02/22/23 02/22/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> a world without nuclear arms control is a more dangerous and stable one with potentially catastrophic consequences. every effort should be taken to avoid this outcome including through an immediate return to dialogue. amy: the united nations is urging russia to rever its cision to suspend s participation in moscow's st

nuclear treaty with the united states. we will get the latest and then look at how some of the most popular hosts on fox news promoted donald trump's election conspiracy theories on air even though they probably thought they were bunk. then the family of malcolm x has announced plans to sue the cia, fbi, new york police and other government agencies over his 1965 assassination. >> it is our hope that litigation of this case will finally provide some unanswered questions. we want justice served for our father. amy: and mexico's former top security official garcía luna has been convicted in the united states on drug trafficking charges. all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. israeli forces killed at least nine palestinians in a raid in the occupied west bank city of nablus. it's the latest fatal attack by israel, which hakilled at least 60 palestinians, including children, since the start of the 13 year. 16-year-old muntaser al-shawwa died monday, two weeks after he was shot in the head by israeli forces. meanwhile, the u.n. has called on israel to pause plans to gut the judiciary. the move by prime minister benjamin netanyahu's extreme-right government has triggered two months of mass protests. this comes after the u.n. security council unanimously approved a statement of opposition to israel's illegal expansion of settlements on monday. it's the first time in over six years the u.s. has agreed to a rebuke of israel, though advocates denounced the watered-down, non-binding

statement in place of a more consequential resolution. russia's president vladimir putin and foreign minister sergey lavrov met with top chinese diplomat wang yi in moscow. this comes as beijing seeks to play a larger role in ending the year long war in ukraine. "the wall street journal" reports chinese president xi jinping plans to visit moscow for a summit in the coming months. meanwhile, president biden delivered a speech in warsaw, poland, tuesday following his visit to ukraine. pres. biden: stands proud to mischance tall and most importantly stands free. brutality will never grind down the will of the free. ukraine will never be a victory for russia. amy: in ukraine, russian rockets killed six people at a bus station in kherson tuesday. the u.n. said at least 8000

civilians have been confirmed killed since the start of the war but that the true death toll is likely thousands higher. the environment protection agency has ordered norfolk southern to clean up the contamination from its derailment in east palestine, ohio, earlier this month, which led to a massive fire and the release of toxic chemicals. this is epa head michael regan speaking from east palestine. >> if the company fails to complete any action ordered by epa, the agency will immediately step in, conduct the work ourselves, and then force norfolk southern to pay triple in cost. amy: ohio republican governor mike dewine also spoke at tuesday's news conference saying it is fundamentally wrong that trains carrying toxic chemicals are not required to notify authorities. an investigation by local abc-affiliate wsyx revealed norfolk southern donated $29,000 to governor dewine since 2018, including $10,000 just last

month for his inauguration. the train company gave nearly $100,000 to ohio candidates over the past six years and extensively lobbied dewine and other politicians. railroad workers united and others are calling for the nationalization of the u.s. rail system in the wake of the east palestine disaster. meanwhile, a union pacific coal-carrying train deiled in gothburg, nebraska, early tuesday. it's the second such accident this week for union pacific trains after another derailment monday in riverbank, california. the company said no hazardous materials were involved in either instance. california congressmember barbara lee has announced her bid for the u.s. senate seat being vacated by the retiring dianne feinstein in 2024. congressmember lee has served in the house for 25 years and is perhaps best known for being the only member of congress to vote against authorizing military

action following the 9/11 attacks. congressmembers katie porter and adam schiff are also running for the senate seat. in other congressional news, a virginia state senator has won a special election for the 4th congressional district and will become the first black woman to represent virginia in congress. she will fill the seat of congress member don mceachin, who died in november. and in more congressional news, rhode island democrat david cicilline is leaving the house of representatives in june to run the rhode island foundation. prior to becoming a u.s. congressmember in 2011, cicilline was mayor of providence, the first openly gay mayor of a state capital. the u.s. supreme court rejected an appeal to an arkansas law that penalizes the boycott of israel. the case was brought on behalf of the editor of "the arkansas times," who refused to sign a pledge that he would not boycott israel in order to benefit from state advertising contracts.

