04/12/23 04/12/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> the military junta has been using airstrikes specificly taeting civilians clinics, elementary schoo, communit gatherings, concerts across the various regions of myanmar. amy: over 100 people, including

30 children, have been killed in burma after the military junta bobs civilians. we will look at the crisis there more than two years after the coop. then to the philippines where nearly 18,000 u.s. filipino and australian troops saw the largest military drills despite protests from china. we will speak to a leading filipino activists. >> to protect you sparse is not incentive to help the philippines modernize, it is incentive to showcase u.s. power and it is a preparation for war. amy: as leaked pentagon documents show u.s. and british special forces are operating inside ukraine, we will continue our discussion with spyfail other james bamford. >> the documents give a far more realistic view saying basically

it is going to come down to a stalemate. there is not going to be any big winners necessarily. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. calls for stricter gun control laws rang out of kentucky and tennessee tuesday in the wake of two mass shootings. in louisville, kentucky, officials said the gunman who killed five people at a bank monday legally purchased the ar 15-style weapon of war used in the attack just lack week. four survivors of the attack remained hospitalized as of tuesday. dr. jason smith, chief medical officer at university of louisville health, pleaded with lawmakers to stop the endless tragedies. >> people say i am tired but i will say i am more than tired, i

am weary. there are only so many times you can walk into a room and tell someone they're not coming home tomorrow. it just breaks your heart when you hear someone screaming "mommy" or "daddy" to everyone who helped makes policy, i was simply ask you to do something because doing nothing, which is what we have been doing, is not working. amy: meanwhile, democratic mayor craig greenberg said 40 people in louisville had lost their lives to gun violence so far in this year and that "the laws we have now are enabling violence and murder." >> please change our state law to let louisville make its own decisions about reducing the amount of illegal guns on our streets and gun violence that is killing far too many people. mass shootings, individual shootings, in any shootings.

amy: mayor greenberg himself is a survivor of a shooting last year at his campaign headquarters. louisville is holding a vigil today for the victims of monday's massacre. also tuesday, tennessee's republican governor bill lee signed an executive order tightening background checks for gun purchases. he also called on state lawmakers to pass red flag laws that would allow authorities to remove guns from people deemed to be a risk to others or themselves. this comes two weeks after a mass shooting at a nashville christian school killed six people, three of them nine-year-olds, and one week after the gop-led ouster of two black democrats who led a peaceful protest against gun violence on the tennessee house floor. one of the lawmakers, justin jones, was reinstated monday while the other, justin pearson, could be reinstated today. the environmental protection agency is proposing new rules to slash vehicular emissions and speed up the transition to electric cars. the biden administration is unveiling the proposal today,

which will require two-thirds of new cars and a quarter of new heavy trucks to be all-electric by 2032. the auto industry has said the tight timeline could result in significant job and profit losses, but analysts say such measures are needed for the u.s. to stand a chance at reducing its emissions at a pace that could avert the worst of the climate catastrophe. here in new york, manhattan district attorney alvin bragg sued jim jordan, the republican chair of the house judiciary committee, citing an unprecedentedly brazen and unconstitutional attack on the das office over its investigation and prosecution of donald trump. congressman jordan has demanded confidential documents and testimony from bragg and members of his office. bragg is seeking to block former prosecutor mark pomerantz from having to comply with a subpoena issued by the judiciary committee last week. d.a. bragg says his office has received over 1000 calls and emails from trump supporters

with "violent and racist vitriol," including death threats, since trump was indicted for falsifying business records to cover up a 2016 hush-money scheme. the united nations mission to afghanistan said it is reviewing its operations while its staff continues to remain out of the office following taliban ban on women working for non-governmental organizations. this is u.n. spokesperson stéphane dujarric. >> this is putting this in a horrendous situation, putting franco, the afghan people in a horrendous situation because we have principles we have to abide by, nondiscrimination, we also have to abide by the de facto authorities themselves have to abide by the charter in terms of letting us do our work. but we also have to help the millions and millions of afghans

