03/24/23 03/24/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we are here today because it is out of the question 22 raisi retirement age. it is tough for them to understand people want to enjoy their lives. we're not here to die on the job, we want to enjoy life one day, too. amy: as many as 3 million people take to the streets of france as

anger mounts over president emmanuel macron's move to raise the retirement age. we will go to marseilles for the latest. we will also talk to congressmember ro khanna about the banking crisis, tiktok, and more. then investigative journalist james bamford reveals how israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu clandestinely tried to help donald trump get elected in 2016. >> thereas no collion between russia and the trump campaign as the mueller report concluded. but what was totally missed was the collusion, very extensive collusion, between the prime minister of israel and the trump campaign. amy: and we will get an update from atlanta on the protests against cop city. those charged with domestic terrorism. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and

peace report. i'm amy goodman. israel passed a law thursday to shield prime minister benjamin netanyahu from removal as he faces a corruption trial and massive protests against anti- anti-democratic reforms to disempower the judiciary. scores of protesters were arrested thursday while israel's attorney general said in a letter today the plan to gut the justice system is illegal. netanyahu is meeting with prime minister rishi sunak. he arrived at 10 downing street and greeted by a protester -- by protesters jeers. another palestinian was killed thursday as ramadan was starting by israeli forces during a raid in the occupied west bank. 25-year-old amir abu khadijeh is at least the 85th palestinian to be killed by israel in 2023.

in france, an estimated people 3.5 million took to the streets thursday in a nationwide general strike to protest president emmanuel macron's deeply unpopular move to raise the age of retirement from 62 to 64. his government forced the legislation through the national assembly using a constitutional clause to bypass a parliamentary vote. this is a protester. >> i am on strike to protest against what is happening under the government with the denial of democracy, which is quite significant right now. they are not listening to the people anymore. it is important for us to be here so our voice can be heard and to say what is happening is not normal. the people are against the reform. they should be heard. amy: after headlines, we'll go to paris for the latest. united states and canada have reached an agreement to block

migrantsrom seeking asylum if they're apphended attempting to cross the u.s.'s northern border into canada. president joe biden and canadian prime minister justin trudeau are expected to announce the deal in ottawa today during biden's first official trip to canada since taking office. canada has also reportedly agreed to allow up to 15,000 central american migrants into the country over the next year. tens of thousands of migrants have been making their way to canada as the u.s. enforces harsher immigration policies. advocates denounced the mo as biden's latest attempt to discourage people from even attempting to trek north for refuge. biden and trudeau are also expected to discuss the worsening gang violence and humanitarian crisis in haiti as the u.s. has been pushing the canadian government to lead a multinational armed intervention. the pentagon says it has carried out multiple air strikes inside syria. this according to u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin who said the overnight attacks were in response to a drone attack by

iran-backed fighters that killed a u.s. military contractor and wounded five u.s. troops as well. the u.k.-based syrian observatory for human rights said the u.s. air strikes killed 11 iranian-backed fighters in three locations, though those reports could not be confirmed. congress has not formally authorized u.s. military action in syria. though last year, a majority of both republicans and democrats in the house voted down a resolution to withdraw all remaining u.s. troops from syria. the u.s. strikes came after israeli warplanes bombed the international airport in the northern syrian city of aleppo on wednesd, damaging equipment and bringing flights to a halt. it was israel's second attack on aleppo's main airport this month. in other news from syria, reports emerged thursday saudi arabia and syria are nearing a deal in russian-broked talks to rtore diplomatic ties that were c off in 2012 as saudi arabia backed syri rebel fighters in the country's brutal civil war.

