protest continue across the globe: for egypt to release the three al jazeera journalists sentenced to between seven and 10 years in prison. we will speak with al jazeera's sue turton who was intense -- sentenced in absentia to 10 years imprisoned her in the same trial. and we will hear from margaret warner on how one of the jailed journalists saved her life. >> mohamed fahmy held onto the back railing and said, drive, drive. he said, just drive through them. i will get you out of here. that is what happened. for the next five or six minutes, he directed me down the side street and the side street and the side street him and we finally managed to get to a safe place. he absolutely saved our lives. >> then as the 45th anniversary of the stonewall uprising approaches, the state of new york is sued over its refusal to expand medicaid coverage for transgender people seeking hormone therapy and other forms of care. >> we are here to say that right now new york state as a regulation that should specifically [indiscernible] commissioner howard zucker has the power to change that. [indiscernible] 50 years ago this month, the u.s. began attacking laos and what would become the largest bombing campaign in history. between 1964 in 1973, the u.s. dropped at least 2 million tons of bombs on laos. the equivalent of one planeload every eight minutes for 24 hours a day, for nine years -- more than was dropped on germany and japan during world war ii. unexploded bombs continue to kill to this day. all of that and more, coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. iraq you prime minister maliki has rejected us-led calls for more inclusive government as a coup. he spoke today following the departure of secretary of state john kerry, who had visited baghdad and the northern kurdish region to press for a reconciliation agreement between iraqi leaders. the obama administration has apparently conditioned u.s. strikes against sunni militants on a more inclusive, central iraqi government. but maliki issued what appeared to be a strong rebuke. >> it is no secret to all iraqis the dangers goals behind the calls for the formation of a national salvation government, as they call it. it is something attempt by those rebel against the constitution to and the undemocratic process -- young democratic process who call for the formation of national salvation government as a coup against the constitution and the political process. >> his comments come as about 90 of the 300 u.s. special forces deployed to iraq as military advisors have now arrived. the pentagon says u.s. aircraft are flying up to 35 surveillance flights over iraq daily. meanwhile, the syrian government waited into the iraq crisis tuesday when a bombed -- when it bombed sunni militants near the iraq-syria border. the syrian strike comes just two days after israel on targets inside syria. bulletins with isis have launched new attacks, hitting one of iraq's largest airbases near the town of yathrib. between iraqi forces and isis is continuing for control of the oil refinery in bajii. speaking during his visit to the kurdish region, john kerry urged kurdish leaders to remain a part of iraq instead of forming an independent state. this is aybody knows, very critical time for iraq as a whole. the government formation challenge is the central .hallenge that we face in recent days, the security the forces between here in the kurdish area has been critical to helping to draw a line with respect to isil and also to provide some support to the iraq he security forces. >> he is in brussels today for talks with nato allies on the iraq crisis. primaries were held tuesday night in seven states. on the republican side, senator thad cochran of mississippi narrowly defeated tea party challenger chris mcdaniel in a runoff capping a heated race in mississippi. the difference maker they have been the state's african-american democrats. ahead of the runoff, cochran urged black voters to vote in the primary in order to prevent a victory for mcdaniel and his neo-confederate views. while cochran celebrated his victory tuesday night, mcdaniel refused to concede. four mcdaniel's supporters were arrested last month for a plot to break into a retirement home and take pictures of cochran's bedridden wife. the race was seen as a key test of establishment republicans trying to fend off tea party challengers following the defeat of house majority leader eric cantor earlier this month. and democrats must closely watched race, the 23 term congressman charles rangel of new york defeated new york state senator in a rematch of their 2012 primary. has84 year old rangel served in congress for 43 years. a federal appeals court has ruled the no-fly list barring passengers from flying to or within the united states is unconstitutional. on tuesday, the u.s. district found the no-fly list violates the fifth amendment right to due process. the ruling came in the case of 13 plaintiffs barred from flying without notice or explanation. in some cases, u.s. citizens have been stranded abroad. the government has been ordered to inform the plaintiffs why they are on the list and to create a new process for them to challenge their placement on it. up to 20,000 people are said to be included. in a statement, the american civil liberties union said -- the obama administration has warned thousands of undocumented children are at risk of deportation following a wave of migration from central america. war than 47,000 unaccompanied been caught at the us border since october, fleeing violence and poverty in a home countries. on tuesday, home and secretary jed