over 30 such laws are in place around the country and have been used as a model to curb boycotts of oil companies and gun manufacturers as well. the aclu argued the arkansas law should be overturned since boycotts have been established as protected speech under the first amendment. to see our interview on the subject, go to democracynow.org. separately on tuesday, supreme court justices heard arguments in gonzalez v. google, a case challenging federal protections for social media and search engine companies that host and amplify potentially dangerous content. the plaintiff argues youtube, which is owned by google, bears responsibility in the death of nohemi gonzalez, a u.s. citizen who was killed in the paris 2015 terror attack, because it recommended isis recruitment videos on its platform. the justices, however, seemed unlikely to reverse decades of status quo in legal protection

for the tech companies. in wisconsin, a primary vote for a seat on the state supreme court has advanced a liberal candidate janet protasiewicz and conservative daniel kelly to the april 4 run-off, which could tip the court to the left for the first time in 14 years. at stake is the future of wisconsin's abortion ban, which went into effect after the overturning of roe v. wade last year. the balance of wisconsin's top court will also play a key role in voting amid battles over the state's heavily gerrymandered legislative and congressional maps and possible challenges in the 2024 presidential election. here in new york, genaro garcía luna, mexico's former top security official once charged with leading the fight against narco trafficking, was convicted tuesday for accepting millions of dollars in bribes from the sinaloa cartel under the former

leadership of joaquin "el chapo" guzman, who's serving life in prison in the u.s. in exchange, garcía luna protected cartel members from arrest and gave them safe passage for cocaine shipments and tipoffs about law enforcement operations. garcía luna served under former president felipe calderón, who launched mexico's u.s.-backed so-called war on drugs that has led to the killing and disappearance of tens of thousands of people. garcía luna also worked closely with u.s. counter-narcotics and intelligence agencies as part of the so-called crackdown on drug cartels. for more on this story, tune in later in the broadcast. in immigration news, the biden administration has proposed a new policy that could block tens of thousands of people from seeking asylum at the u.s.-mexico border. the rule would force migrants to first seek protection in mexico or another country they pass through on their trek to the u.s. they'd be able to ask for asylum in the u.s. only if those previous claims in another country are denied.

the unaccomnied children would be exempt. the aclu condemned biden for mimicking asylum bans that were enacted by former president trump. those were ultimately ruled illegal and blocked in court following challenges by the aclu. in texas, members of the chinese community are organizing against a racist bill currently being debated in the senate that would bar citizens from china, north korea, iran, and russia from purchasing property or land in the state. republican governor greg abbott has already signaled his support for the bill. asian americans say the proposed legislation is a throwback to long repealed xenophobic laws, including the chinese exclusion act of 1882 and the so-called alien land laws of the early 1900's which banned asian immigrants from owning land. this is activist ling luo of the asian americans leadership council speaking at a rally earlier this month. >> texas governor abbott, why did you ban tiny americans from owning properties in texas by

passing these bills? chinese-americans have to prove their citizenship if they want to buy property. this is a blatant discrimination based on race, which violates the american constitution. we must stand in solidarity to protest these discriminatory bills. we need to stand up,he outcome and fight back. amy: seattle has become the first u.s. city to ban caste-based discrimination. city council member kshama sawant, who proposed the measure, celebrated after the vote, tweeting, "now we need to build a movement to spread this victory around the country." and the family of malcolm x is filing a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against the fbi, the cia, new york city and state, the nypd, and the district attorney's office for concealing evidence of their involvement in malcolm x's 1965 assassination.