in india, lawmaker rahul gandhi has been disqualified from parliament and sentenced to two years in prison after being convicted for criticizing prime minister narendra modi. he was found guilty of defamation for saying at a 2019 campaign rally, "why do all thieves have modi as the surname?" gandhi was expected to run against modi in 2024. back in the united states on capitol hill, tiktok ceo shou zi chew was grilled by house lawmakers for over five hours on the app's ties to the chinese government, data practices, and its effects on children's mental health. this is democratic florida congressmember darren soto questioning chew. >> mr. chiu, would tiktok be prepared to divest from bytedance and chinese commonest party ties if the department of treasury instructed you all to do so? >> i said in my opening statement, i think we need to

address the problem of privacy. i don't think ownership is the issue here. with a lot of respect, american social companies don't have good track records of privacy. amy: this comes as a number of progressive lawmakers are speaking out against politically motivated attempts to ban or scapegoat tiktok, saying it is driven by dangerous anti-chinese sentiment. this is new york democrat jamaal bowman speaking at a rally earlier this week. >> we can protect freedom of speech and we can deal with the privacy concerns at the same time. right now we are not trying to do both. amy: meanwhile, in utah, republican governor spencer cox signed sweeping social media legislation thursday that requires anyone 18 or younger to get explicit parental consent to use apps such as tiktok, instagram, and facebook -- though it's unclear how this will be enforced. critics warn the law could cause more harm to marginalized teens

and children for whom social media can be a lifeline, including lgbtq minors who access vital support and information online. georgia and iowa have become the latest states to enact anti-trans laws. on thursday, georgia governor brian kemp signed a bill banning gender-affirming surgeries and hormone replacement therapies for transgender youth under the age of 18. iowa governor kim reynolds signed a similar bill on wednesday, along with another measure banning trans students from entering school bathrooms or changing-rooms that match their gender identities. this comes as world athletics, the global governing body for track and field, voted thursday to ban trans women from elite competitions if they transitioned after puberty. advocates of the anti-trans policy claim trans women athletes have a physical advantage over cisgender women. but science refutes that. a report published in 2017 in the journal sports medicine finds there's "no direct or

consistent research" showing trans athletes have an advantage over others. a michigan court has ordered the parents of the oxford high school mass shooter to stand trial for manslaughter. ethan crumbley was just 15 years old at the time of the attack last november, which killed four students and injured six other s. on thursday, the michigan court of appeals ruled there was enough evidence to bring jennifer and james crumbley, his parents, to trial after they gave their son easy access to a gun and failed to stop him from carrying out the shooting, despite clear warning signs. meanwhile, in colorado, the denver public school district voted unanimously thursday to temporarily suspend its ban on armed guards and police officers in schools. the ban had been in place since 2021 after a wave of protests against police brutality erupted following the murder of george floyd. this comes after two faculty

members at denver east high school were shot and wounded wednesday by a 17-year-old with a handgun. police say they found the teen dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. the shooting came just over a month after another shooting at the same school fatally wounded 16-year-old luis garcia. that prompted a massive march from denver's east high to the nearby state capitol. and in california, about 60,000 education workers have ended a three-day strike at the los angeles unified school district without an agreement on a new union contract. the strike prompted los angeles mayor karen bass to join contract talks as a mediator after district officials failed to reach an agreement with the union following more than a year of negotiations. seiu local 99 says many of its members who work as bus drivers, custodians, and teachers' aides earn poverty wages of roughly $12 per hour in one of the most expensive cities in the united states. this is jason torres-rangel, an

enish teacher at roosevelt high school and winner of the 2022 california teacher of the year award. >> i am a second-generation teacher. my parents struck in 1999. i am here with my seiu brothers and sisters, asking for a living wage. they are not asking to be millionaires, they are asking to be lifted out of poverty in the richest state in the nation that pays the superintendent $440,000 year. i think we can show them they deserve it. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show in france, where union say more than 3 million people took to the streets in a nationwide general strike thursday to protest president emmanuel macron's deeply unpopular move to raise the retirement age from 62 to

64 without giving the french parliament a chance to vote on the plan. on monday, macron survived a vote of no-confidence by just nine votes. in bordeaux, the town hall was set on fire and in paris police fired tear gas at protesters. that included transportation workers, garbage collectors, teachers, students, and more. >> we are here today because it is out of the question to raise the retirement age. you have to understand some people work in difficult conditions and today these people are told not only do they have to work longer, but also nothing prevents the government in the future to restart this type of bill. it is time for them to understand people also want to enjoy their lives. we are not here to die on the job, we want to be able to enjoy life one day, too. amy: a visit has just been postponed by the king.