johnson told lawmakers u.s. is preparing additional detention centers to hold undocumented immigrants. >> we are creating additional detention space for adults who bring their children. i'm considering -- i want to consider every option for stemming the tide, sir. we're talking about large numbers of children. without their parents. they have arrived at our border hungry, thirsty, exhausted, scared, and vulnerable. how we treat the children in particular is a reflection of our laws and our values. >> most of the children are from guatemala, honduras, and el salvador and many have come on their own. attorneys for wikileaks founder julian assange have asked the swedish government withdraw warned that is kept him confined inept or doors london embassy or two years. assange has been holed up in a small embassy offices june 2012 to avoid extradition to sweden. he faces questioning on allegations of sexual assault. he has voiced fears he would ultimately be sent for prosecution to the united states if you were to return to sweden. his attorneys say the war and should be lifted because it cannot be enforced while julian assange is in the embassy and swedish prosecutors's refuse to question him in london. recent talks with britain over his fate were at an impasse when britain refused to grant a sauce safe passage. sweden has never charged join assange. he is only faced allegations. dozens of palestinian prisoners have ended a hunger strike after winning concessions from israel. around 120 prisoners have refused meals and late april to protest their detention without charge and force feedings. boko haram militants have reportedly kidnapped around 90 more people in nigeria. witnesses say the victims include another 60 girls and women were seized over the weekend. the attacks come less than three months after the kidnapping of over 200 schoolgirls that sparked an international outcry. a 16 year old transgender girl of color has been released from an adult women's prison in connecticut after being held there for two months without any criminal charges. the teenager known as jane doe was jailed in april and held in solitary confinement after the connecticut department of children and families told a judge they could not safely care for her, citing her alleged history of violent behavior. jane doe had endured years of abuse as a child under state supervision at the hands of both relatives and dcf staff. full and public outcry over her case, connecticut state officials announced tuesday jane doe has been into juvenile psychiatric facility. in a statement, justice for jane celebrated her transfer saying "i next ups are to get her moved to milley into a loving family." to see our interview on the case, go to democracynow.org. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. >> welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. journalists are continuing protests across the globe over egypt's and and sync of three al jazeera journalists between seven and 10 years in prison. peter greste, mohamed fahmy, and baher mohamed were convicted monday of "spreading false news" in support of the muslim brotherhood am a deemed by the government a terrorist group. on tuesday, staffers at the bbc took part in a one minute silent protest. james harding is bbc's's news director. isis a simple thing, which to send a message to people in egypt, you know, this is a country which obviously, as we've been reporting, is going through next ordinary set of changes. and this is an important principle within for egypt, but for people around the world, the principle of journalistic freedom. we want to do that and a measured way and that is why we chose an act of solidarity, a way of standing alongside those people, those journalists who have been imprisoned, but to try to raise a message. in addition, we drafted a letter that we're sitting to the president who has been signed by host of news organizations. we will be sending that which makes a more detailed case. but in this moment, it was journalists to stand with fellow journalists. >> that was the bbc's news director. ther greste used to work at bbc. at channel four news in britain and other news outlets, journalists placed black tape across their mouths in solidarity with their jailed colleagues. online the hashtag freeajstaff has been trending for days. the al jazeera reporters are not alone. according to the committee to protect journalists, egypt is currently holding at least 11 other journalists in prison, placing egypt among the world's most -- worst repressors of press freedom. fox and a sentencing of the three journalists came down one day after your secretary of state john kerry met in cairo ,ith egypt's new president sisi the former general who led the overthrow of mohamed morsi last july. the obama administration partially suspended aid to egypt from a but has avoided a full cutoff by refusing to deem morsi's ouster a coup. at his news conference in cairo, john kerry said he expects a full resumption of u.s. military aid in the coming months beginning with around $575 million already released in the last 10 days. on tuesday, president sisi said he will not intervene in the sentencing with a journalist while the three al jazeera journalists were sentenced between seven and 10 years in jail, another nine journalists were charged in absentia and sentenced to 10 years. one of those journalists joins us now, sue turton, a correspondent at al jazeera who is covered afghanistan, libya, for thetensively network. she is joining us from the al jazeera studios in doha off. welcome to democracy now! can you respond to the