10/25/21 10/25/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> this is a historic piece of legislation that marked the end of neoliberalism that has governed america for the last four decades. it is a major investment in the american people. amy: democrats are facing a little week that could decide the president finds domestic agenda. he will talk about the intense

negotiations about the build back better plan with congress member ro khanna. as imprison wiki leaks founder julian assange prepares for an extra during hearing this week, we will air highlights from the people's tribunal calling for his release. >> they have been persecuted, especially to liberals, democrats, tories, social democrats. the crimes against community perpetrated by our own elect leaders in our nameehind our backs. this is why they are now killing julian assange. amy: we will hear yanis varoufakis, former british labour leader jeremy corbyn, nsa whistleblower edward snowden, and others. >> what has happened to julian assange is a crime and you must be freed.

amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in sudan, the military says it has placed prime minister abdalla hamdok under house arrest in an undisclosed location and detained most of his cabinet members in what the information ministry is calling a coup. sudan's military ruler has declared a national state of emergency and said he had dissolved a joint military-civilian governing council meant to transition sudan to civilian rule. he said a new government would lead sudan until like 2023. this comes after a failed coup attempt last month and two years after a popular uprising and military takeover ousted long-time president omar al-bashir. the internet went down across most of sudan as tens of thousands of protesters took to

the streets, blocking roads in khartoum, and facing gunfire near sudan's military's headquarters. >> an urgent call to all civilians who want to protect the revolution. what the military is doing is a betrayal to civilians on all fronts. it is the duty of all civilians to block the roads outside to prevent any military force to move. right now all of us must unite to show the truth. it is to be or not to be and we will. amy: a trove of internal documents turned over to federal regulators by the facebook some lower is continuing to shed new light on the social media giants role in spreading misinformation and polarizing ctent. a consortium of 17 news outlets examining the so-called "facebook papers" have revealed how facebook fueled hate speech and violence in india and helped

to foment the january 6 insurrection at the u.s. capitol. the documents reveal that most of facebook's efforts to combat online hate are focused on the united states, with little investment in safety protocols for the rest of the world. is the overwhelming number of its audience. one test account set up by facebook managers to represent an average young adult user in india quickly became flooded with hindu nationalist propaganda, anti-muslim hate speech, and incitements to violence. thank facebook staffer monitoring the account said "i have seen more images of dead people in the past three weeks than i have seen in my entire life total." another trove of documents reveals internal anger and regret at facebook over the company's role in spreading the qanon conspiracy theory and so-called "stop the steal" pages that helped fuel the violence at the u.s. capitol on january 6. today facebook whistleblower

testifies to lawmakers in the u.k. as they consider an online safety bill. two planners of the pro-trump rallies that preceded the u.s. capitol insurrection have named multiple members of congress who they say were intimately involved in planning both trump's efforts to overturn his election loss and the events that turned violent january 6. that is according to "rolling stone" which names the representatives as lauren boebert, mo brooks, madison cawthorn, andy biggs, louie gohmert, paul gosar, and marjorie taylor greene. trump's white house chief of staff mark meadows also reportedly played a major role in helping to plan the protests. congressmember gosar reportedly went as far as to promise a blanket pardon from the white house to encourage the rally planners to proceed with their so-called "stop the steal" rallies.

benny gantz outlawed six human rights groups, branding them terrorist organizations, in the latest attack on palestinian rights. the groups are al-haq, addameer, defense for children international, the bisan center for research and devopment, the union of palestinian women's committees, and the union of agricultural work committees. the move allows israel to raid and close the groups' offices, arrest and imprison their staff, and ban their funding. this is shawan jabarin, director-general of al-haq. >> and occupation that can do anything. occupation that kills children, destroys property and homes, that can raid and close offices yet the question is, how will we deal with this decision? we will continue to work and deliver our message using all means. amy: in other news from the region, israel said it will build 1300 more units for

