tragedy. aa family of 1 10 are all squeed into one room. three are dead frorom malnututrition. and rows of hungry children. their body so stripped of fact that every move is acting. hard to believe that these are the lucky ones. these are the children whose parents s can a fouour -- i fore car journey to the hospital. >> these are the patients we have admitted. 2, 3, 4, , 5, 6, 7 -- 13, , 17 cases. just on the first day of september. >> even fofor yemen, this is not the norm.

every y day brings dozozens more patients. >> here you haveve death.. just one day after we admitted her. >> and more debt. week, aient died this one-year-old. it is very hard to keep track of exact figures for child deaths because so many of the children don't even make it to the hospital. all the doctor knows is that things are getting worse. >> in august and septembmber, or cases have spiked very clearly, most likely because of the withdrawal of the support from the ngo's and other centers having to close due to lack of funding. >> why is that? that lack of funding. 80% of the 30 million population in yemen is reliant on aid. the majority of whom lived in the houthi control north. the houthis seeking to control

the float of eight, place restrictions on areas under their control. in march, the u.s. to spend much of the aid the north. citing concerns over who the misappropriations. ors havehe key dona also drawn down post of u.s., saudi arabia, uae have all lashed their aid is spent. the u.s. spend dropping from a million dollars to $400 million. saudi, from over a billion dollars to only $22.8 million action received. the uae has given zero dollars to the u.n.'s 2020 appeal. seen and was able to get access to a briefing document. you and agencies have confirmed to us its contents. in the aftermath of the drop in foreign aid, the u.n. has shatterered on thehe 75% of itss

progograms. previous seen in investigations, we traced serial numbers. arms deals between sauaudi arab, uae, and u.s. proving the u.s. government has profited from the chaos of the war in yemen and aid agencies tell us the aid drawdown threatens to wreak even more havoc. pushing her disabled son in a wheelchair. she used to receive funding from the u.n.-program but now she cannot even get them to the hospital. malnutrition has left him mentally disabled and she has to choose between feeding him or paying for treatment. she carries him to the little alley that leads to the have finished program site where she and other displaced sam was have erected makeshift shelters. up until a few months ago, she tells us for some was like any

little boy but after the family were displaced from their home by fighting, now they live here. >> i have no help. i pray to god. >> the aid to suspension is driven the people of the houthi control north into deeper isolation. yemen's north could already be in famine and we might not even know it. amy: that is the cnn exclusive "yemen: a crisis made in america." as we turn now to london, where we are joined by the journalist who produced that report, nima elbagir, award-winning senior international correspopondent fr cnn. she was named the 2020 royal television society t television journalist of the year. she also won a george polk award. in 2018, she received international center for journalist excellence in international reporting award for her work. we welcome you to democracy now!

this is a powerful report, "yemen: a crisis made in america," as you talk about the united states must saudi arabia come and the united arab emirates cutting off aid to yemen largely, yet continuing, as you report, this report, and earlier ones, to fight u.s. weapons on the ground in yemen. talk about the connection. very clclear connectionon, incredibly egregis one. when the war launched five years ago, the u u.s. backed the who these overthrew the legitimately just legitimate internationally recognized government of the president. what comomplicated the issue is even after the obama administration found the saudiss anand the coalition n were not taking into account the impact on civilians, their deployment of u.s. weaponry, and they

suspended it -- when the trump administration came in, the immediately oveverturned that suspension. so there was a foreknowledge of the involvemement of the impactt and the ways u.s. support entrenched this conflict. but for years now, we have seen another pattern come together, which is not only is the u.s. profiting from the war by selling weapons to the uae and saudi arabia -- where b both partners in ththe coalitionn --e inspector general forced out from thehe state departmentt fod continuing to not take into account the impact on civilians of t that deployment of u.s. armaments by the uae and saudi arabia. we fast-forward twoo or three years of this extraordinary controversial action and then we start to see -- we come across these numbers that are startrtig to drop. the uae 2017 gave zero dollars.