sentencing in both the case of your three colleagues who will now spend seven to 10 years in jail, unless there's a pardon or commutation, as well as your own in absentia? verdictsk all of the left al jazeera stone. we dare to believe the verdict would be not guilty because we sat and watched the court sessions over the past few months. we've seen absolutely no evidence the prosecution brought that proved in any way shape or foam the charges against them, these charges that we supposedly aided and abetted the muslim brotherhood, which the egyptian authorities have now deemed a terrorist organization. just to slightly take you one step back, the decision to deem them terrorist wasn't made until december. a very basic point, i left egypt in november. i have been covering the country since the coup last summer that removed the muslim brotherhood from power. like many international journalists, i've been covering all sorts of stores including the protest and politics but i haven't been doing anything different than the other international journalists. the very fact i had left the country before the muslim brotherhood was even deemed a terrorist organization, makes it ridiculous that i should have been seen as aiding and abetting this group. just a movie back to my colleagues in prison, there was nothing in the evidence that proved in any way they had done anything other than be straightforward, balanced, fair reporters. the reaction was really of shock and disbelief. now i suppose it is really building to anger, to be frank. >> sue, you said you witnessed or heard some of the court sessions. apparently, some of the evidence had absolutely nothing to do with what the three journalists were charged with that included family vacation photos and footage of news reports of other networks on completely unrelated subjects. could you comment on that? wheney made a big thing they went into the hotel suite that we been using as a makeshift office because months before they had raided our bureau. they made a big thing of showing or leaking video of the arrest of my three colleagues. they put ridiculous music to it. it was the soundtrack from a movie. in this video, you see they show pictures of the hard drives in the computers that were being used and a lighting stand and a tripod and a camera. this was sort of showing the evidence of what they deemed [indiscernible] this evidence in court. they basically showed the hard drives they found in peter greste's room and it was ridiculous, to be frank. there were pictures from a bulletin from sky news arabia of a horse galloping around the paddock. it would be funny if it wasn't so serious that my colleagues are now incarcerated for years on end. there were pictures of peter greste's family on holiday, pictures of a documentary he made when he's to work for the bbc in somalia -- an award-winning documentary. there hasned earlier been is vigil outside the bbc and many of the media organizations in the last few days, because peter is a respected as a brilliant journalist not just in the region that he usually covers in east africa, but all over the world with a number of organizations. everybody is aghast they should be accused of these things, let alone convicted. i would put my hand on my heart and say the same for his other two cellmates, mohamed fahmy and baher mohamed, strong, balanced reporters that helped me enormously when i was trying to cover cairo, to understand the complexities of the story in egypt. these guys are not convicted with the flimsiest of evidence brought into court. >> i want to turn to margaret warner, the chief foreign correspondent or foreign affairs correspondent for pbs newshour. she worked with mohamed fahmy during the egyptian revolution. in 2011, warner and a television crew were caught in the midst of a violent demonstration. she spoke to al jazeera about how mohamed fahmy saved their lives. >> i met mohamed fahmy about three days before the incident when he came to our editing suite in the hotel room and provided the voiceover for our egyptian characters and we wanted translated into english. it was the afternoon after a mob had stormed and managed to --etrate the upper force floors. when we arrived, there were still young man out in front. they did not look particularly dangerous. crew, went inra for closer filming while i and the driver at the time and another young egyptian producer with me waited in the van so we could quickly get away. the driver abandoned the car for whatever reason. people were lying in front of the car and started to knock on the car. then a mob approached across these five lanes and i could see our local producer and my cameraman and my producer were being pursued by this mob. and mohamed fahmy. my driver had abandoned the car, so i left -- left over in the middle of the seat, jumped into the van as mohamed fahmy held onto the back railing and said, "drive, drive!" he said, drive to them, i'll get you out of here. for the next five or six minutes, he directed me down the side street and the side street and the side street and we finally managed to get to a safe place. he absolutely saved our lives. i'm no legal expert, but i can to you that mohamed fahmy struck me on both occasions as nothing more and nothing less than a professional journalist. trucks that was margaret warner, well-known in the united states, pbs newshour, chief foreign affairs correspondent, describing her experience in egypt with one of the three jailed journalists, mohamed fahmy. i also want to turn to comments made by peter greste's father in australia after he heard of the ruling. this