two men were convicted of his murder and spent decades in prison but were fully exonerated in 2021. later in the broadcast, we'll air comments on the lawsuit from malcolm x's daughter ilyasah shabazz and civil rights attorney ben crump. 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 democracy now!'s juan gonzález in chicago. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: we begin today's show looking at russian president vladimir putin's announcement that moscow would suspend its participation in the new start treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms control agreement between the united states and russia. start is shorthand for "strategic arms reduction treaty." putin made the pledge during his annual state of the nation address on tuesday when he accused western nations of provoking the conflict in ukraine. he said russia was fighting for

its very existence. >> they can't be stupid people. they want to deliver us as strategic defeat while sneaking into our strategic nuclear objectives. regarding this, i have to say russia suspend its participation in the new start treaty. let me repeat, russia is suspending its participation. before resuming the discussion about this treaty, it -- we must first understand what do countries of north atlantic alliances aspire to and how much we take their nuclear arsenals into account. amy: the treaty places a cap on the u.s. and russian strategic nuclear weapon stockpiles and gives each nation opportunities to inspect the other's nuclear sites. shortly after putin spoke, the russian foreign ministry said moscow would continue to respect the caps established by the treaty. we are joined now by dr. ira helfand, the immediate past president of the international

physicians for the prevention of nuclear war, ripient of the 1985 nob peace prize. he's also member of the international steering group of the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons, as well as the co-founder and past president of physicians for social responsibility. thank you so much for joining us. talk about the significance of putin saying he is, well, they are suspending involvement in start. what does this mean? looks good morning. -- >> good morning. i dialogue on controlling nuclear weapons. there's no way around that. having said that, a couple of things to recognize, one is that the new start treaty, while somewhat useful, is a very limited documenand very inadequate treaty. it allows the united states and russia to maintain over 3000

nuclear weapons ranging in size. six to 50 times more powerful than the bombs that destroyed russia. study published last august showed if those weapons still allowed by the new start treaty were used in a war, they would cause 150 land tons of suet to be blasted into the upper atmosphere, blocking out the sun and dropping temperatures average of 80 degrees fahrenheit. the temperatures would drop 45 to 50 degrees fahrenheit in interior areas. something like three quarters of the human race between 5 billion and sixthly people would die. -- 6 billion people would die. very small fraction would cause worldwide catastrophe. only 250 of the smallest weapons of the strategic arsenal, which

still generate enough so to trigger a famine that would kill 2.1 billn people and end civilization as we know it. that means this treaty allows both the united states and russia to maintain arsenals which are capable of destroying civilization six times over. it is bad that russia is suspending its participation we need to understand this treaty itself is deeply flawed and we need to go far beyond it and establish a treaty like the treaty of prohibition of nuclear weapons which bands and eliminates these weapons. juan: doctor, in terms of where we are heading now in terms of arms control, given the fact first the bush administration withdrew from one treaty and then the trump administration with drew from the intermediate forces treaty and now putin's

suspension of russia's participation in this treaty, what is the message that these governments are sending to the people of the world? >> they are sending a message they're not serious about their obligations to eliminate nuclear arsenals and moving in the wrong direction. it is important for us to recognize in response to the russian decision to suspend participation, there are optio open to the u.s. government. when a particular we should be sure not to take and that is to respond by withdrawing ourselves or by building more nuclear weapons. the russians have dicated ey not intento exceed the cap established. but even if they do, there is no reason for the united states to build more nuclear weapons. we already have the ability to destroy modern civilization six times over. adding to that the ability to destroy civilization eight times or 10 times or 12 times over does nothing to enhance our security. we need to establish a u.s.