-- thomas 24 million afghans need humanitarian assistance. amy: israeli forces shot and killed two palestinians and injured one other near the occupied west bank city of nablus. this brings the number of palestinians killed by isrl since the start of 2023 to 98. meanwhile, prime minister benjam netanyahu said jewish visitors would be banned from the al-aqsa mosque compound until the end of ramadan. this comes after israeli forces forcibly removed and attacked worshippers during multiple raids since the start of ramadan, triggering cross-border attacks between israel, lebanon, syria, and gaza. in britain, tens of thousands of new doctors are on day two of a four-day strike to demand livable wages. it's the latest in a wave of strikes over pay and working conditions at the government-run national health service and follows a similar action last month. this is ob/gyn marsha green speaking from the picket line tuesday. >> i have got friends who have

let medicine because it has broken them. ptsd after the covid pandemic. it was a horror. we are still expected to carry on as though nothing has happened and deteriorating conditions and it is getting to the point where we are all that breaking points. not just financially, but mentally and physically. amy: detroit congressmember rashida tlaib led a group of progressive democrats in urging attorney general merrick garland to drop the charges against wikileaks founder julian assange and withdraw the request for his extradition from the u.k., where he was arrested four years ago. assange faces up to 175 years in prison on espionage and hacking charges for exposing u.s. war crimes in afghanistan and iraq. in a letter, the lawmakers write -- "the prosecution of mr. assange, if successful, not only sets a legal precedent whereby journalists or publishers can be prosecuted, but a political one as well." the letter was also signed by

congressmembers cori bush, jamaal bowman, greg casar, alexandria ocasio-cortez, ilhan omar, and ayanna pressley. the democratic governors of new york, massachusetts, california, washington, and other stated -- other states have pledged to continue providing medication abortions after a trump-appointed federal judge revoked the fda's approval of the abortion pill mifepristone on friday. democratic governors said they are stockpiling the medication in order to make sure they have enough to treat any pregnant patients who need it. this is new york governor kathy hochul. >> new york state will create a stockpile of misoprostolnd other rm of medication abortions. extremist judges have made it clear they won't stop at any one particular drug or service, so we will ensure that new yorkers have access to medication abortion no matter what. amy: in new york city, rights advocates are sounding the alarm after mayor eric adams announced tuesday the police department will start deploying new

high-tech devices, including two robots and a gps tracker for stolen cars. this includes the infamous digidog, which will allegedly be used in life-threatening situations such as bomb threats. plans for deploying the robotic dog were scrapped in 2021 under then-mayor de blasio following community outcry. the city spent $750,000 using asset forfeiture funds to acquire the digidogs from boston dynamics. the nypd and mayor adams, a former police captain, unveiled the new technology during a high-profile press event in times square tuesday with adams announcing, "digidog is out of the pound." in response, the new york civil liberties union said -- "spending mass amounts of money on new policing toys for the nypd is not a serious response to public safety concerns. we should be investing in more housing, better schools, and increased jobs -- not invasive surveillance technology for law enforcement."

earlier this year, state senators jabari brisport and julia salazar introduced legislation that would ban police from using robots. in missouri, the republican-controlled house on tuesday approved a budget that completely defunds public libraries. the move came as gop lawmars were angered by an aclu lawsuit filed by the missoi association of school librarians and the missouri library association challenging a recent law that bans certain books from -- certain books. the measure has led to the removal of over 300 books from school libraries, many with lgbtq characters and social justice topics. missouri democrats have denounced censorship. this is state representative peter meredith. >> feel like we are starting to live in a dystopian future from 1984 or fahrenheit for 11 -- whatever, 451. we're talking about book bans from the government.