settlements in the occupied west bank. the settlements are illegal under international law. in turkey, president recep tayyip erdogan ordered the expulsion of 10 foreign ambassadors in a sign of escalating tensions with western powers. >> you cannot dare to come to the turkish foreign ministry and give orders here. i get the necessary order to our foreign minister and said, what must be done? these 10 abbasids must be determined persona non grata at once. amy: seven of the ambassadors are from nato allies. the move came after diplomats from the u.s., canada, germany, france, the netherlands, denmark, sweden, finland, norway, and new zealand issued a joint statement urging the release of jailed businessman and civil society leader osman kavala, who has been detained in pre-trial since 2017 on charges related to the 2013 gezi park

protests and a 2016 coup attempt. the united nations is warning of possible mass atrocity crimes in burma amid reports that tens of thousands of troops are massing into relatively restive regions in the north and northwest. the n. specialapporteur r the gion said e military government likely engaged in crimes against humanity and war crimes. accoing to a local monitoring group, nearly 12 civilians have been killed and over 7000 arrested since protests erupted following february's military coup. in libya, thousands of refugees have been camping outside a u.n. office in tripoli calling for the organization to evacuate them, followingassive rai d the arrests of some 5000 grants over the past month. refugees are being indefinitely detained in overcrowded libyan prison camps, plagued with accusations of human rights violations, including torture. barbados has elected its first-ever president, who will replace the u.k.'s queen elizabeth as head of state.

sandra mason, barbados's governor general, received a two-thirds majority vote in parliament last week. she will be sworn in on november 30, the 55th anniversary of barbados' independence from britain. in mexico, some 3000 asylum seekers, mostly from haiti and central america, who've been trapped in the southern mexican city of tapaculo, organized a caravan over the weekend and started trekking north. many hoping to reach the u.s. for refuge. the mexican national guard tried to block them but some shouted "libertad!" or freedom! asylum seekers who fled extreme poverty, violence, and the impacts of the climate crisis in the home countries have been protesting and lack of aid from a major delays in their asylum claims, restrictions on their movement, and human rights abuses. indigenous advocates fighting to protect oak flat, a site in eastern arizona sacred to the

san carlos apache nation and other native communities, argued their case against a proposed copper mine in front of the 9th -- in front of a court friday. being led by apache stronghold. native communities have long warned the massive copper mine would destroy oak flat, depriving them of their religious and other freedoms. this is wendsler nosie sr., founder of apache stronghold and former chairman of the san carlos apache nation. >> we heard loud and clear in indian country that anything a federal land is not safe most of nothing is holy and nothing sacred to them will stop that was clearly spoken. the emotion that runs through us is the fact it answers the question that we are still prisoners of war in this country. amy: the copper mine is being overseen by the multinational corporation resolution copper. a joint venture of multinational mining corporations bhp and rio tinto. the supreme court on friday refused once again to block

texas' near-total abortion ban. the court did agree to expedite their review of appeals to the nation's most restrictive anti-choice law, with arguments scheduled for november 1. justices will focus on whether the federal government is able to challenge the enforcement mechanism of the law, which deputizes private entities to sue anyone who either performs or "aids and abets" an abortion. neera tanden has been appointed as white house staff secretary, where she will oversee which documents make it to president biden's desk. tanden was forced to withdraw her nomination to head the office of management and budget in march over lack of congressional support after coming under fire from both the right and progressives. and more information has emerged about last week's deadly shooting of cinematographer halyna hutchins on the new mexico set of the western "rust." crew members say they made multiple complaints about safety on set, with two accidental

discharges from prop guns occurring before the fatal shooting of hutchins by alec baldwin, who was falsely told the prop gun was a "cold," meaning unloaded, before he started rehearsing the scene. "corners were being cut," one person told "the los angeles times." the day of the shooting, all but two members of the camera crew reportedly walked off the job to protest working conditions. the departed crew members, who belonged to the international alliance of theatrical stage employees, were replaced by non-union workers. over the weekend, film workers in albuquerque held a vigil for halyna hutchins. >> there are so many protocols when you're on set. it almost becomes a ceremony every time that you're handed a gun to use. obviously, something failed. i don't know what failed, but the fact this happened showed in elemt of that safety call --