is juris greste. , notis is a very dark time only for our family, but for journalism generally. devastated, shocked, and and-made at this finding -- dismayed at this finding. usually a family of superlatives, but i have to say this morning, my vocabulary fails to convey just how shattered we are. crime, or is not a you should all be behind bars. it is as simple as that. is anan, our son peter, award-winning journalist. he is not a criminal. he is not a criminal. >> that is peter greste's father, juris greste, speaking from australia. of foreign minister australia also spoke out against what happened in egypt and the sentencing of their national -- this is the anchor of one of britain's main television news shows, put tape over his mouth in protest of the sentencing by egypt of the al jazeera reporters. this is jon snow. >> on the date egypt condemned three journalists to seven years in jail, journalists across the world are expressing their condemnation by taking of their mouths as we are in our own newsroom. >> for our radio listeners, we're seen the channel four newsroom full of journalists with their mouths taped, holding signs that read "hashtag freeajstaff goes quote as the broadcast ends, the program's host, jon snow, also been puts tape over his own mouth. that silence was heard or not heard all over britain as newsrooms went silent. sue turton, it your self are british. can you talk about your own background and what kind of this international support means and what a sentence in absentia means for you? you are not in jail, but you're also sentenced. been a tv reporter for 25 years, many of those in the british tv industry. i'll said channel four news for 12 years, in fact. but since then i moved to al jazeera. i joined as an afghan correspondent. of cover the uprising for the last few years. i was in libya for the whole revolution. beirut, moscow, all over the world from to zero. i said this before, i have been shot at, shelled, physically abused and attacked. and verbally. but i've never been accused of anything like this. this is basically a conviction of terrorism i now have hanging over my head. of course, i'm not going back to egypt. i would be in jail. but it is more serious than just egypt. the african union welcomed egypt back into the fold. that means if i were to go into an african country, it would be beholden on them to cast me over to the egyptian authorities , that ishis agreement what they're supposed to do. there have been places in the middle east i've been warned to stay away from. very much back the new government in egypt. it has frozen what was my kind of beat, if you like, the war zones, conflict zones, and those are his in africa are still much bubbling. i would expect to be covering them. but the focus for me right now is just to try and keep the campaign going, to try and build a christening though -- crescendo. we have been selected have so much solidarity not just from media outlets across the world, but many governments around the world, leaders stepping up saying this must not be allowed to happen. even people like the actress mia farrow have come out calling for a travel boycott. that people should not go on holiday to egypt, she is saying. really trying to keep that campaign, the momentum of the campaign going, promising the guys in prison we will look away for a second. we will let this campaign draw for a second until they are freed. >> the committee to protect journalists said the trial or call the trial "almost farcical" and said the al jazeera journalists have become pawns in a conflict with guitar over his support for the muslim brotherhood. could you say something about why you think al jazeera journalists in particular have been targeted by the sisi regime? >> well, our sister channel al jazeera arabic is the most-watched arabic channel in the region. it was still broadcasting as was the other egyptian al jazeera in egypt. the domestic audience only really sees domestic news, and that means they only really see coverage that backs the government. so there is no breadth of opinion. they don't to talk to people who might not agree with the government anymore. i certainly think egyptian authorities wanted to shop -- shut out as her up. the only reporters for al jazeera still on the ground are al jazeera english reporters. the others have pulled out because it has been so difficult for them to cooperate. in a way we become an easy target. i don't think they particularly wanted to target al jazeera english, but that is what they did. qatar did back the muslim brotherhood financially and backed morsi when he was arrested after the are -- theted after th revolution. is thoroughly doesn't mean al jazeera english has backed them. we are pawns in this huge global clash at the moment. it is as if there've taken backingfor the qataris the muslim brotherhood, and taking it out on us. it is ridiculous. we're just analysts try to tell the story -- journalist trying to tell the story. they tried to make in court that we were backing this one group, the muslim brotherhood. why would i? i have been a journalist for 25 years and i'm just trying to tell it as i see it and there it. >> sue turton, before we conclude, could you say what possibility there is for a pardon for your colleagues who are now in prison in egypt? that has been talked about a lot. a lot of people have asked that question. we did hear president sisi just yesterday saying he would not get involved in the judicial process, but i know there's a lot of international pressure, behind-the-scenes now come on egypt to possibly consider a pardon. are