09/14/21 09/14/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> people tend to think of st-9/11 in terms of hate crimes, hate speech, micro-aggressn. t to say these things don't exist, but i think it is very important for us to understand that islamhobia is a stctural fm of racism that is sustained by empire. amy:

"islamophobia and the politics of empire: twenty years after 9/11." we speak with rutgers university professor deepa kumar. then as the world faces a climate catastrophe, we look at the fairy creek blockade in british columbia where nearly 1000 people have been arrested trying to stop old-growth logging in what's been described as the largest act of civil disobedience in canadian history. >> the fairy creek locate is occupyintraditnal territory of my matrimonial line and that obligation i have within my faly stretches further tn environmental, stretches further than saving trees. for me, it is talking aboutnd practicing the type of politics that at the assimilation and

genocide of colonialism in canada. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the united nations warns a million afghan children could face starvation without immediate international aid after the taliban completed its sweeping takeover of afghanistan last month. u.n. secretary general antonio gutteres spoke at a high-level u.n. donor's conference in geneva monday. >> the people of afghanistan need lifelines after decades of war, suffering, and insecurity. they face perhaps their most perilous hour. amy: monday's donor conference raised $1.2 billion in pledges for afghanistan. the u.s., which spent over $2.3 trillion during its 20-year

occupation of afghanistan, pledged just $64 million in aid. on capitol hill, secretary of state antony blinken defended the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan, telling the house foreign affairs committee that no one in the biden administration predicted the afghan government would collapse while u.s. tros were still in kabul. during his opening remarks, blinken said by remaining in afghanistan, the u.s. military would ve only delayed the taliban's eventual takeover. -- inevitable takeover. >> there is no evince stayg longer would have made the afghans he forces were the afghan government anymore resilient or self-sustaining. 20 years and hundreds of blades of dollars in support, equipment, training does not suffice, why would another year? another five? another 10? amy: lincoln blamed the chaotic withdrawal on the trump administration saying "we inherited a deadline.

we did not inherit a plan." at least republicans called on blinken to resign. blinken is testifying to the senate foreign affairs committee today. coronavirus cases are back on the rise across the united states. more than 1800 covid-19 deaths were reported monday and the u.s. is confirming an average of more than 170,000 infections a day. that is up from last week when the labor day holiday led to a gap in data about the u.s. outbreak. here in new york, nearly 1 million public school students returned to classrooms monday, most of them for the first time in a year and a half. teachers are required to be vaccinated, though they have until september 27 to get their first shot. in iowa, a federal judge on monday issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of a republican-led ban on mask mandates in schools. the federal judge sided with parents of disabled students who

argued their children were being denied equal access to education since they're at higher risk of covid-19. in florida, republican governor ron desantis said he will fine city and county governments $5000 per employee if they impose vaccine mandates. this as new data show child covid-19 deaths have doubled in florida since students returned to school, many of themithout mask requirements in place. two prominent scientists who recently retired from the u.s. food and drug administration are blasting the biden administration's plans to approve third, booster doses of covid-19 vaccines to most u.s. residents. in a scathing critique published in the british medical journal "the lancet," philip krause and marion gruber write -- "current evidence does not appear to show a need for

boosting in the general population, in which efficacy against severe disease remains high. the limited supply of these vaccines will save the most lives if made available to people who are at appreciable risk of serious disease and have not yet received any vaccine." meanwhile, more than 140 nobel laureates d former heads of state have signed an open letter caing on germany to suort a waiver of intellectual property rights for covid vaccis. their call comes as a world trade organization panel is set to convene this week to discuss a patent waiver nearly a year after ina and south africa proposed the move, which would require the unanimous consent of all 164 wto member nations. a handful of countries led by germany and the united kingdom have so far refused to agree to a patent waiver. joining the call for a people's vaccine is democratic

