08/16/22 08/16/22 [captioning made possiblby democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we commenced a lawsuit this morning on behalf of several people who actually went to the ecuadorian embassy to visit julian assange and unbnownst to them we leaed through several sources at in fact all of their equipment were taken, imaged, and the conversations

were recorded by a company at the direction of mike pompeo of the cia. amy: the cia and mike pompeo have been sued for spying on u.s. lawyers and journalists who met wikileaks founder julian assange while he was living in political exile of -- asylum in the ecuadorian embassy in london. we will speak to the lead lawyer who filed the suit. but first, defund the fbi. that is the growing call by republicans after the fbi raided donald trump's mar-a-lago estate. >> i think every single candidate and elected official and in the gop right now needs to go on record pledging defund these lawless agencies. amy: we will speak to professor alex vitale. his latest piece is headlined "there are good reasons to defund the fbi. they have nothing to do with trump."

plus we look at the growing calls for a long time prisoner mutulu shakur to be granted compassionate release. the 72-year-old black liberation acvist has been jailed for over 35 years. he is now suffering from bone cancer and is reportedly near death. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in georgia, prosecutors have informed rudy giuliani is a target of a criminal investigation into interference and the 2020 election. he is scheduled to appear before a special grand jury in atlanta tomorrow he faces questions about his efforts to keep former president donald trump in power. he led trump's attempts to overturn the results of joe biden's victory in georgia by more than 12,000 votes. giuliani repeatedly cited

baseless conspiracy theories and led to put forward an alternate slate presidential electors. a federal judge in georgia has denied a bid by republican senator lindsey graham to quash a subpoena ordering graham to testify to the grand jury in atlanta. fulton county prosecutors want him to explain the reason for two calls he place just after the 2020 election to brad raffensperger, george's republicanecretary of state. raffensperger told reporters after the calls lindsey graham hinted he should throw away ballots from areas where biden likely got more votes. >> he asked the ballots be matched back to the voters and implied could throw those out. look at the counties with the highest frequent signatures. justin implication that look hard and see how many ballots

you can throw up. amy: south carolina republican graham has promised to appeal the order compelling him to testify, or green -- arguing he is under the speech or debate clause. the justice department has asked a federal judge not to unseal a sworn affidavit used by the fbi toecover 1sets of cret govement docents fro ump'home in orida. the fidavit s the bas of an appcation tt convind a dge to sn off on the warrant used by federal agents in eir sear of tru's maa-lago sidence augus8. in federalourt filg, osecutorsaid theffidavit containsighly clsified materi and sentive infoation about witnesses and that its release would compromise the continuing investigation. voters in alaska and wyoming head to the polls today for primary elections. in wyoming, pro-trump primary challenger harriet hageman is poised to unseat incumbent

congressmember liz cheney amid backlash over cheney's role as one of two republica on the house january 6 committee. in alaska, former governor and 2008 republican vice presidential nominee sarah palin leads a crowded field seeking to fill alaska's lone u.s. house seat, which had been held by don young for nearly a half-a-century before his death in march. meanwhile, alaska senator lisa murkowski faces 18 republican primary challengers, including pro-trump candidate kelly tshibaka. last year, murkowski was one of just seven republican senators who voted to convict then-president trump after the house impeached him over the january 6 capitol insurrection. the biden administration has ruled out releasing roughly $7 billion in foreign assets held by afghanistan's central bank on u.s. soil according to "the wall

street journal" which reported bidens decision ordered the assassination of -- -- president biden ordered the assassination of al qaeda's leader in kabul. earlier this year, democracy now! spoke about this with masuda sultan, afghan american women's rights activist. >> human rights watch agrees with us, the head of the u.n. agrees with us, david miliband agrees with us. you talk to just about every humanitarian organization, any economist, they will tell you as central banks reserves belong in the central bank but instead we have decided afghans cannot have central bank. the humanitarian crisis will just grow and grow. afghanistan will be an aid-dependent country. amy: she is founding member of

unfreezing afghanistan. ukraine's military says an elite unit operating behind enemy lines was responsible for a massive explosion at a russian ammunition depot earlier today in the russian-annexed province of crimea in southern ukraine. video shows a huge fireball and smoke rising over a village in northern crimea near the site of the blast. russian state media described the explosion as sabotage that damaged civilian infrastructure. this follows another explosion last week at a russian air base in crimea which destroyed as many as nine russian warplanes. elsewhere, a massive united nations-chartered ship carrying more than 23,000 metric tons of wheat has left a port in southern ukraine bound for ethiopia. it's the first shipment of food from a black sea port in ukraine since russia invaded more than six months ago. in kenya, william ruto has been declared winner of a highly contested presidential election.

