amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> the ipcc report in august was a wake-up call for all of us. it made clear that the lights are flashing red on the climate dashboard. amy: the u.n. climate summit has oh and in glasgow, scotland. it's being called the last hope to tackle the climate emergency.

>> i want to see enough of the action. amy: we will speak to leading climate activists in england and scotland a look at how this year's climate summit may be the whitest and most privileged one ever with thousands from the global south unable to attend because of lack of access to covid vaccines and these issues. we will go to mozambique to speak to a long time climate campaigner who had to stay home plus we will look at the shocking future. torture of a former u.s. resident and cia black sites. military jurors who heard him testify at guantanamo say his treatment as a stain on the moral fiber of america. -- is a stain on the moral fiber of america.

welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. world leaders and activists have arrived in glasgow scotland for the critical united nations summit aimed at averting the most catastrophic effects of the climate emergency. a recent u.n. emissions cap report showed current contributions and commitments by nations to reduce emissions are not nearly enough to avert a planetary disaster. this is u.n. secretary general antonio guterres. >> there is a serious risk that glasgow will not deliver. several recent climate announcements might leave the impression of a rosier picture and unfortunately this is an allusion. -- illusion. the current -- is still condemned the world to a two

point seven degree increase. there are serious questions of credibility. we see dangerous levels of mistrust among the big powers. among members of the g20. between developed and developing countries. amy: some 30,000 people are expected to take part in the two week summit which was postponed for a year due to the pandemic. climate activists have been gathering in glasgow to push world leaders to take more drastic action like ending government subsidies for also feels and divesting from coal, oil and gas.

finance -- is in -- with t oil industry. -- studies indicate the deal will in effect high income countries including the u.s. the most. on the climate front, g20 members agreed to work towards ending coal financing overseas and pledge to pursue efforts to keep the global temperature rise to one .5 degrees celsius above preindustrial levels as per the paris agreent but made no firm commitments to that end. activists held protests

throughout the weekend. >> we are holding a demonstration on environmental and social issues and against the g20 which continues undaunted and a path that has almost led us to social and ecological failure. amy: g20 members also backed an extension have debt release and pledged to vaccinate 70% of the global population against covid by next year. g20 countries have received more vaccine doses than sub-saharan african nations. over 5 million people around the world have died of covid-19. this according to a tally of reported deaths cap by johns hopkins university. though some estimates puthe actual death toll at more than twice that number. a staggering milestone comes

roughly 20 months after the who declared covid-19 a pandemic and amidst persistent global vaccine in equity and a hugely uneven recovery. here in the knighted states, the fda granted a emergency use authorization for pfizer's coronavirus vaccine in children five to 11. the centers for disease control is expected to swiftly sign off on the move, making the shots available for some 28 million children as early as this week. the u.s. supreme court on friday rejected a religious objection to maine's vaccine mandate. a federal appeals court in new york ruled the state could move ahead with its vaccine mandate for health workers. over 26,000 new york city government workers including firefighters, police officers and sanitation workers missed the deadline to get vaccinated and are facing unpaid leave starting today.

over 2000 firefighters have taken medical leave in the past week as the vaccine deadline approached. the white house press secretary tested positive for the coronavirus five days after her last in person meeting with president biden. she says they met outside, masked and distanced. she is reporting only mild symptoms. in immigration news, the biden administration issued a new memo in an attempt to end the trump-era migrant protection protols, also known as "remain in mexico", which forces asylum seekers to wait in mexico while their cases make their way through us courts. after taking office, biden rescinded the program, but a court ruling revived the policy in august. in related news, a caravan of mostly central american and caribbean asylum seekers traveling from southern mexico to the northern border, had to take a brief pause on their journey as a number of travelers, including young children, face health problems and exhaustion from the arduous journey.