protocol did not work. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. coming up, we speak to congressmember ro khanna about the intense negotiations about president biden's build back better plan. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "don't let me down" by the beatles. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. after months of negotiations, mocrats are facing a pivotal week that could decide the future president biden's domestic agenda. biden met with west virginia senator and chuck schumer sunday in an attempt to advance the stalled reconciliation package that manchin and fellow conservative democrat kyrsten sinema have been obstructing. the proposed price tag on the build back better act, which would vastly expand the social safety net and combat the climate crisis, has already been

slashed in half to $1.75 trillion, though the final cost is still being negotiated. manchin reportedly aeed to some proposals on new taxes for corporations and billionaires, though no deal was announced following the meeting. house speaker nancy pelosi said on cnn sunday democrats are close to finalizing the measure and the house is expected to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill later this week. >> with 90% of the bill agreed to and written, we just have some of the last decisions to be made. it is less then was projected to begin with, but bigger than anything we have ever done in terms of addressing the needs of america's working families. amy: progressive democrats have worked to defend key provisions in biden's infrastructure package, like guaranteed paid family leave, which will reportedly be dropped from the

proposal -- or cut from 12 weeks to just four weeks. on saturday, senator bernie sanders pushed back on reporting about cuts to an expansion of medicare benefits, tweeting -- "the expansion of medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision is supported by 84% of the public and is one of the most important provisions in build back better. it's what the american people want and, after waiting over 50 years, what they are going to get." sanders added, "it's not coming out." for more on what could be final negotiations, we are joined in washington, d.c., by congressmember ro khanna. congressmember, welcome back to democracy now! it is a lot of numbers being thrown around, but let's talk about the specific measures most upper example, the last one. adding the vision, hearing and dental care to medicare. explain what is being proposed

and what are the cuts here. >> senator sanders is absolutely right. this is the most popular part of the build back better agenda -- not an opinion, a fact if you look at the polling -- and it is not coming out. we will push very hard to make sure it stays in. it is quite clear what it is. seniors right now have to pay thousands of dollars to get dental care. they can't afford to get hearing aids and then comes out of pocket. they can't afford often the vision, eyeglasses, or tngs they need to take care of their eyes. none of that is covered. under senator sanders' plan, it would. details are being negotiated but i know this is a top priority for the senator and a top priority for house progressives. amy: let's talk about paid family leave. right now, not guaranteed at

all. the proposal was for 12 weeks. it apparently has been cut to four weeks but could be nothing. who is arguing that a person who gives birth should be back at work within a few weeks if not the next day? >> obviously, someone who doesn't know anyone who has given birth. it is absurd. as you know, the family medical leave act allows six weeks. that is unpaid, but even that act, which passed in the clinton years, allows for six weeks. you would think at minimum we would cover six weeks. this is an area where progressives are pushing hard and we are saying do the 12 weeks, do whatever he other wealthy democracy and wealthy nation does. if you want a compromise in the number of years of the program, fine. but have a proper precedent and what should be paid parental

leave, paid family leave. amy: i know you will be holding progression on her exposed's has he wants these signed on -- holding congressional hearings and biden was these signed off. >> we need to do this in my view before the president goes to glascow to give him something to show american leadership but if we are going to remove the climate energy program that is the robust program of mandates and ientives, to get us to 50% reduction by 2030, if we are going to remove that, we have to have an alternative to hit the presidents goal, that is -- several ideas have proposed. penalties for industrial polluters.

