Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20170426

Administrations threats to prosecutute wikileaks founder julian assssange. Is the charge is true, he should be honored for it. Chelsea manning and edward up euro,rried courageous acts. They fulfilled the reresponsibility o of some who s citizenship seriously. That is, who believe people of the country ought to know something about amy professor noam chomsky for the hour in a public conversation i had with him earlier this week in cambridge, massachusetts. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war anand peace e report. Im amy goodman. President trump is slated to announce his tax plan today. The plan proposes to slash the Corporate Tax rate from 35 to a mere 15 . The plan would also grant the 15 tax rate to companies known as s corporations, which include both small Family Businesses and massive corporations, such as hedge funds and real estate empires, such as trumps own companies. The Washington Post reports that some of the biggest winners of trumps proposed tax cuts would be construction and retail companies. The tax plan would sharply increase the national deficit. A Tax Foundation analysis found the proposed cuts to the Corporate Tax rate alone would reduce revenue by 2 trillion over 10 years. Democrats have vowed to refuse to work with President Trump on any tax plans until he agrees to release his own tax returns. Turkey carried out a series of airstrikes in iraq and syria tuesday that reportedly killed up to 20 u. S. Backed kurdish fighters. U. S. Officials say they are deeply concerned autut the turkrkish airstrikes. Two u. S. Backeked kurdish group, the ypg in syria and the peshmerga in iraq, say the airstrikes hit their camps and killed their fighters. The ypg says the airstrikes hit a radio station, media center, and communication facilities. Turkey says the airstrikes were targeting camps of the kurdistan workers party, known as the pkk, which turkey claims is a terrorist group. The journalistic Monitoring Group airwars says 17 civilians, including nine children, reportedly died in u. S. Led Coalition Airstrikes on the syrian city of tabaqa in Raqqa Province o on monday. The victims reportedly included the sixmonthold baby abd al salam and the toddler ali abu aish, along with their entire family. The local journalistic group raqqa is being slaughtered silently says the civilians were killed when Coalition Warplanes bombed their cars and then attacked them with machine gun fire as they were trying to flee the besieged city. Meanwhile, in more news on syria, two democratic lawmakers virginia senator tim kaine and california congressman adam scschiff sesent a letter to e white house tuesday demanding President Trump provide a legal justification for the u. S. Attack on the Shayrat Air Base earlier this month. Back in the United States, a federal judge in california has dealt a major blow to the Trump Administrations attempts to withhold billions of dollars of funding from socalled sanctuary cities. On tuesday, u. S. District court judge William Orrick issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the administrations efforts, writing trump had overstepped his Legal Authority and that only congress could make such funding conditions. The Trump Administration has been trying to force sanctuary cities to mobilize local Law Enforcement to work with federal immigration agents to carry out trumps mass deportation plans. In a statement, the white house slammed the ruling, saying today, the rule of law suffered another blow, as an unelected judge unilaterally rewrote immigration policy for our nation. This morning President Trump tweeted first the ninth circuit rules against the ban now it hits again on sanctuary citiesboth ridiculous rulings. See you in the Supreme Court the california ruling comes as immigrgrants and their allies continue to o organize nationwne against President Trumps crackdown. In boston, 20 people were arrested monday at a protest and sitin outside bostons south bay detention facility. In baltimore, advocates have launched a new 500,000 Legal Defense fund for undocumented immigrants who get arrested in ice raids. And in tacoma, washington, imprisoned immigrants have relaunched a Hunger Strike at the forprofit northwest Detention Center after the strike organizers say the prisons operator, geo group, reneged on the conditions of the negotiations and actually worsened, rather than improved the food. , to see our full interview about the tacoma Hunger Strikes, go to democracynow. Org. Two senior lawmakers on the House Oversight t committee, uth Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz and Maryland Democratic congressman elijah cummings, say former National Security adviser Michael Flynn may have broken u. S. Laws by receiving payments from the russian and turkish governments, and then failing to disclose these payments when seeking security clearance. Flynn received tens of thousands of dollars from the russian government for a 2015 speaking event. He was also working as a Foreign Agent for the turkish government last fall as he served as a top adviser to Donald Trumps campaign. This is congressman chaffetz. Is a former military officer, he cannot take money from russia, turkey, or anybody else. It appears as if he did take that money. It was