this is a cuban migrant. >> the health of the migrants is terrible. people have fever sores on their feet and we areeceiving medical attention. many pregnant women have miscarried on the way and have received medical assistance. amy: mexican authorities have attempted to negotiate with members of the caravan, but many turned down so-called "humanitarian" visas in exchange for ending their trek, saying they didn't trust the offer due to past mistreatment. in other news from mexico, a gunman shot and killed journalist fredy lopez arevalo at his home in the southern state of chiapas. the longtime reporter worked for a number of outlets, covering politics in central america, and the zapatista uprising in chiapas, among other things. he is at least the ninth journalist to be murdered this year in mexico. in yemen, at least 10 people were killed and over two dozen injured sunday, including

children, after houthi rebels fired ballistic missiles into a religious school and mosque in the central province of marib. the attack came one day after a powerful explosion tore through the gate to aden's international airport, killing at least 12 people and wounding many others. witnesses said the source of the blast was a small truck carrying fuel; it's not known if the explosion was intentional. >> the explosion occurred after the mother grab prayer -- maghreb prayer. they killed children and women and terrified passersby. amy: the latest violence comes as the united nations warns yemen faces the world's worst humanitarian disaster, with more than 20 million yemenis, or two-thirds of the population, in need of humanitarian assistance.

in sudan, protesters continue to take to the streets calling for a reversal of last monday's coup, which saw prime minister abdalla hamdok deposed and arrested; s cabinefired; and a joint cilian-milary council dissolved. on saturday, sudanese soldiers shot and killed threprotesters in the city of omdurman. hundreds of thousands marched in the capital khartoum, and more massive rallies were held in cities throughout sudan. in uganda, a bomb attack has killed two children. the explosive was reportedly shaped like a jackfruit, and was given to the children while they were playing. it's the third bomb attack targeting civilians in uganda within the past week. the islamic state claimed responsibility for at least one attack in kampala last weekend which killed one person and wounded 3 others. ugandan ficials say they are investigating a group called the allied democratic forces, which is suspected of ties to isil. in texas, a san antonio area

homeowner will use the states stand your ground laws to defend against a murder charge at her he shot and killed a motorist who pulled into his driveway apparently because the driver was lost. 65 yield terry turner who is white fatally shot unarmed 31-year-old -- who is of moroccan origin, through the driver side window of his car as he was turning around in his driveway, pulling his car out. turner said in his affidavit he believed he was armed and he fired his handgun self-defense. it took nearly two weeks of calls to the state department before police finally arrested turner. his victim was unarmed. philadelphia has become the first major u.s. city to ban police from stopping cars for low-level traffic violations in an effort to reduce dangerous interactions with racist police officers for motorists of color. police data from 2018 and 2019 showed black drivers represent roughly 72 percent of traffic stops in philadelphia.

a recent study by the new york times found that police officers have killed over 400 drivers or passengers who were not armed with a deadly weapon in the past 5 years. only five of those officers have been convicted of crimes. starbucks workers in buffalo, new york, have won a significant victory against the coffee chain giant after the national labor relations board ruled 3 separate buffalo stores can hold elections on whether to form a union. starbucks fought to make the whole buffalo region vote in one election. mail-in voting is scheduled to start next week and will run through december 8. if successful, the 3 coffee shops would be the first unionized starbucks stores in the country. the supreme court is hearing arguments today on the new texas

law outlawing most abortions. they are considering testimony from abortion providers on the nation's strictest antichoice law which deputize is private citizens to enforce the abortion ban and violates the constitutional right to an abortion enshrined in roe v. wade. and those are some of the headlines this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show in glasgow, scotland. president biden and 120 other world leaders are gathering in glasgow for the start of the u.n. climate summit. the head of the summit said this marks our last best hope to address the climate emergency and to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius. >> the ipcc report in august was

a wake-up call for all of us. it made clear that the lights are flashing red on the climate dashboard. that report agreed by a 195 of immense makes clear that human activity is unequivocally the cause of global warming. amy: leaders of the group of 20 wealthiest nations met in rome ahead of the climate summit paid the g20 leaders pledged to try to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius but did not offer specifics on how to achieve that goal a recent um emissions cap report shows current contributions by nations are not nearly enough to avert a planetary catastrophe. some dirty thousand people are expected to take part in the two weeks summit many warned glascow will be the widest and most privileged summit ever with

thousands from the global south unable to attend because of lack of access to covid vaccines and visa issues. comment activists are planning two weeks of actions including a major rally on saturday. london climate activists rallied outside the offices of standard chartered anchor on friday to protest financial institutions funding fossil fuel extraction. this is a filipino climate activist. >> the philippines is one of the most climate vulnerable places in the world. they are the most fossil fuel companies in my country. year after year they have read destruction to our doorstep. amy: for the next two weeks we will bring you comprehensive coverage of what's happening in glasgow as we have for every u.n. climate summit in's

copenhagen in 2009. featuring voices inside the conference of the parties, climate activists protesting outside and advocates from the global south who couldn't travel to scotland during the pandemic. think of this as your global climate kitchen table where we all gather around and discuss these critical issues. assad rehman is the executive director of war on want and lead spokesperson for the coalition which is hosting a counter summit next week and glascow. it's great to have you with us. can you start off by setting the scene for us? in just a few minutes, right after the broadcast of democracynow, president biden will be addressing the global summit. the opening is happening as we speak right now.