strikers said they had refused throughout the red carpet for him. the eight largest unions have called another nationwide protest for this tuesday. for more, we go to marseille, france, to speak with journalist cole stranger, whose guest essay in "the new york times" today is headlined "france is furious." welcome back to democracy now! can you describe the level of mass protests and discussed in the street right now throughout france? and talk about how this was push through. >> i think there are two things going on here, one hand the pension reform that is extremely unpopular on its merits. polls show anywhere from two thirds to seven out of 10 french people have oppose this reform from the beginning. so going back to january at the first protest we saw, they say it is unfair, disproportionately

hurting manual workers, women. a lot of opposition to the reform itself going on for two monthsn this wave of mobilization, strike as you mentioned, what energize the movement further is the weather government has gotten this across the finish line. last friday, there was supposed to be a vote in the national assembly on this unpopular bill. the government when they realized they did not have the votes to get it approved and the national assembly, deployed this constitutional measure that allows them to approve the bill without a vote in parliament. so on monday, macron survived the vote of no-confidence. in theory, this will take effect -- a couple of ways to block it that we can get into, but the way the government has carried out this reform i think has given the movement .

it is why unions have called for another day of mobilization and why we have another one set up next week because people see it as unfair. not only does the government try to do this picture reform that people see as fundamentally unfair, but they are ignoring historically large process even by french standards. they a ignoring the opinion polls, moderate unions. it is fueling this movement. right now it feels similar to the yellow vest movement in 2018 , 2019 where you had this government that does not seem to understand the anger that it has unleashed. amy: can you talk about the ways where it is possible this would be rolled back? >> there is a precedent a lot of people have in their minds, which is the 2000 six you employment contract. at the time, you had mass mobilizations from student

unions, labor unions to oppose this reform. the national assembly passed this bill in february 2006. the movement continued and a couple of months later, the prime minister, under the guidance of then-president, thought maybe this was not the best time to be approving this unpopular law that was creating mass protests. so the government did not apply the law that had been passed and the national sibley passed a law repealing it. that is one method. that is why we have protest continuing, why we have unions assange this is not over yet, trying to get the government to de-escalate. the other route is the french constitutional council, the equivalent of the supreme court, examining this law and deciding to invalidate parts or all of

the bill. there are a lot of questions over that specific measure the government has deployeto get the bill across the finish line. critics say was not meant for the reform of this nature. they attached it to a particur dget bill. there is an argument to be made this article was applied inappropriately. the constitutional council will be meeting as well amid these mass protests that are not dying out and another wave is scheduled for next week. amy: who is supporting the president in this? clearly, overwhelmingly, the population is against this. >> macron has a base of voters that is very real. we should not forget that. macron base tends to be wealthier, older voters, and vote more as well. we saw this in the elections last summer.

you have a small chunk of the french population, about one third according to the polls, that supports this reform but they are in the minority. if you -- we are looking ahead to who is going to benefit, i think it is important to stress as well if you look at france, the tendency to look at simply the president and his opposition on the far right. it should be stressed marine le pen and the national rally have effectively played no role. the movement is led by labor unions, moderate labor unions to more militant left-wing labor unions, and being led by the parties of the left. it is important point to stress, people expected or thought maybe the left was dead or labor unions in france could not mobilize anymore have been proven wrong by this movement. you have a mass movement that relates to things led by labor showing it can have this cultural appeal, this power that

has mobilize the french workforce. amy: cole stranger, thank you for being with us, paris-based journalist speaking to us from marseilles. coming, congressmember ro khanna on the banking crisis, the attempts to ban tiktok, and more. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: concertgoers group coins and boot musicians of the orchestra as the musicians right out of the union statement about president macron's plan. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are joined now by democratic congressmber ro khanna of silicon valley, of california, to talk about the banking crisis, the attempts to ban tiktok, east palestine, and more. congressmber khanna recently

joined senator elizabeth warren, congressmember katie porter, and others to push for stronger banking regulations following the collapse of silicon valley bank and signature bank. khanna has criticized fellow democrats who supported a 2018 bill that weakened dodd-frank, the landmark regulatory reform passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. executives from silicon valley bank and signature bank were among those who successfully lobbied to weaken rules that may have prevented their collapse. silicon valley bank is based in ro khanna's district in california. congressmember khanna, welcome back to democracy now! what needs to happen overall? how can regulations be tightened? >> thank you for having me back. we need to regulate large regional banks the same way that we regulate the -- i remember when the silicon valley ban