defunding public libraries, that is the real world here today and republican-let missouri. amy: meanwhile, in texas, llano county officials are considering to shut down the local public library system after a federal judge ruled their banning of some dozen books, mostly for children, is unconstitutional. the county has been ordered to put the books back in circulation, prompting llano county commissioners to hold a special meeting later this week to determine whether libraries should close instead of complying with the order. and chicago will host the 2024 democratic national convention, beating out the other finalists atlanta and new york. the announcement was made by the dnc tuesday, which also sent a strong signal president biden will seek re-election though he has yet to formally make an announcement. 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 burma, where the military junta is escalating its air strikes on civilians. on tuesday, it carried out its deadliest attack yet when it bobbed a gathered at a community hall, killing an estimated 100 people, including 30 children. graphic images posted online and verified by al jazeera and other media show burning limbs at the scene. this is how the bbc's jonathan had described the attack -- jonathan head described the attack, tweeting -- "horrific air strike by military jets and helicopters this morning on the village of pa zi gyi in sagaing. it was crowded as they were opening a pro-nug local admin office. video posted by locals too awful to upload here but they say at least 53 dead, including women & children." he continued -- "i cannot begin to describe how terrible the scenes are at pa zi gyi. so many bodies, so horribly mangled." members of burma's government-in-exile condemned the attack as a heinous act that

constitutes war crime. the bbc and others have reported the military junta has increasingly used air strikes to crush the resistance since it seized power in 2021 coup, often targeting scols and clinics run by the opposition. this comes as the united nations has warned of worsening humanitarian and human rights crises in burma, with mass arrests, torture of prisoners, the killing of civilians, and media repression. for more, we are joined by maung zarni, a burmese scholar, dissident, and human rigs activist. cofounder of the forces of renewal for southeast asia, or a grassroots network of pro-democracy scholars and human rights activists across soheast asia. his recent piece is titled "myanmar military's acts of terrorism from the sky & savage beheadings on the ground." welcome back to democracy now! can you explain what has happened in burma, this latest attack as you derstand it? >> myanmar lee terry is losing

-- military is using against on the ground. they are targeting the most vulnerable among the resistant communities. the whole country is up in arms, literally, every single community is involved in some kind of armed resistance against the six years old military dictatorship. they are trying to terrorize the civilian population into submission. what happened yesterday, a large village and not too far from where i grew up, what happened was about 800 villagers gathered to open thocal ainistrative

services office. the military got wind the opening ceremony and they decided this was an occasion, legitimate occasion toarget civilians. this is not indiscriminate killing of armed fighters and civilians. this is civilian gathering. they knew it and a target civilians. targeting civilians for political gain and terrorizing them. by any definition, it is terroristic activity. that is why i called this the terrorism from the sky. amy: after the air, amnesty international released an appeal tied "urgent need to suspend aviation fuel as airstrikes wreak havoc." who is providing the fuel and whato you think needs to be do? >> turning off the flow of

aviation fuel, that is transported through several asian countries like ngapore, thailand, among others. yes, they ed to be turned off immediately. but the problem is notimply that aviation fuel is enabling the regime, what has enabled the regime to cay on as business as usual, the increasing use of airstrikes agast civilians are three things. one, the security council's failure to take a meaningful action. its a paralyzed body. e second is, china' resumption of the backing of the military china decided they are going to back the military because of e

democratic resistance is at ast notionally backed by the united states andhe european union. d the third and also very equally significant is this deafening silence from the association of southst asian nations. it has been a complete failure in the case of cambodian genocide and rohingya genocide and it is failing when it's member state is using the air force to terrorize the civilian population, committing all kinds of atrocious -- let terry that uses gunship helicopters, western democracies failure to really back the democratic resistance as it is doing in ukraine. thirdly, the regional

blocks complete and utter failure to lift a finger to stop the killing. amy: who also is working with the buese military? for people to understand the term burma and myanmar, the military junta renaming burma as myanmar. >> a lot of -- we could point fiers at burma's immediate neighbors like thailand or india or china that are involved in various strategic rivalries or economic contests, but there are a massive number of western corporatns from the u.s., from cada, united kingdom, european union, australia, japan. so this is not that different from what happened in russia. 100 years o, russia was propped up or financially bked

by french bankers and english economic and political ierests . against that, the russian revolution took place. that is what is happening today. the democratic struggles don't happen in a vacuum. we are fighting a very steep uphill battle, and the united nations, as a system of political states, are also failing. so there is so much probable rage and frustration among the burmese resistance fighters and the society as a whole. but the people are not ting a line down. -- are not taking it lying down. years of repression. they are fighting. women are making bombs, sabota operations. young men, journalists, doctors, engineers -- literally, thousands have joined the armed