inappropriate. The report gush and for the violation of l law. In berlin, germany, President Trumps daughter and ivankaouse adviser , trump, was booeded and jeered duriring a Panel Discussion ataa meeting of Women Business leaders, when she claimed that her fafather is a champion of fathers. And proud of my father, long before he came to the presidency. Jenna campaign, and the primaries, he is b been supportg ilies and enabling thehem [inaudible] amy that t was the e panels moderator miriam meckel. Ivanka was sitting alongside german chancellor Angela Merkel and managing director of the imf christine lagarde. The panel came as the Washington Post reported that the Chinese Workers in a factory that produces clothing for ivankas brand earn just over 60 a week for nearly 60 hours of work. Or aboutut 1 an hour. A new investigation by the intercept reveals how major corporations, including koch industriries and nestle, l lobbd directly for some e of President Trumps key cabinet nominations. Koch heaeavily supported now Environmental Protection agency head scott pruitt. The clothing manufacturer trade group the American Apparel Footwear Association lobbied to support andrew puzder, trumps first pipick for labor departmet head. Nestle lobbied for sonny perdue, now the secretary of agriculture, while the new York City Police Sergeants Union backed the confirmation of attorney genereral jeff session. In japan, protesters gathered in okinawa tuesday to oppose the first day ofof construction of a highly controversial new u. S. Military base on the island. For decades, residents have called for the expulsion of u. S. Troops from okinawa, which houses about twothirds of the 50,000 u. S. Troops currently stationed in japan. In venezuela, two more people have died after being shot at political demonstrations tuesday as political unrest continues. Both Government Forces and armed opposition members have been responsible for deaths during demonstrations in recent weeks. A total of 26 people have died. Among those who have been killed was trade union leader esmin ramirez, whose body was found after he was kidnapped over the weekend. Ramirez had been participating in marches in support of the venezuelan president nicolas maduro. His friends say his death was politically motivated. In brazil, more than 3000 Indigenous People demonstrated in front of congress tuesday, protesting ongoing theft of their land and resources, which they say has worsened under president michel temer. The demonstrators carried hundreds of coffins to symbolize the genocide of indigenous nations in brazil. The protests turned into clashes after the Police Attacked the demonstrators with tear gas, prompting some to respond by throwing spears and shooting arrows at the police. Back in the United States, in seattle, washington, prosecutors have charged a married couple with first and third degree murder for the shooting of an antifascist protester at a demonstration against a speech by White Nationalist forormer Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos at the university of washington in january. Joshua dukes, a member of the Industrial Workers of the world, was critically injured when alleged shooter Elizabeth Hokoana fired a single shot from a glock semiautomatic handgun into his stomach. Prosecutors say hokoana and her husband, marc, went to the armed protest intending g to provoke e antifascist prorotesters. Marc messaged a friend on facebook writing im going to the milo event and if the snowflakes get out off hand im going to wade through their ranks and start cracking skulls. Snowflake is a derisive term used by y white nationalisists o refer to leftists and liberals. Joshua dukes is still recovering from the shooting and says hes seeking a Restorative Justice process, not incarceration, for the alleged shooter. And in new york city, hundreds of people gathered to protest and disrupt citibanks annual Shareholder Meeting to show their opposition to the controversial Dakota Access pipeline and keystone xl pipeline as well. The protest was led by Indigenous Women. Citibank has invested both the Dakota Access and keystone xl pipelines which have faced , resistance over concerns the pipelines could contaminate land and drinking water, violate the sovereignty of indigenous nations, and contribute to climate change. These are two Indigenous Women fancy dancers, speaking after they danced down the aisles of the Shareholder Meeting and onto the stage. They went in there and laughed. They told us to get jobs. It i thought as long as people are taking from other earth, i will always have work to do. I will always need to be working. It did not get to me at all. I just danced. I hope they felt what i felt. Thank you so much for being here. Also, there were people in there who clapped for us. Amy and those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. As President Trump prepares to mark 100 days in office, we spend the hour with the world renowned linguist and dissident noamam chomsky. I spoke to him on monday night at the First Parish Church in cambridge, massachusetts. We talked about climate change, Nuclear Weapons, north korea, iran, the war in syria, and the Trump Administrations threat to prosecute wikileaks founder Julian Assange. I began by asking him about the comments at the Republican Party