06/27/23 06/27/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> the organizers, betrayed those who lure them into the crime, they lied to them, push them toward death to shoot her own people. amy: the kremlin says it has trucked criminal charges against yevgeny prigozhin and his

mercenaries after he attempted to lead an aborted unique is the russian military. prigozhin's reportedly has arrived and belarus. we will speak with james risen, pulitzer prize winning reporter for the intercept, who covered the 1991coup co. moscow. we will also speak about elite audio by donald trump talking about classified documents as he faces espionage charges. pres. trump: isn't that amazing? this totally wins my case. except it is highly confidential,ecretive amy: and we look at james risen's new book "the last honest man: the cia, the fbi, the mafia, and the kennedys -- and one senator's fight to save democracy." when senator frank church led the church committee investigating for the first time the cia, the fbi, and the nsa. >> the dark of those activities.

for many americans who were not even suspected of crimes, were not only spied upon, but they were harassed, they were discredited and atimes, endanger. y: the church mmittee oked u.s. asssinatio targe from castro in cuba to chile in general renée schneider and allende to vietnam. rison says the investigation was so dangerous, three witnesses who testified were murdered. he also revealed do details about the role of the late pentagon papers whistleblower daniel ellsberg in the creation of the church committee. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and

peace report. i'm amy goodman. the embattled head of the wagner group has reportedly arrived in belarus to live in exile. earlier today, the kremlin said it had dropped criminal charges against wagner chief yevgeny prigozhin after he led a mutiny that saw an armored column of advance within 120 miles of moscow. on monday, prigozhin published his first public statements since calling off the mutiny on saturday, saying his forces were reacting to an attack by russia's military that killed dozens of wagner fighters. >> despite the fact we did not demonstrate any aggression, a missile strike was launched against us and helicopters followed suit right after that. about 30 people, wagner fighters, were killed. this served as a trigger that force the council of wagner commanders to decide we had start the march meet lee. amy: in moscow, president

vladimir putin spoke to russian soldiers outside the kremlin earlier today, praising them for the defense of russia's capital which he said "essentially preventing a civil war." his remarks followed a statement on tv in which she accused wagner's leaders of treason but offered a path to avoid prosecution. >> i think the supporters who made the only right decision. they stopped at the last line. today have the opportunity to continue serving russia entering into a contract with the ministry of defense or other law enforcement agencies or to return to your family and friends. whoever wants to go to belarus. the promise i'm able be fulfilled. amy: in ukraine, president zelenskyy visited soldiers on the eastern front and used his nightly dress to praise ukrainian troops for advancing "in all directions."

in washington, d.c., the biden administration has announced a new military aid package for ukraine worth up to half $1 billion after the pentagon last week said an accounting error had freed up additional three point $2 billion worth of funding for weapons and ammunition for ukraine. -- $3.2 billion worth of funding for weapons and ammunition for ukraine. the commander of sudan's paramilitary rapid support forces has announced a 48-hour unilateral ceasefire for the muslim festival of eid al-adha. the declaration came as the united nations children's fund warned more than 100,000 children fleeing violence in sudan face new dangers amid a desperate situation in refugee camps in neighboring chad. unicef warned essential services such as water, shelter, health and education remain extremely limited for the more than 140,000 sudanese refugees and 34,000 chadian returnees who've crossed the border since fighting erupted in april between rival factions of

sudan's military junta. many of the refugees are injured or lost loved ones as they fled rapidly rising levels of ethnic violence in sudan. in the occupied west bank, a mob of armed israeli settlers stormed the village of umm safa over the weekend firing bullets at residents and setting fire to homes and vehicles. several people were injured. this is mohammed radi, a palestinian journalist who was shot at by an israeli settler as he felt the attack. >> there were dozens of settlers. they fired at the village. the moment one of the settlers saw us filming come he shot in our direction. two bullets went into the camera and then camera blew up. thank god we are safe. amy: in the last week alone, israeli settlers have carried out at least 85 assaults on palestinian towns in the west bank. this comes as israel's far-right government thousands of new homes in illegal settlements in the west bank despite growing international condemnation.

