12/09/21 12/09/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> outrage has authorized him out for milary at a time we are dealing with a pandemic, risk of climate change, racial economic injustice, and to do it all in the name of an inflated version of the alleged threat from china just makes no sense. amy: as the house approves the largest military spending bill

world war ii, even after the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan, we will speak with bill hartung of the center for international policy. then we will be talking about a new film, a short film by astra taylor from the debt collective called "your debt is someone else's asset." >> t america dream ud to b owninger own he. w it i bng debfree. altother, americanowe a rerd-breakg $15 trli and counng. bt is tooften annchor, draggi people dn with ounding terest a fees. pulng weah from the working class amy: then "the invisible wall: inside the secretive libyan prisons that keep migrants out of europe." >> this effort to southernize

european border and push the southern border of europe further into africa is an overall policy from the eu to try to stem the flow of people attending to reach europe. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as covid 19 cases continue to search across europe, north america and south africa, a new report finds the world is dangerously unprepared for the next pandemic. researchers at johns hopkins and the global health security index scored every country on its ability to prevent, detect, and respond to health emergencies. no country scored above 76 on a scale of one to 100. this is, one of the creators of

the astrazeneca covid vaccine. >> it could be worse. it could be more contagious or more lethal or or both. we cannot allow situation where we have gone through all we have gone through and then find the enormous economic losses we have sustained mean there still no funding for pet pam -- pandemic preparedness. amy: in a the coronavirus pandemic has pose the greatest threat to children and 75 years, reversing progress in education, hunger, health care, poverty, abuse, and forced marriage. here in the united states, the senate has voted to reverse president biden's vaccine mandate for larger businesses. two democrats, jon tester of montana and joe manchin of west virginia, sided with all 50 republican senators to pass the measure. the bill faces auphill path in the house. if approved, the measure would reverse biden's order that all businesses with at least 100

workers require them to get vaccinated or undergo regular testing by january 4. this comes as the mber of u.s. residents fully vaccinated against covid-19 topped 200 million. that's just over 60% of the u.s. population. long-time german chancellor angela merkel officially handed over the reins to olaf scholz wednesday. scholz, of the center-left social democrats, formed a three-way coalition with the greens and the liberal free democrats after september's election. scholz vowed continuity with the popular leadership of merkel. canada, britain, and australia have joined the diplomatic boycott of the beijing winter olympics, citing human rights concerns. this follows confirmation from the white house monday it would not send any u.s. officials to the games, though athletes will still participate. the beijing olympics kick off on february 4. a warning to our audience, this story contains descriptions of violence, including sexual assault.

in morocco-occupied western sahara, renowned sahrawi human rights defender sultana khayya and her sister luara were attacked and sexually assaulted during a night raid on december 5 by dozens of masked agents belonging to the moroccan security forces, who have held the family under house arrest for over a year in the city of boujdour. sultana khayya says agents stole mobile phones, threw trash, urine, and a noxious black liquid into her family's drinking water storage tank and destroyed what was left of the family's belongings. >> we have been subjected to all kinds of injustices by moroccan occupation -- rapes, torture. we asked to intervene in order to save this family people who been under occupation since 1975. amy: morocco has not issued an arrest warrant for sultana and luara, who have been detained since november of 2020 and have suffered multiple sexual

assaults and raids to their home. their arrest has been condemned by amnesty international and other human rights groups. to see our interview with sultana democracynow.org to see , visit democracynow.orgo see our exclusive documentary "four days in western sahara, africa's last colony." french authorities have released a saudi man who was arrested tuesday in connection to the murder of "washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi at the saudi consulate in istanbul in 2018. a prosecutor says the man was arrested at a paris airport in a case of mistaken identity, since he has the same name as a former member of the saudi royal guard implicated in khashoggi's sappearance and killing. in india, authorities are investigating a helicopter crash wednesday that killed india's chief of defense staff general bipin rawat and 12 others. one survivor is in critical condition. the crash occurred in the southern state of tamil nadu. president biden ordered federal vehicles and buildings start

transitioning to renewable energy, with a goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. the executive order affects 300,000 buildings and 600,000 cars and trucks. on capitol hill, senators grilled instagram ceo adam mosseri wednesday amid damning reports the social app causes widespread mental harm to children and teenagers. sseri said congress should create a body to regulate social media, placing the responsibility for its dangers on the industry at large. instagram recently halted plans for an app geared towards children. but under questioning, mosseri would not commit to never developing such an app, saying instead if created, it would require parental consent. this is senator amy klobuchar. >> i think we are in diametrically opposed goals, the goals of parents out the and the goals of your company stopped our kids are not cash cows. that is exactly what has been going on because when you look