exec its work in my office pushing foderegulation. i voted against that deregulation. i believe the deregulation was a cause of the bank failure. you would've had liquidity test, stress tests. i know yellen has said maybe those tests would not have captured the liquidity challenge with the rapid rise in interest rates -- first of all, that is a problem with the test. regardless of whether the tests would have captured that, it would have sent a signal to the regulators to pay more attention to what was going on in silicon valley bank, and that would've prevented the gross mismanagement. instead what we said is, if you are one of these regional banks like silicon valley bank, of carte blanche to do whatever we want without much revelatory oversight. it was a colossal mistake. we need to have the regulations back. amy: on monday, abc news reported the fed was aware of silicon valley bank's problems

and they warned them. what do the warnings mean? where are the concrete regulations and what is your critique of the federal reserve and jerome powell? >> the critique of jerome powell with respect is that he missed the inflation early on and going from zero to 60 with rapid interest rate hikes that has created some of this challenge. i don't want to exonerate were excuse the bank management, they were greedy. they were long-term bonds with no hedge on it and they had large wealthy depositors with no diversification. so the first blame is with the bank executives. the fed's rapid increase could treated. the fact the fed had this morning without enforcement w a problem, but that is because of the weakening of the dodd-frank regulations. ultimately in my view, the federal depot insurance corporation, fbi see, that is

supposed to be regulating these banks and they would have much more authorityf they had dodd-frank type regulations. amy: yet the san francisco-based bank first republic, and big crisis right now, being relegated to junk. you have a lot of people who are saying, well, we have got to invest in the largest banks, calling them the most stable. at the same time, give a massive climate protest this week across the country where people are cutting up their credit cards to these banks because of their fossil fuel promotion. just asking, you are talking about shoring up community banks. how do you do that now? how do you tell people where there banking, if it is outside the big ones, citibank and chase and bank of america, are safe? >> we need to protect community banks. otherwise all of the money that goes into the big four banks, it

will be back for regional, economic delopment or for some of the causes you are talking about if the power is all consolidated with the big four banks. in the last 10 years of the 73 bank failures, and almost all of them, depositors have been guaranteed. in our recent history, depositors -- what i have said is we should say depositors in this country will be guaranteed, at least for the next year or two. how are we going to pay for that? we will pay for that with a bank feed, requiring to have a mandatory fee to pay for that insurance. right now it is basically we have these wealthy account holders, peoplhave a milon dollars, chilean dollars.

-- $1 million, chilean dollars. there like uninsured drivers. it ithe taxpayer that ends up doing the deposit guarantee. amy: as we talk about the horrors of capitalism right now, i want to go to your vote on the horrors of socialism, so-called. an early february, republicans unencumbered had to vote to denounce the horrors of socialism, specifically referring to it in that way. cogs member khanna, you were the national co-chair of a socialist candidate president, bernie sanders and yet unlike aoc, unlike even steny hoyer, rashida tlaib, you voted to suppo this to the surprise of many. >> that is a fair question. i have alws called myself an fdr democrat.

medicare for all, free public college, universal childcare, a livable wage. those are not policies that are just just but will lead to economic growth and will lead to innovation. every time we talk about childcare and $10 a day the republicans say, what about stalin, lenin? that is a rhetorical fact that does not solve people's problems. i have tried to frame progressive principles as consistent with the free enterprise system of united states, as hamilton and fdr did. that is why i voted that way. but i understand people also voted a different way and i respect that vote. amy: i want to turn to tiktok. on thursday, the tiktok ceo was grilled by house lawmakers for over five hours on the app's ties to the chinese government, data practices, its effects on children's mental health.