we have to look at what the package is. i know the progressive caucus has made it very, very clear, jared huffman in pticular ha been a great leader, saying we have to have the presidents 50%. amy: talk about how these negotiations are going. you have senator manchin criticizing sanders vision of americans and entitlement society, but in fact this is really an ideological difference? the west virginia senator making a fortune himself founding coal companies in the 1980's, his money and a blind trust and his brother and sons involved. is this purely about his own enrichment that he is objecting to renewable energy, for example? >> i went say it is a

philosophical debate. i look at my own life and what did america give me? i got to go to good public school, never had to worry about health care because my father had a middle-class job that had health care. i got to see i because my digital insurance. i had a nutritious meal. i have access ultimately to great education and was able to take out loans for that. i paid them off but i was fortunate. my question i guess to people is, it doesn't seem that is asking a lot. i don't think i am a product of entitlement society. i think i had basic education, health, and nutrition that allowed me into work and make a contribution. all build back better this thing is the opportunity is i had were so many in america have had should be available to all.

that is a philosophical debate we are still having. we are close to getting it done but we need to continue to make the case that investments in education and health care support productivity and are not creating some welfare state as has been characterized. amy: what is going to happen this week? the progressive caucus, the largest congressional caucus, has said they will not support passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill -- though not against the bill -- unless at the same time the reconciliation bill is voted on. do you see that happening this week? enormous pressure on the caucus. yet they are putting the most pressure on keeping as much of the build back better plan as possible. >> we will not vote for the bipartisan bill which has almost zero provisions unless there is

an agreed-upon deal on the reconciliation bill. there has to be sufficient specifically. there has to be sufficient understanding that is robust on climate that senator sanders and provisions he has been fighting for are in there. and i suppose of all 50 senators, including senator sanders and senator warren, are convinced it will pass and i said they will vote for it, of course that will influence the progressive view and the progressives may say, ok, give a deal. it is important to note it is not just manchin and sinema. there will have to be the sign up of senator sanders, warren, and other progressives in the senate. amy: can you talk about the hearing you're going to hold, the ceos of six major fossil fuel companies and trade

associations testifying this month, including exxon mobil, bp, chevron, shell oil, american petroleum? what do you want to know from them about their role in's writing climate disinformation and what you think will be accomplished by your hearing? >> it is a historic hearing, the first on these oil executives have had to come before congress to answer for climate disinformation. the hearing is quite simple. first, why did you like to the american people and why you continue to be deceptive about talking about all the challenges that climate change brings, the climate crisis brings i not taking action to address it? we want to first expose it, expose a story of past misrepresentation and credit ongoing deception. that we need a commitment from them to stop all the

misinformation because you cannot solve the crisis if you're going have lobbyists and public relations firms and think tanks systematically putting out misinformation about climate. amy: you have reserved most of your animus on that sinema manchin blockade of this bill for senator sinema of arizona. can you talk about your concerns about her and y your most critical? >> i would not say it is animu it is more bewilderment. i guess my concern is the lack of transparency. i disagree on a lot of things with senator manchin, that people have had a sense of ere he stands e new work and negotiate. senator sinema does not ever do public interviews, does not talk to colleagues, does not talk to

constituents, so is operating in the sense where she just talks tohe white house and that has created a ack box on what she wants, which has made it very, very difficult for the process to take plac and that is why i ha had sort of the most frustration and criticism of her. it is not personal, it is just why she not be more transparent? amy: let's talk about how the bill was going to be funded and the issue of increasing taxes on corporations and billionaires and millionaires and those of the wealthiest classes in this country. you have 55 corporations at least paying zero taxes. what are you demanding and what is senator sinema, who in the past has supported increasing taxes, now done 180 on? >> in the past she voted against

the trump tax cuts. the build back betr does not even raise the tax rates back to where th were prior to the trump tax cuts, they would marginally raise the corporate tax rates and thos on the wealthy. but i understand senator warren is prevailing on this idea of a wealth tax, which i support. if we'reoing toave a wealth tax on the billionaires, that is a good first step. i understand she is also managing to prevail on the view that every corporation should pay tax. it sounds silly to even say it, but right now you have over 50 companies that pay zero tax. and i support that. if we can get these provisions of the wealth tax, frankly, even more progressive in my view than raising up her tax rate, and incorporate minimum tax -- and if that gets to the revenue we need to the revenue we need, i am open to that approach.