kenya's electoral commission says ruto defeated former prime minister and opposition leader raila odinga by a narrow margin, getting just over 50% of votes. ruto has been deputy president of kenya since 2013. his party, the kenya first coalition, has also won a majority of seats in kenya's senate. at least four election commissioners said they did not support the results due to the opaque nature of the vote count as diplomats and international election officials were removed from the tallying hall right before ruto's victory was announced monday. ruto will serve as kenya's fifth president since its independence from britain in 1963. he addressed the east african nation monday. >> there is no room for vengeance. there is not room for looking back. we are looking into the future. amy: in saudi arabia, women's rights defender has been sentenced to 34 years in prison

over her advocacy. it's reportedly the longest sentence ever given to a saudi women's rights activist. al-shehab was initially sentenced to a six-year prison term over tweets she posted critical of saudi arabia's treatment of women. but an appeals court last week increased the sentence to 34 years behind bars and banned al-shehab from leaving the kingdom for an additional 34 years. human rights advocates warn of worsening conditions for saudi women as crown prince mohammed bin salman intensifies his crackdown on dissent. saudi arabia's state-controlled oil company has broken its own record after posting a profit of $48.4 billion for the second quarter of 2022. it's the largest quarterly profit ever posted by a publicly-traded company, coming as russia's invasion of ukraine helped push oil prices soaring. in germany, police used batons, pepper spray, and water cannons

to attack about 150 climate justice advocates, who staged a nonvlent sit-in protest saturday on a rail supply line leading to the harbor in hamburg. the protesters are seeking to halt construction of new liquified natural gas terminals along germany's coast. this comes as german households face spiraling fuel costs that could see them spend hundreds of euros more per year to power their homes. this is protest spokesperson charly dietz. >> in germany, the energy crisis is hitting those hardest that contributethe least. although few corporations pocket billions in profits. explicitly not energy crisis, it is a capitalist distribution prices. amy: lawyers for julian assange have filed a lawsuit against the cia and its former director mike pompeo, charging they spied on u.s. lawyers and journalists who met assange while he was living in the ecuadorian embassy in

london while in political asylum. the lawsuit is being filed as britain prepares to extradite the wikileaks founder to the united states, where he faces up to 175 years in prison for violating the espionage act by publishing classified documents exposing u.s. war crimes in iraq and afghanistan. later in the broadcast, we'll speak with the lead attorney behind the lawsuit. here in new york, another person has died at the rikers island jail complex, the 12th so far this year. "the new york times" reports ricardo cruciani was found monday morning sitting in a shower area with a sheet around his neck. the 68-year-old died about an hour later. his attorney had reportedly alerted rikers officials to put him on suicide watch. cruciani was a former neurologist who was convicted two weeks ago of sexually assaulting and raping at least six of his patients. and in california, thousands of unionized mental health care

providers in multiple cities have gone on strike, demanding the country's largest nonprofit health care organization provide better care to people who desperately need services. kaiser permanente serves some 9 million people in california. according to the union of healthcare workers, kaiser has just one mental health provider for every 2600 patients, forcing people to wait months for an appointment. union members are also accusing kaiser of violating treatment clinical guidelines and california state laws. the strike comes after a year of negotiations between the national union of healthcare workers and kaiser, which has rejected union proposals to expand the workforce and improve access to care. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the justice department has asked a federal judge not to unseal a sworn affidavit used by the fbi

to recover 11 sets of secret government documents from donald trump's mar-a-lago estate in florida. the affidavit is the basis of an application that convinced a judge to sign off on the fbi search warrant. in a federal court filing, prosecutors said the affidavit's release would compromise the continuing investigation and could chill the future cooperation of witnesses. the warrant, which was unsealed friday, revealed trump is being investigated for three federal crimes -- violating the espionage act, obstruction of justice, and criminal handling of government records. fallout from the fbi raid is continuing to grow as republican lawmakers denounce the fbi, with florida senator rick scott comparing the agency to the gestapo in nazi germany. fox news host jesse watters has