resistance. every single burmese family knows or supports or has a member of a fighter that is against the regime. this is like the 1940's europe fighting the nazi occupation. amy: two years agothe u.s. government announced it was taking steps to prevent the generals from improperly accessing more than a billion dollars in burmese government funds held in the united states. your response to that? is there a way to funnel the money to the burmese people? >> yes. the contrast between the bad and -- it was presint biden within 10 ds of the coup walked on thwhite hoe stage and declared he was going to freez one billionolla that bengs

to the people of myanmar, aung sasuu kyi's civilian government. frozen. that is the burmese people's money. on the oer hand, u.s. administration, as you know, has pumped up more tn $50 billion and emptied nearly all of the shves in ter of pentag arsenal to support the ukrainian resistance. we are happy that ukraine get support and has the unity and solidarity among western nations, but we are fighting a similarly aocio russian-backed rime in burma and we are not getting a penny. we're not askg for amican taxpayers to undwrite our liberation struggle. we are simply sayg we have $1

million that joe biden froze. unfreeze the money and make sure that the corruption does not mush throughout of the warchest. there are ws wisely and with financial transparency, we cannot fight and win a liberation struggle on empty and homemade molotov cocktails when the repressive myanmar military is well armed wit russian-made helicopters and jets and china is backing -- we need to have a level playing fiel we are fightg atrocious 60 year old military dictatorship that has perpetrated genocide and is perpetrating a long series of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and every

great crimes ever written in international law. biden needs to unfreeze the money. he gave a speech at the summit of democracy, the second summit held in seoul, and he did not even me a mention of myanmar while he praised on bravery of rainian resistance. we are happy that ukrainian brothers and sisters received the western's cking, but we should also be receiving solidarity and support and material support. amy: maung zarni, thank you for being with us burmese scholar, , dissident, anduman rights activist. co-founder of the forces of renewal for southeast asia, or forsea, a grassroots network of pro-democracy scholars and human rights activists across southeast asia. we will lead to your piece "myanmar military's acts of terrorism from the sky & savage beheadings on the ground." next up, the philippines were

thousands of u.s. latino and australian troops are holding the largest military drills ever despite chinese protest. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "one minute of silence" ericson acosta, renato reyes, jr., monet silvestre. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nearly 18,000 troops from the united states and the philippines and australia are taking part in the largest ever military drills they held in the south china sea. the military exercise began on tuesday and will continue until april 28. this comes as tension is escalating between the u.s. and china. the philippines, a former u.s. colony, recently agreed to give the united states access to four more of its military bases, including two located in the northern province of cagayan which is about 250 miles from taiwan. ties between washington and manila have been growing closer since the inauguration of filipino president ferdinand marcos jr., the son of the former u.s. backed dictator of the same name.

on tuesday, u.s. secretary of state tony blinken and defense secretary lloyd austin met with their filipino counterparts in washington and issue a joint statement agreeing to expand military ties between the two countries. this is lloyd austin. >> corrosion and gray zone aggression, secretary galvez and i agreed three double our efforts to strengthen our ability to resist armed attack by modernizing our armed forces. we also discussed your term plans to complete a security sector assistance roadmap to support the delivery of priority defense platforms for the next five to 10 years. including radars and unmanned aerial systems, military transport aircraft, and coastal and air defense systems. amy: the philippines foreign

secretary manalo welcomed the u.s. offer for more military assistance. >> we welcome u.s. pledge to ramp up support, the modernization of our defense, civilian law enforcement, and humanitarian assistance response -- and response capabilities. amy: meanwhile in the philippines, protests have taken place this week outside of the u.s. embassy in manila and in quezon city, the home of the filipino military. >> project u.s. power in asia, not incentive to defend the philippines, not to help the philippines modernize. it is incentive to showcase u.s. power and preparation for war. amy: that was renato reyes, jr., the secretary general of bayan, an alliance of leftist groups in the philippines opposed to u.s. militarism and intervention in the philippines. speaking outside the u.s.