we still need to raise the corporate tax rates and raise the tax rates on the wealthy, so maybe we could do that in a subsequent bill. it is bewildering to me why senator sinema is opposed to that. i am for these other alternatives being floated. amy: you represent silicon valley and i want to ask about the social media giant facebook, consortium of 17 news outlets is examining the so-called facebook papers come a trove of internal documents turned over to federal regulators by facebook whistleblower that are setting on the role of facebook in spreading misinformation and polarizing content also the documents reveal most of facebook's efforts to combine -- combat online hate are focused on the u.s. night percent in something like 90% of the resources are spent on u.s. when 90% of their audience is outside of the united states. as we reported in the headlines,

one test account set up by facebook managers to represent an average and adult user in india quickly became flooded with anti-muslim hate speech, hindu nationalist propaganda come incitement of violence, facebook staffers says "i've seen more images of dead people in the past three weeks than my entire life total." you not only represent silicon valley, or in indian-american. can you talk about the significance of this and what you're demanding of your own town multinational corporation." >> i appreciate the view. i'm not just in indian-american but as you may remember, my grandfather's for years in jail as part of gandhi's independence . i am in indian-american who believes pluralism is key to democracies and key to india's best traditions. it is deeply concerning. so much a look at the report that muslim advocates put out,

complicit that talks about how some of the social media was captured in places like india, inlaces like myanmar, to have incitement of violence against minorities or people from the government actually captured the regulatory processes at the social mediaompanies. obviously, facebook needs to take remedial action and acknowledge what was wrong, but i think you need legal remedies. i have proposed the alien torts act should be extended to allow people outside the united states to sue in the united states courts when there is speech that incites violence and mass human rights violations, they should be some recourse because right now their only recourse is to the company itself and the company itself in the overseas market is often captured by bad

interest. where international courts. i'm sorry for going too long. i feel very passionate about this issue. there needs to be accountability and legal reform. amy: thank you for being with us, congress member ro khaa, representing silicon valley in california. coming up imprisoned founder of , wikileaks julian assange prepares for an extradition hearing. we will hear from a tribunal calling for his release. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!

i'm amy goodman. the imprisoned founder of wikileaks, julian assange, will be back in a london court for an extradition hearing on wednesday. in january, a british judge blocked assange's extradition to the u.s., but the u.s. and killed the decision. he faces up to 175 years in prison in the u.s. under the espionage act for publishing classified documents exposing u.s. war crimes. assange has been jailed for 2.5 years and prior to that, spent over years in the ecuadorian seven embassy. on friday, the progressive international sponsored a gathering of the belmarsh tribunal, which is named after the prison where assange is is being held in london. the people's tribunal is modeled on the russell war crimes tribunal, which was formed in 1966 by bertrand russell and jean-paul sartre and others to investigate the u.s. war in vietnam. we will spend the rest of the hour. excerpts. we begin with the british writer and activist tariq ali who served on the russell war crimes tribunal in the 1960's. >> julian basically exposed the

so-called war on terror which began after 9/11 and has lasted 20 years, has led to six wars, millions killed, trillions wasted. that is the only balance sheet of that war. nowhere has it redeemed itself or done any good. as we've seen most recently in afghanistan. so what do you say people like chelsea manning and julian, who was the principal target of legal and judicial brutality taking place, when they reveal stuff ich eveone knows is true -- since some of it is on video? amicansanting iraqi families due to -- totally innoct, laughing about it, and recorded

killing them. that is a big joke. well, it isn't a big joke for the millions who have diein the arab world sin these 20 years were begin. and julian, far from being indicted, should actuay be a hero. he is not the first. and if th think that punishing him in this this vindictive and a punitive way isoing to change people's attitudes to coming up and telling the truth, they are wrong. julian is unfortunate to be captured by this particular state and its different apparatuses in order to appease the united states of america. he should never have been kept in prison. he should not be increasing now awaiting a cry for extradition. he should be released. he acts like e belmarsh tribunal help to bring that.