at the marketing budget and you look at what your company has done, it is to trying get more and more of them on board. amy: instagram is owned by facebook. the former chief of staff for president trump on wednesday asked a federal judge to block subpoenas from the house committee investigating the january 6 capitol insurrection. mark meadows' lawsuit came just hours after he refused to appear for a scheduled deposition. just last week, meadows had pledged to cooperate with the congressional probe. committee members said in response they're preparing criminal contempt charges. meanwhile, a key organizer of the january 6 insurrection that preceded the assault on the capitol, a key organizer of the rally, has agreed to cooperate with congressional investigators. ali alexander pledged to deliver a trove of documents about the so-called "stop the steal" rallies when he's deposed by the january 6 committee today. lawmakers are especially interested in alexander's communications with members of trump's white house and republican lawmakers.

a warning to our viewers. the following stories contain graphic footage and accounts of police violence. in minnesota, opening arguments got underway wednesday in the manslaughter trial of former police officer kim potter, who says she mistakenly drew her gun instead of her taser when she fatally shot black motorist daunte wright during a traffic stop in april. during opening remarks, prosecutor erin eldridge said potter betrayed her badge, failed daunte wright, and failed in her role as the ranking officer at the scene. >> officer was her training and she was the spo, so she was the one to determine how this stop would go. she was a 26 year veteran. she was the officer in charge. it was her job to show officer lucky how it is done. and what did she show him? she showed him how to kill someone. amy: daunte wright's killing in

the minneapolis suburb of brooklyn center last april came during the murder trial of george floyd's killer, derek chauvin, and set off a fresh wave of protests against police brutality. california's attorney general said wednesday he will investigate the torrance police department after "the los angeles times" obtained a trove of racist and homophobic messages exchanged by more than a dozen current and former police officers and recruits. one message contained a caption reading, "hanging with the homies" under a picture showing several black men who had been lynched. another message joked about breaking the tail lights on the car of a black motorist so police could pull him over and shoot him. "the l.a. times" reports the officers exchanged racist messages for years, a revelation that could affect hundreds of criminal cases in which the officers either testified or made arrests. three starbucks locations in buffalo, new york, could soon be the company's first unionized u.s. shops as votes are counted

today in a highly anticipated election. three other starbucks stores in buffalo and one in mesa, arizona, have also filed petitions for their own union elections. meanwhile, kellogg's workers remain on strike after rejecting a tentative agreement that included a 3% raise. kellogg's said it will start replacing striking workers with permanent hires. in more labor news, members of the united auto workers recently voted in favor of the one member, one vote system, which will allow workers to directly elect their president and other leadership. the election reform came after a federal corruption probe which found uaw leaders were using union funds to make luxury purchases and support lavish lifestyles. and the senate held a hearing this week focused on amazon and big tech's rolen driving up consumer costs. senator elizabeth warren, o led the hearing, says supply chain issues alone do not give the full picture of the current ice surge, blaming corporate anti-competitive practices. amazon worker courtenay brown

testified about the horrendous worker conditions at her new jersey warehouse. >> amazon's multibillion-dollar wealth is made possible by offering same-day deliver to twday delivery, and the corporation has achieved this speed and scale to the sure brutality, punishing associates like me and my coworrs. we are living in a country where machines are getting better treatmen tn people. the machines at my facility undergo routine maintenance chec to ensure they do not burn out. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by my co-host nermeen shaikh. hi, nermeen. nermeen: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: president biden may soon vote to approve thlargest military-spending bill since world war ii, with a 5% increase over last year's defense bill.

the $768 million military budget is $24 billion higher than what biden requested. despite the was withdraw from afghanistan. the package includes funds aimed at countering china's power and to build ukraine's military strength. it also includes nearly $28 billion in nuclear weapons funding. the bill is headed to the senate and then to president biden after the house approved the bill late tuesday night. more republicans than democrats voted for it. among those who voted no was progressive new york compass member jamaal bowman, who tweeted -- "it is astounding how quickly congress moves weapons but we can't ensure housing, care, and justice for our veterans, nor invest in robust jobs programs for districts like mine." bowman also criticized how the compromise bill strips funding that would have established an office for countering extremism in the pentagon, saying the bill