lay out what it's all about and what you want to see come out of it to mention what happened with the g20. >> this climate summit has been built the 1.5 degrees climate summit. the window is closing on that target which if we breach will spiral us into catastrophic climate change. the reality is as world leaders particularly the weakest -- richest countries are coming with such weak pledges, this might as well be called the three degree summit. they're not bringing the reductions that are needed. when hillary clinton made the promise on behalf of rich countries, that poorer countries would have support of 100 billion dollars each and every year by 2020. they are coming to this table with basically 1/5 of that on the table. 80% of that is in debt creating

loans. they are refusing to accept liability for the impacts of their pollution on the rest of the world. what we are seeing is lots of tough talk on climate but lack of policies and refusal to put money on the table. so this is a hugely disappointing climate negotiations. especially with many of the global south locked out of these negotiations in the first place. we have seen how rich countries have responded to the global paemic. i have been speaking to negotiators from many developing countries who say if rich countries won't even allow us to access and share covid vaccine, when 10 million people have lost their lives around the world and hundred may have an acted, when we are spiraling into debt and they won't even take the crisis which is overwhelming us, how are we to trust them that they would take action on climate change? we are seeing lots of effort by the richest countries to want to

carry on polluting. the u.k. and the u.s. is coming here expanding its fossil fuels. the u.k. government has announced a massive expansion. it's got another 3projects in the pipeline. those will triple u.k. emissions. it's very much a case of countries saying. say is i'm doing, do as i say and trying to put the responsibility into poorer countries. amy: can you talk about what coalition is that you are heading? >> it's been the broadest and most widespread coalition that has ever come together here in the u.k., it's brought together labor unions and trade organizations from black lives matter to climate strikers. what it's trying to do is build a movement.

recognize that the climate crisis is not simply an environmental crisis, it's an economic social, racial and gender crisis as well. we know the solutions to each of these crises are the same solutions we need to transform our energy and food systems. we need living wages and social protection. public services. we need to center the realities of the global south and the urgency and ambition. this movement has been building for the last two years really calling for climate justice responsible in negotiations and outside. on november 6 there is a global day of action with literally millions of people marching all over the world very much with the same message. the era of injustice is over, we are calling not just on our leaders to act. we want action that delivers justice. there will be countless protests taking place in the u.k. and every corner of the world.

this fight around the climate crisis is not going to be won or lost at this one summit. over a decade ago we were told that was the most important cop. now we are told this is the most important one. we know change is coming. what kind of change will it be? who will pay the heaviest price and will it actually deliver justice? that's a fight that goes beyond this summit to our local communities and national context. it needs to be connected in a much broader transition so we have a justice transition for everyone being affected. amy: i want to speak to the gandhian climate activist. >> this is a country that has one of the fastest changing climates in the world. the weather patterns keep

changing and my country uganda heavily depends on agriculture for survival. for many communities especially those in rural areas. so a lacof rai meansunger, starvaon and deathor ver many people and treme rnfall so mea deruction, hunr, starvaon and lving my pele homels. hiorical, africa i respsible r only 3of glob emiions and yet some ricans a alreadyuffering some of e worst and bruta impas of clite cnge. sohat we rlly wants a fure that is healt, that sustaible, thais clean, livable and equitable for all of us. amy: that is vanessa of uganda. her book might fight to bring a new african voice to the climate

crisis is being published tomorrow and she is the cover of time magazine, which is called the activist. she dreams of a green new deal for everyone. if you could talk about what that means. earlier you mentioned the issue of people not getting in. can you talk about the visa process and how difficult it is from the global south? we will be talking in just a few minutes we are going to be going to mozambique to talk more about this. >> this will go down as one of the poorest climate summits. global civil society called for it to be postponed because we are in the midst of a health pandemic. the u.k. government as a whole literally paid very little attention to the realities of people in the global south. we have seen many people unable to attend because of the global