called for the firing of fbi director christpher wray, who was appointed by donald trump. >> he has to be fired by the next republican president. got to be fired on day one. just fire him right off the jump. amy: a growing number of republicans are calling for the fbi to be defunded. far right republican compass member marjorie taylor greene tweeted on monday -- "impeach merrick garland and defund the corrupt fbi! end political persecution and hold those accountable that abuse their positions of power to persecute their political enemies, while ruining our country. this shouldn't happen in america. republicans must force it to stop!" others calling for the fbi to be defunded, include anthony sabatini in florida. >> i think every single caidate and elected official the gop right now needs to go on record pledging to defund

these lawless agencies. amy: the republican attacks on the fbi mark a radical shift for the party, which has long embraced the fbi. lasher democratic commerce member bobby rush of illinois introduced legistion to force the fbi to disclose more details of its secret cointelpro program in the 1960's to surveil and disrupt groups, including the black panther party and the american indian movement, as well as targeting individuals, including martin luther king, jr. the legislation had cosponsors, none of them republican. to talk more about the fbi, we are joined by alex vitale, professor of sociology and coordinator of the policing and social justice project at brooklyn college. he is the author of "the end of policing." his new piece for truthout is headlined "there are good reasons to defund the fbi. they have nothing to do with trump."

well, professor, let's start there. it might shock many to hear -- and we just chose a few clips, but they are growing around the country -- defund the fbi, from republicans all over the united states. can you talk about this? >> it is a kind of amusing ideological confusing on their part. they have rested so much of their platform on a kind of back the blue authoritarianism and to now see that turned around on the fbi is, on the one hand amusing, but on the other hand i think it is instructive. it tells us a lot about actually what they think the role of law-enforcement is. it is not the neutral professional enforcement of the law that they often claim, it is actually a political tool. the difference here is they think it is a pitical tool that should be used on their behalf and they're really upset

to see law enforcement being used against so-lled god-fearing patriarchal nationalists as opposed to using those forces against immigrant community's, community's of color, sex workers, and of course the political left. and so it is a kind of repeat of january 6 where we saw back the blue flags being used to beat local police. amy: you see it coming together of progressives who have called for defunding the police and these calls of really the far right here. >> no, not at all. this is not about trying to build an alliance aoss the ideological divide. when people talk abo defunding the police on t left, they mean something radically different. i think what the right intends

is not to reduce the power of the fbi, but merely to change the leadership so that it is more politically compliant with the far right agenda. amy: can you talk about the history of donald trump himself using the fbi as a political tool? >> absolutely. it is certainly true the fbi is a political tool. the question is, whose interest does it reallyerve? under trump and many past presidents, we have seen the fbi used as a tool to gin of fear, demonize things like the war on drugs d even the war on terror, and most recently with the trump administration, right as he went into election mode, he tried to capitalize on fear of crime by creating operation relentless pursuit thatargeted exclusively democratic cities for intensive flooding of federal agents more money for --

more money for local police, federal prosecutions of basically street crime in a way that was designed to try to say, look, the problems of urban america are not disinvestment, the industrialization, racial segregation of housing. no, the problems of urban american, democratic cities, is too much crime and the solution is more policing. and that was a political project and residence and most of the cities that were targeted immediately organized against this initiative and said what they need is investments in housing, stable employment, high-quality health care. not more federal policing. amy: go to the whole history of the fbi, how it was established. then talk about what you're calling for and how that differs from what, well, people like marjorie taylor greene are calling for. >> the history ofhe fbi into

minutes. amy: you can have three. >> started as the bureau of investigations in the early 20th century and it was really understood clearly this was going to be a political tool for going after communist, anarchists, striking workers, etc. j edgar hoover takes it over in the 1920's and in the early 1930's, becomes the fbi and a massive system of political policing. files are kept on millions of americans, religious leaders, political leaders, celebrities, and of course labor leaders, leftist organizers, peace activists. and e fbi is the primary too at the federal level used to suppress left movements from the palmer raids that attacked opposition to war one to attacks on striking workers, the labor movement.