congressmember ro khanna. >> this issue so fundamental if you believe that eve human life has dignityand has mal worth. we need to ensure that everyone has accesto this vaccine. the first st to getting people access tthe vaccine is making sure that we are sharing the know-how of how they can build it. amy: meanwhile, a new report contends the biden administration could unilaterally share the recipe for moderna's covid-19 vaccine with the world. public citizen says the u.s. biomedical advanced research and development authority, known as barda, invested heavily in the development of moderna's vaccine at taxpayer expense and has access to its entire vaccine recipe. that includes chemistry, manufacturing, and controls information that public citizen says could be shared with the world health organization. hurricane nicholas made landfall

along the texas gulf coast overnight as a category 1 orm, bringi 75 mileer-hour nds and life-thrtening storm surge of up to five feet. forecasters say some parts of the region could see up to 20 inches of rain. there are widespread reports of power outages, with nearly a quarter-million houston area customers in the dark. louisiana governor john bel edwards declared a state of emergency, warning his state is still recovering from hurricane ida, which struck twweeks ago. nearly 100,000 customers in louisiana remain without power after hurricane ida. president biden called monday for urgent congressional action on the climate crisis during a tour of western states ravaged by wildfires. biden visited the national interagency fire center in idaho before traveling on to northern california, where he joined governor gavin newsom for an aerial tour of damage from the caldor fire. afterwards, biden called on

congress to pass his $3.5 trillion spending plan, which includes money for a civilian climate corp and other measures to combat the climate crisis. pres. biden: these fires are blinking code red for our nation. we cannot ignore the reality that these wildfires are being supercharged by climate change. amy: climate justice groups seized on biden's remarks, demanding the white house declare a climate emergency. later on monday, president biden joined a campaign rally for governor newsom, who faces a right-wing recall effort to remove him from office. polls in the recall election close this evening at 8:00 p.m. democrats on the house ways and means committee unveiled legislation monday that would raise income taxes on the rich and some corporations to pay for most of president biden's proposed $3.5 trillion spending bill.

the tax measure would raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 26.5%. it would include a 3% surtax on u.s. residents making over $5 million a year. and it would restore the top rate of nearly 40% fry income individuals -- for high income individuals and couples. the tax measures fall short of to ms. proposed a president biden supported by progressives. speaking to pbs newshour, senate budget committee bernie sanders said they would hope to have a more progressive tax plan. >> there is a time of massive and growing income and wealth inequality when two people own more wealth than the bottom 40%, with the top 1% has more wealth than the bottom 92%. now is the time to ask the

wealthy and large corporations to pay their fair share so we can begin to address the long neglected needs of working families in terms of our children, in terms of health care, in terms of the elderly -- by the way, in terms of addressing the existential threat of climate change. amy: on sunday, west virginia democratic senator joe manchin insisted again he would not support biden's spending package, calling the price tag too high. his support is crucial where democrats have a razor thin majority. meanwhile, new york progressive congress member alexander because you cortez campaign -- alexandria ocasio-cortez can head for taxation on the red carpet at the metropolitan museum of art gala in new york. her white gown featured the words "tax the rich" and a prominent red letters along the back. israeli forces launched a third consecutive night of attacks on the gaza strip after rockets were fired toward israel.

the israeli military claimed it had targeted at least four hamas sites. meanwhile, al jazeera reports a hamas spokesperson said the assaults were in response to the escape last week of six palestinians from an israeli maximum security prison. two remain on the run. the biden administration has said it will withhold a portion of the military aid it gives egypt siding human rights violations. nearly $1.2 billion a military assistance will continue to flow to egypt despite serious allegations of human rights abuses against the government of dictator u.s. ally el sisi as advocates are sounding the alarm on the worsening conditions faced by egyptian activists and blogger fattah who was returned to prison in 2019, just six month after being freed