embassy in manila. he joins us now live from manila. reto reyesr, welcome to democracy now! p talk about the significance of what secretary austin, lloyd austin, defense secretary of the united states is calling the largest ever war games exercise of its kind in the south china sea and what this means to you? >> good evening from manila. the recent war games and ongoing military exercise in the philippines is intended to project u.s. power in this region. it has a very provocative nature , the tensiobetween u.s. and chin the u.s. once ovokedhina and fothe first time they're doing live exercises where they're going to simulate the sinking of a ship in the philippine sea. this is on top of having

disbanded police, especially near taiwan and near the south china sea. it would raise tensions in the region and trigger an arms race between u.s. and china. in that scenario, the philippines would be caught between two opposing giants. it is not in our interest to see the conflict escalate. we want peace in the region. we want respect for our sovereignty. we don't want incursions from cha but we don't want to be used as a staging ground for u.s. military and hegemony in the region. we do not welcome these exercises. they will haveong-lasting negative effects on the region. we are also historically on a front of the philippine sovereignty. amy: the government announced

the location of four new u.s. military bases. can you talk about the significance and the military presence? going back well over 100 years, u.s. occupy the philippines in 1898but what this means now? >> t philippines hosted u.s. military bases from 1947-1991. these bases were used for u.s. wars abroad. so the philippines became a launching pad for the u.s. war vietnam, also involved in the wars in the middle east and the iraq war. they are pting bases north of the philippines of the u.s. can have quick deployment for incidents related to taiwan. they put bases out in western part of the philippines fing the south china sea so the u.s. can deploy ships whenever it is

necessary to project its power and that part of the region. so all of these bases are not for defensive purposes. they are actuay allowing the u.s. to pre-position weapons, pre-position warships, station troops which can be deployed at any time overseas as part of it offensive military action. that practically drags the philippines to a new round of conflicts which are not in our interest. it is a repeat of what we experienced during the vietnam war and other wars thereafter. amy: china's foreign ministry has said the united states for strengthening its military deployment in the philippines would only lead to more tension and instability in the region. this is spokesperson mao ning at a press briefing last week. >> the facts are very clear. united states out of its own selfish interest and with

zero-sum mindset has continued to strengthen its military deployment in the region. the result of which is bound to increase tensions and jeopardize peace and stability for the regional countries should think deeply about what is mutually beneficial as to make choices that are to do so through their own interests and regional peace and stability. amy: if you could respond to the chinese spokesperson and also talk about the issue of the exclusive economic zone between china and the philippines, that a decade ago china began building artificial islands and military bases on scarborough su which was seize in 2012. >> there's an ongoing imperialist rivalry between china and u.s. fighting for dominance in this region. china is planning 80%, 90% of the china sea and has reclaimed

several areas. official islands converted into mitary bases. on the other hand, othe u.s. trying to solidify its foothold in the philippines for its bases as part of the whole u.s. umbrella from japan, basein south korea, mitary agreements and it a philippines as well as with australia. these are two powers trying t outdo each other. if the u.s. ramps up its presence and china sees it as an minent threat, then china would force -- resort to building more bases on their tificial islands and will be a never ending cycle, an arms race between these two giants. when war erupts, who will be at the losing end? poor countries like the philippines. those who are not superpowers,

they are the bigge losers if the colict escates between the u.s. and china. we are pretty clear we don't want that to happen and that is what we don't want these military exercises, life fire drills, sinking of ships. these are provocative actions. just imagine if china would do such exercises off california. that would trigger a very hostile response from the united states. really, this whole scenario is going toead to heightened conflict. it is a preparation for war and something we don't want to happen in the near future. amy: i'm looking at some of the signs, green spaces not military bases. can you talk about the environment impacts of u.s. military bases and the impact on women and girls with the u.s. military there? >> u.s. bases, military presence