is the most Dangerous Organization in the world. I want to ask about this comment that you made that the republicanan party you said is e most Dangerous Organization in world history. Can you explain . Also said it is an extremely outrageous statement. Bubut the questioion is, whethet is true. I mean, has there ever been an organization in Human History that is dedicated with such commitment to the destruction of ororganized human n life onn ea . Not that im aware of. Is the republicann organization committed toto that . Overwhelmingly. There isnt any questionon about it. Take a look k at the last primay mpmpaign. Plenty of publicicity. Very litittle comment on thehe t significant facact. Every single candidate user denied that either denied that s move happening, syria toward and by mental catastrophe, or there were a couple of moderate socalled jeb bush, who said maybe it is happening, we really dont know, but it doesnt matter because fracking is working fine, so we can get more fossil fuels. Theres the guy who was called the adult in the room, john kasich, the one person who said, yes, it is true, Global Warming is going on. It is doesnt matter. He is the governor of ohio. In ohio, were going to go on using coal for energy and we arent going to apologize for. So that is whatat hundred percet commitment toward racing toward disaster. And take a lookok at what has happened since. Election. Er 8 was the there was, a as im sure most of you know, very important conference underway in morocco marrakesh, morocco. Almost roughly 200 countries at the united nationssponsored conference, which was the goal of which was to put some specific commitments into the verbal agreements that were reached at paris in december 2015, the preceding International Conference on Global Warming. The paris conference did intend to reach a verifiable treaty, but they could not because of the most Dangerous Organization in Human History will stop the Republican Congress would not accept any commitments, so therefore, the world was left with verbal promises, but no commitments. Last november 8, there were going to try to carry that forward on november 8, in fact, there was a report by the World Meteorological o organization. Very dyer analysis of the state of the envirironment and the likely prospects alslso pointed ouout that we are coming carelessly close to the tipping point, which was the goal of the pairs negotiations was to keepp things below that, coming veryy close to it. And d other ominous predictions. At that point, the conference pretetty much stopped becauausee news came in about t the electi. And it turns out, the most powerful country in Human History, the richest, most powerful, most influential, the leader of f the free world, has just dided not only not to support the efforts, bubut actively to undermine ththem. So the whole world on one side, literally, at least trying to do someththing or other, n not enoh maybe, although, some places are going pretty far like denmark and a couple of others on the other s side, in the splendid isolatioion, is the country ledy the most dangerous o organizatin inin Human Historyry, which is saying, we are not part of this. In fact, were going to try to undermine it. Were going to maximize the use fuels. Il it could carry us past thehe tipping poinint. Were n not going to provovide hunting funding as committed in paris to developing countries that are tryining to do somethig about the climate problems. Were going to dismantle reatatard tthe devavastating impact of thehe production of carbon dioxide, in fact, other danangerous gasases, methane, and others. Ok. So the conference kind of pretty much came to a halt. The question it continued, bubut the question was, can we salvlvage something from this wreckage . Pretty a amazing, the countriesf ththe world werere looking for salvation to a different country china. Here we have a world looking for salvation to china, of all states when the united is the wrerecking machine that s threatening destruction. With all three branches ofof governmement in the hands of the most Dangerous Organization in history. I dont have t to go through wht hahas happened since, but the in general, the cabinet appointments are designed assigned to people whose a are thatand believes it i is necessary to destroy everything in theieir department that couldld be of any use t to humann beings, anand would not t increase profits and power. They are doing a very systematically, one after another. Epa, Environmental Protection agency, has been very sharply cut. The Main Department that is concerned with Environmental Issues is the department of energy, which also had very sharp cut, particularly in the environmentrelated programs. There is even a ban on posting and publishing information mateterial about this. This is not just at the natitiol lelevel. Whateverlblican pararty, you want to c call it, has been doing this at every level. So in North Carolina a couple of years ago, we were at the legislature, mostly thanknks to gerrymymandering, in thehe hando the rublilicans, ththere s a study. They calalled fofor a study on e affective s sea level on what Sea Level Rise might be on the North Carolina coast. There was a serious scientificc study, which predicted i do forget how many years, roughly a meter rise in sea level, which could be devastating to easteren north h carolina. And ththe legislature did react, namely, by passing legislation to ban any actions or even discussion that might have to do with climate c change. Actually, the best comment i verbabatim, quote itt was by Stephen Colbert w who sad if you have a serioious p prob, the way to deal with it is to legislate that it doesnt exist. Problem sosolved. Amy m. I. T. Professor noam book,y, author of the new requiem for the american dream. Threat oflk about the north korea, iran, and more. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Orgrg, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. On monday, we were in cambridge, massachusetts, where i sat down at the First Paris Church in cambridge with m. I. T. Profefess, longngtime dissident, worldrenowned l linguist noam chomsky. Huge specter that we are kind of t trying to survive under, ad that is nuclear war. That is a whole other story herere, but the Obama Administration andnd increasingy trump or radically increasing thedanger,r, the threat of ew developments is captured very effectively in n the best, simple monitor of the state of the world, established at the beginning of the nuclear age of the bulletin of atomic scientists. The bulletin of atomic scientists regularly brings ,ogether a groupup o of s sciens political analysts, other serious people t ttry to givive some kind of eststimate of what the situatation of the world is. The ququestion is, how closese e we to termination of the spspecies . They have a clock, a doomsday clock. When it hits midnight, we are finished. The enend of the human specicied much else. The question every year is, how far isis the minute hand f from midnigight . 1947, theinning in beginning of the nuclear age, it wawas placed at sevenn minutes until mimidnight. It hasas been moving up and back ever since. The closest it hasas come to midnight was 1953. 1953, the united s states and russia, they both exploded hydrdrogen bombs, which are extremely serious threat to survival. Intercontinental l Ballistic Missiles are beieing developed. This wasas the first serious threatat to the security of the United States. There is an interesting story behind that, though. We w will put it aside, unless there isis time to talk about i. Two minutescame to until midnight, and it has been movingng up and back ever since. Two years ago, 2014 i think it took intonalysts account for the first time something that had been it toward. The fact the nuclear agege te beginning of the nuclearar age coincided with the beginning of a new geological epoch. There is been some debatate abot the epoch in which humann acactivity is drastitically affecting ththe general environment. Theres been debate about its inception. At the wororld Geological Organization has recently determined that it is about the same time as thehe beginning of the nuclear age. Eras ine in these two whicich the possibility of human survival is very mucuch at stak. With us, everything e else, too, most doing things, which are already u under severe threat. A couple of yeyears ago, i thk it was 2014, the bulletinn began to take that into account and move them in a hand up to three minutes until l midnight. Where it remaiained last year. about a week into trumps term, the clock was moved again to 2. 5 minutes to midnight. That is the closest it has been since 1953. And that means extermination of much an opens very question. I dont want to say it iss soloy the impactct o of the republblin party obviously, that is false bubut they certainly ae in the l lead in openly advocatg and working for destructionon of the human species. I agree that is a very outrageous statement. Therefefore, i simple he suggest that you take a look at the facts and see if it has any merit or if it should be bitterly condemned. That is up to you. To me, the facts are pretty clear. Amy at this point, as president come inars is 100th day north korea and iran have been a major focus. Are you concerned that with the president at the lolowest popularity rating i think in any president s history at this point, that he will focus a broad as he has in the last few weeks, dropping the moab, mother of all bombs in afghanistan, bombing the Syrian Government, and yet focusing specificalally on north korea ad iran. And general mcmaster, the National Security adviser saying, tensions with north orea are coming to a head the you think theres a possibility that the u. S. Would attack north korea . This admiministration is exextremely unpredictable. Trump prprobably has no idea wht he is s going g to do five minus from now, so you cant [laughter] you cant make predictions with much confidence. But the reason is simple. In attack on north korea would unleash, no matter what attack it is, even a nuclear attack, would unleash massive artillery bombardment of seoul with thee biggest cicity in south korea right near the border, which would wipe it out, including plenty of american troops. Mean, i am no technical expert, but as i read and can see, there is no defense against that. Furthermore, north korea could basesate against american in the region, where there are plenty of american soldiers and so one can also in japan. They would be devastated. North korea would be finished. So would much of the region. But if attacked,d, presumably, they