also going to be eagle ramifications of whether there could be -- legal ramifications of whether there could be an appeal. there is a kind of court that looks at the process of the legal decision that was made in the court a couple of days ago. and if there are any holes in that process, if it is seen they did not follow the letter of the law either in the arrest or the actual court proceedings, there is a chance there that they could throw the conviction out. " at the moment and we are trying to take stock of what happened and work out what our next best move is to try to get the guys out. >> sue turton, u.s. secretary of state john kerry met with sisi the day before the convictions. while there were words of protests from the u.s. government on all of your convictions, the fact is, the u.s. is releasing hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid to egypt as we speak. your thoughts on this and what this means for your verdicts and sentencing? heard the was administration had agreed to release that money, i thought they had insurance from the government that the verdict would be going towards not guilty. i also got that sense when john kerry released a statement straight after the verdict, it was an angled statement that call the verdict trichotomy in an chilling and called for -- draconian and chilling. when i was in d.c. months ago, i was talking to the state department and they were very much a saying they were very much backing as as they brought up our kids every time they spoke to egypt. it was very suspicious the fact that john kerry sort of agreed they would release this money just before the verdict, and in the verdict came down as not guilty. so i hope and pray they're doing everything they can now to speak to the egyptian authorities, to the president and say, you can't do this, you have to recognize you can't behave this way toward journalists if you want a relationship between the u.s. and egypt to continue. >> sue turton, thank you for being with us, under correspondent charged in absentia and sentenced to 10 years by an egyptian court. three of the reporters sentenced, peter greste, mohamed fahmy, and baher mohamed have incentives to between seven and 10 years in prison and said in an egyptian prison today. when we come back, we are coming up on the 45th anniversary of the stonewall uprising here in new york. transgender people have sued new york over their lack of access to medicaid and therapy. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. here in new york and in most other states, transgender person with medicaid cannot obtain coverage for hormone therapy come at which non-transgender woman routinely obtain in the form of birth control. that is a discrepancy activists are trying to change with a new lawsuit. filed late last week by the silvia rivera law project and other groups, the lawsuit challenges a 1998 regulation which prevents transgender people from accessing sex reassignment surgery, hormones, and other forms of care. in this video produced by the silvia rivera law project and glaad, health care providers and transgender people talk about the importance of basic health coverage. known i've always wanted to move here. as a trans person, both hope i would be welcomed, but many people aren't because we don't have the basic health care coverage we need to survive. and other states, transgender people like myself are denied coverage for routine of basic care. >> every day people come into the silvia rivera law project because they've been denied the basic health care they need to survive. >> transgender people, like all people, are healthier when they get the medical care they need. is medicallycine national syria intervention. many people believe that doing providing hormones for trans patient is cosmetic, but as medical provider, i can tell you how crucial it is for the health and lives of trans people to have knowledgeable, trans-from the providers. click the lawsuit over medicaid coverage in new york follows a number of recent victories for transgender health care. federalt month, the department of health and human services overturned medicare's blanket ban on sex reassignment surgery. the change means recipients of medicaid no longer have their claims for coverage of surgery automatically denied. just last week, massachusetts became the third state in the country to cover transgender health care under medicaid. >> all of this comes as activists are preparing to mark the 45th anniversary of the stonewall uprising in new york city, a seminal event that helped launch the modern lgbt justice movement. to talk about all of these developers, we're joined by poja gehi, staff attorney and the director of the immigrant justice project at the silvia rivera law project, which has just filed a class-action lawsuit over new york medicaid exclusion of transgender health coverage. and we're joined by angie milan-cruz, one of the two lead plaintiffs in the suit. angie, your name is the lead name, the other person did not want to be identified. talk about why this is so important to you. >> my personal experience has , testardship, depression being accepted for who i am. i have to look at myself every day in the mirror and see the perfect mate from a but i want the whole package. i want to feel comfortable in my own skin. >> and what would that whole package the? why sue the new york department of health? >> to have the reassignment surgery. can you explain why does medicaid did not do what medicare did in allowing these procedures? >> the medicaid regulation in the state of new york is really dated. because goes