even though it was an active member of the coalition. saudi arabia gagave $1 billion, but only after the u.n. at the end of last year had come back and pushed and said, yemen is slipping into famine. so there was all this work and investment and this shaming of the u.s. a and uae and saudi arabia to force them to put riright what they y had made wrg on the groround in yemen. and then in march, secretary pompeo decides they're going to suspend aid to those houthi -controlled areas. yes, the houthths are egregious but they are not the only ones. this is a work in it which food and starvation have been weaponized by both sidides. that is when we saw the drop. that is when we saw the numbers. and what we spurred ourr reporting, even the u.n. has not been able to access these areas to get a measure, a metric of whether yemen truly is in

famine. i don't know if you know this, amy, that famine is a very much scientific metric point whehere two out of every 10,000 people dying from hunger every day. in yemen, because some and people can't afford to even come to the hospital, they are dying at home alone and uncounted. so the world can't even respond in the ways that they would if we were able to say there was a famine. it was a very difficult report to pull together because we were trying to do this remotely from london because of the coronavirus and the difficulties of traveling, but i hope we managed to get across the key message here, which is this is not t a natural disaster catastrophe in which our governments are complicit. -- natural disaster, this isis a

man-made catastrophe which our governments are cocomplicit. nenermeen: you say that once y u make it to thehe hosospital aree lucky ones and i in this piece, t the ruinous condiditions s in thesese hospi. so could you talk about what has currenc thaththe is may not only food and drinking water effectively unafaffordable, butt also o fued howw important fuel is to keep thesese medical facilities going and to k keep many people, includining children, alive? drawdownition to the onon their eight contributution, the u.s. has also been backing a five year long blockckade by the saudi-i-led coalition. whatat that means effectively is that mosost of the commercial vessssels that were bringing f , brbringing goods frorom the oute world to y yemen, have not beenn port.t to talk at that key

that meansns fuel come if you cn find it, is inincredibly expensive. in a way, even more treachererously, there is food, but because the currency has devalued sond been many times andnd there is so little work available, people cannot afforord it. we were in yemen i in january lt year before it even got this bad, and i think one of the most heart breaking things i've witnessed persononally is drivig through markets that are full of food and you see the people selling the food, the vegetables, grains, they themselves are almost skeletal. the food is rotting because no one can afford to buy. one of the storories we heard in the hospital that we did not air but included in our digital genuinely iich was

think one of the worst things i'veve ever heard, is the impact of that blockade has meant the hospitals don't have fuel. and now because the u.n. cannot afford to sustain the hospitals are having to focus on just really lifesaving measures, they are not buying them fuel. so when the electricity goes out, the equipment, the oxygen equipment, the breathing equiuipment that is keepeping te most m malnourished and sickest children alive, that stops. and because there is no electricity, there are no monitors to raisise the alarm. one doctor who spoke to us, his voice was breaking. he said that he had found children suffocated to death because while they're running around trying to tint to everyone in these overcrowded hospitals, if you turn your back for a moment on a child on a different room and the power goes out, that child dies.

difficult and yet so extraordinary is these people continue to come to work. knowingn up every day they do not have what it takes to save these children. and yet they continue to try. --meen: can you talk about the trump administration h has t yemen, thendiding too trumpet administration also announced earlier r this year tt they would cut funding to the world health organization. so could you talk about the work the world hlth orgaganization does i in yemen, has done inin yemen, and how its work wiwill e impacted by these cuts? >> this is absolutely a double way me for r yemen because the world health organization runs a lolot of the mellow -- malnutrition clinics, but also

the prorograms that designs to battle -- such as the coronavirus. they are the ones paying the doctors and nurses salaries because the houthi-led government cannot afford to but they're also the ones the frontline of the fight against the coronavirus. it is impossible. it is absolutely impossible to get any sense of the numbers of the people that have died from the coronavirus, separately from the numbers of the people that have died from malnutrition. but because of this -- i keep saying aid drawdown and it makes it sound so clinical. it is essentially because of this strangling of the aid that gets through to the people in yemen come it has meant that not only are they dealing with malnutrition because the world food program has have to the aid these people received, not only are you getting half rations and reaching half the people, but it