has huge social cost. it leaves toxic waste. they destroy heritage sites. there is proitution, abuse of women, rape. all of these are the usual consequences of prolonged u.s. military presence in any aa. the area in the world, these are the problems that u.s. bases bring about. as far as social cost, definitely we not want to be shouldering thatind of burden as a result of u.s. military presence. amy: renato reyes, jr., thank you for being with us, secretary generaof bayan and an organization opposing u.s. militarism and intervention the philippines. leaked pentagon documents. special forces operating inside ukraine. we continue our discussion with spyfail james bamford. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "vampires" by pet shop boys. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we end today's show looking more at the recently leaked pentagon

documents which have revealed secrets about the war in ukraine as well as the u.s. spying on a number of its allies, including israel and south korea. the bbc reports one document shows dozens of special forces from western nations, including the u.s., are operating inside ukraine. the document which was marked "top secret" says the u.k. has 50 special forces, latvia has 17, france 15, the united states 14, and the netherlands has one. the pentagon and justice department are investigating the source of the leak. on tuesday, i interviewed james bamford, a longtime investigative journalist and author focused on the intelligence community. in 1982, he published "the puzzle palace," the first book exposing the inner workings of the nsa, the national security agency. his latest book, just out, is called "spyfail: foreign spies, moles, saboteurs, and the collapse of america's counterintelligence."

i asked jim bamford to talk more about what the documents say about the ukraine war, among other issues. >> i think it paints a clear picture of what actually is happening over there. there has been -- the problem on cable news, both fox, cnn, msnbc, you get a lot of people that are pro-war and congress -- members of congress, senators and so forth, they are all giving these upbeat accounts of how well it is going for ukraine. the documents give a far more realistic view saying basically it is going to come down to a stalemate. there is not going to be any big winners necessarily. the ukrainians are in a very bad position because they're not getting enough ammunition. the russians have far more --

much more access to ammunition than the ukrainians do. so there is a switch between the way america perceives the war i think. to these documents, which give a more realistic because it is done with intelligence, more realistic view of how the war is going. amy: there are some interesting findings in these documents that have been released. one, the guardian points out, one slide suggested a small contingent of less than 100 special operations personnel from nato members france, america, britain, and latvia were already active in ukraine. talk about the significance of that. >> that is what the russians have been charging for a long

time, that the u.s. is more heavily involved or not just u.s. but nato and our nato partner countries have been involved far more closely and far more directly with the war that is led to believe by the government, by the administration. it adds to the weight of those charges that the u.s. and its allies and nato partners are more heavily involved in this war. that is a very dangerous situation since you have nuclear powers involved most of russia, united states, france, and so forth all nuclear powers and all fighting over this one piece of territory and it keeps getting more and more out of hand. i think that is a very big danger. amy: the new york times points out military analyst to the documents appear to have been modified insert parts from their

original format come over stating american estimates of ukrainian war dead and understating estimates of russian troops killed. modifications could point to an effort disinformation by moscow, the analyst said. >> that is a bit of an overstatement. if you read closely, the documents weren't -- the documents were original. they were placed on the internet in their original form. what apparently happened, somebody copied some of those documents and in the altered a bit of the numerical equivalents of how many died on which side and so forth. the documents are real. they are not disinformation. somebody apparently took some of the documents, couple of them, and crudely changed a few numbers.

but it does not affect the overall vae of the documen that were released. amy: another point the new york times makes, the russian military may be flailing but the private wachter mercenary group led by an ally president vladimir putin of russia is flourishing in much of the world. wagoner is working to thwart american interest and africa and explored branching out haiti right under the nose of the united states. jim bamford? >> that is been going on for quite some time, not just russia, it is china has been working hard in africa to develop -- u.s. has been bombing middle eastern countries and spending trillions of dollars on these useless wars we get into, the chinese and the russians have been spending billions of dollars ingratiating themselves with african countries, building

bridges and roads and so forth. it is not a big surprise that virtually none of the russian -- none of the african countries joined in the embargo of russia or the sanctions. that is why the vice president harris flew over to africa to try to regain -- bring back some of that goodwill that we have been squandering while we have been launching wars in the middle east. amy: and the washington post, the documents demonstrate what has long been understood but never publicly spelled out. the u.s. intelligence community has penetrated the russian military and its commanders so deeply that can mourn ukraine in advance of attacks and reliably assess the strengths and weaknesses of russian forces. a single page in the leaked trope reveals the u.s. intelligence community knew the