in the united states, the supreme court has ordered louisiana to redraw a racially gerrymandered congressional map, siding with a lower court that ordered the state to create a second majority-black congressional district. monday's ruling was celebrated by louisiana's lone black congressmember, troy carter, who said, "in a healthy democracy fair and equitable representation matters." also on monday, the supreme court cleared the way for survivors of sexual assault to sue ohio state university for failing to protect them from predator doctor richard strauss. in 2020, former ohio state wrestler adam disabato accused republican ohio congressmember jim jordan of begging him not to corroborate accounts of widespread sexual abuse perpetrated by dr. strauss after disabato's brother mike exposed the abuse. in another ruling, the supreme court sided with the biden administration over its immigration policy, allowing immigration and customs

enforcement to prioritize certain people for arrest and deportation. this week, the supreme court will rule on four other major cases. one seeks to ban the use of race-conscious college admissions policies. another case asks the supreme court to embrace the "independent state legislature theory," a radical reading of the constitution that claims state lawmakers have sweeping authority to override courts, governors, and state constitutions. a third case argues business have the right to discriminate against lgbtqia people if they cite religious objections. and justices will rule on whether the biden administration can proceed with a plan to eliminate up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for many borrowers. newly published audio reveals former president trump showed a classified pentagon document to a publisher and writer during a conversation at his bedminster golf club two years ago. in the tape, trump is heard shuffling through papers as he describes a top-secret pentagon document revealing a plan by joint chiefs of staff chairman

general mark milley to attack iran. pres. trump: with milley, i will show you an example, he said that i wanted to attack -- isn't it amazing -- look. amy: the 2021 recording, which was first aired by cnn, contradicts trump's recent claim on fox news that he did not have classified documents with him in the july 2021 meeting. pres. trump: let's see here. isn't that amazing? this totally wins my case, except it is highly confidential, secretive. amy: trump faces 31 counts of violating the espionage act through the willful retention of classified records. he also faces six counts, including obstruction of justice and false statements, at a federal trial in miami scheduled

for august 14. we'll have more on this story later in the broadcast. in pennsylvania, a federal court in pittsburgh has begun the penalty phase of the trial of the man who shot and killed 11 jewish worshipers at the tree of life synagogue in 2018. last week, a federal jury found the gunman guilty of all 63 federal charges. jurors will now decide whether he should be sent to death row in a federal prison in indiana. joe biden campaigned on abolishing the federal death penalty during the 2020 presidential campaign, and the justice department has instituted a moratorium on federal executions, but the administration has continued to seek the death sentence in some cases. in colorado, a shooter who killed five people and injured more than a dozen others at an lgbtqia nightclub last november has been sentenced to more than years in prison. 2000 monday's sentencing came

-- pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder and 46 counts of attempted murder. in florida's broward county, jury deliberations have begun in a criminal case against scot peterson, a former police officer who's accused of child neglect and other charges, for failing to confront the gunman who killed 17 people and wounded 17 others at marjory stoneman douglas high school on valentine's day in parkland, florida, in 2018. it's believed to be the first time a police officer has faced criminal charges for inaction at a school shooting. this is prosecutor kristen gomes speaking in closing arguments monday. >> he was trained and he was armed. and when the moment came and was called upon to act, he made a choice. at 2:23 p.m., scott peterson chose not to enter, knowing those shots were being fired and every time the trigger was being

pulled -- he chose to retreat and then he instructed all officers -- amy: in texas, three san antonio police officers have been suspended without pay and arrested on murder charges after they shot-and-killed a 46-year-old woman in her own home. melissa perez was struck and killed by police gunfire as she brandished a hammer at officers while she appeared to be suffering a mental health crisis. san antonio's police chief said friday the actions of sargent alfred flores and officers eleazar alejandro and nathaniel villalobos were not consistent with the department's use-of-force policies and training. in honduras, human rights advocates are warning of possible violations as the honduran government announced a massive crackdown on organized crime. the operation drew comparisons with neighboring el salvador as photos emerged of prisoners wearing nothing but underwear, sitting in rows with their heads down and hands around the back of their necks while armed soldiers in riot gear watched over them.