"must also protect the black men and women who are disproportionately the target of extremism and a biased military justice system." also absent from the bill is a provision to require women to register for the draft. separately, the senate voted down a bipartisan bid by senators bernie sanders, rand paul, and mike lee to halt $650 million in u.s. arms sales to saudi arabia amid the devastating ongoing war on yemen. for more, we're joined by bill hartung, director of the arms and security project at the center for international policy. author of a new report titled "arming repression: u.s. military support for saudi arabia, from trump to biden." his latest book, "prophets of war: lockheed martin and the making of the military-industrial complex." welcome back to democracy now! first of all, if you can just respond to the house passage of the largest weapons spending bill in u.s. history since world

war ii. >> i think it is an outrage. if you look at what we really need, and the roundup he talked about the preparedness, the world is on fire with the effects of climate change. we have deep problems with racial and economic injustice in this country. we have an insurrection, violence on our democracy. the last thing we need to do is throw more money at the pentagon. it is a huge amount, more than we spent in vietnam, the korean war, the buildup in the 1980's all throughout the cold war. even at the time that biden pulled out troops in afghanistan, the pentagon budget keeps going up and up. nermeen: could respond specifically to the fact the budget is $24 billion mark than what was requested? is it common to have such a huge difference in terms of the

amount requested, the amount granted? >> covers off has many for pet projects -- congress often has many for pet projects, but nothing at this level. $24 billion is the biggest congressional add-on that i can think of in memory. it is kind of extraordinary, especially, as you said, should be winding down. nermeen: can you talk about some of the key figures in congress who have been pushing for an increase? >> you people like jim inhofe, republican on thsenate arms services committee, who said we need to spend 3% to 5% more per year in perpetuity, which would push the budget over a trillion dollars within five years to six years. he is always tatum reports of

the national defense strategy which was put together primarily by people who are from the arms industry, think tanks funded by the arms industry. basically, it was kind of a special interest collection. mike rogers from alabama, key player, he has huntsville in his state and that sort of visceral capital in america. army missile, missile defense system. hundreds of thousands of dollars the weapons industry for his reelection. there's a strong porkbarrel special interest push by the military-industrial complex to help bring about this resolved step amy: the senate voted down a bipartisan bid by senators bernie sanders, rand paul, and mike lee to halt $650 million in u.s. arms sales to saudi arabia amid the devastating ongoing war on yemen. i want to play a clip of senators paul and sanders

addressing the senate on tuesday. >> the u.s. should end all arms sales to the saudis until they end the blockade of yemen post of president biden said he would change the trump policy of supporting saudi'ss were in yemen. we commissioned these weapons and we should not give them to countries who were starving children and are committing essentially an aside in yemen. >> i find myself in the somewhat uncomfortable and unusual position of agreeing with senator paul. amy: that was senator sanders and paul. bill hartung, or the offer of the new report headlined "arming repression: u.s. military support for saudi arabia, from trump to biden." ca you talk about the significance of this, what was voted down? >> these missiles are air to air missiles which can be used in

the air blockade that is been put over yemen. the saudis that bombed the airport runways, have try to keep ships from coming in with fuel. as a result, the cost of medical supplies are out of the reach of the average person in yemen. people have not been able to leave the country for medical treatment. 32,000 people have probably died just for lack of being able to leave the country for specialized care. 400,000 children are at risk according to the world food program of starvation because of the blockade. millions of yemenis need humanitarian aid just to survive the saudi blockade is making it difficult to get the commercial goods they need. basically, this is a criminal enterprise run by mohammed bin salman. joe biden said when he was a candidate saudi arabia, we would treat it like an pariah. he said the u.s. would stop

support for the offensive operation in yemen, yet he has approved a contract for maintenance of saudi planes and attack helicopters. and how this steel for the missiles. he is basically gone back on his pledge to forge a new relationship with saudi arabia and use u.s. leverage to end the blockade and the war itself. nermeen: before we conclude, just to go back to theilitar budget, could you comment specifically on the $28 billion earmarked for nuclear weapons? >> unfortunately, this bill doubles down on the pentagon's buildup of a new generation of nuclear weapons, nuclear war heads -- which is the last thing we need at a time of global tensions. in particular, there was a provision that said it is not allowed reduce the number of intercontinental ballistic