i the 1960's, the mission begins to shift as communist and socialist movements have been successfully suppressed in many ways, the new threat and hoover's eyes becomes the black liberation movement of the 1960's, beginning really with the birmingham bus boycotts and continuing on to thereedom rides in the lunch counter sit-ins, long before let's say that molten black power movement, the fbi is laser focused on surveilling and undermining black liberation movements. dirty tricks like open surveillance of people to intimidate participants, hiring and performance, writing fake letters to try to implicate people in mital infidelities, wiretapping phones, false accusations of being police collaborators to try to sew distention within the movement. by the 1980's, this focus shifts

increasingly to the environmental movement, targeting earth first and other organizations. and after 9/11, the focus is on the so-called war on terror. order to justify every increasing counterterrorism budgets, they concoct all kinds of ridiculous plights and then they find often intellectually capable people to pin these plots on, lure them in with false promises for people who had no ability to complete these plots,he so-called herald square bombing plot in new york city is an example where the fbi celebrated that they prevented this terrorist attack by young man who had no idea what he was involved in, was completely incapable of carrying it out. he asset the last minute if you could call his parents to ask permission to engage in this behavior. the fbi has been a tool of

repression of left-wing movement. amy: how did this change? if you can talk more specifically about president trump's operation relentless pursuit and the city see taeted. >> operation really lives pursuit was a kind of effort to go after trump's sort of political bogeyman. say the problems of america were the result of drug cartels, gang bangers, and the way to restore cities was through super intensive law enforcement. the use of rico statutes and so-called conspiracy laws that allow them to round up huge numbers of young people because someone that they once smoked weed in the park with got arrested for shooting someone, now they are all in a criminal conspiracy, can all be charged with the underlying homicide or shooting or whatever.

so this just flooded these cities with drug enforcement agents, dea agents, atf, fbi who just went out on arrest raids, john fouts, and all the rest. one of the things that is shocking about this is all seven of the democratic mays of the targeted cities basically embraced this. baltimore, somewhat less so. they welcomed the infusion of money for local policing, welcomed the infusion of federal law enforcement, and this rely shows kind of a deeper bipartisan crisis about the role of law enforcement in trying to revitalize american cities. amy: i should not have said how did it change because that was a continuation. but how do you see what the fbi has done now in searching the home of president trump and those who had always supported

the agency now comparing them to the gestapo, and certainly right up to president trump attacking them? >> we have always had some fbi enforcement of the extreme right , the kkk and some of the other extreme right wing groups over the last 20 years. but it has always been anemic and short-lived, and basicall in the service of very kind of conservative centrism that wants to sort of wipe out any kind of populism. e kind of "new york times" level role anti-populism that prefers a kind of technocratic neoliberal approach to problems. what we're seeing here is some exing ofentristusclto trto shudown t most treme pas of theight wing.

in a way, thgh, i thi is going backfir and that does nothing to actually address the widespread popularity of these extremist views. when marjorie taylor greensays we shoul defund thfbi, she immediely getsundreds thousas of les on he twittefeed. these are wt we thoht wereringe ids have become way too mainstream and the idea we're going to x this pblem with se indiments of uliani a trump i thi is very shortsighd. amy:hat are youalling for >> think wneed to use this etorical opening to raise up existing efforts to try to actually rein in the power of the fbi. you have groups like defending rights that is trying to rework the fbi first amendment protection act that john conyers introduced in the 1980's to restrict the fbi's political policing powers. i think we need to look at the

act introduced by ayanna pressley andthers that would reduce funding for federal law enforcement and shift those resources into positive on the ground public safety programs. we need look at efforts to end the war on drugs. we need to get the fbi and federal law enforcement out of using rico statutes to go after young people in urban areas, the decriminalizing neighborhood network is developing campaigns to rethink the use of the rico act. so there really are efforts underway across the country to reduce the power and scope of the fbi in ways that limit their ability to demize and criminalize those on the left and those who have been left out of the neoliberal consensus. amy: alex vitale, they give for being with us, professor of sociology and coordinator of the