pandemic. being able to navigate a hostile environment, immigration system here in the u.k. -- to try to intervene to bring people over to help meet the extortionate costs now attending here in glascow. quarantine hotels that were paid for, literally the u.k. government moved the goalpost every single day. if you saw the pictures outside the summit this morning, it's absolutely chaotic with people queuing for hours and hours. what the u.k. government has brought to the table actually is a response to the climate crisis which actually fuels the climate crisis. a few days before even this summit began, the u.k. government announced its own budget plans and those included

a massive expansion of aviation and public subsidies to fossil fuel industries. more roadbuilding when we actually needed investments both in the u.k. and as a country -- desperately the finance that is needed. -- that isn't built on the same logic and exploitation of rich countries onto the poor countries. it's all possible and that's the voice of movements that have been locked out of climate organizations. we are the ones who are going to be turning the dial. people power is the only solution that's left. we know government leaders are still dragging their feet because filling these holes are not people from the global south but corporate lobbyists, big

business, still peddling fictitious solution like carbon capture and storage. the message is carry on polluting. millions of people already dying, the food system is being impacted. sea level rises, people being displaced. we can bank on business as usual. -- can't bank on business as usual. amy: as we broadcast, we are showing live images. president biden just came in. your prim minister boris johnson, prince charles is also there. what is your message for them and those who aren't there like china and russia? >> simply by world leaders turning up is not going to solve

the climate crisis. what matters is their actions and policies. it's brought to the table and increase in finance pledges. from three days of military spending to six days of military spending. it's licensing at home massive expansion of fossil fuels. it's refusing to say we need to shift away from her fossil fuel addiction. running slowly on climate is the same as losing. we need much bolder more ambitious policies. that's what we need when leaders come here. not the photo opportunity. not the claiming of the leadership mantle. the only moral call that's coming here is from the poor and the u.n. secretary general, who have time and again called out this lack of action, these empty promises and are urgently saying

we have to respond. the lives of millions and billions of people are going to be impacted and what we've got on the table is far from what we need amy: thank you for being with us. lead spokesperson for the top 26 coalition. -- cop 26 coalition. we are going to mozambique to speak with a longtime climate campaigner who had to stay home. we will talk about the widest and most privileged climate summit -- whitest and most privileged climate summit yet. ♪

amy: this is democracy now. i'm amy goodman. some 30,000 people are expected to take part in the two week

u.n. climate summit in glascow but many warned the gathering will be the whitest and most privileged climate summit ever with thousands from the global south unable to attend because of lack of access to covid vaccines and visa issues. we go now to mozambique where we are joined by climate justice and energy coordinator at friends of the earth international. in a moment we will bill -- be joined by her colleague inside the cop where we will join them virtually. thanks so much for being with us. usually we are together at the u.n. climate summit. now we are providing that global kitchen table for people to sit around and discuss and debate the most critical issues of the day. can you talk about why you are not at the u.n. climate summit in glascow this year.

>> great to be talking to you again. i wish we were speaking in person but this is what the pandemic has done. it's been absolutely devastating for so many people across the globe. the organization of this has been very deliberately done by the u.k. government to be this really exclusionary space because they know that if people from the global south, if the progress civil society are not there to hold people accountable in the halls of power, it's going to be a lot easier for them to get away with carbon markets, not putting the finance or emissions reduction on the table. i am so privileged compared to so many people around me here in mozambique and in this continent of africa. people have faced huge burdens to be able to get to the cop and most people have not managed. the vacce situation across this continent, you can quite

imagine. people are calling it vaccine apartheid for a reason. i think the access rate in mozambique is around 6% to 7%. the visa burdens have been huge and the change in rules constantly changing quarantine rules. mozambique was on the red list until a few weeks ago and that was when friends of mozambique myself made this decision that we are not going to be able to go and things are constantly changing. antedate the red list has been entered by the u.k. and those who were still on thred list who are planning to go into the managed quarantine which was supposed to be paid for by the u.k. government, today the red list has ended. the hotel is not going to be paid anymore so people who are already on their way have to now find accommodation of their own. this is one example of the type of barriers that have been put on the table for which reason so