following a five-year sentence. he reportedly told chip shot immediate "my situation is horrible and i will not be able to continue like this post of me out of this prison. i will kill myself, he said. amy: back in the united states, capitol police arrested a man who parked near headquarters of the democratic national committee in washington, d.c., monday with a machete and bayonet in his pickup truck. officers charged 44-year-old donald craighead of oceanside, california, with possession of prohibited weapons. his truck was emblazoned with a swastika and other white supremacist symbols. the arrest came less than a month after capitol police arrested a north carolina man outside the library of congress who claimed to have a bomb in his truck. police are erecting a temporary fence around the capitol ahead of a far-right, pro-trump

so-called "justice for j6" rally planned for saturday. apple has released an emergency software update to fix a security flaw in its iphones and other products researchers found was being exploited by the israeli-based nso group to infect the devices with its pegasus spyware. over 1.6 5 million apple products in use around the globe are vulnerable to the spyware since at least apple said march. vulnerable devices could be hacked by receiving a malicious pdf file that users didn't even have to click, known as a "zero-click" exploit. the flaw was discovered by the university of toronto's citizen lab, which found the hack in the iphone records of a saudi political activist. earlier this year, a massive data leak revealed pegasus software had targeted the phones

of thousands of journalists, activists, and political figures around the world for foreign governments and nso group clients. and a coalition of left-leaning parties is poised to form a new government in norway after a landslide win monday that ousted a center-right coalition that has held power since 2013. labour party leader will become norway's next prime mister. his coalition includes the green party, which campaign to shut down norway's oil production within a few years. he says his government will focus on dramatic cuts to carbon dioxide emissions to help fight the climate crisis. >> we will cut 55% of our emissions. we have to really get going in the first four years. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back, islamophobia and the politics of empire.

20 years after 9/11. we speak with rutgers professor deepa kumar. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by my co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: 20 years ago today, president george w. bush visited the national cathedral in washington to remember the victims of the september 11 attacks. he vowedo "answer these attacks and rid the world of ev." the u.s. bombing and occupation afghanistan would begin less

than a month later, beginning 20 years of endless war. according to the cost of war project, the wars launched by the united states following 9/11 have killed an estimated 929,000 people in afghanistan, pakistan, iraq, syria, yemen, and elsewhere. the true death toll may never be known, but the vast majority of the victims have been muslim. today we are going to look at islamophobia, how it has driven u.s. foreign policy and its impact at home. we are joined by rutgers university professor deepa kumar. she is the author of "islamophobia and the politics of empire: twenty years after 9/11," an updated version of her book which examined how george w. bush's so-called war on terror ushered in a new era of anti-muslim racism. professor kumar, welcome back to democracy now!

i am so sorry you have to come back to deal with this issue 20 years after the 9/11 attacks. you do a deep dive to centuries of history, going back to spain. but if you could start off now in this 2010 anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by talking about what drives the islamophobia. you say this is about racism, not about religious bigotry. >> absolutely right, amy. before i get started, i want to say a huge thank you juan juan to you,, and the team at democracy now! for doing such important ethical journalism, especially in troubling times like this. so my argument basically is that it is not enough to understand islamophobia simply as hate crimes -- although, hate crimes do exist. it is not enough to understand it as just intolerance for my

progression or hate speech and someone -- although, we do know all of this exists. but to look at the roots of where it comes from. because what happens when you don't do that is people accept the rhetoric coming from people at the top of society. so bush argued, for instance, this is not a war on islam, it is about the extremists. obama, extremely sophisticated or greater, talked about how muslims are such a deep part of american society, western civilizations have contributed to world history, and so on. people accept that rhetoric and do not see how post-9/11 and even befor that there has been systematic targeting of people who are slims. let me give an example of how the security establishment works and why deep-seated racism is more -- what driveshese