the hearing took place just days after the biden administration demanded the chinese owned tiktok be sold or else face a national ban in the united states. during his opening statement, the tiktok ceo shou zi chew vowed to protect user data of american users. this is what he said. >> we have heard important concerns about the potential for unwanted foreign access to u.s. data and potential manipulation of the tiktok u.s. ecosystem. our approach has never been to dismiss any of these concerns. we have addressed them with real action. that is what we've been doing for the last two years, building what amounts to a firewall to protect user data from unauthorized foreign access. the bottom line is this, american data stored on american soil by an american company overseen by american personnel. we call this initiative project

texas. that is where oracle is headquartered. today u.s. tiktok data is stored by default in oracle service. only vetted personnel operating in the new company called tiktok u.s. data security can control access to this data. amy: that is the tiktok ceo. word is the house speaker and democrats and republicans are going to put forward a vote to ban tiktok unless it is sold -- i don't know if it is just an american or a non-chinese corporation. democratic cogs number bowman of new york was not in the hearing that he has been one of the soul lawmakers to defend tiktok. this is what he says. >> so we're talking about free speech for everyday americans. we are talking about small business owners who use tiktok to grow their business. my question is, and we will pivot to the other part of the

conversation, why the hysteria and the panic in the targeting of tiktok? as we know, republicans in particular have been sounding the alarm, creating a red scare around china. amy: can answer that question? you are now on the new select committee on china. are we seeing the kind of convergence right now of an anti-china hysteria as well as this deep concern about protecting children -- all of this brought out yesterday? it all being laid on tiktok. the boston globe has an editorial today saying the answer is not going after tiktok but regulating the social media companies. >> there are two different points. if we want to protect young kids and teenagers come absolutely, we need broader social media

reform. one third of american teenage girls have contemplated suicide. one of the causes of that is their addiction to social media, which is like the worst experience in junior high on steroids often. i have called for having a standard that the social media platforms need to consider the harm to adolescents and the ftc should be regulating them. they should not be able to have algorithms that get people addicted war because mental or emotional harm. that has to be broad-based on all social media. tiktok has separate concerns and there are two concerns. one is reciprocity. china does not allow twitter, facebook, amazon, google, youtube to even have the slightest entrance into china. so there has to be reciprocity

of trade. the second point is there is evidence that tiktok, while they have not compromised american data, have had chinese ccp ficials in the app, prioritize about likes code information the chinese communist government once about sensitive human rights and other issues. what if the chinese, and his party were to do to tiktok what they did to jack ma or other leaders in china? i think those are legitimate concerns. that is not hysteria. i've said we need to be tough on tre but alsotill have dialogue. but it seems to me an unnecessary risk to have the ccp control anyway over bytedance and tiktok. amy: you recently traveled to taiwan where he met with the taiwanese president.

how concerned are you that these congressional visits could further escalate tension between the united states and china and also the united states pledging hundreds of millions of dollars of weapons to taiwan at the same time president biden is drawing a line in the sand when it comes to china militarily supporting russia in the ukraine war? >> it depends on what members of congress they when they go to taiwan. i was struck the president of taiwan and the canteen, which is more sympathetic to chinese and the tpp, all had converged on civil policy and that is they wanted taiwan to be prepared for its defense. the taiwane whatt a with defense from the united states. the same time they recognized 40% of taiwanese exports are to

the mainland of china and they wanted an affirmation of the one china policy, which is that the situation between taiwan and china should be resolved through peaceful dialogue between both parties and that affirmation of the status quo. my view is as long as we operate under that framework, as long as we -- our policy is not getting ahead of twan, and we can still have peace in the region while being strong and standing up for the values of democracy and freedom that taiwan represents. amy: let's go to the ukraine war . peace activist with the group code pink repeatedly interrupted u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken wednesday as he testified before the senate foreign relations committee. this is medea benjamin. >> the american people what -- a proxy war with russia that could

lead us to world war iii or a nuclear holocaust. you're supposed to be a diplomat. try negotiating. if you don't like the chinese proposal, where is your peace proposal? amy: that is peace activist medea benjamin. if you could respond to what she is saying? where are the negotiations? china pope fort of peace plan, where is the biden administration's peace plan being put forward? do you think the biden administration is doing enough to find a way to negotiaten end to this war? >> i have to respect what biden and blinken have done to mitigate the risk to nuclear war. the president has been quite judicious and not wanting to escalate tensions with the soviet union when he was threatening nuclear weapo, the president did not respond in

kind. he has been cautious, criticized by republicans on the hill in not having weapons ukraine that would be offensive that would have any risk of getting into russian territory. where i think china has missed the opportunity for global leadership as they still have not denounced putin's clear aggression in war in ukraine. they have no legitimacy in my view to offer a peace plan if they're unwilling to say what putin was wrong. if xi jinping is meeting with putin over 40 times in the last decade and saying he is one of our closest friends and unwilling to criticize what putin did, that does not give them much of a moral legitimacy for a peace plan. i think where we should have a peace plan is clearly saying putin was wrong, it was unprovoked, we want to have the territorial sovereignty of ukraine and stand up for ukraine but we need to have at the same time dialogue.