back to 1998. it was passed under the radar as of late exclusion to all transition related health care. the only, submitted were by two physicians who said the care is medically necessary and not experimental. the state of new york when ahead anyway, and we think now is the time with this medicare decision, there's also the affordable care act that has regulation that says it cannot discriminate on the basis of gender identity and expression -- which we think means the state-based medicaid program should also cover transition related health care. >> they make the argument that somehow -- medicaid makes the argument that these procedures are somehow dangerous for people who undergo them. is that the justification they provide? if that is the case, how come that wasn't true when medicare changed its policy? justification the department of health in new york uses, and it is extremely dated. the regulation is supposed to be of further review each year. anyaven't had or seen movement on it since 1998. during that time, the american medical association has said that care is medically necessary, the immigrant psychiatric association was standards for transgender health care, no medicare and the affordable care act, so we think now is the time that new york really needs to get on board. >> last month in new york, activists interrupted a speech by the new york state health commissioner to demand medicaid coverage for transgender health members. stagebers took over the of the health conference during a keynote address by commissioner howard zucker. they displayed a banner. one of the members spoke from the stage for several minutes. >> we are here to say that right new york state has regulation that excludes transgender people from accessing health care. mr. howard zucker has the power to change that. please join us in demanding commissioner zucker and the department of health [indiscernible] >> this is your organization, the sylvia rivera law project. poja gehi, explain how new york differs from other states like massachusetts. >> new york continues to have a regulation that specifically excludes all transition related health care. in actuality, they cover the exact same health care for non-trans people, but not for trans people under medicaid. what happened in massachusetts is the state medicaid program reversed his regulation. new york has the power to do the same thing. >> this care has been referred to as life-saving care. could you explain how and why? >> the sylvia rivera law project was founded in 2002. since then, it has been one of the most intense major, life-threatening things we're seeing in the way people are not able to access health care. any kind of health care when you're not able to access what you need, you're more likely to suffer from suicide, have increased rates of depression, not be able to work, not be able to participate in society and the way you want to. we also see people not able to access health care getting caught up in cycles of poverty and incarceration because they're forced to resort to the black market or forced to engage in survival economy to access the health care care they need which makes the more likely a and vulnerable to policing incarceration. talks over the weekend, a vigil was held for transgender woman whose body was found burned and hidden behind a dumpster last thursday in fort myers, florida. the brutal murder of yaz'min shancez was not labeled as a hate crime by local police. news press recently spoke with her aunt. >> what kind of person what she? just a happy person, full of life. she did not deserve to go out like that. just happy. , lifeo dance all the time of the party. hey, let's get it started, kind of thing. i can just hear her voice over and over, no i'm saying? the national coalition of anti-violence programs recorded more than 2000 hate incidents against lgbt people last year, including 18 anti-lgbt homicides from 89% of the murder victims were people of color, 72% were transgender women. do you, angie, feel threatened? >> absolutely. my experience, being incarcerated for who i am, not able to find a job because of my sexual identity -- it is heart wrenching for me, personally. >> when did you first approach medicaid for assistance with sex reassignment surgery? >> [inaudible] think the prospect for success given as you pointed out that some the other states and federal bodies have changed their position on sex were summit surgery and other assistance to trans people -- what do you think the prospects are for success with the class action lawsuit? >> i feel really positive. our major argument says that the federal government is saying that you cannot discriminate -- states are not allowed to discriminate in the care they provide basis of diagnosis, which is exactly what new york state is doing. because angie is a trans woman, she's not able to exact the same care that non-trans people are able to access through medicaid. >> i want to go to a clip of sylvia rivera herself, which the sylvia -- she is the person who the sylvia rivera law project is named for. remembering the stonewall uprising. she was one of the leaders of it , just down the street from our studios right here in greenwich village. this is from the audio documentary "remembering stonewall" that was produced by dave i say in hygiene 89 for the 20th anniversary of the uprising. -- in 1989 for the 20 anniversary of the uprising. completely hernandez, hitting the windshield. the next thing you know, the taxicab is being turned over, cars are being turned over. windows were shattering all over the place, fires were burning around