policy that nuclear weapons are the greatest threat to our security and don't take as say. we need to actively pursue an agreement with the other eight nuclear armed countries to eliminate all nuclear weapons as is called for by the campaign here in the united states. many people i think feel this is a difficult time to be talking about progress for the elimination of nuclear weapons given what is going on and indeed this is an extraordinarily dangerous moment, but we ve to remember at times in the past when we have been close to nuclear conflict as we areow, in the aftermath of those crises, rapid progress was made to irove the situation. in 1983, the u.s. was threatening a nuclear war with europe was doubly placed missiles in west germany to do that. we almost went to war with the soviet union twice in 1983. less than a year and half later, reagan and gober tough were able

to claim cash gorbachev were able to claim it could never be won. the leaders that emerge from the crisis in 1983 sobered, frightened by what they had almost done and open to a new way of thinking about nuclear weapons, and it is possible, not certain, but possible we will see the same kind of reaction to this current extremely dangerous moment. we citizens need to push our government to seize the potential opportunity and move forward. juan: i wanted to ask you, some of the words of putin yesterday, the western media does not really pay much attention to the actual content of his speech -- of his speeches, but one part i would like to quote you get your reaction he said "in early february, the north atlantic

alliance made a statement with the actual demands of russia to return to the strategic arms reduction treaty, including admission of inspections to our nuclear defense facility. i don't even know what to call this. it is a kind of a theater of absurd. we know the west is directly involved in the key resumes attempt to strike at our aviation bases come of the drones used for this purpose were equipped and updated with the assistance of nato specialist and now they want to inspect our defense facilitie it simply sounds insane." that was putin talking about the fact these assume a certain level of cooperation between the different countries and obviously, the war in ukraine does not make that posble. >> i think at the moment, it is very difficult to ve that degree of cooperation. still, no reason for putin to suspend cooperation. these inspections are very

important in maintaining the level of confidence on both sides, u.s. and russia, that the other side is it hearing to the treaty. anything that undermines this dialogue which putin's has done is a step in the wrong direction. look, there are problems with the decision of both countries in many issues, but the need to abolish nuclear weapons transcends all of these problems. if we don't get rid of nuclear weapons, they will be used. if they're used, nothing us were doing will make a difference. here in the united states, we have the opportunity to affect what our government does. we need to hold our government accountable for its new glare policy. we have the ability to change that policy. congressman mcgovern and blumenauer have introduced a resolution in the house of representatives that calls on the united states to embrace the treaty to abolish daubert

weapons, to make the elimination set as a national security council and begin negotiations now with other nuclear states that are veriable, ted out a grimace to get rid of nuclear weapons. it has to acknowledge what it is happened in ukraine, the war putin has started, but it should not derail our effos to save the plet. we should sit down with these countries, including the russians if they're willing to do it, and begin these negotiations. amy: i want to ask about the nuclear power plants in ukraine. they have several reach a, which is -- savarese which is the largest in all of europe and in the risk of being and a nuclear war zone but the new catastrophe. >> inherently dangerous and the best of times. there certainly not designed to be placed in the middle of a war

zone. should there be an accident at should the plant come under direct attack, there is the potential for catastrophic radiation, much larger at zaporizhzhia that were -- than that were president chernobyl. in the srt-term, a demilitarized zone nee to be created around the power plant. all troops have to be withdrawn. in the long term, think we need to rethink the entire wisdom of having any nuclear power plants, the witnesses, vulnerabilities demonstrated by this company in ukraine. amy: dr. ira helfand, thanks for being with us, the immediate past president of the international physicians for the prevention of nuclear war, which won the nobel peace prize. coming up, the internal capitation of fox news.

the lawsuit against fox shows the network's awareness of the flimsiness of its stolen election narrative. that's right, we're talking tucker carlsen, sean hannity, laura ingraham -- what they knew and when they knew it. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. the foreperson of the special grand jury in georgia that is investigating attempts by former president donald trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election confirmed tuesday that the jury recommended more than a dozen indictments and that the list might include trump. khors spoke tuesday with cnn's kate bolduan about the evidence they reviewed over the past eight months, including testimony from 75 witnesses. >> there is just too much for this to just be,, ok, we're

good, bye. >> if it were just a perjury charge, would that be acceptable? >> that's fine. i will be happy as long as something happens. amy: that was the georgia grand jury foreperson emily khors. among the evidence the grand jury likely reviewed was a recording of trump in january 2021 threatening georgia's republican secretary of state brad raffensperger to overturn biden's victory in the state. >> look, all i want to do is this. i just want to find 17,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state. amy: a small excerpt of the grand jury report was made public last week did not make it clear if the indictments include crimes other than perjury. fulton county district attorney fani willis will ultimately decide what charges to bring, and she says the decision is imminent.