missiles, which is the most dangerous weapons in the world because they could easily be used by accident if there were a false alarm of attack because the president only has minutes to decide whether to use these things. i think that is one of the biggest stains on this bill, basically, continuing to snow the nuclear arms race at great cost and risk to the future of the planet. amy: finally, that china and russia being used as justification for weapon sales and increase military budget. can you compel u.s. military budget to theirs? >> the u.s. spends about 10 times what russia spends three times what china spends, 13 times as many acts of nuclear warheads in is stockpile as china does. 11 aircraft carriers for the type china does not have. 800 u.s. military bases around the globe while china has three. this whole idea that china and russia are military threats to the u.s. primarily has been

manufactured to jump of the military budget. so far, unfortunately, at least in the halls of congress and the biden administration, that has been successful. amy: bill hartung, thank you for being with us, director of the arms and security project at the center for international policy. we will link to your new report "arming repression: u.s. military support for saudi arabia, from trump to biden." hartung's latest book, "prophets of war: lockheed martin and the making of the military-industrial complex." because are going for president by to extend a moratorium on student debt. we will speak with the debt collective's astra taylor about her new animated film "your debt is someone else's asset." stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. rights groups and lawmakers are calling on the biden administration to extend the moratorium on student loan payments that has been in place

since the pandemic started. the biden administration announced in august it would extend the pause for about 42 million people. but that extension is set to end in less than two months on january 31, 2022, even as many continue to struggle during the pandemic. on wednesday, 200 groups led by the student borrower protection center sent a letter to biden on -- assange -- "there is a broad consensus among borrowers, advocates, industry, regulators, enforcement officials, and lawmakers that a rush to resume student loan payments is a recipe for disaster and will result in widespread confusion and distress for student loan borrowers." also this week, a group of 14 lawmakers led by senator raphael warnock of georgia called on biden to waive the interest on student loans even after payment collection resumes, writing, "accumulating student loan interest can be a daunting challenge for borrowers with the lowest incomes or the heaviest student debt burdens" and noted the debt crisis has also

disproportionately impacted black, latinx, and native communities. during his campaign, biden vowed to cancel federal student loan debt and fix the "broken" student loan system. but his administration has said the extension pausing payments through next january would be the final one. for more on the debt crisis, we'll be joined in a minute by astra taylor, co-founder of the debt collective, a union for debtors. but first, i want to turn to her new animated short film she's publishing today at the intercept, with illustrations by artist molly crabapple, called "your debt is someone else's asset." >>he amerin dam used to be owning yr own home. noit is beg debt-fe. altogether, americans o a rerdbreaking15 trilln and counng. so as lifeline, debt too oftean anchor,ragging ople down wit cpounding ierest

dees, pulng wealtand reurces fr the worng css blowp wall stre's boom line. ery debwe hold is meone else's asset. with our monthlyayments providin steady revenue f gree credito. and aund 1 $55,000 year alone. americans now. owing an average of62,000 mh of a cdit card debt. gnifican aunt of t $770 llion icreditard dt pushg arou his medal bil po of amulets rhts, docrs vits, and sures paid r with t swipe oa little astic ca. th there i the aitional $140 bilon omedicalebt and llectioncombinedith an esmated $5billion in bac rent a 1 trilliodollars auto loans. much of is debdid not est a few generatns ago. coiderhe.8 chileanollars intudent lns this untry

hold which was not a pblem i the 19's enollege was ten freer close to it. ro reagan lped cnge th. he me his dayy demoning protte on thuniversi of th cams in 67 as vernor of califora,ush iversity systo srt charging students tuition so they would "tnk twice about wther the wanted t payo cay a cket si. duringis careeas senat, jobiden advanced reaga project, worki to expan student lendin as theenter fr delare, binas aevote serva of thfinanciasector. he fought 05 legislaon tt weakenedorrower proteions, bankruptcyore diffult for regula borwersstrengthing th hand ofhe stude loan a edit card industries, and helping becae a wave of me foreclosur. de is not jt abt money, it is aboutower. bt isongboat en this rth of pfit d a tool of soal

control and raci dominatn. e foundingathers kw this. thom jeffeon aued debt shou be canced after natal lits, whic he took to aboua geration. but onlyor whiteenike hielf. in803, herote dthould be used aa weapon again indinous people to stl their territory. shall bglad to e theood and inflntial individls, among th run in debt, because we oerved th when these debts get on with the dividualcan pay, thebecome lling to lop tm off by sessioof ld. sharecroppg, redling, pratoryendingll contied this trend, deening racl equity. as resulof the 2000 d mogage crisis, black and brown familiost upwas of 50% of their llectiveell. for regular debtors, even a late payment can spell disaster. c make itmpossiblto re an aparent or g a job. fault on your udent loans?