means people are getting food every other month. so you have to land one meal a day. parents are not eating so children can eat. but then if you have the horrible misfortune of coming down with the to support any kind of -- we don't have a cure for coronavirus, but even if he -- keep people comfortable. one thing we did you get a sense of this, was started speaking to gravediggers. they don't have the numbers. all they can tells is the actual legitimate government licensed cemeteries are full. so people are bribing gravediggers to find plots of land in places where other people cannot or will not venture and dangerous parts of the cities so that at the very least, t they can try and at let clawback some dignity and bearing their loved ones effectively rather than leaving them to rot in a mortuary

somewhere. amy: i want to go to everything that mark lowcock, under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs gave on tuesday to the u.n. security council. he called out the oil-rich h guf states for turning away from the situation in yemen. arabia,ding saudi united arab emirates,s, who h ha rticicular resesponsibilility ct whh h they've dischararged in recentnt years, , have so far rn nothing to this y year's u.n. plan. it is particularly reprehensible to promise money which gives people hope that help may be on thosey and then to dash hopes by simply failing to fulfill the promise. more than 9 million people have been affected by the c custer ad prograrams, incluluding food and healalth c care, continuing to d back money f fm the humamanitarn responsese now w will be a death

sentence for many families. amy: that is the u.n. under secretary-general l mark lowcoc. nima elbagir, if you can talk about -- it is even wrong to say the gulf states have turned away from yemen. they have not turned away from yemen. they are constantly bombing yemen. on tuesday, president trump stood with the foreign minister of the united arab emirates -- and we know saudi arabia leads the bombing -- bombs provided by the united states. and part of the deal did not have to do with the palestinians that was signed off on at the white house, it had to do with the united states selling the fighter-bombers. can you talk about the signgnificance o of once again e weapons deals to hunger and the devavastation of yemen?

>> it sends a message, doesn't it. it sends the mesessage not justn yemen, but around the world that you can do what you want to do ourong as youou sign u up for key concerns. a number of u.s. diplomats have described the conversations they've had with the uae and with saudi arabia, and essentially the subtext of the conversationon was, welell, we e signed -- the uae has signed up you still with israel. and we know this is a a key priority foror the trump administration. so what do you want from us? what we know about yemen is that yemen, it was a national security risk for the united statates. it wasas part of the mosost efeffective franchise of ththe arabian peninsula who at one point --

it was always given as the excuse for the reason why the united states continue to be engaged in yemen. what has happened with allowing key y u.s. allies like the uae d saudi arabia to do what they have done in yemen is thisis hunger and this conflict has allowed not just al qaeda, but isis to become resurgent in yemen again. this last week, there were a number of pretetty effective iss and al qaeda attacks. the u.s. is measurably less safe because of what their allies have done in yemen. but one of the things that is really interesting that so many of us that are covering foreign affairs are looking at really closely is the icc, international criminal court,, -- said that she prosecutor chief prosecutor can begin looking into u.s. war crimes in afghanistan. and that is president-setting. given what the ig report, unredacted version shows about

the u.s.s.'s disregard for civilian casualty perpetrated by their allies with their bombs, there is a real conversation that is beginning about whether the u.s. is opening itself up for further cases of work from prosecution on yemen. and it is that pretetty incredie case being discussed. anytime you bring this formally on record to the state department or to the trump administration officials, they say this is about american manufacturers, american workers being able to make money out of american bombs been dropped in yemen. and what we have seen with the engagement we have found, not just this piece but also the previous investigations that we of ourne, is so many audience, whether it is in america or around the world, don't believe that. they don't believe that money should be made over the deaths

of innocent civilians halfway around the world in a country that was already a humanitarian disaster even before ththis ill thought i intervention. amy: w we just have 30 seconds, but we cannot leave without asking you about sudan where you're from and your coverage of .he women-led sudanese uprising also, mark lowcock running about about the coronavirus hitting the area. >> this is a trump administration with a cityy -- demonstrators been shut down in the streets. it is incredibly disheartening to see people who have risked so

by the let down so badly united states. it reaeally is. amy: nima elbagir, thank you so much for being with us, award-winning senior international correspondent for cnn based in london whose yemen report earlier this week is called "yemen: a crisis made in america." when we come back, we go to the greek island of lesbos. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