policies. the look at the fbi's entrapment policy, the fbi since provocatuer's into islamic committees to entrap honorable people with things like -- what about people like giving them cash. then they nab them. what is the logic? the logic is on muslims are potential terrorists and therefore we should nab them before they do anything. you look at obama's program and it is about trying to recruit people from the mills them community commit school teachers, coaches, someone spying on their own community. the idea is there are people in the community that we should nab for they do anything. same with the ubiquitous surveillance program. there are some people who would say, that is just smart security

policy but if the shoe were on the other foot, i think there would be howls of anger. there is no correspondi program for the fbi or local police departments to go into white communities and spy on them because they can produce people like this, right? there is no program to entrap them before they do anything. if anything, the second amendment rights, far right wing groups, militias, neo-nazis a respected. that is why it is important to see racism is baked into the security logic of the national security state in the u.s. as well as how it operates abroad because if we don't understand where something is coming from, we cannot target the roots and therefore dismantle it. juan: i wanted to ask you, you go into some of the historical roots of islamophobia. most people think it is a modern

phenomena. if you could talk a little bit about going back to the earliest days of the construction of the western empire, going all the way back to spain during the first contact let's say with the new world and the wars in between the muslim world and the western world. >> absolutely. a lot of people think of islamophobia post-9/11 phenomenon, but it has a much stronger history, both in the u.s. and elsewhere. one argument this goes back to the crusades. that is not true. the modern notion of race and racism actually begins in the 1500s and beyond most of the context is this, which is that spain emerges -- spain and

portugal emerg as one of the chelating empires in the era of mercantile imperialism. keep in mind, the bulk of the middle ages, muslim empire, the chinese, the indians who are prominent on the world stage. europe is relatively back. the idea you could have some sort of inferior muslim race be even not about at the time made no sense when these people had such incredible cultural and political accomplishments. in the early modern era, the ottoman were seen as the key enemy. but by no means were they racialized as inferior because they were so powerful, right? in many quarters of europe, there were seen as europeans but nevertheless as these european nations emerged from the dark ages and turned to the oceans,

they are battling this powerful land-based empire. that is the context in which domestically as well as internationally the idea of race comes into being. there are flood purity laws that start to get used first against jews and later against muslims. this is the first of the biological notion of race, the idea that even if you convert from islam or judaism to christianity, your blood was impure. this never used to exist. earlier in the middle ages if you converted, even if you're considered an enemy, you were accepted as part of the christian community. that changed after 1492 when jews were expelled and seen as less than. but at the same -- this happens to muslims as well. there also expelled in the early 17th century. but it is a very nice and form

of racism. it is not the full-blown version we see after the enlightenment, the philosophical and intellectual movement of the 17th and injury -- 18th century. it is contradictory. there is this notion that people are impure but not a sense of inferiority. it is very contradictory. it is the roots of this notion of radical -- of this "other" muslims and other, but it does not get fully developed until the era of colonialism in the 19th century. juan: could you talk as well about the roots of islamophobia in the u.s. before 9/11, especially in the 1960's and 1970's? >> yeah.

quick history before that which is that edrd stayed talks about orientalism, which is used to enable colonialism in north africa and the middle east and india, this composite created as a figure to be dominated going to be understood and dominated. some of that language u.s. -- a colonial state based on them of anglo settlers in the u.s. some of that seeps into the u.s. as well. but interestingly, the first major muslim population to be brought to the u.s., west african enslaved people who are muslim. but they were not targeted for the religion. in fact, it has shown they were the occupied space between lack and white because they were educated. it is not until the early 20th

century that they were targeted for being muslims. to zoom ahead to the period you asked about, essentially their contradictory notions about muslims, arabs, someone all the way up until -- so on all the web to the second world war. that is when the u.s. replaces france and britain is one of the key imperial powers in north africa and the middle east, south asia, and elsewhere. that is when you start to see a process by which first arab-americans are created as terrorist threats and then iranians after the iranian revolution and then south asians. the particular moment scholars point to is that munich incident of 1972 when a south palestinian group takes israeli athletes hostage and in the context of