for more, we go to washington, d.c. come to speak with wrist layman, bureau chief for the nation who is following this and wrote a piece headlined "trump's legal team is in hot water." talk about the significance of this grand jury for woman speaking out and what that says about the whole grand jury investigation. >> amy, investigation is still very much a work in progress and it is important to note this grand jury was a special grand jury convened only to make recommendations to the district attorney willis. there has been a lot of chatter about what it means that this foreperson is talking so candidly about potential perjury charges, but the district attorney herself is the person who is going to make that call.

in tha event, she will convene another grand jury to formally proffer potential indictments. so it is still very early to be speculating a great deal and it is also really important to keep in mind the broader background here. trump has faced investigations and potential indictments in new york. he obviously has been impeached twice. the legal system, as your viewers well know and listers well know, favors heavily entrenched power and a former is about as entrenched as power gets, even one who is come as a recording you played show, overtly engaged in criminal activity. juan: from your coverage of this situation, especially in the

trump orbit or his legal team, would be likely exposed to potential indictments? >> you would have to think mark meadows was very much plugged in -- if you read the january 6 report on the interaction at the capitol, meadows is closely conferring with trump every stage of the way. interestingly, the justice department under trump did descendant strongly, even though barr understood this was a bridge too far. i guess trump's personal lawyer could face some exposure, but they have been very careful in all these proceedings to protect the president and limit their own exposure to potential

prosecution. amy: chris layman, we want to move on to your other piece for the nation headlined "the internal decapitation of fox news: documents from dominion voting systems' lawsuit against fox show the network's awareness of the flimsiness of its stolen-election narrative." tim unions $.6 billion defamation lawsuit lays out how fox news hosts and top executive thought former president trump's 2020 election fraud claims were completely unfounded, yet continued to push his conspiracy theories on air. included in the documents was the response from fox news executives when neil cavuto cut off then trump press secretary kayleigh mcenany for making unsubstantiated claims. >> we won an honest, accurate, lawful count. we what maximum sunlight. we want maximum transparency. we want every legal vote to be

counted and weant every illegal vote -- >> i think we have tbe very clear she is charging the other side welcoming fraud and illegal voting. and lest she has more details to back that up, i can't good countenance continue showing you this. amy: so after that, dominion said in his lawsuit that "the brand team led by fox corporation notified senior fox news and fox corporation leadership of the brand threat posed by kabuto's action." chris layman, can you lay out what the documents reveal and what they say about fox news, particularly talk about the stars of fox, what laura ingraham knew, what sean hannity knew, what tucker carlsen new, what has been revealed in these emails and what they would say on the air? >> i think the clip you just played is quite revealing because what neil cavuto is

doing is what is known as journalism. his reporting on facts as he knows them and calling out a powerful spokesperson in the act of lying. that is fundamentally in a perfect world what all journalists should be doing. what is so damning in the dominion motion, see again and again all the top talent and the top corporate executives at fox in one breath acknowledging they know the stone election narrative is a lie but then tamping down -- they cited the cavuto episode has something they should never do going forward. the reason for this is there viewers who they have stoked for 25 years on resentment and grievance politics for the right wanted to be spoonfed some sort of narrative that donald trump

was denied a second term unjustly. and so when the news division at fox and some on commentators like cavuto provided contradictory information, they started rising up and going over to news mag which is a bottom feedings, right-wing news that aired anything and every thing about stone elections. fox was in a meltdown at this moment because they saw there were losing viewership. at one point, tucker crossan texted sean hannity in fury saying, our stock price is going down. not a joke. again, it is just not the case in a functioning democracy the primary purpose of journalism should be to boost the stock price of your company. it should be to tell the truth

