l l's cacall this what it is. these people are domestic terrorists and the loss s to reflflect that a and they shshoe an act of as if it was terrororism. amy:, and accused of stabbing five jewish worshipipers duringa hanukkahah celebrationon at a rabbis, new york has been chargeged with h hate crimes as policeay he kept journals and records -- references to adolf hitler and had "nazi culture." his family and lawyers say he is mentally ill. in texas, the man who shot and killed two people at a church in white settlement had a long crcriminal histotory of arrestsr assault, battery, and theft. he was shot dead by an armed parishioner. this comes as the new associated press database counts more mass killings in 2019 than any year and over half a century. we will get response from audrey sasson, executive director of jews for racial and economic justice, and reporter alex yablon. then "becoming a dangerous woman: embracing risk to change the world." >> documented immigrants, people he is targeting, are people whwo are so deeply embedded in the fabric of this country. it is a system set up in a certain way. times have changed and ideas have matured and the system might not have caught up with that were stayed up with that. amy: ava duvernay, i jen poo, just about the women featured in the new memoir by pat mitchell called "becoming a dangerous woman: embracing risk to change the world." >> i found on the front lines in the middle east and northern ireland come in el salvadorr during the wars, i found women who were bridging their political differences coming from different sides of these long-term conflicts and finding end to shape solutions to the violence in their communities. amy: all that anand more, cocomg up. welcome to democracy now!, demomocracynow.org, the war anad peace report. i'm amy goodman. in iraq, thousands of people are protesting outside the united states embassy in baghdad after a slew of u.s. airstrikes in iraq and syria killed at least 24 members of an iranian-backed militia sunday. the protesters and militiamen marched on baghdad's heavily guarded green zone and demanded the united states withdraw all troops from iraq. the u.s. embassy has been evacuated. any tweet this morning, president trump blamed iran for orchestrating the protest outside the u.s. embassy, but iraqi prime minister adel abdul mahdi said he warned the united states not to carry out the airstrikes but that his warning was ignored. >> the u.s. defense minister told me the u.s. would carry out attacks on bases. this would take place after a few hours. told them, this is a dangero matt a and wld e escate nsion anwe shouldiscuss such affairs amy:he u.s. rsrstrik sununda came aft a an amicanan contntraor wasasilled in a rocket attack in kirku i iraq, friday. the united statehahas arnd 5000 tros s statned d inraq, as well an n unsclosesenumber ofivilian ntractor prosecutors ve filed federal hate cris chargeagainst man cused oftabbing ve jewi worships during a hanukkahatheringt a rabbi's me in moey, new york, sardrday ening. ofcials say they discored anti-semiticriting, includin rerences thitler a swastikas, in the journal of the suspect grafton thomas. new york governor andrew cuomo has condemned the attack as domestic terrorism. thomas's friends and lawyers say his client is mentally ill. >>>> my impression from spspeakg with him is that he needs serious psychiatric evaluation and that is the primary focus. i don't know whether those who are making these charges have spent a moment speaking with him or relating to him, but my impressision from what i have rd in my conversationon with him is there are severe psychiatric issues. amy: in texas, authorities have identified the gunman who opened fire in the middle of a sunday church service in white settlement, texas, outside fort worth. authorities say keith thomas kinnunen had a long criminal history that included arrests for assault, battery, and theft. he was killed by armed parishioners, after fatally shooting two worshipers -- 64-year-old anton wallace and 67-year-old richard white. we'll have more on the attack at the west freeway church of christ and at the rabbi's home in monsey, new york, after headlines. "the new york times" has revealed the detaiails of a previously unreported oval office meeting between president trump and defense secretary mark esper, secretary of state mike pompeo, and then-national security advisorohohn bolton where the three high-level officials tried to cononvince trump not toto withhold u.s. military aid from ukraine. the meeting in late august failed to convince trump to releasase the aid, whichch was g withthld to presessure the ukrainian president to investigate trump's political rival, joe biden, ahead of the 2020 election. the house has now impeached president trump for abuse of power and obstruction of congress after an inquiry centered on the decision too withhold the nearly $400 million in military aid to ukraine. in india, the death toll amid the government's crackdown on widespread protests has risen to at least 27 people, with over 1000 more arrested. demonstrators are protesting against the controversial new citizenship law, which provides a path to indian citizenship for undocumented immigrants from afghanistan, bangladesh, and pakistan -- unless they are muslim. the law's critics say it's a step toward the official marginalization of india's 200 million muslims. this is the chief minister of west bengal, mamata banerjee. >> we e won't let them kick anye out. this is our