policing and social justice project at brooklyn college, and author of the end of policing. his new piece for truthout is headlined "there are good reasons to defund the fbi. they have nothing to do with trump." next up come the cia and mike pompeo have been sued for spying on u.s. lawyers and journalists who met with wikileaks founder julian assange while he was living in political asylum in the ecuadorian embassy in london. we will speak with the lead lawyer in the case. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "peace and privacy" by the shoes. the cia and former cia director mike pompeo were sued on monday for spying on u.s. lawyers and journalists who met julian assange while he was living in the ecuadorian embassy in london where he had political asylum. the lawsuit is being filed as britain prepares to extradite the wikileaks founder to the united states where he faces up to 175 years in prison for violating the espionage act by puishing classified documents exposing u.s. war crimes in iraq and afghanistan. assange spent nearly seven years inside t embassy, from 2012 and to label 2019, when

metropolitan police entered the embassy and arrested him after ecuador revoked his political asylum. the lawsuit filed monday accuses the spanish security firm uc global of spying on assange and his visitors inside the embassy on behalf of the cia. uc global and the company's director david morales are also named as defendants in the new lawsuit which comes less than a year after yahoo news revealed the cia considered abducting, and possibly assassinating, assange while he was in the embassy. on monday, several plaintiffs in the lawsuit spoke during an online news conference. this is deborah hrbek. she is media lawyer who visited assange at the ecuadorian embassy in london several times to discuss sensitive legal matters. >> on rival, there was a strict protocofor the protecti of juan we were told, passports, mobile phones, cameras, laptorecording

devices, and other eleronic equipment were tned or to the security guard in the lobby. we learned muchater through a criminal invesgation under the supervisn of a court in spain that while visitors ke me were meeting with julian in the embassy coerenceoom, the guards next door were taking apart our phones, removing and photraphing some car, and we believe downloading data from ouelectronic equipment. thr boss, david moras from uc global who appears to ve been recruitedy the cia through associatesf sheldon adelson during visit to a tech conferencemaking rular trips to washington,.c., twoew york, las gas, repordly to hand over umb drives anto receive fuher instructions om his u.s. government handlers. in other words, during our meetings with julian at the

embassy, recordis of our confential conversationsere ing delivered into the hands of the unitestates government. i am a new yorkawyer. i have the right to assume the u.s. government is not listening to my private andriviged conversations with m client, and that information about other ients d cases, have on my one oraptop are secure from legal govnment intrusion. -- illegal government intrusion. this is an outrage. amy: that is the attorney deborah -- deborah hrbek, who is a plaintiff in a new lawsuit against the cia and former cia director mike pompeo for spying on her and other visitors to the -- when they met with wikileaks founder julian assange. we are joined now by richard roth, the lead attorney who filed the lawsuit on monday. lay out the case, richard. >> the case is simple and very troubling. essentially, there are these

individuals who work at the embassy who are just there to essentially monitor the traffic that comes in. what we learned is through a spanish court proceeding, we learned in fact uc global global went to convention and presented the convention where sheldon adelson essentially introduced them -- brought them in to the wings of the cia to not only just monitor who comes to visit julian assange in the ecuadorian embassy, but to actually take their phones, their laptops come in a kind of recording devices, and to image them while they were inside. when they walked in, they had to leave them with a security company. we also learned they actually had streaming microphones and cameras inside the embassy during the four meetings with julian assange. there are witnesses who essentially were employees at uc global thinking they were just

doing their job and lrning from morales that all of this was going back to "american intelligence." it was going back to the americans, going back to the dark side. individuals came over and told essentially the spanish court and others that they did not understand at the time they were part of this enterprise, tape-recorded everything julian assange didid. not only is it a violation of the fourth amendment, your right to privacy, but you have lawyers , journalists, doctors who went to visit julian assange. there's a doctor-patient privilege, attorney-client privilege. not only did they literally listen in on the conversations, but any client, for example deborah hrbek's who had information on her laptop -- not even assange's -- the u.s. government now has privy to.