and let the chips fall where they may. another sort of cliché about the conduct of journalism is that it should be done without fear or favor. in the dominion documents, you see all kinds of fear and all kinds of favor being extended to the trump administration. this is such a damning moment where you come to fox news is not in fact a news organization. what they're doing is promulgating lies for the sake of maintaining audience share and high profitability. juan: we only have about a minute for this segment, but i'm wondering if you can speculate in terms of the potential long-term impact on fox news as a result of this and the likelihood the dominion systems is going to prevail in this

lawsuit? >> it is very unusual in a defamation case for a motion for summary judgment to be granted, but the evidence is quite overwhelming. so it is a $1.4 billion lawsuit. fox i think its revenues are north of $14 billion. so it would be a hit but it is also important to remember a major corporation like this is going to have libel insurance, is not coming you know, what is scary now that we know the only calculus that matters for fox news news is the financial one, they could will regard $1.4 billion as an acceptable cost of doing business in the pursuit of greater profits. we will see. it is definitely damaging to the reputation of the organization and its lead on your

personalities, but the sad truth of the matter is they did rebound from this moment when they thought there were losing audience share, enjoying really robust ratings and healthy profits in the short term, i fear that a great deal is going to change. until and unless we get something like the fairness doctrine, which is the whole reason that fox news was allowed to do this in the first place, the suspension -- it is going to be a cancer on our democracy. amy: chris layman, thank you for being with us, d.c. bureau chief for the nation. we will link to your piece at democracynow.org. the family of malcolm x announces plans to sue government agencies over the 1965 assassination. back in 30 seconds. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. the family of malcolm x has announced plans to file a 100 million dollars wrongful death lawsuit against the fbi, cia, new york city, and the state, nypd, and new york district attorney's office concealing evidence of their involvement of malcolm x's assassination. the announcement came on tuesday.

the 58th anniversary of malcolm's assassination february 21, 19 65. this all comes just three month after new york city and new york state agreed to pay a total of 36 million dollars to settle lawsuits on behalf of team men who are wrongfully convicted and jailed for decades for assassinating malcolm x. in 2021, judge tossed out convictions against them in -- the men. on tuesday, malcolm x's daughter dr. ben crump. they spoke about malcolm x and dr. betty shabazz at the memorial and educational center in their name. >> 58 years ago today in this

very room, one of the greatest thought leaders ever known in the 21st century was assassinated. and since that time, there has been speculation as to who was involved in the assassination of malcolm x. we know on november 18, 2021, it was confirmed, substantiated, that the government agencies -- the new york police department, the fbi, the district attorney

of new york -- had factual evidence, expose, tori -- exculpatory evidence that they fraudulently concealed from the men who were wrongfully convicted for the assassination of malcolm x. and they also fraudulently concealed that information most importantly from the family of malcolm x. we know that based on their wrongful conviction that the government settled the matter of

the two men for tens of millions of dollars. this is important for many reasons. one of the most important reasons, it gives malcolm's daughters and a opportunity -- an opportunity to seek legal redress finally based on the governments admission that they concealed evidence involving the assassination of malcolm x -- the truth of what happened and who was involved has always been critical. so today at the malcolm x and

dr. betty shabazz memorial and educational center, we announce and give formal notice to the city of new york, the state of new york, and the federal government and its agencies -- the fbi and the cia -- that the family members intend to sue. bring a wrongful death lawsuit based on these new revelations that have now finally been

substantiated. and the rhetorical question is this, if the government compensated the two gentlemen that were wrongfully convicted for the assassination of malcolm x with tens of millions of dollars, then what is to be the compensation for the daughters who suffered the most from the assassination of malcolm x? we intend to have vigorous litigation of this matter to

have discovery, to be able to take depositions of the individuals who are still alive 58 years later to make sure that some measure of justice can be given to malcolm x's daughters who in this very room were present with their mother when he was shot at 21 times, 17 bullets hitting him. if anybody deserves justice after these decades, it is these women. so at this time, we will hear from malcolm's daughter ilyasah