promise. who implements the laws? states do. how they implement the law here? if you see in india, 90% of states are in the hands of their opposition parties, not in the hands of that djp. amy: meanwhile, in kashmir, the indian government has released five kashmiri political leaders after nearly five months in detention. but kashmir's three most prominent leaders remain detained, and the indian-occupied territory remains on lockdown. there has been no internet access for nearly y five months, marking ththe longest internet blackout ever imposed in a democracy. in sudan, a court has sentenced 29 intelligence officers to death h for the tortrture and killing of ahmad a al-khair, a teteacher who was arrested for participatating inrorotests against the longtime leader omar al-bashir. sudanese security forces killed at least 170 people in the crackdown against the massive uprising, which ultimately toppled bashir in april. this is a protesterer speaking after monday's sentencing. >> the sudanese judiciary proved today without a doubt its integrity and value. we hope it continues on the same path in all cases. as teachers, the ruling has cooled our firires. we hope. we hope. we hope the rest of the call criminals are captured. amy:y: in australia, 4000 people were forced to flee to the beaeh as deadly wildfires scorched the southeast of the country tuesday. mallacoota residents were trapped between the ocean and advancing flames as smoke turned the e morning sky black. the death toll from the fires rose to 12 after a father and son in the region died fighting the fires. climate change-fueled fires in australia have killed nearly 500 million animals and blanketed australia in smoke. climate activists and scientists are pointing to australia as an example of what's to come in the decades ahead if radical steps aren't taken to curb global carbon emissions. this comes as the bank of england governor mark carney warned the world is on track to warm nearly 4 degrees celsius -- and urged financial institutions to stop financncing companies tt fuel climate change. >> we talalked about 2020 beinga dedecade of action, absolutely necessary on climate change. we want action on the finance side. we want on that disclosure companieies doing that disclosu. we want that to become the norm. amy: former nissan chief carlos ghosn has fled to lebanon from japan, where he faced charges of financial wrongdoing and w was expected to stand trial in 2020. in a statement, ghosn said, "i have not fled justice -- i have escaped injustice and political persecution." it is unclear how the former executive was able to leave the country after being forced to surrender his passports. ghosn has lebanese citizenship, and lebanon does not have an extradition pact with japan. in new york, the city has agreed to pay $12.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit with people who were subjected to invasive strip searches while visiting family members and loved ones in jails in manhattan, brooklyn and rikers island. many of the women reported being penetrated by female guards or forced to drop their pants and show their sanitary napkins to . the settlement marks the first time the city will pay damages to visititors of jails, who have long raised concerns about the invasive and humiliating strip searches. the family of a teenager who died in 2017 after a michigan state trooper stunned him with a taser has reached a $12 million settlement with the michigan state police. 15-year-old damon grimes was riding an atv in a residential area of detroit when a police officer tased him for not pulling over fast enough. the teen then crashed into the back of a parked truck and died quickly after. this is the michigan state police department's largest-ever settlement for a single incident. a lawyer for the grimes family said -- "we hope this kind of money will act as a deterrent, t unfortunately it rarely does." a colorado judge has ordered the denver police department to stop enforcing the city's ban against camping, saying the ban amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. several homeless rights organizations in colorado celebrated the decision, which comes two weeks after the supreme court also upheld protections for people who sleep or camp outdoors by leaving in place a lower court ruling saying it was unconstitutional for cities to prosecute people for sleeping or camping outside unless the city provides shelter for every single unhoused person in their jurisdiction. prominent progressive journalist and editor william greider has died. greider spent decades reporting on politics, economics, civil rights, and labor issues for "the washington post," "rolling stone" magazine, and " "the nation." the award-winning journalist died on christmas day at his home in washington, d.c., at the age of 83. and in new york, long-time wbai producer and journalist dred scott keyes has also died. he won multiple awards from the national federation of community broadcasters for his radio documentaries "the gospel truth: the sam cooke story," "sweet soul music: the roots of southern soul music," and "malcolm x speaks to the midnight ravers." dred scott keys also engineered and mixed the george polk award-winning documentary "drilling and killing: chevron and nigeria's oil dictatorship." you can see that documentary at democracynow.org. at wbai, he was known for mentoring fellow journalists and producers. dred scott keyes died on december 18 at the age of 68. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. federal prosecutors have filed hate crime charges against the man accused of stabbing five people with a machete during a hanukkah celebration at a rarabbi's home in a heavavily ultra-orthodox new york suburb of mononsey. ththey say the suspect, , graftn thomas, kekept journals that had references to adolf hitler, "nazi culture," and a drawing of a swastika. officials said grafton's cell phone showed multiple online searches for "why did hitler hate the jews." his family and lawyers say he was mentally ill. this is his attorney michael sussman. >> my impression from m speaking , he needs serious psychiatric evaluation and that is the primary focus. i don't know whehether those who are making these charges have spent a moment speaking with him or r relating to him, but my impression from what i have read and my conversation with him is there are severe psychiatric issues. amy: new york governor andrew cuomo has called the attack "domestic terrorism," and several jewish elected officials in new york have asked him to declare a state of emergency and to deploy the national guard to visibly patrol and protect orthodox jewish h nehborhoods.s. this is new york's 13th anti-semitic incident in three weeks and follows a shooting at a kosher supermarket in jersey city, new jersey, in which two assailants killed three people before police shot them dead ter an houours-long shootout. this comes as a new associated press database counts more mass killings in 2019 then in the year dating back to at least the 1970's. these recent attacks have renewed calls for increased security and the right to be armed in places of worship. for more, we're joined here in new york by audrey sasson, executive director of jews for racial and economic justice. and via video stream, we're joined by alex yablon, w who 's recent analysis for jewish currents is headlined "contextualizing the jersey city shooting" and his article for slate is "how to neutralize a militia: nearly every state has the legal tools to crack down on paramilitaries. why don't they use them?" we welcome both of you to democracy now! audrey, your reaction to what took place in monsey against the aesthetic community there? >> clearly, we are outraged and devastated as a jewish community as a whole is both in morning and scared. that is very real. what is really powerful about how our community is also responding right now is that we believe that the answers to what is happening is not more policing necessarily or not policing as the only response. our focus is to build solidarity with other groups targeted by anti-semitism. anti-semitism is on the rise. it is being yield by white administration. it is in the water and it is everywhere and causing a rise in hate crimes across the board. the way it shows up against jews is different than against other communities, but all communities are targeted i white supremacy and white nationalism. our response iss to come togethr with other communities that are targeted. amy: how is it different when you explain how it is expressed? >> simply put, it is different in that anti-semitism is a tool that punches up against jews in that it portrays jews and positions jews as powerful. whereas a lot of the other oppressions used, learning about and teaching about and interrupting punch down, shorthand for saying it deems those communities as inferior -- most the lack and brown committees. interlocksupremacy is in a way that needs both of these oppressions to happen simultaneously so when oppression against marginalized communities is happening, they leave this anti-semitism of jews is a lever to ship lane. rightful anger about real problems are unleashed against jews as opposed to the source of the oppression that people are struggling with. amy: you are part of it helped to lead a major protest this weekend. multicultural protest. explain who was there. >> i would maybe dare to call it not so much or protest as a ritual gathering of public defiant public gathering of jews of all backgrounds. secular and the ultra-orthodox. may be observed once a year. in our muslim allies who showed pocn force and other that came to show their solidarity and support. we went to the plaza on the eighth night of hanukkah to mark the closing of this holiday that has been marred by so much violence with an evening of public ritual. hundreds of people gathered. within hours of a call to mobilization. they came out to say we aree herere, we're not going to go underground, we're going to stand in line with -- solidarity with others. amy: many people join you. >> immigrant, muslim african-americican. from a lot of grassroots organizations. amy: alex yablon, i want to bring you to this conversation. york of estimated 13th anti-semitic incident in three weeks, following a shooting at a kosher supermarket in jersey city in which twowo assailants killed three people before police shot them dead in an hours long shootout. you wrote specifically about this and talking about contextualizing this. respond to this latest attack before we then talked about texas and this new report out that hate crimes are up this year, higher than any time in half a century. >> surure. the two recent attacks on ultra-orthodox jews have in common is they boboth sm to have been committed by fairly isolated, disturbed people.e. there is not an indication like therere is -- like we have seen more e explicitly white nationalisist anti-semitic a ats like the powers synagogue shooting in california or the