arrest good attempt, murdered all of them. this is a very grisly event covered by the media worldwide. what happens in the u.s., nixon actually now sees all arab-americans as responsible for that munich incident and begins program surveillance such as operation boulder, which is modeled on the modern co-intel pro. from then on, the idea this is a suspect population, that these are potential terrorists has been a week in which the security establishment function. amy: let's take it to 9/11 and i wanted to use a story that illustrates what happened right after. the remarkable story of salman hamdani. he was a pakistani new york city police cadet who died on september 11 2001 after he raised to ground zero to try to save lives at the world trade

center. even though salman was singled out by former president bush and mentioned by name in the patriot act as a hero, he was described by "the new york post" and other yellows falsely claimed he was a possible terrorist on the run. his remains were later found at ground zero. on the eve of the second anniversary of the world trade center attacks on september 11, 2003, i interviewed his mom, talat hamdani. >> three days before going to mecca. the day we were leaving, these reporters came and then the daily news and so i asked them, why are you here again? what happened?

it was a month later, october 11. instead, what brings you back to our house? they told us there was a flyer amongst the nypd with his picture on it, if anyone had seen him to come forward, they needed information. then we left for mecca. they told us, this is what the newspaper, "the post" did a very horrible heading, "missing or hiding?" it had insinuations he was seen near -- at 11:00 a.m., was seen near the midtown tunnel and was he really hiding? is he really missing? he is not missing, but hiding. he could be one of the terrorists. i have that article. amy: so what came of this comment missing or hiding, suggesting was a terrorist? what did the authorities do that and how did you feel? >> the authorities?

what authorities? who would take action? who do you think should take action against a newspaper? you tell me. amy: so that is the mother of -- talat hamdani, the mother of salman hamdani. let's use that as a way to talk about what happened after 9/11. not only the attitude to muslims in the united states, but the whole shaping of u.s. foreign policy, the attacks on afghanistan and iraq and beyond. >> well, thank you for bringing to light the story like this. it was mostly in new york city and around the area who were involved in the defense campaigns around people who just disappear, thrown into jail, not allowed to talk to a lawyer even, not allowed to speak with her family. it is so important to talk about the thousands of people who have

been detained, imprisoned, or deported to see the full force of what actually happened based on the presumptionhat you are guilty just because you are muslim. en you have to be proven innocent. the logic is called preemptive prosecution. on the international stage, essentially, what u.s. did is the war in afghanistan, which was the first sort of intervention in the war on terror, it was sold not simply as we've got to root out terrorism and get osama bin laden, but it was sold to the u.s. public as rescuing afghan women. now, there is no doubt women in afghanistan, particularly in the cities, has suffered tremendously under the taliban regime. but this was not newsworthy. a study i did with a colleague found the broadcast news media

barely dedicated a couple of dozen stories in the year before and 11. but all of a sudden, when people like laura bush, when colin powell are all talking about how the war onerror is also a war to liberate women in human rights and so forth, you start to see tremendous beauty coverage. 900 something stories and a matter of a few months. unfortunately, feminist organizations also signed on to the war on terror and colleagues of mine in winter engender studies -- women and gender studies also noticed how people gave that consent to what was going to be 20 years of a horrible situation for all people in afghanistan but also for women. we know women were not liberated in afghanistan. and the resources you mentioned earlier in the program, amy, the

trillions spent, 90% of that went to militarism and 10 million on infrastructure and nationbuilding. sure, something's approved such as education and health care, city centers, but for the vast majority of people, 70% of afghans live in the countryside and they were thrown from the frying can into the fire because the u.s. allies, the people the u.s. trained back in the 1980's to fight the soviet union, those are the people within came to power. the war on terror was sold to the american public using orientalisand racist ideas that these societies are backward. they don't value their women, so we must go in and liberate them. or in the case of iraq when no weapons of mass destruction were found, it was we should bring democracy. never mind we don't have a very good form of democracy right here in the u.s., women continue