shabazz. >> on february 21, 1965, my mother came here excited to see her husband because a week prior , her home have been firebombed. she walked in here happy but left out shattered. today, we will celebrate our father's life and legacy with the community because it is something that my mother did every year for as long as i can remember with my sisters and just the larger community. we will also seek justice from a young man, only 39 years old, who gave his life for human

rights. for years our family has fought for the truth to come to light concerning his murder, and we would like our father to receive the justice that he deserved. the truth about the circumstances leading to the death of our father is important not only to his family, but to many followers, many admirers, many who lked to him for guidance, for love. and it is our hope that litigation of this case will finally provide some unanswered question. we want justice served for our father. thank you. and ago that was malcolm x's daughter ilyasah shabazz speaking tuesday at the site where he was assassinated 58 years ago. during the news conference, i asked the fama's attorney ben crump about the role of the cia

in their matter of malcolm x. can you talk about the evidence that the cia was involved with malcolm x's assassination? >> amy, we are gng to talk to those individuals who were wrongfully convicted not just of the assassination but in the days leading up to the assassination that we believe this was an orchestrated effort and so what we have to do is connect the dots. you know, as people get older, as they get ready to meet their maker, the hope is that they will look at malcolm x's daughters and say, "we wronged them and we need to make that right before we leave this earth." amy: family attorney ben crump.

we end today show on another subject, the showcase of garcia luna, once charged with leading the fight against narco trafficking, convicted for accepting millions of dollars of bribes from the sinaloa cartel under the former leadership of el chapo guzman. in exchange, garcia luna protected. he served under former president flip he called around who launched mexico's u.s.-backed so-called war on drugs that led to the killing and disappearance of tens of thousands of people. garcia luna also worked closely with u.s. counter narcotics and intelligence agencies as part of the crackdown on drug cartels. for more we are joined here in new york by peniley ramirez, just to get of journalist who has been covering this closely

and executive producer of futuro investigates, and the co-host of their podcast series usa v. garcia luna. and we are joined by maria hinojosa, pulitzer prize-winning journalist, founder of futuro media, host of latino usa, your team has been getting up before the sun rises to go to the court and be ready if the verdict comes down and tuesday i finally did. lay out the significance of this verdict d what you investigated and exposed. >> as you said, yesterday we were there at 3:00 a.m. outside the federal courthouse in brooklyn. we were waiting for the verdict. there were five counts. he was found guilty to all charges, which is a big thing because he is the highest mexican ever faced and now found guilty in the united states. he was the ahitect othe so-called war on drugs. he was the most trusted person

in mexico. we saw in the trial, we saw pictures of him with high-ranking members of the u.s. government like barack obama, hillary clinton. u.s. governmenand u.s. agencies reall trusted this guy while mexico was becoming the most dangeus place for journalists and thousands of people were dying and continue to die in mexico because of the violence in herin the united states because of the overdoses. so now we know the so-called war on drugs was false, was completely a way to operate to justify, and this was part of the closing arguments from the prosecution who said -- the lead of the prosecution team said they created thisse war on

drugs to have a way to justify that they were pursuing the cartels and favoring the sinaloa cartel. it was a big thing and it is a trial that involves -- we should hold accountable both countries because this person was sort of a triple agent. he was working with the mexican governme, working with the da, and he was working for the sinaloa cartel. juan: maria, i wanted to ask you, the impact in mexico of this trial is far graded -- greater than here in the united states, especially given under the former president felipe calderón there was this enormous war on drugs unleashed. has the trial shown any indication it went beyond garcia luna to other people in the administration? >> i mean, there were names

thrown out there but, no, really, this was -- i thought you're going asked me whether or not the trial went beyond the united states and the prosecutors began to look inwardly and realize that the u.s. goverent, the dea, the entire security apparatus failed here. juan and amy, we are sold a bill of goods of u.s. intelligence. we are made to believe the dea is lawful and knows what it is doing. in fact, there were rumblings about garcia luna over 20 years ago. there were questions about him. so intelligence? what exactly are you talking about? by the way, what we heard in the trial is the level of the narco state of mexico, yes, it is very depressing as a mexican of course, but you can't assume