pittttsburgh synagogueue shootin 202018 that t these peoeople --e perpetrators weree enmeshed in networks, an online subculture of really fleshed out anti-semitisism that valorize to accept mass violence like this. in both cases, thehese appearedo be -- about the jersey city case and the monsey c case, the incidentnts appearar to be carrd out by people who seemed d to he beenen, for lack of betterer wo, self radadicalizeded -- not necessarily part of f a movement that a advocates is s kind of behavior. contract -- contrast to the white power movement that has a kind of playbook for carrying out these kinds of attacks. amy: i wanted to go to texas. the man who shot and killed two people at sunday services at a church in the town called white settlement, who has been identified as keith thomas kinnunen. he had a criminal past dating back more than a decade including arrest for assault, battery, that. his victims identified as anton wallace and richard white. the shooter was killed by an armed parishioner, a pair of state laws adopted in 2017 that authorizes firearms and houses of worship. this is texas attorney general can paxton speaking monday on fox news. >> this church was prepared. they are an example of what can be done within six seconds, they dealt with the issue and saved potentially hundreds of people. i hope other churchches around e country will adopt policy like ththis and we can stop losing so many people in these -- when these incidences occur. amy: alex yablon, if you can respond to this and the ap report, this new database being compiled that showing hate crcrimes increasase this year me than any time in half a century? >> sure. this certrtainly true that shshooting in tetexas could have been much worse if people did not respond d so quickly. with deadly force. ththe quick thininking and the courage of the parishioners who responded. that that issaid so of the e end of a lonong line of policy failures. the fact that the suspect in the texas church shooting was able to get a government at all is outrageous. he had a realllly extensive list history.t criminal he had been accused in a filing for restraining order by his ex-wife of really disturbing behavior, frequent arsons, emotional abuse of his s son who liveinin terror r of him. and yet he was able to get a shotgun.. the burdeden that i is placed oe parishioners who havave to come into church armed or believe ththey have to come into church armed and respspond in this way, they only y have to do t that because e they live in a state where the flow of weapons is so poorly controlled. like ---- it is sort of i tweeted it is sort olike a slslumlord in the 1970 sououth x praising the firefighters. yes, they arare behaving heroically, but why did they have to respond to these verbal incidents in the first place? amy: i would to clarify this ap database. the new associated press database counts more mass kikillings in 2019 that any year dating back to at least the 1970's. , if you could also respond to this issue and how you feel hate crimes need to be dealt with today? and in the case of the monsey machete attack on the jewish worshipers, the lawyer for the iseged attacker says he until he ill, that he suffers from schizophrenia? >> yes, i think we have to look at hate crimes in a very holistic and comprehensive way. people who might be suffering from mental illness and living in society in which anti-semitism and racism and all of these oppressions are mixed -- that is a dangerous combination. clearly. we are seeing now because anti-semitism has risen to the surface with this sort of bigoted rhetoric coming out of the highest offices of the land, giving permission, innocence, to those who might be unstable to unleash. with our approach and the approach of grassroots community organizations, think about what approaches.our nine groups across the city representing all targeted communities, muslim, jewish, lgbt and beyond, who are seeking reduce ourway to reliance on police -- which right now is the only answer. like alex was saying, what is the source of the issue? of course everyone wants to be safe. we all need to be able to not have to look over our shoulders. that is everyone's right. black communities, jewish committees, black-jewish community's where this overlaps. bringing more police into communities of color where there largely were white jews living alongside black people, is going to over criminalize that community. we think that will actually reduce our security and our safety. the hatete violence, violence prevention initiative is looking to think about hate crimes from the perspective of what is the root of it and how repair?ing more community control and bringing a whole other lens to hate violence. we don't want to increase the punishment, we want to actually change the paradigm. amy: i want to thank you both for being with us. i want to thank audrey sasson, jews for director of racial and economic justice. alex yablon reports on guns, extremism, and mass shootings. when we come back, media legend pat mitchell on "becoming a dangerous woman" as she talks about t leading activists and figuresand political from mary robinson to ava duvernay a ai. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. of 2019d our last show with media legend pat mitchell, a woman of many firsts. she was the first woman president of pbs, cnn productions, and the paley center for media chair of the , sundance institute and the women's media center. she tells her story in her new book "becoming a dangerous woman: embracing risk to change the world." we spoke to her last week about her own life story. today she talks about some of the 15 women she chose to feature. >> i learned so much in listening to them talk about their own journeys because they are so vastly different. then you talk to ava duvernay or who so brilliantly describes being dangerous to her means reaching out to one another and protecting each other, creating safe spaces for each other, healing each other. from a fromnguage director. and mary robinsnson, who has ben dangerous her role like says clearly, i did not always, i self dangerous because been president of a country, i avoided the word.. but she goes on to say, i did not ask for forgiveness ever r r permission ever, i just did what i thought was right. well, that is an act of your listeners. mary is someone i'm working with now on the climate crisis and her climate justice work. amy: let me go right now to the irish president, to mary robinson, who served as president from 1990-1997 and u.n. high commissioner for human rights from 1997-2002. she is now the president of the mary robinson foundation climate justice. shortly after donald trump was elected president, democracy now! spoke with mary robinson at the u.n. climate summit in mayor cache, morocco. i asked her what it would been for the united states does well, this was before he became president, but had just been elected, if donald trump pulled out of the paris agreement >> the first thing i think is it would damage the image and reputation of the united days globally because the united states signed up for this important agreement. great leadership on climate together with china and other major emitters. were forceful in ensuring we got the agreement and were willing to have the ambitious goal that is in the paris agreement. if one country were to renege now on that, i think would damage that country's reputation internationally. how can you sign up to something that is so important for the world, that the world knows is real and happening, and then somehow because somebody is blind or pretends to be blind the consequences because of the lobbies surrounding him and afraid that is not acceptable to the world? amy: that was in 2016 at the morocco u.n. climate summit. we just came from madrid cup 25. you yourself, pat mitchell, are engaging in climate activism right now. you're are just arrested with jane fonda in over 140 other people last friday protesting the climate crisis and where we stand today. but there you have mary robinson talking about what it means if the u.s. pulls out of the paris climate accord -- which trump is doing, effective the day after election day 2020. pat? >> mary was so right in the impact of that withdrawal and yet she and womenen climate leleaders all over the world are continuing to believe in the power of global agreements, on how we respond to the climate crisis, and until i think mary wrote and her own book on climate justice, not that many in the world recognize how critical the role of women leaders had been can getting us to climate agreements. it was in all of those climate summits before. the women leaders, who behind the scenes and out of the public eye, cap the negotiations moving forward. all the way to the paris agreement. women from all over the world. getting past their differences and working to help others get past their differences. so even though we are in this really precarious place of a true state of emergency and our president's response has only heightened the emergency and heightened the amount of rage felt in the world against our country for losing our , i haveip positition here experienced and seen women stepping up to leadership in this one particular area, so critical, the existential threat to our existence on this planet. who and the women like her are stepping up to leadership are not letting this climate justice work and. and it will continue to work toward those global agreements and have a particular ability to work and negotiate a few people at the negotiatingng table. that is our goal now. amy: i was particularly interested with chapter seven, "going global," where you highlight to women, palestinian ander and her dear friend israeli leader, human righthts attorney. they were featured in a film recently by rachel leah jones called "the advocat." i wasas lookingor a lawyer. wasfrfr that da on ,leah realally part of our experiee of struggleled during g lfhese closures, during all of t tse shshtings, arrests. it w was leah h o was there all the time. to us, bng a pririner is a fact o le. evy y homeome evevy famy hass had atleastt o o prisoner, if not m me. anmany famies s ha h had martyrs. amy: that is a longtime palestinian diplomat and scholar, along with the human rights lawyer lea tsemel from rachel leah jones's film "the advocat." pat mitchell, you write about them both in your book in becoming a dangerous woman." talk about why you feature them. >> they are two extraordinary women, part of a series i did quite a long time ago called "women in war: voices from the front line." i found on the front lines in the middle east and northern ireland in el salvador during the wars, i found women who were bridging their political differences, coming from different sides of these long-term conflicts and finding ways to shape solutions to end the violence in ththeir community's. that is where i first met mary robinson, actually, during the n
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