e governnt caneize your was, tax runds, d social security debts prisonareechnicll unnstitutional butn practice, peopletrugglinto y bls can wd up in jail. but not all debtors are treated so cruelly. rich people regularly walk away from their obligations. e bank ttrashhe econo 2008ot baile out. nald trumpome the self-prossed kinof deb lift string ocorpore bankptcies ihis wake don'torget dung the cered pandemicthe fedel governmen ent hundds of biions of dolls buying b corpora debt belongi to enties, cluding xon and wmartand ofring cpanies, cludg payday lendersforgivab loans. itime regularebrs got a brk, too. it is time for aubilee. the erasur of debtnd relancing power betwe regulapeople andlites. it is not a new idea. jubilee was described the

bible and ny ancie civilitions havperiodic jubilees to avt soal and economic collapse. our earlst record historie are ste tablets inscribed with credit ledgers. throughout histo, debtorhave risen up to demand relf. in t earlyixth cenry, debts right heed noto athens towardemocrac theefor knowns the shing off burdensncluded bt soluti and an d to bt bondage. something similar ppen in me afterebtors mnted t first geral stri. in the uted stas, indted works and rmers reulted i the conialrea and ain under thcall f debton. ncellati rang o in occu wall seet. rent yearsit helpeforce e govnment toancel llions of dollars student loans. abishing mical dt, bac rent, and studen loans would free uponey spent on bt

servicinfor other things. people cld buy hmes anstart falies in eaciawealth gap with nero. research estimates canceling student debt alone would boost the economy by up to $108 milliotheear ancreate a miion jobs derressurfrom actists, presideniden cpaigned a pre to cancel iediate minimum o$10,000 student debt per brower. thanks to thhigherducation act of 1965, he has the power to cancel all federal student loans. with the single signaturen an executive order,resident biden can free people from student debt, giving tens of millions of people their lives a futures back. now we nd to makhim do i and mu more. weeserve nhing ls that a julee. ♪ amy: that's the new animated short film "your debt is someone

else's asset" published today at the intercept, with remarkable illustrations by artist molly crabapple, and narrated by astra taylor, who joins us now. writer, filmmaker, and co-founder of e debt collecve, a union for debtors. her latest book is "remake the world: essays, reflections, rebellio." welcome back to democracy now! what a film. kudos to molly crabapple. she is just a stunning illustrator and artist. if you could start off with the title, "your debt is someone else's asset." talk more about why you are releasing this today and what that means. >> thank you so much for having me on and for premiering the film. molly and her team did an amazing job. your debt, on of the powers of

animation, and allows us to make something visible that we can't only see. so much of debt is invisible. one thing this film shows, it shows debtors but follows the chain back to the people who hold our debt as assets. the people we pay monthly, who collect the interest and fees, essentially the 1%. these debt payments are form of wealth transfer from the port of the rich. this film in a playful but serious style is shown that. there's lots of evidence that debt is accelerating inequality, compounding racial inequity. again, these are sonos's investments and very, very invested in protecting those assets. nermeen: to that you give, a reco-breaking $15 trillion of debt, can you provide some

sense, some explanation of how the u.s. got to this point $15 trillion. >> in less than seven minutes, we traveled through thousands of years. that i older than capitalism. debt is ancient. there's something about the form of capitalism we live under that it is central. in the 1970's, much of the debt as i say in the animation, did not exist a few generations ago. wages have stagnated. regulations on the financial sector have been rolled back limits how much interest can be clicked to post people work and people are robbed twice. your having to borrow student loans, get an education, go to debt for medical care, having to

take up payday loan or credit card to put food on the table. that has exploded. that $15 trillion is a mortgage debt for people. we have to go into debt occur housing. $770 billion of credit card debt. a lot of that is medical debt because people do not have adequate health care. universal health care, medical debt does not exist. this is a problem that is not just intrinsic to human existence. it is a consequence of political and economic choices. the situation has evolved, creditors, the financial sector have amassed more power over washington and that is why it is so important to tell the economic story and the political story side-by-side as this film does. nermeen: one of the things that very striking and also diurbing in the film is the fact you say americans on average now when they die owe

