amy: trita parsi, mattis led the u.s.entral command from 2010 to 2013 under president obama, but he cut short his tour over concerns that mattis was too hawkish on iran, calling for a series of covert actions there. can you talk about what those covert actions were? >> i'm not entirely sure, but is is important understand between 2010 and 2013, that was the era in which both the iranians and the u.s. was engaged in a very aggressive pressure tactic against each other, massive tensions on the iranians. the iranians responded by aggressively accelerating a program, combined with a lot of covert actions on both sides, particularly on the u.s. side with cyberattacks, etc. but behind the scenes, however, the obama administration was looking for ways to engage the iranians and open up a secret channel, which by mid 2012, was successful. i think what happened at that point is the administration was very careful to make sure that those secret negotiations could be successful, which meant they had to actually toned down a lot of t

we will speak with her and trita parsi of the national iranian american council. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president donald trump fired acting attorney general sally yates on monday night just hours after she announced the justice department would not defend trump's executive order banning temporarily all refugees as well as citizens from seven muslim-majority nations. iran, iraq, libya, somalia, sudan, syria, and yemen. yates had written a memo saying -- "i'm not convinced the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities nor am i convinced that the executive order is lawful." yates had served in the justice department for 27 years. trump had asked her to serve as acting attorney general until the senate confirmed senator jeff sessions who is a close , ally of trump. on monday, richard blumenthal praised sally yates for speaking out. >> i want to salute sally yates, who has taken a stand based on moral and legal principle in the highest tradition

dr trita parsi is the founder of the national iranian american council and is frequently consulted by matters. he said iran is affected more than any other country and he welcomed the federal court order. iranians are receiving about 48% of the total of visas of these seven countries. as a result are almost larger than all the others combined, so this is affecting our community more than any. but at the same time i think what we've seen today is people across the united states from all different communities are really rising up and protesting against this. i think partly as a result of these protests we've seen this court order does that give you some confidence, this emergency stay order, to what might happen in the future or the coming days? definitely and it is sending a signal for a lot of peole who are organising or trying to object to this to realise that there is actually significant hope. they can win this. i think beyond that mere fact that so quickly a judge issued this order is a clear indication that there are significant holds and question marks about this executive order

joining me from washington is trita parsi, who heads the national iranian american council. twitter that you were helping a lot of people who are confused. they do not know where they stand, they are being questioned, there are strip searches. what are you hearing? questioned, there are strip searches. what are you hearing ?m has actually been quite atrocious. we really did not expect this. we have had cases where green card holders have entered the country, they have been living here for yea rs, they have been living here for years, their english is perfect with the perfect american accent, this is their home, but they have been strip—searched, handcuffed and asked to give social media accounts so that what the post can be reviewed, they have also been asked questions about what they think about donald trump. it was decided on a case—by—case basis yesterday whether they could come in and not. today, homeland security clarified that this is supposed to apply to green ca rd this is supposed to apply to green card holders in the future. which means that from now on they may no

dr trita parsi is the founder of the national iranian american council and is frequently consulted by. he said iran is affected more than any other country and he welcomed the federal court order. are receiving about 47%. larger than any of the other countries combined. —— iranians. what we have seen today is people across the united states in all communities are really rising up in all communities are really rising up and protesting against this. i think this is partly against a result of these process —— protests that the court has put an executive order against it. doesn't give you some confidence? —— does it? definitely and it is sending a signal that there is significant hope. beyond the mere fact that so quicklyjudge issued this order is a clear indication that there are significant holds and question marks about this executive order of donald trump's. what is this do for relationships between america and iran? they have been massively fractured in the past. we have seen these allegations from the iranian government but where do you see it going? it makes the point that the thaw

earlier i spoke to trita parsi, the president of the national iranian american council about akbar rafsaighly influential and i think the last time that we really saw his fingerprints very clearly that showed his influence was in 2013 during the presidential elections. he was first cabinet but he was rejected which is caused major scandal inside iraq. he then played a critical role together with the former president in unifying the various reformist movements behind him and convincing the population that they should go out and vote and that they should go out and vote and that this time their votes would be counted, unlike in 2009 full it was precisely because of that voter turnout that the prime minister won in the first round. do you think that his death will be something that his death will be something that harms the moderate movement in the upcoming elections or do you think it will galvanise energy and focus among them? it certainly could galvanise them. we could see a bump for the moderates in the next elections which is a couple of months away. in the long run, however, i think i

trita parsi is the president of the national iranian american council and says akbar rafsanjani was airanian politics right up until his death. i think the last time we really saw his fingerprints very clearly, showing his influence, was in 2013 during the presidential elections. he was first a candidate, but rejected, which caused a major scandal. then he played a critical role together with the former president in unifying the various reformist movements behind the president and convincing the population that they should go out and vote, and their votes would be counted unlike 2009. it was precisely because of that voter turnout that rouhani managed to win in the first round. more than 20 people have died because of bitterly cold weather in much of central and eastern europe over the weekend. temperatures have plunged as low as —30 celsius, with snow covering the continent as far south as turkey and the greek islands. christian fraser reports. rarely does the icy grip of the arctic circle reach as deep into europe as it has this weekend. the snow has even fallen on the mediterranean

we can cross to washington and speak to dr trita parsi.iranian american council and is frequently consulted by foreign governments on foreign policy matters. thank you very much forjoining us. i would like to first get your reaction to the per past 2a hours. what have other people been saying to you? people are stunned in the world and that this is happening. clearly there was an expectation that something would happen but the idea that the trump administration would start targeting people who have permanent residence in the united states is something that was beyond imagination of anyone. at the same time this frustration that this is now being justified on the basis of security, while mindful of the fa ct of security, while mindful of the fact that zero american fatalities in terrorist attacks have been caused by citizens from the seven countries whereas there are plenty of american allies whose citizens have committed such acts is something that is furthering the frustration that is coming with this new water. according to the departmen