it is very troubling. deborah's commts it is an outrage i square on int. what we have done is commenced acon to essentially let the world know and to seek damages for these plaintiffs who are journalists, lawyers, who essentially went to the eassy unbeknownst to them, had everything and there's recorded and imaged and purely, clearly a violation of the fourth amendment. we have sued morales, uc global, the cia, and mike pompeo for the outrageous -- on top of that, mike pompeo in his first address when he became cia director, let it be known he was going to go after julian assange. amy: i want to actually play that. >> and he called julian a fraud. there's plenty of evidence, more which we will get through discovery, that essentially would lead one to conclude that the cia went in, took uc global

and put it under its wing to allow it to record and listen to everything that julian assange was saying. amy: i want to go to the club of then cia director mike pompeo in 2017 talking about wikileaks in his first address as cia director in the trump administration. >> wikileaks walk sica hussle intelligent service, talks like a hostile intelligence service and encouraged his followers to find jobs at the cia in order to obtain intelligence. it directed chelsea manning to intercept secret information and overwhelmingly focuses on the united states while seeking support from antidemocratic countries and organizations. it is time to call out wikileaks for what it really is, a nonstate hostile intelligence service often embedded by state actors like russia. amy: julian assange later responded to pompeo's allegations in interview with jeremy scahill.

>> pompeo has stated that wikileaks instructed chelsea manning to go after certain information. interesting revelation. statements that this by wikileaks and its publication and now. how does he propose to conduct this ending? he did not say. but the cia is only in the business of collecting information, assassinating people. it is quite a menacing statement that he does need to clarify. amy: again, richard roth, yahoo! news last year revealed the cia did consider abducting and possibly assassinating julian assange while he was an political asylum in the embassy.

your comments on this? of course pompeo could be a presidential candidate in the next presidential election. >> julian war assange and wikileaks is a publication. tickets information from sources and publishes it no different than "the new york times" or any newscaster. it does nothing more. there is an indictment alleging more, certainly the government will have to prove it, but the bottom line thus far all we've seen is publication. it is no different than the pentagon papers "the new york times" published. there is a very clear purpose for the news, and that is if information comes in its possession, and it doesn't matter which news source whether it is fox or cnn, it has -- not only is it right, it has an obligation to tell the world this is what i have. there is no evidence that the

wikileaks was involved in the having a -- hacking of any computers by the nsa. chelsea manning is a different story. but if chelsea manning is information to "the new york times," you can bet your bottom dollar "the new york times" is going to publish that because it is there obligations. why mike pompeo went so extreme to label wikileaks as hostile nonstate intelligence service is remarkable was the then what he did is they went ahead and used uc global, went in and they are the ones that wrongfully took information -- there's a real irony. while wikileaks is being wrongfully charged, it is the cia that wrongfully took information not only of assange but of u.s. citizens, of other plaintiffs. there is a real irony that what

they're being accused of is what the cia is doing, which is very troubling. amy: of course many journalists. i want to go back to 2014 in a democracy now! exclusive we went inside ecuador's embassy in london to interview wikileaks founder julian assange as he had just entered his third year of political asylum. we are in the ecuadorian embassy in london where julian assange took refuge two years ago. he has been detained in britain for close now to four years. welcome to democracy now!, julian. >> thank you, amy. amy: how are you doing here? it's been over two years that you have really not seen daylight for any extended period of time. >> there's been nearly four years that i've been detained without charge, in one form or another, here in the united kingdom, first in prison, the solitary confinement, then under house arrest for about 18 months, and now two years here in the embassy. the ecuadorean government gave

me political asylum in relation to the ongoing national security investigation by the doj, the department of justice, in the united states into our publications and also into sourcing efforts. so did i enter into a conspiracy with chelsea manning, who was sentenced last year to 35 years in prison? so the question as to how i'm doing, of course, personally, it is a difficult situation in a variety of ways. i would say that when someone's in this position, what you are most concerned about is the interruption in your family relationships. so because of the security situation, that's made it very hard for my children and my parents. amy: that is julian assange. people can go to democracynow.org to see all of the interviews we did with julian assange in london. but the significance of now him

being held -- that was 2014. he had been held for four years. so we are 12 years now in maximum security belmarsh prison where britain is preparing to extradite him to face espionage charges in united states. what role do you see your lawsuit playing in the possibility of stopping this extradition? >> so it is a great question. let's talk for a second about the fact he's in a maximum security prison. that in and of itself is an outrage. the role is the following. if in fact we can prove the cia was listening and take information -- taping information that includes julian assange's criminal lawyers and the actual tradition precedent and then the proceeding which presumably one week -- will be tried in the northern district of virginia in fact if in fact he is extradited and if in fact