$62,000 in debt. can you explain what happens to this debt after someone passes away? visit erased or are passed on to the next generation? >> $62,000 of debt. that is an immense amount. not all is literally passed on to people's family, but it impedes a family's ability to build intergenerational wealth. we have some people who have assets, building into intergenerational wealth and others were never able to do that. there never able to get ahead. we see this with the racial wealth gap in this country. the median house, 10 to one post of her family to have student debt, between black and white families, it swells 20 to one. it impedes people's ability to build wealth and thrive. it underscores the fact that is

a matter of life and death for people. we are seeing this right now as the biden administration is threatening to turn on stent loan payments. we are seeing dtors not ready for that peopleho are overwhelmed with anxiety, makin the -- compounding their stress. we are saying this is something that is rlly scary for ople. i think at illustration really drives that point home. amy: you say president biden could wipe out the debt with his signature. could you talk about the role he has played in expanding both student and credit card debt, and what power he has right now? >> as the animation shows, biden is part of a long line of american presidents who have sided with creditors.

some call it creditors constitution. the struggle is essential to the founding of this country. biden has played significant role as former senator from delaware, which is the credit card capital of the world, so he s absolutely instrumental in passing 2005 bankruptcy refor which is somethi that credit card industries really wanted. he repealed bankruptcy protections for student debtors, private loans. he has been on the wrong sidof this. that said, because of organizing by the debt collective which i organized wi another activists, he was forced to run on a promise of $10,000 across-the-board debt relief and even more for students from certain colleges. he has the authority. we know this. the very same authority that donald trump used to do this student loan payment, yet party that president biden can use to

cancel all federal student debt -- not just $10,000, not just $50,000, but all of it. it is a moral imperative that he does it. research shows 90% of student debtors are not financially secure for payments to go back on and will boost the economy, have these beneficial effects, narrow the racial wealth gap to three to one. we are organizing for that. the debt collective is calling for a week of action in d.c. january 18. we have to push him and make him do it just like the film said. amy: who does get bailed out? it is not like, well, we just can't afford to wipe out these debts. talk about the payday loan operators, the large corporations. >> we can't afford not to wipe out these debts. if we have a jubilee, the 99%

will all be richer as a result. there are so many benefits to this. but a jubilee, as you pointed out, is not -- debt cancellation happens all the time. it just happens for wealthy individuals and for corporations. those companies who have the lawyers to advise them on their strategic defaults, the banks that c get bailed out after 2008. what we saw in 2020 when the coronavirus hit, the government stepping in in an massive weight buying up bad corporate debt belonging to the biggest corporations, offering payday lenders and other creditors forgivable loans. we need to extend this mercy, this generosity to debtors who have not 10 anything wrong. people are in debt by design. this is a system that gives people no other option's for making ends meet. that is what happens when you have a country with a minimum wage of $7.25. jubilee as possible and

necessary and debtors do to fight for it. amy: astra taylor, thank you for being with us, writer filmmaker, , and co-founder of the debt collective, a union for debtors. latest book "remake e world: , essays, reflections, rebellions." cowriter and narrator of the new animated short film "your debt is someone else's asset." next up, we look at the invisible wall inside the secretive libyan prisons that keep migrants out of europe. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!,, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. we end today's show looking at a shocking report in "the new yorker" magazine that looks at how the european union has created a shadow immigration system that captures migrants arriving from africa bore they reach europe and sends them to brutal detention centers in libya run by militias.