to fight even today to hold serial rapists accountable in our court system and yet this white man's racist argument was the one that was mobilized for use intervention around the world. juan: you mentioned earlier the role of iran and its use, the use of the national security state of iran as this muslim extremist bogeyman -- obviously, iran is a very large country, over 80 million people, has for decades now resisted being controlled by the european powers. how is that used to continue foam at islamophobia? >> absolutely. i mentioned earlier how it was

the arab terrorists that would be first in the process of germinating this notion that brown people from this area are threats. but the iranian revolution, particularly the hostage crisis or personnel in the u.s. embassy were taken hostage for 444 days, that became a key turning point in the vocabulary in the u.s. and the development of the idea of an islamic threat, an islamic terrorist. and the reason was portrayed in this fashion is because the u.s.-backed dictator, the shah, was overthrown not by an islamic movement, but by a people movement. workers going on strike. women, college students, intellectuals, religious minorities -- all rebelled against the shah's iron fist, if you will.

and ultimately, ayatollah khamenei comes to power. that is the framework that is used, this is a move backed in the middle ages, these people are so backward they cannot deal with the modernized reforms of the shah for some people, therefore, a huge threat to modernization in the u.s. must see iran as his enemy and form of somterrorism. -- form of islamic terrorism. amy: let me ask you about what is happening now, the kind of reflection, if there is any, over the last 20 years and what this means for muslims in the united states and around the world. yesterday u.s. secretary of state antony blinken testified before the house foreign affairs committee defending president biden's decision to withdraw from afghanistan. but the way they put it -- he put it was, basically, we inherited a timeline from trump,

it's his fault, and we had to move forward with that. there's been a lot of criticism of the chaos the last few weeks as he was pulled out. at that seems to be replacing a reflection on what took base over this 20 years, offer an inquiry into the last few weeks. but what about the last 20 years and what this war has meant, not to mention two years later president bush bombing iraq? can you talk about what this has meant and what a different kind of analysis would lead to? >> yeah, so let me start by saying there are people within the foreign policy establishment who were drawing the conclusion that u.s. occupation of afghanistan, of iraq, has been a total disaster, right?

these have been defeats for the u.s. in iraq as well as afghanistan. so that model of establishing imperial hegemony is one that was already shelled by obama but increasingly as become a bipartisan consensus is that you can't go in and the way the u.s. did in japan or germany and remake of societies and was that fit in with the u.s. global geopolitical order. that has been drawn by certainly sections of the political elite. what is going on is a blame game. it was's's trump -- it was trump's father was no play. the question that is not being as is why did the u.s. go in and questioning whether colonialism -- this is colonialism. whether colonialism is justifiable.

all that said, the war on terror is not over and i don't think we should act like it is over. at least since the mid to thousands with obama put out his posture of the pivot to asia, there's been a desire to have less resources targeted at so-called terrorists around the world with a focus instead on china that is seen as a key threat she was interest on the global stage. an various administration's have tried to scale back but that has not been possible. but the war on terror is going to continue nevertheless. it will take a different form. there are now anywhere between 800 and 1000 military bases, u.s. military bases around the world. and on these bases, drone strikes are possible. drone strikes are not things we know about. they just happen. very often as recently happened

in afghanistan, innocent people are killed. so that is going to be a muslim power come along with special operations forces as biden and others have already admitted. unfortunately, that puts us in a situation where it is no longer going to be dramatic, therefore, covered by the media. and people will somehow think all the persecution of muslims, both domestically or internationally, has ended. you mentioned a figure from the cost of war project. i want to say of the number of dead because of the war on terror -- i want to say that studies as direct for violence. it just no include deaths due to the destruction of infrastructure. deaths that are not count in ofcial stistic as poind out really gre piecen he new yker" whichs from e point view offghan men thathey e typilly

not unted in official statisticshich iwhy seone else putit as ov one milon deat. all of that ll be paped over unfortunely ashe u.s. continueits countterrorm policies i wilend withhis, we know also between 2018-20, the u.s. haconductecountertrorism operations in countri aroundhe world rrism has becomaseful way estsh u.s. gemony and control on the global stage. i do think they're going to be more attention on china, but at the same time, the war on terror is far from over. amy: deepa kumar, thank you for being with us, scholar and activist, author of "islamophobia and the politics of empire: twenty years after 9/11." the first edition of the book