>> thank you. thank you for mentioning what brings us to our next member of the belmarsh tribunal, which is selay ghaffar come the spokesperson for the solidarity party of afghanistan. >> congress and friends, i am honored to join you othis historical tribunal. all afghans, particularly the families of the war victims, expect the belmarsh tribunal to hold the united states accountable for the thousands of innocent afghans lives they destroyed in the future they stole. i salute the progressive international initiative. in the wake of the withdrawal from afghanistan, everybody asks this question -- how to the two

decades of the u.s. military occupation of afghanistan and fighting terrorism and with the taliban terrorists getting an easy victory in afghanistan? well, in my opinion, only one by the name julian had to answer to this ministry. -- mystery. in 2011, he unmasked the truth through set of documents where he exposed the u.s. policy in afghanistan and said one of the walls was to [indiscernle] to afghanistan and back and at the hands transnational security elite. two decades of u.s. occupation brought us nothing but ruin and loss of life. and while the mainstream media tried to portray a rosy picture

of afghanistan, the leak spy assange revealed bloody [indiscernible] locals reported after 300 civilians had been killed in this rate, none of the media reported that incident. accordg to reliable sources, about 241,000 afghans have been killed by crossfire of whom a thousand civilians have been killed by u.s. occupation forces and a number of -- in a number of non-incidents. my belief, the real number is much, much higher as many incidents are not supported and

not documend. well, u.s. occupation has also inflicted invisible wounds. in 2009, the former afghan minister of public health reported that two thirds of afghans suffer from mental health problems. the war has exacerbated the effects of poverty, malnutrition , lack of access to health care. therefore, u.s. and allies are accountable for all the past 20 years misery of our tormented people, particularly -- thank you a giving me the opportunity. i hope julian assange will be free soon.

>> we're back to church house, the heart of westminster. i'm glad i can present the next member of the belmarsh tribunal, a member of the u.k. parliament, jeremy corbyn. >> julian assange has paid a very, very, very high price for his lifelong determination to expose the truth. why? is it because he has some idea that he can make himself famous by exposing the truth or is it something much stronger and much re moral than that, the belief that by exposing the truth, can save lives, stop wars, and you can make sure that democracies function properly by holding all public officials, elected or unelected, to public account? and that is why the role of julian assange in all of this is

so important. his information expos the dishonesty surunding the aims on iraq. it expose the dishonesty of the continuing reporting of iraq after 2003 with hidden information about numbe of people that died from friendly fire in iraq, but also the dangers to all journalists who everyone believes in free speech of theoncept of the embedded journalis, eedded on an aircraft carrier, said to a barracks, or whatever else to produce reports that are to the liking of th military will step so those of us who want to live in a peaceful world are here because we want to support julian assange and the bravery

he has shown in the price that he has already paid for that bravery of ensuring the whole world knows the trut about it. >> our nest speaker is the former finance minister of greece, currently a member of the greek parlienand cofounder of the movement yanis varoufakis. >>ell befo we ever knew about wikileaks, head an idea. the idea of using big broth techlogy to create a large digital kind of mere turn to the face of big brother. to be able watch him watching as. like turning the mirror to the face of the user. wikileaks is based on that idea. i remember spending a very long night with julian in the ecuadorian embassy wn he called upon me to helpim decipher and transcribe a conversation between oicials of international monetary fund.

having spent in the previous year a very long time negotiating with him, listening to them the tape at julian had pruredhrough wikilks, through this blind digital passbooks, was suc splendid experience. was so lirating because i could suddenly hear with my own ears t very sa officials agreeing with everything that the people of greece were saying, that we were saying, that i have en saying. of course, wikileaks has done far more important work that the international monetary fund u they were committing crime agait the gree people in other peoples in latin arica and so on. wikileaks and julian as we know have been persecuted f vealing tohe world, especially to liberals, democrats, tories, social democrats, revealing to them the