this comesfter video obtained by cnn as long ago as 2017 showed captured migrants in libya been sold in a modern date slave auction. the new article is titled "the invisible wall: inside the secretive libyan prisons that keep migrants out of europe." for more, we are joined by its author, ian urbina, investigative journalist and director of the outlaw ocean project. ian, your piece follows in particular the tragic story of a 28-year-old farmer and father of three who had fled his failing farm. he wanted to reach europe. his name is aliou candé. lay out what you found about his life and death. >> sure. aliou candé was in many ways a quintessential climate migrant. he had struggled for quite some

time on his farm in a very small, poor western african country. two of his brothers had already made this trip to europe. one had arrived in italy. aliou candé, his farm cannot produce in the droughts and rains got worse, decided he would make the same journey himself. he made his way to the saharan desert, a peerless journey. totally arrived as many migrants do to libya, a point, the closest launching spot for refs to europe. he bought his way onto a traffickers boat and made it out about halfway across, about 20 hos out to e outse libyan watersand the eu-funde so-cald libyanoastuard capted him andbout 100ther miants andeturned em to

shore where th were p in on of the detention cente. neeen: could you explain the origins of this libyan coast guard? what is their mandate and what did you learn about what they actually do at sea? >> the living coast guard think is best thought of in a metaphoric or broader way. think of what is happening on the mediterranean as a war on migration post of the eu-let were on migration. that war has three armed forces, air force, navy, and army. the air force the skull front text and that is the eu border agency and they put planes and runs over the mediterranean with the sole purpose of spting and looking for migrant rafts that are trying to reach europe. they report that intelligence ultimately to the libyans. the navy in this war, if you will come is the libyan coast

guard. this is a holy eu trained, armed force. as different from most coast guard, whi face inward toward shore, normally protecting the coastline from outside threats, the libyan coast guard faces inward because what they are doing is trying to protect europe from migrants aiming to reach their. the libyan coast guard's primary aim is to catch migrants before they reach european shores. the army and this war, if you will come is the on land force in the work is the gulags that exists in libya, sort of grid of about a dozen to two dozen detention centers that are militia-run committee are you-funded indirectly that holds all of these migrants attempt to return them back the other direction. nermeen: you mention the gulag.

one of the detention facility to focus on initially you have been told by libyan authorities you would have permission to enter. but of course, that did not happen. can you explain? this is a place for international human rights organizations have documented the most brutal abuse. you did not get into the facility, but you were able to get footage of what was going on inside. can you talk about that? what did you find? >> as you say, the detention center is one of about a dozen official detention centers. these are all militia-run, but they are the auspices of the u.n. recognize federal government. these facilities, and the biggest and most notorious, are typically warehouses that have

been converted into armed compounds. this detention center is a place in normal times may hold 2000 migrants. more recently, due to raids in tripoli, it surged to about 5000, 6000. as you mentioned, what a groups that are able to get into these facilities, this center included, routinely documented extortion, rape, torture, and sometimes murder. what we were investigating in particular was an egregious murder in which guards opened fire on migrants and our main character aliou candé was killed. amy: i want to turn to another migrant. this is a clip of a migrant from guinea. in april, he was rescued from a rubber boat by ocean viking along with 235 people.

here souleyman describes the previous treatment he received from libyan authorities. >> the libyan boat, they came as it capsized the boat. i was shouting, mom, mom, i'm going to die. i don't know if you can imagine, but the libyans came and instead of saving us as we we dying, they started to take pictures. pictures first. after that, they sent amall boat and picked up people. while insulting and beating us up. amy: now i want to turn to a clip of a young togolese man rescued by the ocean viking describing the treatment of black migrants in libya. he spoke in july. >> even when you are not in prison, you are in prison and libya.

if you are black, you are in prison. you may be in the city, but you are in prison because something cod happen at any minute. for exampleyou could take a taxi and they take you where u're not going. they locked the doors and call and say "we have a black he wants to sl. you can do nothing against the gun. it is like that. amy: ian urbina, if you could talk about these migrants that were sick and also examples shared with libya regarding immigration policy? >> i think quite rightly it is important to point out come as you just did, the rhetoric around the mission on the mediterranean, the eu pushes for come is that the libyan coast guard is funded by them because they are engaged in rescues. it is utterly misleading. these are arrests. the vast majority of migrants

desperately do not want to be stopped and taken by the libyan coast guard. the libyan coast guard team the fire on migrant boats and quite often not a libyan national waters. the arrests, not rescues, result in these migrants being taken back to shore. your secd question, libyan intelligence -- excuse me, front text being shared wh libya has been well documented. it is a routine occurrence. it is really the only way the libyan coast guard is able to find these migrant boats on the mediterranean is because the drones and the planes that fly overhead spot them first. and they call that in usually the italn governnt and e italn govement alesiving coast guard with the cordons and the libyan coast guard goes and