many people who usually go there. because it's an exclusive space at the best of times. people who usually go there, many have not been able to make it. that's why the people who need to be there and hold people accountable are not going to be there. those who are there are in solidarity wh our comrades who are on the ground there. what is going to come out of this is going to be largely legitimate because of the intentions behind it. amy: explain what the red list is. >> a list of countries from which if you traveled to the u.k., you had to quarantine for five days in england or 10 days in scotland. and that was in a managed quarantine situation in a government hotel in the u.k. government says we will cover the cost of the hotel. but for a woman like myself, i didn't feel safe being in

someone else's space confined for five days not knowing what the situation was. for some people it's quite normal, this quarantine situation has been normalized for people who are traveling. for us it's not the case and that's why it didn't feel safe to make those decisions. i understand that we are in a pandemic. i'm not saying there shouldn't have been quarantine because we need to also protect the people of glascow so they don't have all these people coming into their city and possibly causing a super-spreader event. that's why in early september so many organizations set this is not the right time to have this. we don't know anyone who actually got the vaccine under the scheme that the u.k. government promised. i know lots of people who applied for it. i don't know a single person who actually got it.

this means it should not be held in this way and the images from this morning. people trying to get into the conference center. forget about social distancing. people are all over each other in the bitter cold because of how badly this has been planned. this is intentional so the voices that are challenging those power relations don't get to be there or get to be weakened while they are there. amy: can you explain what that zero is and why you want to dismantle what you call the myth of net zero? >> absolutely. the u.k. government has for the last two years since the last one happened in madrid has been trying to push this idea of net zero and it sounds really nice to people. there is a zero in it. but net zero is not zero because

the entire idea is that the polluters will keep polluting as long as they can sequester their emissions elsewhere. so it's about the net still becomes zero. the message that we are giving so many civil society across the world, a new website has been launched today. real solutions, not net zero. this is a civil society effort to say no to net zero because this is an escape hatch for polluters to continue polluting. where they could -- where are they going to sequester these caon emissions. they want the land of communities in the global south who aresing those resources. this is rhetoric about the climate crisis it's also financial is asian nature and grabbing more land and having more resources in the hands of

corporations and the elites and that is what we are totally against. net zero is a trojan horse also for geo-engineering. this is really about all these unproven untested dangerous technologies that they are tryi to trot out just because they do not want to change the status quo. they do not want to reduce emissions so they are making us think this is something that is going to help but it's going to make things worse. that is why we are saying no to net zero, yes to real solutions. amy: why are you concerned about thartistic patient of the u.n. special envoy for climate action, finance advisor to prime minister boris johnson, proponent of what's called a voluntary mechanism for scaling up carbon markets? what message do you have for him? >> mark kearney used to be part of the bank of england so you get an idea of the type of

people that boris johnson has put in place to lead this task force on scaling up voluntary carbon markets. carbon markets is so linked to net zero because it's about trading pollution. that's when you know that is their plan. they want to keep the meeting and they need a mechanism to be able to trade carbon so they can say, someone else is sucking that carbon out of the air is we are fine to article six negotiations have broken down every year. last time we were there in madrid, civil society gave a huge push against article six against the carbon markets negotiations and the negotiations wrote down. so many of us who cannot be there this year, they are actually planning to push article six carbon markets and close the agreement this year. this part of the agreement they have not managed to decide since the paris agreement was signed

six years ago. so people like mark carney, the roles they play here is really pushing -- the idea is pushing carbon markets within the u.n. framework. as well as the voluntary carbon markets is all for financial icing and commodified nature. it's for pretending to do something on the climate crisis but not doing it while they strengthen financial markets on nature and grab land. this is really the game they're playing here. amy: where talking to dipti bhatnagar is the climate justice and energy coordinator at friends of the earth international in mozambique. this table in new york is very expansive today. we wanted to link everyone.

people who can't make it to the summit, people who are not accredited and so they are outside the summit walls and can't: he's extremely long security lines. and people at the center of the cop. we will join mary church. as scotland is hosting the summit in glascow, plans for a huge oil field off the coast of scotland are set to go ahead. we are continuing our coverage inside the cop with mary church, head of campaigns at friends of the earth scotland. you are separated by many miles. certainly not by your concerns for the planet. place us in glascow, scotland where many have never been in their lives. >> glascow is the biggest city

in scotland and it's got a long history of social movements and really powerful movements and we are seeing that coming to life around this climate summit in a really fantastic way. amy: can you talk about what it means that -- can't come. that this climate summit unlike last two when it was canceled is being held in the midst of a pandemic? and that what you are trying to bring in from outside, from scotland and the struggles you are dealing with there. >> the u.k. government was talking up this cop as being the most inclusive ever despite going ahead with it while the pandemic rages around the world. and far from the most inclusionary summit, we are seeing the opposite of that absolutely the most exclusive climate summit ever.