native countries like india and others that could be better brokers. india has condemned putin's invasion. my view is we have to support ukraine while working at the same time to keep the channels of dialogue open to have some just peace. i was fine and supported secretary blinken meeting with india. it should continue the dialogue while saying putin was clearly in the wrong end of this case. amy: president biden has approved a massive conocophillips oil and gas development in alaska. the $7illion willo pject expectedo produc180,000 barrels oiler day aing some 240illi mric tons of greenhou gas pollution to the atmosphere over 30 years. you are from california. you start leno the effects of the climate catastrophe and not just in california malawi and madagascar are, all over the

world. your response to this approval? >> it is a colossal mistake by the administration. it is a carbon bomb. there is no justification for it. it is undermining the very goals of the inflation reduction act come the largest climate package. it will be alienating the very voters that admired the president's work on climate and student debt relief. i have advocated strongly that this is just a wrong decision, mistake, and it sends a horrible message to young voters and climate activists across the country. amy: congressmember ro khanna from california, deputy whip of the congressional progressive caucus as well as the house select committee on china. thank you for being with us. when we come back, investigative journalist james bamford reveals how benjamin netanyahu

clandestinely tried to help donald trump get elected in 2016. why don't we know more about this? stay with us. ♪♪ [music break] amy: "the poor innocent song" by palestinian singer and songwriter rasha nahas. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as mass protests rock israel against prime minister

benjamin netanyahu and his plan to overhaul israel's judiciary , we turn to look at how netanyahu secretly tried to help donald trump win the 2016 election. that's the focus of a new cover story in the nation headlined "the candidate and the spy." longtime award-winning investigative journalist james bamford reveals netanyahu dispatched a secret israeli agent to the united states in the spring of 2016 to meet with advisors to trump and offer to share secret intelligence with the campaign against hillary clinton. the story is based in part on a series of text messages sent by the israeli secret agent to trump advisor roger stone. in one message from august 12, 2016, the agent wrote -- "roger, hello from jerusalem. any progress? he is going to be defeated unless we intervene. we have critical intel. the key is in your hands." later the agent wrote, "october surprise is coming!"

james bamford rights -- james bamford joins us now from washington, d.c., author of many books. his latest "spyfail: foreign , spies, moles, saboteurs, and the collapse of america's counterintelligence." jim, welcome back. it is great to have you with us. take us on this journey. talk about what happened, why we know a lot about russia -- were at least a lot is made of it going after russia's thing it tried to overthrow the 2016

election or spin it for trump, what actually is documented here is israel's involvement and yet mueller report said it look like they knew but did not want to talk about it. >> exactly. the documents icon got are from the fbi. there is an fbi affidavit about this. there are documents -- numerous quotes from the secret agent, the israeli agent sent by netanyahu talking about the pm, which the fbi agent indicates was the prime minister. and lays out a months long plot, basically, from may 2016 until the fall of 2016, right up to the election. this was investigated by the mueller team. it was the mueller fbi agent who

got a search warrant for the secret agent's communications. that is what these documents are. these are the basis of that investigation from the fbi and the mueller team. but all this was redacted from the mueller report. all they focused on was russia and in the end, they basically gave russia a bill of health. they said there was no collusion between russia and the trump campaign. they left out a little bit from the report and that is that there was collusion but it was from netanyahu and israel to the trump campaign and it went on for months and months and involved providing the trump campaign with secret access to the information that the russians were picking up from hillary clinton's campaign the dnc. in other words, the israelis,

that a very sophisticated eavesdropping organization, their equivalent of the nsa. they were eavesdropping on the russians and wikigate and julian assange and picking up all this information that the russians were getting from the clinton campaign and the dnc. and rather than giving it to the president of united states obama, which is what an ally is supposed to do -- especially one that gets $4 billion a year -- they instead were giving it to the truck campaign, secretly giving it to the trump campaign in order to get concession from trump when he became president and hopefully they're going to help -- amy: let's talk about that moment, why this was so critical for netanyahu. talk about the quartet, the direction obama and the quartet were going in and why netanyahu wanted trump to win.