this i is democracy now!,, dedemocracynow.org, the quarante report. i'm amy goodman. to grgreece, where e thousands of refugees and migranants reman homeless a week after a fire burned down a massive refugee camp last week. moria is greece's biggest refugee camp and the fire left nearly 13,000 refugees from afghanistan, african countries, and syria without access to shelter, food, or sanitation, raising concerns about a coronavirus outbreak. thousands are moving into a temporary camp that officials sasay is ready to host at leleat 5000, but others are refusing to go saying they do not trust the facility. this comes as four afghan men

were charged with arson wednesday for their alleged participation in the fire. two more minors are being held by the greek police but have not been formally charged. greece claims the fire was started by a small group off asylum seekers in protest over condition as the camp, which had been locked down due to the coronavirus pandemic. this is 23-year-old aman ullah, from kabul, afghanistan, who had been in moria camp for almost a year. >> we wanted rely. we have come here to live. we are humans, not animals. they p put us in this place that is like a jungle. a human cannot live in such tense. people live here for one or three days, they will be fed up with the situation. we urge the greek government to let us get out of here because life is tough here. we have experienced hunger and thirst. it has been for days i did not drink water. and i did not have food. i'm searching for water.

otherwise our children and i will die of thirst. amy: refefugees have been protesting their cononditions ad pleading for help from other european nations. some of the asylum seekers -- many of f them women a and chiln -- are demanding they be allowed to leave the island of lesbos, but the greek governrnment is refusing to relocate most people displaced by the fire to the mainland. over the weekend, police fired tear gas at the demonstrators. on tuesday, the greek government asked the european union to help run refugee camps on the country's islands, where tens of thousands of refugees live. this all comes as greece's conservative government has implemented increasingly hostile anti-immigrant pololicies in recent years. fofor more, we go to lesbos, whe we're joined by reporter franziska grillmeier, who has been closely following this. welcome to democracy now! explain the situation. human rights watch called the camp that burned down and sanitary and dangerous -- unsanitary a and dangegerous. now what happens to the homeless refugees?? >> at the moment, people are

moving v very slowly into t thew camp structure, b but very reluctantly y because people are really fearing to face another prison situation like they faced for the past weeks and months and years. so this is why most of the people were staying out on the streets for eight nights now. the fire happened one week ago. people work fleeing with all they had on their body into the .treets and were blocked stayed there now for eight days, mostly as we just heard, without any running and clean water, without any sufficient fooood supply, withot electricity. you have to imagine people did not have diapers for the children. they did not havave toilet pape. a andf them are families

have eldererly, people in wheelchairs. we as prpress cocould not really approach t the site of the last four days, so w we had to find a tentative wayayo get to the people. the sasame with humanitaririan d and doctors and any medical and lelegal assistance e wasn't alld through. i meaean, not frequently. thisis was really a problem. people felt left alone, highly desperate. and he fainted on n the way bebecause you have a a lot of untreated.acases still at the moment, it is real desperation.n. the calculation of thehe greek government was, in my opinion, to really break people spirit at this moment in order to go into the new camp facility many fear because of that trarauma and d o safefety foror them. abouteen: could you talk

thee p people who o have been arrerested, the refugees who hae been held r responsible for thee fireres? also, if a a fire certainly of this scale iss unpnprecedented r whether there hahave beesmalalle onidents in otherer camps varirious greek islands? >> absolutely. this fire is a symbol of t the many fires that bu daily in people's lives. many fires physically broke out and also killed many people in the last y years, but also a fie symbolically is not getting any medical treatment and not getting any school or medication . you can't just walk out and pull up in bathing suit and go swimming or go to the cinema. it is not the case inside these camps. camp are not really

structures. this is really, many people felt, like a prison and ghettos. this was really a foreseeable and dangerous backlash o of this political calculation of the europeanan union to deter people from coming. so you could really feel the isp is architected in way or an architecture of deterrence. we were really wondering why did not go up in flames earlier. not that we calculated this catastrophe, but at the moment, the greek government is framing people whominalizing are seeking shelter in eururope and this is also the european member states you're supporting this framing. what we see now is, yes, for the people who got arrested, but the question should not be -- it is not clear yet what factors led to the fire, local responses or