this is colonel fernando muñoz speaking to reporters after soldier said they seized guns, and mission grenades from a , prison in the city of tamara, where at least 41 women were killed last week by accused gang members in possible complicity with prison authorities. >> following the president's order, we have started transitioning the prisons from the national police to the military police. we have begun the search is in order to take control of the jails. amy: and mexican authorities have arrested the former head of mexico's federal anti-kidnapping special unit in connection with the forced disappearance of 43 students from ayotzinapa in 2014. gualberto ramírez gutiérrez was taken into custody early sunday morning. he was first arrested in 2015 accused of ordering the killing of the 43 students, but he was ultimately released three years later. arrest warrants were also issued against eight other soldiers over their possible involvement in the mass kidnapping. to see our extensive coverage,

go to our website democracynow.org. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, the war and peace report. when we come back, we spend the hour with james risen. he covered the 1990 what attempted coup in moscow. we will talk to him about develop is in russia, the espionage charges against trump, and his new book "the last honest man." stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "people everywhere " by khruangbin. 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 with developments in russia as the embattled head of russia's wagner group has reportedly arrived in belarus to live in

exile. earlier today, the kremlin said it had dropped criminal charges against wagner chief yevgeny prigozhin after he led a mutiny that saw an armored column of russian mercenaries advance to within 120 miles of moscow. on monday, prigozhin published his first public statements since calling off the mutiny on saturday, saying his forces were reacting to an attack by russia's military that killed dozens of wagner fighters. >> none of the wagner fighters was forced to take part in this march. everybody knew its final goal. the goal was to avoid destruction of the wagner pmc and bring to responsibility those responsible whose unprofessional actions caused a huge number of stakes during special military operation. our decision to turn around was based on two important factors, the first factor is that we did not want to shed russian blood. the second factor is we were

registering our protest and not seeking to overthrow the government of the country. amy: this comes as russian president vladimir putin on tuesday told members of russia's security services that they "essentially prevented a civil war" during the uprising. russia's ria news agency reported putin also spoke tuesday with saudi arabia's crown prince mohammed bin salman, who offered his support. putin attempted to reassert his authority in a national address monday. >> and armed rebellion would have been suppressed in any case. the organizers of the rebellion could not fail to understand this. however, the organizers of the rebellion betraying their country, the people, betrayed those who lured them into the crime, they lied to them, push them towards death, to shoot their own people. it is precisely this outcome, fratricide, that --

and all sorts of national traders. amy: meanwhile, in ukraine, president volodymyr zelenskyy visited soldiers on the frontlines and used his nightly address to praise ukrainian troops for advancing "in all directions." for more, we begin today's show with james risen, pulitzer-winning reporter formerly with "the new york times," now with the intercept, where he is senior national security correspondent. jim rison covered 1991 attempted coup in moscow for the los angeles times. his latest article for the intercept is headlined -- doing in a moment, we will talk about your new book "the last honest man." first, let's talk about the latest breaking news out of russia. why do you refer to prigozhin

and putin as dead men walking? >> i think prigozhin is clearly a threat as long as he is alive to putin and putin has thrown a lot of people out of windows for a lot less than for what prigozhin has done. prigozhin can claim he was not trying to stage a coup but it sure looked like a coot everybody else, including putin. he came so close to moscow and so close to seizing power and he seems to have lost his nerve and cut a last-second deal with putin through lukashenko, the belarus dictator. and now he is kind of skulking off to belarus in exile stop i don't think it is possible for putin to allow him to continue to pose a threat to him from belarus. if we have seen anything from