he is tried, so think about it. the cia years before he is even tried in virginia has tape recordings of the conversations julian assange had with this lawyers. we think that information is so outrageous that if in fact we prove our case, when we go to the virginia court, there could be a federal court judge in virginia that looks at the cia's conduct and says, there is not a chance i will let you try this case in light of the fact you are the ones who spied on him, you have all his information, and the goal without lawsuit independent of that one -- this one is to have that lawsuit thrown out to let the publisher publish stuff that is all we are asking, let the publisher publish. i am not a lawyer in that case. i know the lawyer in that case. highly qualified washington, d.c., criminal lawyer, but that is the goal. the goal is to just let the publisher publish. the irony is yesterday, rand

paul said the espionage act, for which julian has essentially been indicted, should be repealed. on the one hand you have a major republican senators saying should repeal the espionage act, and on the other hand we have a full course press on julian to get him convicted for dozens and dozens of years under that sam espionage act. amy: and what further information are you getting from uc global in terms of the spanish court case? and its connection to sheldon adelson, the late casino magnate where they apparently met in las vegas at a tech conference? >> correct. we met at shot conference. that is when sheldon adelson

introduced morales to the cia. what we are getting from the spanish courts, even though it is technically sealed, there's information coming out. what we're getting from the courts is people who worked in uc global -- at was not the job they took. their job was to allow people to come in and out of the embassy in a structured manner. and all of they find out the tape recordings are going on and they're adding recordings here and devices there and they're returning it to america. and they are learning from morales that this information is going to "the americans" to "american intelligence." why would information be taped and go to american intelligence? that is all the information we currently have. we intend on getting a lot more from uc global. we just filed a lawsuit yesterday so there is a process that has to take place. we certainly expect resistance on many parts, including pompeo. at that is the information we intend on getting from these uc global employees who are going

to tell as they were directed to engage in this conduct and provide it to the central intelligence agency. it is nothing short of outrageous. amy: your alleging there's official ecuadorian rep who was bribed with $20,000 in cash a month according to the spanish lawsuit? >> that is correct. the money waseing paid to numerous people to allow for this intelligence to take place. it is obvious the purpose of putting someone seeking asylum and going into the embassy essentially to shield them from the law. which was essentially the case for the first four years. but what happened is not only was he shielded i guess physically, but what happened was that whole process -- when pompeo became cia, the head of the cia, to essentially get from assange and all the people that come in there, all othe

information that reallyhould have been confidential. we intend on taking depositions. we intend on getting documents. the spanish proceeding is a little difficult to get information from because it is sealed. but even the spanish court has subpoenaed pompeo -- amy: and pompeo is a prite citizen, as well as the cia? >> that is absolutely correct. amy: for damages. has he responded? >> no, he has not responded. we just filed it. we will serve it. we don't know what kind of response for going to get. we do know that pompeo, my understanding is hesitant and is not been forthright with the subpoena and the spanish course. i don't know if you will be forthright -- probably be having the same hesitancy in new york but we shall see. amy: i want to thank you, richard roth, lead attorney representing lawyers and journalists who have filed a new lawsuit over cia surveillance of

their meetings with wikileaks founder julian assange while he was in political exile in the ecuadorian embassy in london. he has been jailed now for over 12 years at the maximum prison now, as britain was extraditing him to the united states was next up, the growing calls for political prisoner mutulu shakur to be granted compassionate release. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. dozens of civil rights groups have joined an urgent push for the compassionate release of longtime political prisoner mutulu shakur from prison. the 72-year-old black liberation activist has been jailed for over 35 years, now suffering from bone cancer, reportedly

near death. mutulu shakur this is stepfather of tupac shakur. he was part of the black nationalist that worked with the black panther party and others, convicted in 1988 of conspiracy and several armed robberies, one of which resulted in the death of a guard and two police officers and also for aiding the 1979 prison escape of assata shakur, who fled to cuba where she now lives. all of mutulu shakur's codefendants have been released or have died. he reportedly has respect -- expressed remorse and taken responsibility for his crimes. he has stage three bone marrow cancer and has been eligible for mandatory parole since 2016. for more we're joined by nkechi taifa, lawyer and ceo of the taifa group, and longtime friend and supporter of mutulu shakur.