would respond, very like. In fact, the resesponses might e automatitic. The master, andnd mattis, understand how much h influence they have. We dont know. I think in attacack is unlnlike, but the real question is, is there a way of dealing with the problem . There are a lot of proposals, sanctions, a new missssile defee system, which is a major threat to china will increrease tensios there. Military threats of various kinds. , theng Aircraft Carrier vinson, to north korea, except by accident that happened to be going in the opposite direction, but we will foforget that. These are those are the proposals, the kind of proposals how to solve. There is one proposal that is ignored. You see a mention of f it n and then. It is a pretty sisimple proposa. Remember, the goal is to get north korea to freeze its weapons s systems. Weapons and missile systems. So one proposasal is to accept theieir offer to do that. T. It sounds simplple. They h have made a proposal, cha and north korea, proposed to freeze the north koreaean missie and Nuclear Weapons systems. In the u. S. Instantly rejected it. You canant blame ththat on tru. Obama did t the same thing a couple of yearars ago, same offr was presented. I think of f was 2015, the obama administratition instantly rejected it. And the reason is that it calls for a quid pro quo. It says in returur the uniteted t tos shoululd put an end threatening g military maneuvers on north koreas borders, which happen to include under trump, sending of nuclear c capable b52s flying right near the border. Maybe a americans dont remember very well, but North Koreans have a memory of f not too long ago when n north korea was absosolutely f flattened, lit, by american bombing. There was literally no targets left. I really urge people who have not done i it, to read the official American Military histories, the mililitary histories describing this. They describe it very vividly anand accuratelyly. They say theyrere just wewerent any targrgets leftft, so what ce dodo . Well, we decided to attack the huge dams. That is a major war crime. We will puput that aside. Then comomes an ecstatic, gleeel description of the bombing of thee dams in the huge flflow of wateter, which was wiping outt vaeys and desestroying the rise crop on which asians depend on for survival. Lots of racist comment. It with all ofof the exultation and glee you really have to read it to appreciate it North Koreans dont hahave to bother reading i it, they livevd it. So whehen Nuclear Capable b52s are flying on their border, along with other threatening military maneuvers, they are kind of upseset about it. Strange people. Develop what to they see as a potential deterrent that might reject the ,egime protect the regime and the country, in fact, from destructction. This has notothing at all to do with what you think about the government. So maybe it is the worst government in Human History, ok. But these are still the facts that exist. So why is the United States unwilling toto accept an agreemt which would end the immediate threat of destruction against north korea . And d in return, freeze the weapons and missssile systems . Well, i leave that to you. Remember, that is bipartisan in this case. Could negotiations the usual argument is, well, you cant trust t them, and so on, and so forth. But there is a history. Time to run for the history. It is quite interesting. Underins in 1993 when clininton, the north k koreans e a deal with israel to terminate north Korean Missile shipments to the middle east which is a great, serious right to israel and the world. And in return, israel would recognize north korea. The clinton a administration wod not accept that. They pressured israel, w which s to do what theyre told to do, withdraw from it. And north korerea responded by firing their first intermediate range m missiles. I will go on with the rest. It is a very interesting story. There was actually an agreement in 2005 that north korea would implicititly would complplety dismantlee its missile systems. End them. Dismantle them. In reteturn for a nonaggression pact from the United States, an end to threats, provision by the oft the e United States a light water reactor, w which cant produce Nuclear Weapons, but could be used to produce peaceful purposes, medical research, otheher purposes. That was basically the agreement in 2005. It did not last for a long. The Bush Administration instantly undermined it. Itit dismantle the consortium tt was supppposed to providedehe reactororand it immmmediately when u. S. Ure pressures, it means it hapappens banksks to block north korean financial trtransactions, legititateerfectly trade. E. So the crazy North Koreans started producing missiles and Nuclear Weapons again. That is been the kind of rececod all the wayy through. Maybe the most horrible regimeme and history, but the fact of the matter is, the regime does want to sururvive. It even once to carry out economic development. There is pretty general agreement about this, which it cannot do in any y significant way when it is pouring very resources i into missile production. So they have considerable incentive, including survival, to perhaps continue this process of reacting in a titfortat fashion to u. S. Actions. When thehe u. S. Lowers tensions, they do. When we raise tensions, they go on with t