putin's track record, it is he kills his opponents or anybody he thinks threatens his power. and he is dented to people, as i said earlier, to people who opposed much less of a threat to him than prigozhin does. with putin, he has been so weakened by this and he is been exposed as a much weaker leader than anybody realized. i think this will embolden a lot of his opponents, both in russia and outside. i think it will embolden ukraine and nato to stand up more consistently to russia and to putin. and i think it is really a devastating event for his future as a leader. i don't think he can survive much longer unless he takes far more dramatic action against prigozhin then he has in the past. juan: jim, in terms of the

causes of this revolt to begin with, i mean, this claim of prigozhin that his forces were attacked by the russian military which again would -- like many events in this war, it is hard to tell what actually happened versus what is being claimed to happen. apparently, there have been an attempt by the russian government to rid all of these private military groups under the military. not only the wagner group, but several others that are functioning as part of the russian war effort. was this -- did this attempt, this attack happened as far as you can tell? >> it is still unclear whether it really happened or whether it is part of prigozhin's disinformation campaign. that is what he is really good

at disinformation, just like putin is. it is unclear. clearly, far earlier than this supposed bombing, putin -- i mean prigozhin was planning this. it is pretty obvious he was planning this for quite some time and maybe he use some rocket attack as a predicate for a justification for going forward. i think the fact that he was able to march from ukraine into rostov and then north with virtually no opposition from the russian military or the russian security services must have been shocking to putin. i think it is going to embolden all of putin's -- any rivals he has inside russia. as i said earlier, he has killed off most of his major rivals. i just don't see how he is going to let prigozhin live for very long. amy: i want to read a comment, i

now we got from the executive secretary of the ukrainian pacifist movement. he wrote to us -- "i think the main lesson of the wagner mutiny is that russian militarists, including even war criminals like putin and prigozhin, are capable of negotiating and stopping bloodshed. this is an additional argument why it is not only necessary for humanitarian reasons, but also it must be possible to cease fire in ukraine and start peace talks, not prolong the war for multiple decades." he is saying in this case, though he calls the boat were criminals, they should not be viewed as weakness but as an opening for negotiation even with the overall war. your thoughts? >> i think that is an

interesting idea. i think it is possible this may be the moment of weakness for putin where maybe the west should see if he is ready to get out of ukraine. i think if he was smart, he would pull his troops out of ukraine now to solidify his power in russia. one of the vulnerabilities that prigozhin exposed for putin is that he has so much of the russian army and security services in ukraine that the door was open for prigozhin to almost march right into moscow. for a dictator like putin, it has to give you pause about how long you want to stay in yeah, it might be -- you might see some possible opening for trying to see if putin is ready to get out of ukraine. juan: the former cia analyst mel goodman has an article today

along the same lines, but he is also saying that would require the united states as well to offer some efforts to bring back the expansion of nato as a means of getting a negotiated settlement. what is your sense of that? >> i don't think that is going to happen. to me, what the war in ukraine has shown is russia will attack -- that putin, prior to the ukraine invasion, i don't know how he feels now after the war has gone so badly, but he clearly was interested in rebuilding the soviet union in some fashion. i think his -- he has gained much more control over belarus. he has five wars in georgia and now in ukraine. so -- but all of those countries have one thing in common, which

is they are not in nato. he has not attacked any nato country. i think the fact the baltic states are in nato has made them an area he is not going to attack, even though i think you would love to have the baltic states back in the russian empire. the same for poland and other parts of what used to be known as the warsaw pact. i don't think nato is going to turn back. i think in fact, once the war has ended, i would bet a lot of money that ukraine will join nato. amy: i want to get your book, a fascinating book called "the last honest man: the cia, the fbi, the mafia, and the kennedys -- and one senator's fight to save democracy." but first, i want to turn to the new developments in the charges