russian ministry of defense had transmitted plans to strike ukrainian troops positions in two locations on a certain date in february and that russian military planners were preparing strikes on a dozen energy facilities and an equal number of bridges in ukraine. james bamford? >> those are the most significant i think of all of the revelations because there is really only two ways the u.s. could have gotten that intelligence. one is through signals intelligence, the nsa. the other is through human intelligence, basically, the cia . of those cases, what the russians are going to do once they learn this is due in extensive mole hunt and analysis of their communications. so the mole hunt, they will be looking for any humans that might be assisting the united states by telling this information about the dates and the times of these planned

operations. they will be checking all of their communications facilities, changing their codes, and so forth in case we are getting this information by eavesdropping on their communications, by the nsa picking it up. in either case, it is bad news for the united states because we may be losing whatever source it was we were getting that information from. amy: one of the things in bc pointed out was her february 28 document that something pathways for israel to provide legal aid to ukraine providing hypothetical situations that might drive israel from its balancing act between kyiv and moscow. the document suggests what israeli weapons could be transferred to ukraine like the javelin equivalent, other missile system. the most plausible scenario is that jerusalem adopts a turkish model under u.s. pressure like ankara, it would mean that israel sells legal defense

systems or provides them through third-party entities while openly advocating for peace and offering to host mediation efforts. james bamford? >> once again, it shows how widespread the nsa's eavesdropping capabilities are in terms of picking up what is going on within the israeli knesset and israeli president's office, prime minister's office. it shows the wide variety of how much we are eavesdropping. the u.s. has been pushing israel to get more heavily involved in the supply of weapons and technology to ukraine, but israel doesn't want to do it because it does not want to anger russia. russia is sort of turning a blind eye to israel's attacks in syria. they are afraid if th overtly aid ukraine to a much greater

extent, then rsia will be angry at israel and not allow israel, basically, to send its fighters into syria anymore. so it is a complicated situation but the united states is apparently able to eavesdrop on decisions that are made within the israeli. government. amy: and this latest news out of the documents that mossad, israel's spy agency, the equivalent of the u.s. cia, was pushing israelis and fomenting a rebellion against prime minister benjamin netanyahu for getting the israeli judiciary. >> it shows we are also eavesdropping on the equivalent of their cia, the mossad. in my book spyfail, i write extensively about how eavesdrop

on israel. it is a huge building in the outskirts of washington, d.c., in maryland, where the hebrew linguists are all gathered and the eavesdrop on whatever communications goes in and comes out of the israeli embassy. the u.s. does a great deal of eavesdropping on israel, both within israel and diplomatic facilities in the u.s. amy: just rephrase -- just to refresh the audience memory, we talked about spyfail and your revelations about benjamin netanyahu's interference with the 2016 election. the media made a lot of allegations that russia was involved with subverting the u.s. elections in 2016. but lay out once again for is what you learned about netanyahu's effts to support

trump in the 2016 election and the extent to which he went, something that is known by the u.s. government and congress but not revealed. >> well, everybody remembers russia -- hysteria the news media, mainstream news media focused on that for two years, looking under every rock for russian spy war russian collaborator. they never found any. there never was any collusion between the trump administration or the trump campaign and the russian government. the mueller report came up with a blank when it came to russian collusion. what people don't know until i reported it in my book is the fact the molar group or the molar investigation not only looking at russia, they were

looking at other countries that may have been involved in eavesdropping and spying within u.s. and also being involved with campaigns. what they found was there was an israeli agent who had been sent over by prime minister yet yahoo! to collude with the trump campaign. the idea was that the israeli agent would pass on intelligence that the israelis came up with to help -- this is intelligence on hillary clinton, to help the trump campaign with. the quid pro quo for that was that the trump campaign or president trump once he was elected, would recognize jerusalem as being the sole basically possession of israel. in other words, they would not

be divided between israel and palestine, which is always what would have been the hope to have a peacef resolution of that. it would be solely israeli. so that was the deal. i discovered this by coming across the actual affidavit, fbi affidavit and search warrant. the search warrant was for the communications of this israeli agent, and it laid out in the fbi affidavit exactly how this plot took place. it was extraordinary to see all of these two years there were doing this investigation on russia and coming up empty and they never revealed to the american public the fact there was this israeli agent who was deliberately attempting to throw the election for the benefit of benjamin netanyahu.