these plalans. How about that is a possibility . Ean, if you look at the the present occasionally mentions. Not about article in the Washington Post about it recently about a u. S. Professor that teaches in south korea. Occasisionally, it is s this ste possibilitity of letttting the h korereans do exactly whahat we t them to do. Sometimes this is mentioned, b t it is pretty much didismissed. We cant do that sort of thing. Ththere are similar r questionso raise about iran. Iran is, you know, again, the mattis,n the room, likeke say itit is the grereatest thref peace will step how is the sponsor of terrorism . I could go through that. For examplple, in yemen, its claimed their providing some to rebel tribesmen in yemen. Ok, maybe they are. What is the United States doing in yemen . It is providing a huge flood of arms to its Saudi Arabian ally who are destroying the country, who have created a huge humanitarian crisis. Huge numbers of peopople killed, areivive starvation, they threatening now to bomb a port, which is the only source of aid for survrviving people. Of iran is a major source terrorism. If you look aroround the world, there are many questions l like this. I dont want to go o on too lon, a and theretrikingly is one lesesson that you discovr when you carefullyly look at t e historical record. What i just described about north korea is pretty typical. Over and over again, there are possibilities off diplomacy and negotiation summit which might not succcceed you cant bee if you dont try them, but look pretty promising, which are abandoned, dismissed literally without comment, in favor of increased d force and violence. In fact, that is also the background for the 1953 moment when the clock moved to o two minutes until midnigight a and e u. S. Faced t the first serious. Hreat to its sececurity and fact, since probably the war of 1812, could have been avoioided. Pretty good evidence it couould have been avoided, b but it was the possibility literally, was nonot even cononsidered. Case after case like this. It is worth h looking at the historical record from that perspective to ask whethther tht general comment has somome validity. I think if you do, you will find that it has considererable meri. Amy we will be back with professor noam chomsky in a minute to talk about the war in syria and the Trump Administrations threat to prosecute wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Stay with us. [music break] amy visit democracynow. Org we are premiering the whole music video. This is dedemocracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. I am in burlington, vermont, where we are continuing our Community Tour through the country. We go back to my conveversation with linguist and dissident noam speaking monday in cambridge,e, massachusetts. I last interviewed you a few weeks ago on april 4. It was the 50th anniversary of dr. King giving his beyond vietnam speech, where he called the u. S. The greatest purveyor of violence in the world. And i want to turn from north korea and irann to o syria. It was the day of the gas attack in syria. We did not get to talk about a veryry much. Im wondering your t thoughts on what you think happened and then the ennsuing u. S. Bombing that President Trump would later talk about, saying he was having chocolatate cake with the chinee president very, very good chocolate cake when they launched the tomahawk missiles into iraq. He was corrected by the interviewer who said it was syria. Some thinings are we know for sure. Chemical a serious weapons attack. Nobody doubts that. It is plausible that it was the Syrian Government. It does raise some questions. Nonot so obvious, why the assad regime would have carried out a Chemical Warfare attack at a moment when it is pretty much winning the war and the worst that aus facaces is counterfrforce will enter to undermine its progress. So it does raise some questions. Maybe youven though can think of some reason why the assasad regime which is aa murderers, brutal regime might have d done it, there is en anotherer question as to whwy the russssians would have allowd it. Rememember, ththis is the air base iss a jointnt russiansyrin air basese. Ruia has plenty y of clolout in syria. For them, it is a total disaster. They have global concernrns, not just local concerns in syria. So there are s some concerns. And there are further concerns. There has been the white house did put out a careful analysis a justification, Intelligence Report to explain and accounthowing whyhy they had absolutete confidence it was a Syrian Government attack. This was analyzed closely by a very serious and credible analyst, a professor at m. I. T. Who has a long r record of highy successful, credible analysis. He is a highly regarded d should you tookok analyst and intetelligence analylyst. He gave a pretty devastating critique o of the white house report. You can pick it up p online and take a look at it. So there certainly are some questionons. Thatat syria is capablee of a monstrous act likeke that, the Syrian Government, that much is not in doubtbt. But one e question that arisise, before doing something, could you findnd out what happened . Ok . I mean, lets have an inquiryry. Take a look and see whahat in ft actutually happen. There are plplenty of cases whee things look as though they happened, but