crimes against humanity perpetrated by our own elected leaders in our name behind our backs. this is why they're now killing julian assange. sour message as the belmarsh tribun must not st be a suort for julian or a call t have him released, no. we are a tribunal. we are trying the criminals that are killing julian as we spk r crimes against humanity -- not just forhe crime oslowly murdering julian assange. you are criminals and we are going to proceed to the end of the earth and back. for the crimes were committing all over th world againstumidity ile also murdering slowly julian assange and other whistleblowers who are revealing your crimes. >> the next one who will stify is pulzer winning journalist, soone who spent more than two

decades at "the guardian." this is ewen macaskill. the whistleblower i owe much to is edward snowden. i went to hong kong in 2013 with more portraits and glenn greenwald and first of all, -- essential to good journalism. get behind the walls of secrecy of officials. the whistleblowers revealed abuses and wrongdoings that governments, companies, military, intelligence agencies -- these whistleblower's should be rewardefor their courage.

instead, too often, they are facing prosecution or jail. there has been a war waged against journalism and free-speech that is been going on since at least and 11. -- at least since 9/11. it is essential to national security and intelligence agencies. the intelligence agencies are waging it to try to persuade future leaders within the agencies and trying to sway the journalists covering the national security beat. this is -- what assange has been accused of is fundamentally no different from the normal interaction between whistleblowers and journalists on the national security beat. there's no fundamental difference betweenhat julian

assange was doing and what i was doing. when i was in hong kong with snowden, i spent a week wi them discussing the ins and outs of his work in the national security agency. i spent a week going through ns of thousands of secret documents. he passed me a memory stick with tens of thousands of secret documents on it. i mean, how is that by the milley different from the relationship between the whistleblower chelsea manning and publisher julian assange? if julian is to be prosecuted, equally for the guardian, the new york times, spiegel, propublica, other organizations involved in this coverage being prosecuted, too?

obama, in spite of his liberal background, failed to stand up to pressure from the intelligence agencies. he usedhe espionage act, and other laws against whistleblowers and journalists -- in fact, obama iresponsibl for more prosecutions and action against jonalistand whistleblowers than all the other presidents in the u.s. combined. >> our next member is the part of julian assange and member of his defense team stella moris. thank you for being here today with us. >> thank you. we are meeting five days before julian's -- before the u.s. appeal at the high court here in london. julian won the case on january 4

and the trump admintration two days before leaving office lodged the appeal. julian's bail application was reviewed so he has been in belmarsh prison for over 2.5 years. in the last few weeks, the mask has fallen in relation to the case against julian. it has fallen because there was any article -- well, it has been progressively falling over the years. there is no case, as others have said. this is just naked political persecution. but there was an article published by yahoo! news just a few weeksgo, 7500 word investigation, over 30 sources named and unnamed, high-level sources from current and past u.s. administrations -- from the national security council from the cia. and that story revealed that the

extrajudicial assassination of julian in london was discussed at the highest levels of u.s. government, that the seventh floor at the cia and langley -- which is the director's office -- requested sketches and options for how to kill julian inside the embassy of ecuador they talked about kidnapping him, too. about rendition. extraordinary rendition, which is what the cia developed to kidnapeople d take them across jurisdictions to disappear them and then put them in a black site somewhere. the embassy was essentially a black site toward the end. i felt anything could happen there. julian's lawyers were targeted by name, not just incidentally spied on. emails telling the security company to target gareth pierce,

martinez, julian's legal team, and the documents were stolen. and baltazar goes on's office was broken into just as the cia was plenty to murder julian. our six month old baby nappy was instructed to be stolen so they could determine if julian was the father. this is flagrant for minnelli. iminals who have instrumentalized the laws, instrumentalized the extradition arrangements with this country and the good relationships with this country to politically persecute an innocentan, journalist doing his job. >> thank you so much. now the moment has come to greet a great guest, member of the tribunal who is joining us come

alive from moscow, this is edward snowden. i'm sure we don't need more introduction of who he is. i think everyone knows who he is and i am thankful for ed for joininus and paising your voe at the belmarsh tribunal. >> it is a pleasure to be with you. it is difficult to be her. i struggle to understand how we can be he after so many years. there been so many stories told, so much criticism, so much deception. where has it broug us? has this been constructed? is this a victory for us for the state, for humidity, for our rights? when i came rward in 2013, i said the reason i came forward was we have a right to know that which is done to us and that which is done in our name by our