that former president trump violated the espionage act for the willful retention of classified records. on monday night, cnn released an audio recording of trump from a 2021 conversation at his bedminster, new jersey, golf club when he discussed holding classified documents, knowing they were classified, knowing he had not declassified them, showing them to a publisher and a writer and his a. in the tape, trump is heard shuffling through papers as he describes a top-secret pentagon document revealing a plan by joint chiefs of staff chair general mark milley and more. the recording was first aired by cnn and it contradicts trump's recent claimed that he did not have the classified documents. pres. trump: these are bad, sick people. >> against you. when millie is talking about,, -- they were trying to do that

before you were even sworn in, trying to overthrow your election. pres. trump: let me see that. i'll show you an example. he said that i wanted to attack iran. isn't it amazing that a big pile -- look. this was him. they presented me this. this was him.

amy: so that audio aired by cnn of trump. it comes as he is charged with violating the espionage act through the willful retention of classified records.

he also faces six counts, including obstruction of justice and false statements, at a federal trial in miami scheduled for august 14. for more on this, we continue with james risen, the pulitzer prize-winning reporter, now with the intercept, where he is national security correspondent. also director of first look media party has press freedom defense fund. he was a target of u.s. crackdown on journalists and whistleblowers himself and won a pulitzer prize for his reporting of warrantless wiretapping of americans by the national security agency. jim waged a seven year battle risking jail after the bush administration come obama administration sought to force them to testify and reveal his confidential sources in a leak investigation. he never gave in and the government finally backed down. now he has written a piece for the intercept headlined "don't compare donald trump to reality winner. he's no whistleblower. he's just a thief!" can you elaborate on this?

>> i think one of the things that bothered me right after the trump indictment was that there were a lot of pundits starting to compare trump to people who have been caught up in other espionage cases, including reality winner, who was a whistleblower about russian efforts to hack into and you can election systems in the 2016 presidential race. i just thought it was a ridiculous comparison because trump was just doing this for selfish reasons. he clearly came to believe that keeping classified information was like keeping gold coins. it was a way of keeping something of value and just stealing something of value from the government on his way out the door. i don't think he cared much about public service or about public interest in this

information. he wanted to either sell it to the highest better or continue to use it to gain status somehow. i think it was just a horrible comparison to talk in the same breath with people who have risked their lives in order to make the public aware of government abuses like so many whistleblowers have. juan: jim, i agree with you there is a major difference between a whistleblower and what trump did. part some skeptics of what is happening with this prosecution at least partially right at, one, there is a major problem of over classification of documents by the government in this country and also that this whole issue of the espionage act and the dissemination of classified information has been weaponized

by the government to go after people? >> sure. they did it -- they have done it in a million cases, including a case i was involved in. i am no fan of the espionage act. i don't think that it should be on the books. i think it should be repealed. but i just find irony is very thick in this case where he was spending all of his presidency prosecuting as many whistleblowers as possible and was trying jail his opponents come have anybody who leaked investigated and now he is caught up in it. i am not advocating this is the right way to conduct government operations by having an espionage act, i just find it very ironic. to me, it is kind of like al capone who got -- on his

murderous rain in chicago, ultimately got caught up in a tax evasion case. to me, trump is a criminal, he is a pathological liar, and this is -- the irony is this is kind of the al capone tax evasion case, in my opinion. it is something the government could get him on because i did not get him on other things. amy: just 10 seconds, you have another piece talking about how lackeys always take the fall for president trump. >> he is a classic trump lackey. he is a low level guy who probably had no idea what was going on. he just followed orders. and then trump used him and abused him and set him up in a situation where everything he was doing was illegal. i am sure trump tried to

convince this poor guy from the navy that he was the president and he could set the laws. i am sure it is somebody who had no idea what he was really doing. and then finally got caught up because he agreed to lie and obstruct justice for trump. i think if he is smart, he will flip on trump. the track record shows very few of trump's lackeys do flip on him. amy: and a never go to jail. james risen, we're going to continue with you after the break, pulitzer prize-winning reporter formerly with "the new york times," now with the intercept. next up, we talked about your nature new book -- your major new book "the last honest man: the cia, the fbi, the mafia, and the kennedys -- and one senator's fight to save democracy." we will be talking about the fbi, the cia. we will be talking about assassination plots by the u.s. government against people like astro, and others.

stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "take me to church" by hozier. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we spend the rest of the are with james risen comedy the twice pulitzer prize-winning reporter, formerly with "the new york times," now with the intercept. he has just published a major new bk that oks at when frank church -- it was officially called the select committee to study national and this is senator frank church speaking during one of the committee hearings. >> nursing today the dark side of those activities -- we are

seeing today the dark side of those activities for many americans who were not even suspected of crimes. we are not only spied upon, but they were harassed, they were discredited and at times, endangered. amy: this is another clip. william colby testifying. he was asked if pat work of the committee -- she was asked if he found the work of the committee unwelcome. >> i do not. i welcome the chance to try to describe to the american people what intelligence is really about today. it is an opportunity to show how we americans have modernized the whole concept of intelligence. amy: that is cia director william colby testifying by the church committee, which investigated u.s. assassination targets from castro in cuba to luba --lumumba to vietnam.

this is the focus of the new book by james risen titled "the last honest man: the cia, the fbi, the mafia, and the kennedys -- and one senator's fight to save democracy." jim, this is a fascinating read. it is so important even, what, some 50 years later. if you can talk about why you focused on senator church you at one time hoped to be president of the united states but the significance of these hearings and what you are most shocked by in the revelations that he discovered around u.s. government activity around the world? >> reason i wanted to write this book, i was covering the cia for "the new york times" at the time and 9/11 and if you remember, dick cheney started -- after

9/11, started complaining constantly that the reason the cia and the fbi had failed to uncover the terrorist plots was because of the church committee, which was a very odd thing to say because the church committee had taken place 25 years earlier. frank church was long dead by that time. but it became the mantra of the bush administration that it was the church committee's tighter rules on u.s. intelligence operations that had led to the weakness of intelligence. which was a lie. but it was a very powerful lie that continued for years. after i started reading about the church committee because of dick cheney's constant carping about it and i decided eventually it was something that i really wanted to write a book about, the church committee i think is probably the most

important congressional investigation in modern american history. it was a watershed moment in the history of the cia and the fbi and the nsa. anybody who worked at those organizations -- the intelligence community, knows there is a before and after. there is a before the church committee and what we can get away with and there is an after the church committee and what rules we were now imposed on them to limit their power and their flexibility. i think that is -- you have got to get back into the mindset of the time and remember there was no congressional oversight whatsoever of the cia, the fbi, the nsa for three decades. frank church was brought in -- this committee was created in 1975 to conduct the very first oversight and very first

investigation ever conducted of the cia. at the time, you have to remember the fbi was just as much of a rogue organization stop j edgar hoover had just died. he had run the organization since its founding. no one had ever questioned his authority or his power. the nsa at that time, very few americans even knew it existed. it was even -- far more secretive than it is even today. the hearings were explosive and they lead to chang in the ws, chans in exetive orrs, led the creion of permanent congressional intelligence oversight. it was -- it had a dramatic impact on american national security policy. juan: jim, you mentioned j edgar hoover. he died in 1972, if you years before the committee.

with this committee been possible had he not died? point out how critical he was to the incipient development of a police state here in the united states. i wonder if you could talk about that, his role in developing the move toward a police state? >> when the church committee was created, he was originally just going to be what they called the cia committee. there were just going to investigate the cia. frank church and others on the committee very quickly realized they had to investigate the fbi. church and others later admitted they never would have been able to investigate the fbi at the time if j edgar hoover was still alive. he was so powerful. he had been able to pressure and blackmail and intimidate everyone both in congress and in the white house ever since before world war ii. he was probably the most