they didnt. Remember, reporting from syria isis extremely difficult. If reporters go into the rebelel held areas and dont do what theyey are told, you getet yourd cut off. Patrick cockburn and others have wrwritten about thisis. You just cant seriouslsly rept from those areas that a are obvivious questions s when youe rereporting frfrom the goverern. So the reporters there are very good reporters doing a serious, courageous job, but there isnt much you can do. So we just dont knowow a lot. Well, those e of the circumstans in which the 59 9 tomahawk missiles were launched. That is pretty easy. In washiningtont a push of butttton and say, go kikill somebodody. That i is consididered courage. Macho, showing how strong we are. What do they actually do . Apparently, the tomahawk missiles were targeting a a part of t airirfield that d does nott seem to be used. In fact, the next day, planes were taking off. In fact, the village that was attacked by the chememical weaps has been even more heavily atattacked byby straighght bombg from the Assad Government after the 59 tomahawk missiles. They intended to do, dodoesnt seem to o have anynyto do with syria. I suspect what they were intended to do was put a much what you described, to shore up trumps image as i think it was nikki haley at t the u. N. Sd there is a new sheriff in town. So now we havave widerer pullint his g gun and getting rid of the bad guys. No more of this sosoft stuff. It was probably a an attempt to shore upup that image. Pretty much like the bomb inn afghanistan nobody knows what it was for or what it had to do with, probably destroyed a large part of afghanistan. Shortly after that, there was an incredibly brutal and succecessl taliliban attack, which killed a couple hundred recruitits mot of them unarmed, young draftees that did not know it were doing. So bad, the defense minister resign. Doesesnt seem to have any effet supposedly, was aimed at is. Maybe i it was. Maybe e it wasnt. They dont sing to be a affected by it. There dodoesnt seem to o be any strategic analysis behind any of these actions as far as anyone can tell. But soontobe of f the level of the twitters that keep coming out. Something that occurs to me, so when i do itit yet go it is che. It may kill a lot of people, makes me look good, seems as iff im defefending the country ando on. It as anything see but that. Bubut these things help the peoe israel hard toiraq imagine. Amy what do you think hasas toe done to solve ththe crisisis, te humanitarian catastrophe in syria . It is a terrible catastrophe. Unfortunately, there isnt a lot that can be done about it. There are some things that can be done. I memean, the idea that you can send in the marines and bomb and so on, that has a small problem. If you do, you probably set off a nuclear war. His syriaonly destroyed, but the rest of the world, too. So there is a little difficulty in that scenario. Whatever one takes aboutut the justificication for itit. So what can n be done . Well, one thing that can be done, which is really easy, very easy, is to take care of the people fleeieing from this disaster. There are huge number of people fleeing from the disaster. What do we do about them . Make sure they dont comeme her, you know. Kind of like people fleeing from my relatives, in fact, trying to flee from Eastern Europe under the when the nazis were coming. Well, we dont want them, n not here. So the syrians dont come maybe a tiny trickle, but very few come here. Europe is not that much better. In fact, pretty wearable, too. One thing you can do is take care of the people who are fleeing the disaster. Another thing you can do is provide humanitarian aid for those in the region. There are countries who are absorbing refugees. Take lebebanon. Not a rich country like as. A poor country. About 40 of the population are refugees. Many of them fleeing from the israeli wars as far back as 1948. In huge number of syrians. Jordan, another poor country, has absorbed a huge number of refugees. Turkey has a couple of million. Iran has accepted refugees. There are poor countries that refugees, buting not the e rich countntries. The ririch countries, it is not our busisiness. Certainlnly, not us. Regardrious problem with to us,s, moral problem with regd to Central America. So another thing we can do is provide badly needed aid and assistance for those who have susucceeded in fleeing the disaster, or who remaiain in pas of syria where survival is possible to stop but they are living under horrible conditions. That is all cheap and easy. A tiny fraction of inincreasingg the militatary budt to cause more destruction. The other thing ththat can be de and is being done isis to try to support local efforts throughout syria at local ceasefires. S. Just a lower the level of violence. That is s happening in different places. Maybe ththe people dont like eh other, b but people sometimes le to survive. Ththere are accommodations workd out, and they can be helped. Our broader possibility is to try to pursue the negotiations ththat will lead to some kind of diplomatic settlement. There have been efforts, but they are mixed. Possibibilitiesbe that were dismissed. For example, in 2012, there were the former finnish a an incredible record of involvement in international peacekeeping, who a republic veteran, russian diplomat, have