, published in 2012. professorkumar teaches media studies at rutgers university. coming up, we look at that very the fairy creek blockade where over 1000 people have been arrested. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "you got to run" by buffy sainte-marie and tanya tagaq. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. as the world faces a climate urgency, we turn now to canada, which had the hottest summer in its history this year. wildfires earned the west coast, from oregon to british columbia, where a record-breaking heat dome killed at least 800 people in a single week.

climate change policy has been a central issue in the lead-up to next week's canadian federal election. meanwhile, tension is rising between police and environmental and first nations activists who are staging a months-long anti-logging resistance. the protest has been underway for two years. it inow one canada's rgest act of cil disodience. land defende with thfairy crk ockade a callingn others tjoin them toave the reining trs, whichre hundds of yes old, wh some estited to bmore tha1000 yes old, among the oldest on the planet. >> not only is really important to protect these trees currently, but from industry coming in and invading territory where they are stealing natural resources from indigenous people, but we also need it the

old growth because they have the most water intake that they can hold actually helps climate change and prevent forest fires. we need that more than ever right now. amy: is the fairy creek blockade has grown in the past four months, canadian police have arrested nearly 1000 activists, often beating and pepper-spraying the land defenders. police are now in court pushing for greater enforcement powers of an injunction that bans blockades in the area. for more, we're going to victoria, british columbia, and we're going to kati george-jim, indigenous land offender who is been arrested numerous times. but come to democracy now! i was wondering if you could sort out -- i did not want to mispronounce your given name, by talking about your lineage and how that forms what you're doing, why you are there at the fairy creek blockade. >> good morning.

i given name is -- my matrilineal side, i come from tw stories which is located on what is now known as southern vancouver island. my patrilineal side, related to -- both -- where fairy creek locate is taking place. which is considered -- that recognition and acknowledgment as well as the practice of introducing yourself in that way because for that responsibility to the territories where your ancestors have taken care and related to those territories so that is no different today the land where

the blockade is taking place. juan: you have said this is not just an issue of saving the trees, but it is also an issue of the inherent rights of indigenous people. could you talk about that further? >> on the coast, we have a long history of asserting ourselves as coastal people where our inherent right is not only based in our relationship to our communities, but it is based on our relationship and our legal systems and with the land. and so this type of worldview and this type of framework of society is, from my perspective, what will inform the type of climate action and the necessary political action to have a

future worth protecting. so when we talk about the trees or we talk about environmentalism, often we leave out the intricacies and complexities of what it means to address that colonialism, what it means to address racism and all of the systemic and structural issues that we face as indigenous people who have been targeted since the occupation of the british crown and the canadian state in unseated, and surrendered indigenous territory. so how that relates to sovereignty or inherent rights as indigenous people is that it is not only an assertion of that right when we talk about what the decision-making process is for the people and the land, but also what we're fighting for is

the future generations and our past ancestral relationships to those places. and so our indigenous laws here are place-based. our knowledge systems and legal systems and societal and economic systems are also based within that understanding of the world. for me, it is that time is relative at this point also has to carry forth those laws and be informed by that action. amy: i want to go to the end of may when the royal canadian mounted police arrested several land defenders protesting the logging of old growth forests at the caycuse camp. one of those arrested was our guest kati george-jim, who can be heard in this video saying, "i cannot breath." >> i cannot breathe. >> get on the ground. >> i cannot read. >> let go of her right now.