amy: so going back, james bamford, to these latest revelations. i'm wondering, i mean, given studying for decades and your new book spyfail shows this, wondering what surprised you most, whether it is the scope of the documents across all of these agencies or where they were released on this gaming platform -- the name released under, wowmao? was it the fact the u.s. government did not seem on top of it? i think austin, the defense secretary was just briefed last week. and what it means? i mean, if they are able to find and do you think they will find the person or persons involved with this? >> well, basically, all of those things surprised me.

it is the first time i've ever seen documents leaked onto a gaming platform. if i were to guess, arbitrarily guess, as i mentioned before, there is basically three or four reasons why people steal secrets and make them -- and release them. one is there actual spies and they want to make money and they want to sell them to a foreign government. another is they have ideological reasons. they want to help a foreign government so they leak it. not for money, they just leak it for theological reasons. the third reason is anger. they did not get the promotion they wanted or they aren't treated as well as they think they should be in the office, so to get back at the government or the agency they leak documents on to some platform.

basically, those are the reasons. this i think would probably fall into the third category. it seems like -- again, i'm just speculating here. but somebody who happens to be on this gaming platform gets angry at his or her job in the u.s. intelligence community or the pentagon and decides leak leak to a whole bunch of documents to get back at the government. it doesn't seem to be any real intelligent selection of documents. in other words, they did not all focus on ukraine. it would not be somebody, i'm focused on ukraine because i want russia to win or russia to win or us to get out of this war . it did not seem directly focused on that. it seemed the person grabbed the

closest stack of documents on his desk and folded them up -- you can see the folding marks -- stuffed them in his pocket. could be a man or woman. i'm just using mail as hypothetical since most spies and up being men. the point is, it didn't seem like it was a lot of planning. the person put it on a desk and you can see parts of a magazine, look like a fairly does magazine designed for certain people who are interested in guns or something or hunting. that is a clue. you can see the image after you take it and yet you still put it on the internet with that little bit of an image. you're not being very careful. so it seems like it was sloppy.

it seems like it was haphazard, like it was done quickly. to me, it seems like somebody who did it out of anger. america what about the end of the title of your book? you're saying right now this indicates how successful u.s. intelligence is, maybe not so much in keeping the secrets but on gathering them. what about the collapse of america's counterintelligence? >> that is what i have been describing, the fact that somebody can take all of these secrets -- the american public pay a lot of money for the intelligence agencies to collect this intelligence on russia and china and all over the world. it only takes one person to walk out the door with all of this information to cancel it all, actually make it even worse because then they could do countermeasures and put phony information out there for the u.s. to pick up. so being able to collect all of that intelligence, fine, very

nice. the problem is, they leave the back door open so you have all of these people, the latest one being this person who put these documents on a gaming platform, folded them up and put them in his pocket and walked out the door. you have this failure at the end . success at the beginning in order to collect the intelligence, but you have the failure at the end to protect the intelligence. amy: james bamford, longtime investigative author, author of "spyfail: foreign spies, moles, saboteurs, and the collapse of america's counterintelligence." visit democracynow.org to see part one of our conversation with bamford, talking about how the leak documents are based on intelligence gathered by the national reconnaissance office, national geospatial intelligence agency, state or province bureau of intelligence and research, the pentagon's defense intelligence agency, and the national security agency. on tuesday, national security council spokesperson john kirby

urged reporters not to cover the leak documents saying "it has no business on the front pages of newspapers or on television. it is not intended for public consumption and it should not be out there." that does it for our show. happy birthday to maria ines taracena and anna ozbek! [captioning made possible by /ñ/ñ/ñ/ñ/ñ/ñ/ñ/ñ/ñ/ñ/ñ/ñ pppxxxxo

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