brad thomson, civil rights and criminal defense attorney with the people's law office based in chicago, just filed two new requests for the compassionate release of mutulu shakur, a -- who is now -- brad thomson, let's begin with you. where is mutulu shakur right now? what is his physical state and what are you calling for? >> good morning, amy. thank you for having me. right now dr. shakur is in lexington, kentucky, at a federal prison. he is in a desperate medical situation. he has been battling multiple myeloma, bone their cancer, since 2019. it is incurable cancer he received treatment for but the treatment has stopd working. in may of this year, he was given a prognosis of six months or less to live.

that means at this point, less than three months he has left to live. he is fighting to survive. he wts everyone to know he is fighting to survive. he appreciates all of the support he is getting around the world. but the situation is extremely dire. we filed two separate pieces of litigation to try to seek his release. one is a motion for compassionate release and at the southern district of new york, which goes before the sentencing judge. which is still sitting on the bench as -- and a status, semi retired. the second piece we filed is just last week we filed a petition for habeas corpus in the eastern district of kentucky , federal court in kentucky challenging the parole commission's most recent denial of parole, a mandatory parole to dr. shakur.

we just found out last week alleging that denial is so egregious that it is a violation of dr. shakur's constitutional rights. amy: explained. he has been eligible for parole since 2016? >> yes. dr. shakur is in a limited class of federal prisoners eligible for parole. the law he was sentenced under established at 30 years, there is mandatory parole, which is a strong presumption of release. in 2016, the parole commission, u.s. parole commission denied him mandatory parole on problemati justification that was challeed by attorneys in court and a federal judge found his due process rights were violated by that denial and ordered a new hearing. just earlier this year, a new mandatorparole hearing was held for dr. shakur and the

parole commission again denied mandatory parole. erroneously finding he was likely to commit another crime. that dubious assertion under any circumstances based on dr. shakur's phenomenal prison record and ongoing advocacy for reconciliation and nonviolence, but it is even more absurd and outrageous given his current medical situation. he is struggling to even sit up in bed in the parole commission maintaining he is likely to commit another crime in his current condition is patently false and absolutely outrageous. amy: what did the judge say? the sentencing judge, who is 91 years old now, whom you have gone before before and he said he is at near death enough but you can come back when he is? >> correct. we filed complete cash we filed for compassionately's and early

2020, early and dr. shakur's diagnosis of multiple myeloma, early in the stages of the covid pandemic. at that point dr. shakur was 69, 70. receiving cancer treatment. so he was at high risk of covid. the sentencing judge at that time ruled -- denied our request, ruling his death was not imminent and it was not inevitable he would catch covid. since that denial, is tested positive for covid three separate times and he is now absolutely imminently facing death. we're going back to that judge and requesting the sentence be reduced and he be immediately granted release as the law provides. amy: this is a clip of mutulu shakur, using acupuncture to treat drug addiction in the bronx in the 1970's and 1980's. >> my name is mutulu shakur.

i think it iimportanto realize -- >> mutulu shakur was our leader. he was one of the most vocal activists in the community at the time. ifm it wasn't forutulu, maybe we would never have the acupuncture program. >> he helped to heal people. he liked healing people. he was good at it. i think he also used it as a political tool. amy: that is mutulu shakur in "job is death." nkechi taifa is a longtime supporter of mutulu shakur, was one of his original lawyers. you have known him for so long. if you can say more about him and what you're calling for? >> i would say i was honored to

work with the social justice movement that mutulu shakur was involved with during the 1970's. i have always known him to be an astute han rights activist both domestically as well as internationally. in 1997, out of law school, i worked with his attorneys helping to [indiscernible] calling for the dismissal of his indictment. there's been an outpourg of groundswell of support for h release. not only phenomenal healing -- in terms of healing modality and treating addiction with acupuncture, he is also, like i said, human rights activists. organizations such as naacp, legal defense fund, aclu, color of change and oths who have called on an appeal to the department of justice, u.s. parole commission, the judge in

the case, the bidens to let him go. he has served enough time. it is time for him to be able to live out his remaining days in the comfort of his family and friends. all of his codefendants or people who were charged in similar conspiracy, some of -- every single last one of them have been released from prison. only mutulu remains behinbars. the racism inside and outside and even in the movement in the government target people. mutulu still being targeted. amy: nkechi taifa, thank you for being here. and brad thomson the current lawyer for mutulu shakur who lives near death in prison in

kentucky. brad thomson is with the people's law office in chicago. that does it for our show. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, ñcñcñcñc