the most white, the most privileged climate summit. we in civil society movements and friends of the earth called for it to be postponed because we didn't think it was safe to go ahead given the really quite high rates of covid here in the u.k. also around the world and obviously also to do with the covid vaccine apartheid. seeing this very unequal rollout of the covid vaccine globally. the continent of africa for example has less than 5% coverage of vaccination. people here in scotland, we've got quite a high level of vaccination. but the virus is still circulating at really high rates. we don't think it was safe to go ahead with the conference. the u.k. government has pushed ahead with that anyway. their preparations and logistics, they have been last-minute, chaotic.

they have been ever-changing. it's almost as if they didn't really want the people of the global south to be able to have their voices heard. part of what we've been doing in scottish civil society, we have been organizing as part of this broad diverse movement of movements, coming together under the cop 26 coalition. we've had a good run up to this to get to know each other, to do learning within our movement. we've been organizing together make sure we can support as many people as possible to come to glascow in a safer way as possible. we set up visa support and we have helped many hundreds of people come to glascow that way. we also know of many hundreds if not thousands of people so civil society delegates, people who would have come to be making

their voices heard on the streets outside the talks as well as party delegates who have been unable to come attend these talks. one of the ways we are trying to mitigate against that through our work is we are doing all of our work, the activities we are planning, we have an alternative summit planned for the middle sunday to wednesday. that summit will be run in a hybrid way. so that people who haven't been able to travel from the global south can still get their voices heard through that summit. so we will be doing everything we can in this dual in person and hybrid way. amy: on sunday activists interrupted the csing cerony ofhe summi this is whate said. what we want?

[indiscernle] clima justi. >> when do w want it? now >> -- trillns in fosil fuels countries in csis fromur conial hisry. amy: the interruption of the cop president while he was speaking, the u.k. government are hypocrites, they are opening a new combo oil field, they subsidized billions in fossil fuels but won't look out for the workers who need a just transition. can you explain what they are talking about? >> the oilfield is a big new

find on the west coast of shetland. it's an oilfield that would be planned to be running until 2050. fossil fuels need to be phased out long before 2050. this proposal is to keep drilling oil until 2050. it would be 800 million barrels of oil, the equivalent of 10 years of scotland annual emissions. this is a prosal by shellnd it is ying an awful lot of oppotion. there's a really strong movement going totop it. it's a u.k. government decision. as had an initial exploration license and now the decision needs to be made as to whether the project can go forward into actual extraction of the oil. that's the decision the u.k. government ministers are poised to make.

there poised to greenlight that -- they are poised to greenlight that. only yesterday we saw the scotland secretary alastair jack saying 100% field needs to go ahead. which is absolute hypocrisy. u.k. government claims this mantle of climate leadership. even the international energy agency has said they are not the most radical organization on the planet, but even they have said no more fossil fuels. no more investment in fossil feels if we want to have any chance of limiting warming to that critical 1.5 threshold. it's almost unthinkable that the presidency being pitted as the last chance to turn things around and avoid 1.5 is even

contemplating green leading a project of this scale. the scottish government, it's not a scottish government decision to give the go-ahead to campo. nicola sturgeon is perhaps a more credible voice on the climate in boris johnson. even nicholas johnson hasn't actually said no to the oil fields. we have seen some welcome moves to the scottish government recently. the scottish government could no longer support maximizing economic recovery of oil and gas. that is written into u.k. law. squeezing every last drop out of the north sea. the government has said that is incompatible with meeting our climate target. this is small but really welcome

moves from the scottish government. we need a ban on all new fossil fuel infrastructure and projects. and moving on. and actually delivering on a just transition for the workers and the communities whose livelihoods are really dependent on the oil and gas industry at the u.k. level but particularly in scotland. so how do we make sure that those workers and communities, that their skills and knowledge is at the center of how we move away from fossil bills to a renewable energy economy and that their livelihoods are protected as we do that transition. we have seen energy transitions in this country before. we have seen the closure of the coal mines and we have seen the