you've gotplane loads of cocaine from mexico into new york and there's no corruption on the u.s. side? no corruption on the new york side? what does that mean? that is why we decided to do this podcast is become a cult hit in both english and spanish because it is not just about pointing the finger inside, corrupt mexican. that is a very simple narrative. we are trying to say who is really at fault here and what is this war on drugs about and who is paying the cost? by the way, mexican people murdered, people dying here in the u.s., but also the number of black and brown people we all know who spinning time in jail now that should not be there. juan: and this comes as the biden administration on tuesday announced a new border policy to take effect, that would allow the u.s. to quickly deport

asylum-seekers who failed to first request asylum on the way to the united states and use a mobile app to seek asylum. maria, you cover these immigration issues along the border for so many years. your reaction to this new decision of the biden administration? >> i am disgusted. i am absolutely disgusted. the fact that joe biden, who you and i know is been around long enough that he knows exactly what is going on, he knows that people were coming to seek asylum deserve that opportunity, and he knows what it is like to be in a caravan or in the jungles in colombia and to attempt to have internet service to download an app before you leave haiti to request asylum is completely illogical. i'm glad you brought it up. we cannot allow ourselves to be gas lit by this kind of ridiculous policy. by the way, let's remember this

country had the capacity to turn away jewish refugees nazi era. we are saying remain true to who you are as a country of immigrants in our indebtedness to those who were enslaved brought before. amy: the issue of how immigration, how migration, people coming over the border from mexico into the united states is directly connected to the u.s. support for people like garcia luna, as you were just talking about, the close relationship that the obama administration, clinton administration, all of them had with this man who ultimately now working with el chapo is convicted on most all cnts. >> exactly what you said is right because it is all connected. we learned during the trial that garcia luna -- we do it because

of my investigative work the same day when he lefofficen mexico, he did not move to another country. he moved to the united states. he moved to miami, to a $3 million house. then he was living here with his family. he got a green card. he got a global entry card. so he was allowed to be here and stay here and now part of this guilty verdict that we learned this week was that he was continuously working with this a lower carls even afr he left -- sinaloa cartel even after he left the united states. we saw he was going back to mexico all the time. he was taking advantage of both countries, living in both countries and at the same time, the violence in mexico during those years, it came so big that it is still growing and growing.

what happens when you have all this violence in mexico, violence goes the sou. u have me and more people trying to come to the united states to be safer because in their own countries, they have no opportunities, the economy is not good because you don't have investments, don't have people coming in or trying to start business because the crime is so big. it is abt everything. everything is corrupted. something we learned in this trial, if you have a person like him who was leading the federal police, leading the prison system, leading the whole apparatus and helping one cartel and facing the other cartels -- he was creating this horrible place to live in 70 places in

mexico, and people were forced to leave their towns, leave their city, seek asylum. we should analyze also the immigration crisis we have in th country and in mexico and all the people looking for asylum also under the perspective of this war on drugs, the so-called war on drugs. now we know is the false w on drugs. and the responsibility of people that the u.s. gernment created a horrible crisis, and that crisis impacted not just in mexico but in the region, in central america, and also here in the united states. amy: we want to thank you both for your incredible reporting on this. peniley ramirez and maria hinojosa, cohost of the podcast "usa v. garcia luna." episode 10 is out on friday.

that does it for our show stop go to democracynow.org to see democracy now! in english and also headlines and highlights in spanish. 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, new york

(sophie fouron) it's 10 o'clock at night, but you can't tell. it's hard to tell the time here, because there's light day and night. it's the summer solstice, here in lofoten. we're in the polar circle in the north of norway. the lofoten islands are six main islands connected by tunnels and bridges. and surrounding those six islands are dozens of little islands. you can only access them by boat, and i think they like it that way. we can't talk about the lofoten islands without talking about stockfisch, r