>> a key reason he wanted trump to win is because trump vowed to throw out the nuclear agreement with iran that the obama administration works very hard on and was very useful to the united states. netanyahu did not want it. he wanted trump to get rid of it and trump was planning to do that. but he wanted to second thing, the obama administration was putting a great deal of pressure on netanyahu to work out an agreement with the palestinians over jerusalem, which is divided there's the final agreement was going to be divided between the palestinians and israel. netanyahu one of the entire cities to be israeli. so they were putting pressure on the trump campaign saying, look, this is what we want and we can

help trump get elected but we have to have basically an agreement that he is going to help us on the issue over the sovereignty of jerusalem. in the very end, that's what happened. there was a secret meeting or at least a private meeting in the trump penthouse in new york just between netanyahu and trump. after it was over, trump came out and that is what he said, he said if i am elected president, i'm going to move the u.s. embassy to jerusalem and declare jerusalem the capital of israel. so the israelis got what they wanted and trump got what he wanted and the america public was screwed in the meantime. amy: in your piece "the candidate and the spy," you write -- "although the affidavit did not specify any individual defendants, the numerous

potential criminal charges laid out in the fbi documents spoke to the seriousness of the israeli plot. they included violation of the foreign contributions ban, which prohibits foreigners from contributing money or something of value to federal, state, or local elections. other charges included aiding and abetting, conspiracy, wire fraud, and attempted conspiracy to commit wire fraud. still another charge, 'unauthorized access to a protected computer,' indicates israel may have conducted illegal hacking operations." can you talk more about this and this man who is the spy in that title of your piece, married to netanyahu's cousin? >> they don't name the spy. the spy's name is redacted but there are a lot of similarities between trump's closest associates isaac my whole and he is a very shadowy character, described as very discrete. netanyahu would send him on

secret missions to various places. just mentioned that happens to be a very close associate who goes on secret missions for netanyahu, at least according to the israeli newspaper, well known and highly respected newspaper. he is a candidate but i don't know if he was the secret agent or not. i am just mentioning him as one of the people that netanyahu does send out on secret missions. you know, i think it would be very important for the u.s. government to identify this person who is trying to interfere and throw the election in favor of trump. amy: you also comment it is not only the united states that the netanyahu government was involved with trying to interfere with the elections. you talk about latin america, africa.

talk about this archimedes group. >> well, just to back up a little, just recently in the last few weeks, there was an enormous investigation that was revealed throughout much of the world, actually. it was an eight month investigation by journalists from some of the most respected newspapers in the world, including in israel and spain and london and germany and france. anyway, it was an enormous investigation that went on for a months. the focus was israel interfering in elections around the world. they came out with an enormous amount of detail, including undercover investigations of israeli activity trying to

overthrow or rather throw elections in latin america, africa, and according to one of the members of the group, in the united states. this has been going on for a very long time. basically, identifies israel as the world center for election interference. or secret election interference. archimedes group was one of those companies early on before this investigation that wasn't to divide fight as a company that israel was using or at least was a private company with ties to the israeli intelligence that was using a lot of fraud and other aspects to throw elections in various parts of the world. there were 13 countries or something involved. this has been going on for a long time. israel has been involved in enormous amount of covert operations and intelligence

operations in the u.s. in the last seven years. half my book goes with israeli intelligence in the united states. there is a determination by all parties involved, the administration, congressmen, mainstream media, to completely use lighters when it comes to israel. amy: while the u.s. media fixated on russian interference in the 2016 election, another campaign to influence the outcome by israel went unreported. that was 2016. now we're moving in on the 2024 election. you have the prime minister of israel, benjamin netanyahu, and again president trump is running for president. your final thoughts, jim? >> well, it is going to be deja vu all over again. it will be a repeat with the same players in the same position and the same media that pays no attention to anything