way those communities were treated. they were abandoned to sort it out for themselves. we have seen the impact of that over many decades. so we absolutely need to get it right and deliver a real just transition. amy: inc. you for being with us, mary church. -- thank you for being with us, mary church. two women environmental leaders. so many women leaders of the climate movement. we must forefront those voices and so many others. mary stands in front of a moving globe. we're going to look at the shocking torture of a former u.s. resident at cia black sites

and how military jurors say his treatment is a “stain on the moral fiber of america.” stay with us. ♪ amy: i'm amy goodman. this is the war and peace report. you can turn to us for so many

of the climate actions that will be taking place over the next. we will link to today's opening ceremony inside. but today we end looking at the u.s. torture program. seven senior military officers who served on a jury at the military prison at guantanamo have written an extraordinary letter decrying the cia's torture program describing it as a quote “stain on the moral fiber of america.” the officers had served on the jury in the case of majid khan, a former resident of maryland who was tortured in cia black sites for years after being detained in pakistan. on thursday khan became the first guantanamo prisoner to describe in an open court the cia's torture methods at its black sites. for more than two hours khan described forced feedings, waterboarding and other physical and sexual abuse he endured, including extended periods of nudity, while he was detained in the cia's network of overseas prisons from 2003 to 2006.

on friday khan was sentenced to 26 years but under a previous deal he is scheduled for release in february. in the letter, the military jurors wrote quote “mr. khan was subjected to physical and psychological abuse well beyond approved enhanced interrogation techniques, instead being closer to torture performed by the most abusive regimes in modern history." we are joined now by baher azmy, legal director of the center of constitutional rights which has helped represent majid khan. can you talk about the significance of this testimony? >> thank you for making time to cover this remarkable story. this is the first proceeding

under the military commissions process or a survivor of the u.s. torture program actually got to testify under agreed-upon procedures. in the military commission system it's actually jurors that hear the sentencing and they were selected as any jurors would be and what they heard was a young man described how in his early 20's, he was impressionable and went awry. to his credit, he detailed the systematic brutal, sadistic torture of u.s. government officials, namely the cia, which for nearly 20 years the u.s. government has tried to keep secret. but to the credit of con and his lawyers, they leveraged this proceeding to get some form of

redress for his torture, namely a reduced sentence because of the admission around his brutal torture and open testimony where he couldpeak to the public, to his family who saw him for the first time and officials who are utterly pulsed by the conduct of the united states government. amy: tell us what happened to him and the number of cases he represented around him. >> he was one of a number of what the cia called high-value detainees who were spirited tone of the numerous overseas secret detention sites subject to cia interrogation and torture, and tortured and tortured even as he

was sharing information and cooperating they believed in the perverse logic of this authoritarian regime, that was only proof that he had more information to give. he was ultimately transferred to quantum into thousand six after the supreme court intimated that holding people in secret cia detention would violate geneva conventions. at that point the center for constitutional rights chose to represent him. among nearly two dozen other detainees in different parts of the u.s. detention program. he and his lawyers fought consistently to get some sort of recognition and documentation about his torture and over and over again, little bits more of the iceberg was revealed. as much as he was able to share, it is still just the top part of the iceberg.

the senate select intelligence report regarding torture hasn't been fully declassified. we need to hear from other victims of the cia torture program and we need more meaningful accountability for what the united states government did to him and many dozens of other detainees in the so-called global war on terror. amy: he accused cia medics of raping him through rectal feeding. >> that has been documented. there is a level of sadism here that happened when the united states abandoned any commitment to legal constraint and turned over -- what's interesting here is the u.s. military jurors selected from the united states military expressing revulsion for the conduct of civilians who ordered the torture, namely run

styled -- rumsfeld, cheney, bush and other repellent so far accountable individuals from the bush administration. judging them for violating basic legal humanitarian norms. amy: it is expected he will be released in february. 38 men will remain at guantanamo. what is the biden administration doing? >> that are supposedly working behind the scenes but need to do far more to ensure the safe release and transfer of all 38 detainees including much it can't and then his case to be sent to a place that is free or he will have emotional psychologically support and connection to his family.

amy: that does it for our show. democracy now! is currently accepting applications for 2 positions: a director of finance and administration and a human resources manager. learn more and apply at democracynow.org. stay with us throughout these two weeks.

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