not. however, the question should be isthis point, how could sustained for so long and why are we watching for eight days now people in severe dehydration and d no safety? -- politicalcular calculation we see behind it. distracted from the political calculation when you have someone to blame. and blaming the refugees and asasylum-seekers at this point s also calculation. is s the largest refugee camp -- was the largest refugee camp acacss europe because greece is the main port of e entry to europe for these refugeeses. as f far as ththe rest of the es concerned, germany has taken in

ovover a million refugees and hs now set it w will take an additional now 1500 refugees from greece. could you talk aboutephere the remainining countries in europe stanand because greece does s ba disproroportionate burden for re care of these refugees. in the 2016 e.u.-turkey agreement and how that altered the flow of migrants into europe? what we can see at the moment by the european member states which m means you shift the responsibility absolutely toward the border countries and to the islands as we see here in greece at the moment, so not shouldering any responsibility from any member

states and pushing greece to the margins. really pushing them over the brink in the share they have to take at this point. i is you what we see now really have the european member states saying greece is the shield of europe so these kind of camps are built on human rights violations. on -- whichs built means the legal pushback weeks these trips,w on which means the new member states are actually in favor of greece perseus hard stance against rerefugees in supporting this. we h have seen it in the past yr now that the geneva conventions are not functional anymore.

member016, the new states said, ok, we want to control the situation and made a deal with turkey to secure the borders so much less people in 2016. so people were stuck on these islands and had to wait for the asylum procedures to get through. but the problem was, many people that -- bureaucracy did not work well. as i said before, the whole camp was to deter people from coming. tore was no political will better the situation for those people to say, look, if you're right in europe, and you don't necessarily get a betetter futue -- it was always

[indiscernible] transformed more and more into a black box where advocate or's and journalists did not get an entry to cover the violations, the gross violations. this is what we see now in these last years and culminating into the fire, into the situation where people's spirit is broken in order to go into a closed ca mp. this was the strategy of the greek government from the beginning of this year sayayhey want to transform open structures into prison camps in --ay to close structures yes. a makeup have to go. we have to go. nermeen and i were in the largest refugee camp in france a few years ago i now see this

camper the overwhelming majority are afghans. can you make the final link? of, we're in the mist ththe pandemic, but that war? te u.s.s. still involved inin the longest t war in u.s. history, d that is in afghanistan, were so many of these refugees are from. yes, 79% afghan and mostly afghan families. people are trying to seek shelter at this point and most of them don't have any s safe -- there is nowhere to go from this popoint onward for t them. amy: franziska grillmeier, thank you for being with us, from the greek island of lesbos where the largest refugee camp in europe has just burned down was tough when we come back, w we go to pentagon paper whistleblower general ellsberg who testified yesterday the extradadition hearing of w wikis

founder julian assange in brbrain. stayay with us. ♪ [music brbreak] amy: this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman. we turn now to the press freedom case unfolding in london, where julian assange, founder and editor-in-chief of the wikileaks, is fighting extradition to the united states

over an ever-evolving array of espionage and hacking charges. assange faces almost certain conviction if if extradited, and 175 years in prison. u.s. prosecutors allege assange conspired with whistleblower chelsea manning, a private in the u.s. army, to illegally download hundreds of thousands of war logs from iraq and afghanistan, along with a huge trove of classified cables from the u.s. state department. experts have lined up to defend asassange, includingng the legey pentagon p papers whistleblower dan ellsbsberg, who j just testd on wednesday at assange'e'ss extradition trial via video stream from his meme in beberkeley, calilifornia. in 1971, he was a high levevel defensnse analyst when he leakea top secret reporort on u.s. ininvolvement in vietnam tt became known as the pentagagon papars, which h documented how officials had lied to the public about the war. like assange, ellsberg provided the leaked documents to "the new york times." also like assange, ellsberg was charged under the espionage act and could have spent life behind bars.