powerful secret figure in modern american history, and he was able to turn the fbi into like a gestapo organization. especially in the post-world war ii era when he began the whole communist redbaiting witchhunts. and then moved on from that in the 1960's to harass the civil rights movement and the antiwar movement. and so he had this long history of constant harassment of anyone who opposed him or opposed the status quo in the united states. and he did it in a way that he had intimidated everyone in congress who believed that he had black material on them, whether he did or not, they all believed it. so no one was willing to take him on until or even investigate

the fbi in any meaningful way until he was dead. one of the really interesting things that i learned was the famous burglary of the fbi office in medea, pennsylvania, i think in 1971. where the burglars who are basically antiwar dissidents took a bunch of documents and then began to understand what they were looking at only after they had taken the documents. and they started parceling them out to members of congress and journalists who they thought would be helpful in disclosing and airing the information that they were providing to them. they were sending them anonymously. they were sending them to liberal members of congress. one of the things i learned that was shocking was those members of congress immediately turned

them back to the fbi without doing anything with them. some of the journalists they send them to did the same thing. it just showed how powerful the hold j edgar hoover had on people because he was still alive at that time. juan: and your review and reporting on several of the major assassination attempts that government agencies, especially the cia, were involved in? you spent a lot of time talking about the key mafia figures, a mobster from california johnny roselli, and another mobster from chicago. they were both assassinated. one after testifying before the church commission and the other just before he was about to testify before the church committee. especially for younger listeners and viewers who are not aware of this whole issue of what

happened with attempt to kill castro and the kennedy assassination, could you go through some of that? >> yeah, at the end of the eisenhower administration, the cia decided -- dwight eisenhower was very interested, was pushing the cia to try to kill castro. the cia decided that one way they could do it was to form a secret alliance with the mafia. so they had -- they arranged for former fbi agent named bob mayhew who was also on contract with the cia to contact mobsters around the country to see if they would form an alliance to work with the cia to get to cuba and kill castro. so he first contacted johnny roselli, who was a flamboyant

mobster both operating in los angeles and las vegas, and roselli then contact sam gioconda who was the boss of the chicago mob. the two of them contacted the mob boss in florida and had long time casino operations in cuba before castro took over. so they went with mayhew to miami beach and set up shop in the fountain blue hotel to try to figure out how to get poisons to somebody close to castro who could kill him. but the plot kind of unraveled very quickly because gioconda had a girlfriend in las vegas, phyllis mcguire, one of the famous mcguire sisters, singing act, and he was convinced she

was sleeping with the standup comedian named dan rowan who later became famous in the late 1960's. so he wanted to leave and go back to las vegas and maybe kill dan rowan. but bob mayhew convinced him to stay and keep working on castro while he got a private investigator to go wiretap phyllis mcguire to see if it was true. and the private investigator he hired wiretap phyllis mcguire did a shoddy job in the local police found the wiretap and called the fbi. suddenly, j edgar hoover was pulling a thread and finding out all about through the arrest in las vegas and the investigation of the wiretap phyllis mcguire, found out about the cia's mafia

alliance. and that led them to find that sam gioconda had another mistress named judith campbell put the same time was also sleeping with president kennedy. so very quickly, edgar hoover had blackmail material on president kennedy. he confronted robert kennedy, his brother who was the attorney general at the time, and then he also confronted president kennedy. it is very clear, if you look at the timing, what he wanted was greater freedom to act to spy on martin luther king and the civil rights movement. it wasn't long after he confronted the kennedys with this lack male material about the fact -- blackmail material about the fact that kennedy was sharing the mistress with sam gioconda, that the kennedys approved the wiretapping of mark

luther king. it was a very convoluted story but probably one of the most fascinating stories and history of the cia and the fbi. amy: jim risen, if you can continue on that, the wiretapping of dr. king, a man, especially in the new biography of cooking: a" talks about how dr. mark luther king suffered from severe depression, hospitalized a number of times, and how they tried to drive him to suicide and what that kennedys knew and when they knew it, jim? >> one of the things that became clear is that hoover had been obsessed with king beginning in the late 1950's. as soon asking began to rise to prominence -- as king began to rise to prominence after the camry bus what cut, he was in