that israel does that is questionable in the united states and the congress and the administration that completely turns a blind eye to israeli intelligence. we are here again. it is just going to repeat itself of the same players doing the same play all over again unless there is congressional investigation or hard-hitting reporting by the mainstream media. and further investigation by the fbi. america jim bamford, we want to have you back on to talk about your book but we want to thank you so much for being with us now. james bamford, longtime investigative journalist. we will link to your latest piece "the candidate and the spy." we end today's show with an update on protests against cop city in atlanta and a dramatic bond hearing thursday, where a judge denied bond for most of the people jailed since march 5 when they were seemingly indiscriminately arrested at a music festival against the proposed police training

facility, would be the largest in the country, in the weelaunee forest and accused of vandalism and arson at a construction site a mile away. they are charged with domestic terrorism based on evidence like muddy clothes. one of those arrested was longtime new york city activist whose daughter told the independent, we're so grateful and appreciative for all the support they have received. it is made things so less stressful. for an update, we are joined by micah herskind, a local community organizer in atlanta, georgia. welcome back to democracy now! talk about these charges of domestic terrorism and who is being held in jail and not released on bond? >> at the end of the day, these charges are political prosecution. 23 people were arrested at the weelaunee forest festival, the beginning of the week of action.

there was an action that happened about a mile away from the site and instead of showing up to that site, please showed up at the music festival where people were enjoying music, having a good time. now -- ever since march 5, 22 people were being held in jail without bond. yesterday they had new bond hearings where about 12 folks got out earlier because -- on consent bonds, ich means they did not have to pay. eight people were denied bond yesterday and two people were granted $25,000 bonds. folks were denied bond were not denied bond for any specific evidence other than, as you said, having mud on their clothing and their shoes come having wet pants. we saw affidavits and warrants that said folks are no numbers of prison abolitionist movement. these are really just about trying to repress this social movement that is try to stop cop city. amy: this is a social movement

that goes across the spectrum in atlanta. give religious people, environmentalist fighting this, indigenous people fighting this. you people who are deeply concerned about issues of police brutality who are fighting this. and then you have the recent police killing of torta gita who was one of the activists and an independent autopsy just came out that suggested they were sitting across like it with their hands in the air when they were shot. >> absolutely. the state has yet to release its autopsy even though we are months out from his killing. the independent autopsy shows their mother speaking at a press conference sat down and showed the position is autopsy found that her child was killed in, which was essentially looking like this, sitting crosslegged with bullets through their palms .

the more information that comes out, the more cleare, th killing was a political assassination where police marched into the force and killed somebody and then most likely lied to cover it up. amy: it is reported by john tarleton conditions in the dekalb county jail women's unit are poor, sophia said, one of the daughters being held come as d. that means unit reported to be even worse she said. your thoughts on how people are able to communicate? we just did a story, we interviewed ben crump about the 10 people, seven of them police officers, who were arrested on murder charges for killing a mentally challenged man at a hospital in virginia.

they are out on bond. these activists are charged with domestic terrorism, continue to be held. >> yes. being held really without evidence. it was clear during the bond hearings the prosecution is not yet put together any case. one of the examples they gave was people were wearing black and that was evident of playing on the team, being on the side of the protest and so the charges are all really shaky. there is really no legitimate evidence that has been put forward. terms of the jail conditions, right now it is true across the country but especially across atlanta, our jails are an absolute crisis. jails happening across the metro area, really frequently, the dekalb county gel, many parts don't have runni water is what we hear,oilets are broken,

there are freezing temperatures. despite that, there have been vigils that organizers have been hosting outside the jail as a way to communicate with folks inside. shortly after their arrest, there is a large vigil and folks were able to yell across the walls of the jail. a father of someone who had been arrested was able to speak directly to his child. there have been beautiful moments of solidarity. making sure we're supporting folks inside. amy: micah herskind, thank you for being with us, local community organizer in atlanta, georgia. that does it for our show. on monday, juan gonzalez is moderating a panel on the 2020 race. details at democracynow.org. very happy birthday to nermeen shaikh! democracy now! is currently accepting applications for a digital fellow. learn more and apply at

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