a judge threw out his case when it was revealed that president nixon had ordered criminal break-ins seeking damaging information on him. dan ellsberg, welcome back to democacycy now! we don't have that mucuctime, but talk about why you testified at the extradition hearing, asking that julian assange not be sent to the united states -- though, we should say, he basically has been in captivity for almost eight years now having gone into the ecuadoran missy where he got political refuge but was there for years before a new right-wing government in ecuador revoke that political asylum status and british authorities came in and ousted him and brought him to the belmarsh p prison co t the high-security prison in britain. the w would like to focus on larger implicationons of this ce since we only have a minute or

two. the amamerican p press has remad in a statef denial for r 40 yearars, really, since my case. the e espionage e act has wordin ithahaca be aimed d directly ate jojournalists and pubublishers. until this c case, it is not doe so. now the american press is starining down t the barrel at e againsthe espionage a a american jouournalists a and blisishers werere doing journasmsm, for doining what t y do best at their bestt every da, get information thehe govnment doesn't want known to the public because of their wngdoing, there lies, their creses, whatever -- there are a lot ofof osose. at i is what is maly the secrecy system is intended to protect indefinitely. it i inot only american urnalilis, although the ameranan first amendndnt is at ake at ts right now and

being attaeded. ifif juln iss exadited, it will leado prprosution here and probably cononction. and he wl notot- he will be de firststournalis i publher,r, b nononetless. he new yk t tes" mighte ththird ofourth aew, amy, as well. erybody s a stakin this. isnwhe, if f juan exadited to thu.s. to ce the chaes, the chges that are ma against h, no jonalist ithe world i is s safe from le in prison ithe unititedtatetes america. so thetakes ar enormous. d for frdom of t press anywre, ours ifarrom perfect,ther places have ls, ifyou haveore. the possility ofreedom of the pre -- that isemocracy -- is stake a over th worl it ss almost ctainly le hyperbrboland itits not.

the prosecution ovoved yestery they're basina lolot the cas first t all not s so ch withe , her witnses, on e fact that chelsea manni was encouraged by julian to get this information. i actually asked for documents. i can't count the number of times i have been asked for documents, as was quite proper for journalists. so that conspiracy is something that every source goes through with every journalist who uses sources. w what damagen of is done, the govovernment is seseeking to focus on the fact that names unredacted we bject in t their minds -- dd quite underststandablyy -- p poy a dangerer in countrieses wherey were by being publishe as i pointed out to the prosecutor, the waway to sp that danger from m occurrinwawas to ststop the publication of those names. andd t those were nonot names tt eieither the mediar wikileakaksr julian assangege wanted toto put

ou on t the contrary,y, the miaia d the government wililroil aware theyey were makakg enormo efforts to redact omom massisi documents the names of a anyone who might be put in the feelilig of anxietyr d danger or might be in danger. they calleon the governmento supply tho nameseshat t th could take out. it w in ththgovernrnnt' capability tprevent those peoplenonotf all of wm they coul getn n toucwith, fr even being revled and tyy chose no to do it. they have total responsibilility for ee anxnxiety, the flfleeingf some of them from their cocountries, total responsibiliy would say the governmnmt, since they could have evented d that and chose not to.o. i can only inferhehey prerrered to rererve chargesthese charges, agagast julian assang rather than p protect thoho people from the possible d dger

th werere t in. finally, it ialmomostynical -- as was listeni just do to e reports re making,g, tking to people w whore refefees from the statof w warhat the united states initiat. rst t wi thettacack afanistata but in rticular with it aression against iraq. did mention as thotother y tohe prorocutor.r. nly sasacynicaca i could use other words to say the governmentour gernment is wried abo 10000 o2000 andle being made anxus concned and meme ofhem king t tleave the country th u. help mu to bcoconcerd about thos peoplhen n th govement has lived the fight of 37 million refugees from american-initiatedars, t t plight of whom you have stst scscribed.

if this trial is successful, if e extradition isuccessful, already th w wilhave an timidadang effect on journalistround th world a be a direct attack on thehe firt amendment of the united states. amy: daniel ellsberg, thank you for being with us, one of the world's most famous whistleblowers. you testified at julian assange's tradition hearing on wednesday. julian assange from being under house arrest in britain to holing up in the ecuadoran embassy for over seven years to being at belmarsh, the high-security prison for year and a half, hahas been actuallyn captptivity for more than a decade. ththat does it for our show. to see our interview with one of his lawyers jennifer robinson, go to democracynow.org. 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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