p proposd a settlement in which assad would be eased out in the course of the negotiations. And some setettlement would be reached in which the assad regime would be ended. That at fairly was dismissed without comment. The u. S. And britain and france just assumed at that point they could overthrow the assad regime. They didnt want anything to do with it. That is rereport. The report appeared in england. As far as s i know, it was never reported here. A good reporters. Is it trurue . Who knows. Got t to look into it to finindt if it is true. Yoyou have too inquire, pursue e options if they exist. And they werent. That can beings done. Not whwhat we wowould like to s it would bee nice to see, hers a sololution that will make everybody happy. The destrtruction. But those just dont seem on the forr agenda becausese all kinds of reasonsns, inclclug the threatat of very serious war if russia and the United States dont act in a high level of whateverin pursuing they may be doing. Amy noam, before we e get to yr book, your latest book, i want to ask you about the latest of ment in the United States development in the United States. The director of the central intelligenence agency gaveve his first major address. You focused on wikileaks. He focused on wikileaks. It looks like u. S. Is preparing an arrest war for Julian Assange, who has been in ecuadoran embabassforlmost ve y years now. Pompeo calling wikileaks hostile, nonstate intelligence service, calling Julian Assange himself a demon and said d he is not protected by the first amendment. Your thoughts . Well, i think it speaks for itself. Wikileaks has released lots of information that governments dont like. Itit is overwhelminglyly informn. Hat citizens should have it is informatation about whethr governments are doing. Perfectly natural that systems of power that dont t want to be exposed,d, so they will d do wht they can to prevent exposure. I think it is a disgraceful act. In fact, i think it is disgraceful to even keep Julian Assange hold up in the ecuadoron embassy. I did visit him there once, but you can guess your self in many ways, it is worse thahan imprisonment. At least if youre in prison, you can n see other pririsonersd you can get out and look at the sunshine now and then. Wherein a small apartment he cant he can go to ththe balcony, b but that t is about. Basically, a c couple of rooms inside a small apartment. It is not a bibig embassy. Ththe embassssy is kind of liken apartment t in london, surroundd by police and so on. Re have been no incredible no credible basis for this to go on, to try to raise it to the level of cririminal prosecutioni think is, again, one of these efforts to look tough at home. The kind of effort that a government would carry out, that is dedicatededo trying t to protect itstself from exposure f facts that citizens should have. Systems of power. Want them to have. But systems of power dont want them to have lost him him suggestions are it has to do with his aiding and abetting perhaps Chelsea Manning and also Edward Snowden. That with edwdward snowdeden, which he opepenly admits, while is trappeded in the ecuadoran embassy. Charge is true, he should be honored for it. Chelsea manning and Edward Snowden carried out heroic, cocourageous acts. Ththey fulfilled the responsibilility of somebody who takes citizenship seririously. That is whoo believeves the peoe of a country ought to know something ababout what the governmentnt is up to stop ok . Like every government is going up murders, brbrutal attacks i n iraq, people should know about it. It takes us back to Martin Luther kings talk in 1967. If the government is, and corporations, too, incidentally, are listening g into your telephone conversations, what havingdoioing, you know, a discussion and so on, wee should know w about it. Governments s have no right t to things about that. People should know a about it. If they thinkk it is ok, fine. They should all aboutt it come and not do it in secret. I dont think pepeople would age to it, and that isis why it is kept secret. These are people who exposed it at great risk to themselves. So those are her wrote, courageous acts. If wikileaks was abetting theme, more power to them. That is what they should be doing. Amy President Trump endorsed wikileaks. He said i love wikileaks during the campaign. When it was releasing things you like. Any system of power will do that. He release information i like, that is great. But i dont want to be exposed. Her fezt is an much of or noam chomsky speaking on monday at the First Parish Church and cameras. To see our full conversation, go to democracynow. Org. I will be speaking at Middlebury College in vermont today at noon, then on to the Vermont College of fine arts in montpelier at 7 00 p. M. Tomorrow at noon, i will be at Bennington College and the tomorrow night at the First Unitarian Universalist Society in burlington vermont. On saturday night, after a fivehour elaine a journey of thousands of miles that seems endless. Im elaine reyes in washington, d. C. , and this is americas now. First stophaitian refugees look for a new home in Central America in a search that is grinding to a halt. [protesters chanting] elaine and later, painting outside the lines, one artists quest to turn the u. U. S. Mexican border i into a symbol of fraternity