the sides of hoover and hoover began to be very quickly -- quickly became convinced king and his civil-rights movement were controlled by moscow and they were communist puppets. there were two members of king's organization that had some background in the american coming to sparta, but there was no evidence of any real influence, communist influence. the intelligence division staff continually told hoover that. he kept telling them that he did not agree with them and he wanted them to change their opinion and change their reports. he put so much pressure on them that they finally just began to harass -- come up with plots to harass king however they could. originally, the wiretapping the

kennedys approved was supposed to be to find communist infiltration in king's movement. but quickly, they realized there was no evidence of that but they were finding evidence that he was having affairs, extramarital affairs. so they began to focus on his actual marital affairs -- focus on his extramarital affairs and was was ordered the nobel peace prize, that's so enraged hoover that he and his intelligence chief william sullivan began to set up -- i took all the recordings, highlights of the recordings of the wiretaps of his extramarital affairs and sent them to his house, along with a note saying you have 34

days, you know what you should do. meaning, essentially, i think was about to be awarded the nobel peace prize and they wanted him to kill himself before that. amy: can you talk about in this book, the revelations, what you learned in and talking to, hard to say the late daniel ellsberg, the information of what he gave to frank church and how this relates to the assassination of the leader? >> he had a lot of information about vietnam but he -- just to step back one step, he had provided -- he told me while i was interviewing him, the whole back story to how he ended up leaking the pentagon papers and how it first went to jay

williams fulbright the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, to try to link -- to get the senate to conduct hearings. fulbright refused to do it and he put the pentagon papers i think and 1969, he put them in a safe at the foreign relations committee and did not do anything with them. that was one of the reasons ultimately that ellsberg went to "the new york times" because he kept going to the senate and being turned down. that ultimately led fulbright, who was so embarrassed by what happened, it led him to leak information later to jack anderson about the cia and itt's work in chile overthrow salvador allende and that led to the

creation of a subcommittee to investigate all of chile that was chaired by frank church, which was a subcommittee that kind of led to the creation of the church committee and his larger investigation of the cia. so it was kind of an indirect investigation -- then he later also provided information to church about the diem assassination and the fact that there was evidence that kennedy knew about -- he understood the detail what was going to happen in the coup plots against diem that the cia was involved with. and the question really boils down to whether or not kennedy -- kennedy clearly knew there was going to be violence in the question was whether he actually knew that the assassination was going to be conducted or not. but it was interesting.

he really wanted to provide new documents to the church committee, so he met privately with church. juan: jim, i wanted to ask you briefly about another pivotal assassination, the killing of patrice lumumba and the involvement of the cia in that. you write about that in your book as well. >> the lumumba -- was one of the assassinations of foreign leaders, along with castro and others, that the church committee investigated and really exposed for the first time. the cia, if you remember congo was in the midst of extreme violence because it was a belgian colony and belgium had been pressured to grant its independence. patrice lumumba was the first independent leader of the independent country. but belgium very quickly wanted

to regain control. they realized they kind of had buyer's remorse about granting congo's independence. amy: you just have a minute. >> ok. anyway, so patrice lumumba was overthrown the backing of belgium and the cia. and then he was assassinated. the question really was, the role of the cia in that assassination. i believe it was much stronger than what the cia had said over the decades. clearly, the cia helped track lumumba as he tried to escape and also had sent hitmen to congo to try to kill him. so it was very clear that the cia played a pivotal role in that post of amy: james risen, we will do part two of this

discussion and talk more about what ultimately the church committee was able to publicly expose with these assassinations posted james risen, the pulitzer prize-winning reporter at the intercept. his new book is called "the last honest man: the cia, the fbi, the mafia, and the kennedys --

hello, and welcome back to nhk "newsline." i'm takao minori in new york. a leader has kept people guessing as to his whereabouts. wagner group founder, yevgeny prigozhin agreed to go into exile. now he has ended days of speculation by showing up