>> do not touch me. >> let go of her now! you get down on the ground. you are obstructing me. i have not instructed anyone. >> we are not obstructing anyone. amy: kati george-jim, if you can describe the scene but also the entire blockade for people who are not even from there with what be the largest civil disobedience and katie in history, how is it organized? what are the community spaces? is it similar, for example, to the mass protest in north dakota in 2016, the protest against the building of dapl, the dakota access pipeline? >> i actually have not heard that clip for really long time.

that was at the beginning of enforcement on the unseated territory. that is not my drip lineage for ancestral territory -- not my direct lineage or ancestral territory, but i believe i was talking in that clip while i was being forcefully removed from indigenous land was that the rcp had no jurisdiction on stolen land was of police have no jurisdiction in industry do not have restriction on stolen land. within that we also talk about the jurisdiction of the province for the federal government and for those that are unfamiliar with in canada, canada is a constitutional monarchy where the federal government, for instance, is technically obligated to interface with what is known as indian bands and

those are still today used to segregate and oppress indigenous people within their own lands, whether it is on the reserves or within the foster care system -- which has previously been compared to the residential school system, continuation of. and so when we talk about what is happening in fairy creek, when we talk about these arrests, we cannot forget to talk about the history that has and will continue to inform these types of civil disobedience, these types of direct action that is being taken to protect the land from industries from colonial governments. we talk about what folks as settler people, but also indigenous people and black and other people of color within communities are willing to go

through to be in relationship to land. and with fairy creek, a lot of the communities, whether that is the community that is present at the blockade or indigenous communities that are surrounding the territory, it is actually quite -- it is high tension. it is a very politically strainedituation wre counities of loggers or community's of indigenous families that are stu in mutu benit agreements or revenue-aring agreemes a then we ve indigous counity meers and milies ke myself d my relatns you're als showing uat the blockas with settr pple, specifally whiteettler people have noconcept or

understanding of the complexities -- it makes it a interesting come to sathe very let, type dynamic that you enter in ghost of a community can -- juan: i want to bring in noah ross, an attorney representing many of the land defenders at very creek. welcome to democracy now! could you talk about the british columbia supreme court injunction against the protesters on vancouver island, what powers does a grant the logging company involved -- as it grant a logging company involved? >> i amonored to be on the show entity with you, kati. the injunction was granted to teal jones, prohibits blocking of logging activities within a large area, several hundred square kilometers what is now

known as southern vancouver island. it is not prohibit people from being there, just blocking the logging. there have been -- as kati has been talking about, there been hundreds or thousands of people that are trying to stop that logging from taking place. but it does not prohibit people from being there. there's been an ongoing battle waged on a variety of fronts between the rcmp who have been trying to keep land defenders out of the area to try to quell resistance. juan: what about the tactics used by the police and especially the mounties in terms of the protesters? >> it has been hugely concerning from a legal perspective. there has been -- like said,

people have the right to peacefully protest, but -- in the police of sensibly should just -- of sensibly should just be arresting people who are violating the injunction by blocking logging activities but they have gone beyond that. they have booted targeting and -- they have been targeting indigenous people, like the clip you showed, there have been many instances where people of color have been specifically targeted. also the rcmp been using exclusion zones where they block access on a logging road to sometimes hundreds of kilometers. people who need to -- the high karen or face arrest for ting to walk through. there has been a lot of violence used against people -- nonviolently attaching

themselves to the road were tripods or slipping -- john amy: we have to leave it there but we will continue to cover this, noah ross, attorney representing land defenders at fairy creek. ■@ñ@ñ@ñ

♪ hello and welcome back to "nhk newsline." i'm takao minori in new york. many afghans are hungry, looking for something, anything to eat. then last month they saw taliban forces sweep across afghanistan. now millions fear they'll run out of the little they have left and e