government. that was already underhreat. when you look at the world since, it seems that trend is accelerating. do we still have that right? do we have any rights if we don't defend them? today we see someone who stood up to defend that right, was aggressively championing that right and at an extreme cost. it is time for us to defend his rights. what we are witnessing is is a murder that passes without comment. and i want to state it is difficult for me to comprehend, i suspect that press of the nation in the developed world, aiding and abetting with full knowledga crime not only against this man, but against our public interest.

however, at this moment, we all see this, we all feel this. it is no less familiar than the shoes on my feet. evywhere we lo from afghanistan to economics from pandemic to surveillance, the obvious has been made unspeakable. it has become unspeakable because the truth of our circumstances could be taken as evidence in the defense of the actions of the outer favor. in the eyes of the american ste, few reprent this class of greater object of hatred in thperson of julian assange. he has been charged as a political criminal of mething that i understand quite wel he is been charged with the purest sort of puic -- for having committed the transgression of choosing the wrong side.

the charges, which are absolutely unadorned legal fiction, we are told to believe th state has these powers over whatan be said and what can't be said. things that cannick cannot be set. but what happens, we permit that. where does that leave? if even our power to express ourselves, to understand the facts of our world can be fenced off from us, looking beyond that veil at what could be the facts of the world but we are not permitted to acquire them? julian assange did not accept that and the charges against him re reduced to an allegation of to cmit a crime of journalism in the first degree, whh is to say when we look at it applied

elsewhere, the same sort of publication -- we see in "the new yorkimes" or "the washington post" aggravated by conspiracy to accomplish the same, which is simply uncovering [indiscernible] but something distinguishes julian assange from the greatest newspapers of our day, and that is his independence. julian assange is not a person who will be told no. i rember in 13 when i came forward with evidence of mass surveillance, which the government of my country i construcd the apparatus of mass surveillance that expand the globeomes with the participation of australia, new zealand,anada, d of course the united kingdom, and when the newspapers of all of these countrie and publishing these

things, one of the papers who held the archived material originally included of what the guardian -- included the guardian, headquartered in united kingdom. i remember reading a story -- i'm getting the secondhand knows what we can rely on the state of journalism as it is today -- but they were approached by the british state who said, ok, ok, you had were fine and you've done enough, now it is time to stop. and they had to send th archival material to the united states to partner publicion cause they no longer believed they wer safe to continue publishing. and they were right. agents of the brith right nt to "the guardian" and destroyed the computers. they have it on film, trying to raise any trace -- erase any

trace the stories had been written to the confines [indiscernible] now julianas not deterred by that you ner would be. when you perform the lel of surveillance against a person that has clearly been performed and is being performed, even today certainly in prison, against julian assange, you understand at least something about their character. you understand their breaking point. you know what it will take to make them bend. and he did not bend. he will break before he does. he has consistently and coinuously dar to speak the unspeakable in t face of opposition, in the face of power and that ishere -- a remarkable and rare thing. that is the reason that julian assange is in prison today. if you love the truth, as i

ink everyone here does -- she wod not be listening to this or watching or participating in this, would not care about this unless something can you told you something important was happening here, and if you do care, as i think you do, you are -- se category of julian assange. in the eyes of the state, what divides you is only a degree. we share the sam guilt. each of us share the crime. we are unindicted co-conspirators in his quest to raise a lantern in the halls of power. amy: nsa whistleblower edward snowden speaking friday from moscow at the belmarsh tribunal in london, name for the excellency could he prison where julian assange is being held.

the tribunal organized by progressive international. we will link to the full event at democracynow.org. an that does it for our show. democracy çgççococ

hello there and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in new york. residents of sudan had hoped their interim government could lead them out of years of hardship away from war and famine. but generals have seized power in a coup. then their soldiers opened fire on protesters. they killed at least three seven people and wounded 140 others. sudanese suffered fo