picks the boats . sotimes attempting to capsize them, when fire on the if that is not the chosen method of the day, they arrest them and bring them on shore and return them to shore. nermeen: could you also talk about the really staggering scale of this crisis. u cited in your "new yorker" piece figures from the international organization for migration, the iom, saying the coast guard and other libyan authorities haventercepted more than 80,000 migrants just in the last four years. you also say, again citing the iom, in just the first seven months of this year, more than 15,000 migrants were captured by the coas guard. but byhe end of those seven months, only about 6000 work in a detention facility. can you expla what you found

out about where the remaining migrants were taken and whether it ever happens at the libyan coast guard work libyan authorities simply deport the migrants back to their country of origin? what happens to them? >> let me try to roll to those questions. on the issue of scale, this is important to bear in mind this is a climate migration story and we' looking at in the next 50 years 150 million people seeking out of desperation typically to move elsewhere. sohe policy of the eu of outsourcing migration control to a failsafe in libya, not unlike with u.s. government was doing in mexico, is a really doomed strategy and only going to get more perilous as more waves that ople start trying to reach safer places. with regard to the gap in numbers, there is this really worrisome issue which you point

out, which is there are two places where there is data. one is when all these people are captured and bught to shore in libya, they are tallied by eu-funded tablets and workers in the court. so we have statistics on those numbers. they are then put on buses and taken to the prisons. there handed over to the libyans. the next number you have is a roug estimate month by month of the libyan government of how any people are in detention. there's a huge gap between the numbers, those that arrived to shore and those officially arrived to the prisons. where did thother folks go? they are probably taken to "unofficial detention centers" which are even more brutal and awful than t official ones. where these issues of extortion, both in official and unofficial sites, i.e. squeezing the migrants, handing them a cell phone, saying, look, call someone and have them wired to

this account $500 and that is were to get out. extortion is the sort of business model. that is most likely what is happening in both locations. those that don't show up go to either unofficial sites or are dumped at the border with niger. some of them. others are shipped out for forced labor on agricultural or construction sites. and some are dumped io migrant neighborhood in tripoli. and those are the lucky ones. amy: you mentioned niger. he reported in 2015, their opinion and pressured niger to adopt a statute called law 36. if you can explain what that is and then what the alternative is. that goes to your own organization, the outlaw ocean project. >> law 36 in some ways was the broader policy and one

that is problematic. the broader policy of trying to stem the flow of people from places of desperation to places of less desperation. in 2015, there were half a million migrants that crossed the mediterranean. there was a serious crisis in how to deal with so many people arriving to italy, greece, spain. the e.u. decided, look, let's choke this out further upstream at law 36 is a perfect example of what was done. you had as long policy of open borders in this country and a steady and established in legal -- anyways healthy flow of people -- the sahara desert on one main road. overnight, bus drivers turn into traffickers because there was this long, you have been led law called law 36 that made it illegal to cross the borders.

that was part of the larger agenda of trying to stop th flow. what are the solutions here? not an easy question to answer. one solution surely is for wealthy western nations, be it the u.s. or eu, to not outsource migration policies to failed states. that is certainly the first thing that should happen. in libya specifically with the eu, what i hear from smart folks who work on these issues is that they wanted to try to clean up and lessen the harm and abuses that are occurring in the detention centers -- libya is a state that is a state in name only. if they wanted to try to clean up the prisons, they could squeeze the libyanovernment through the libyan coast guard, entirely funded by the eu and say, look, if you want more of our assistance, then you have to

immediately open the doors of the detention centers, let observers in, raise the standard , stop the abuses. that is a short-term private medical goal. there needs to be more funding to slow and more policy to slow the outflow of desperate people from their place of origin. amy: we want to thank you for being with us, ian urbina, investigative journalist, and the director of the outlaw ocean project. his recent article in the issue of "the new yorker" is december titled "the invisible wall: inside the secretive libyan prisons that keep migrants out of europe." we will link to his project on our website at democracynow.org. if you would like to join us for our 25th anniversary celebration that we had the other night, you can go to democracynow.org and see our interviews with noam chomsky and angela davis, winona laduke and the national book award winning poet martin

espada, the performances by lila downs and tom marella and appearances by danny devito and danny glover and cornell west. that is that democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. xññññññññ

f0 hello. welcome to nhk newsline. i'm in new york. u.s. president joe boy president joe biden has seen a backwards slide of human rights and brought together more than 100 world leaders. he has tried to rally them against corruption authoritarianism. >> this is