the place. it was beautiful. it really was. it was really beautiful. >> that was sylvia rivera. she died in 2002. the images of the people in the stonewall bar with her stiletto heels hitting the police officers, launched the modern day they rights movement and lgbt movement. why did your organization take her name? was avia rivera trendsetter, founder of stonewall, but she also believed in intersection hourly. she was also a member of the group were she provided meals for puerto ricans in harlem. she was an anti-prison activist. she was an antiracist activist. she was a trans activist. she talked a lot about how all of those things are related, which is what we really believe at the sylvia rivera law project, too. we know for people to express their gender identity and expression, it is so much more challenging and people are also people of color, immigrant communities, people in prison, people living in poverty, people struggling against other barriers. >> we want to thank you both for joining us, poja gehi from a attorney the severe rivera law project and angie milan-cruz, the lead plaintiff in a class-action suits to get medicaid to cover hormone therapy and other forms of care for transgender people. when we come back, the 50th anniversary of the most massive bombing in history, the bombing of laos. stay with us. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. >> 50 years ago this month, the u.s. began raining down bombs on laos come in what would become the largest bombing campaign in history. from june 1960 four to march 1973, the u.s. dropped at least 2 million tons of bombs on the small, landlocked southeast asian country. that is the equivalent of one thing loved every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years -- more than were dropped on germany and japan in world war ii. the deadly legacy of the vietnam war lives on today in the form of unexploded cluster bombs, which had about a 30% failure rate when they were dropped from american planes over large swaths of laos. experts estimate that laos is littered with as many as 80 bies.on bom since the bombing stopped four decades ago, tens of thousands of people have been injured or killed as a result. last year, democracy now! spoke to thoummy silamphan, bomb accident survivor and victim assistance advocate. he explained how a bomb exploded when he was an eight-year-old child collecting bamboo shoots. i was looking for bamboo shoots to feed my family to make soup. i started digging for shoots. after that, the bomb exploded. >> like a bomblet exploded? >> yes. in my village, in my village, and that area, we had a lot of bombies. we don't know the bombs are underground. when we're digging for bamboo shoots, they explode. lost my left hand. it is for difficult for me to continue my life. >> for more on laos, we go to new mexico public television in albuquerque to speak with karen coates and jerry redfern, the coffers of a remarkable new -- co-authors of a remarkable new book called, "eternal harvest: the legacy of american bombs in laos." they spent more than seven years in laos working on the book. welcome to democracy now! karen, why did you write this book and talk about the significance of this month, the 50th anniversary of the largest, most significant were the largest bombing in history. country inin the 2005 to work on an article for archaeology magazine. at that point we believing in -- we have been living in the region for many years. we had no idea the extent of the problem until we were there that trip. in about two weeks during that time, we have heard of more than 20 accident around the region where we were. we sort of looked at each other and said, this is much bigger a much bigger problem than we realized. one day, we went to local hospital and encountered a 10-year-old boy who had been in a farm field digging when he hit something, most likely a bombie which blew up in his face. we saw him and interviewed his mother and she said, we know the problems, but what can my family do because we have to farm? we have to dig into the fields, and we know it is dangerous, but we are risking our lives every time we do. that is when jerry and i said, we need to do something much bigger than an article. we need to investigate this. >> and how did you, perhaps jerry could answer this, how did you go about conducting your research? comedy people, survivors, did you speak with for your book -- how many people, survivors, did you speak with for your book? >> we traveled throughout the country from north to south and east to west from just going from village to village and asking people, do you have a bomb problem? have you had problems with bomb accidents? guesstimate how many we spoke to. hundreds and hundreds. from north to south and east to west. sort of the way we began were followed up on the reporting, is the united states kept track of most of the bombing raids that were conducted. around 2000, the clinton administration gave this bombing and to the laos government cambodia and vietnamese governments to help them clear up this after-the-fact. the laos government for together a series of maps showing the places in the country that of the most heavily bombed, and essentially took those bombing maps and went to the area of highest concentration and asks people what sort of problems they had. >> karen coates, go back 50 years ago. there are many people who are watching or listening to this broadcast right now who have no idea what happened. why did this bombing campaign began? tell us the history of the u.s. bombing of laos. >> is a consecrated question, but really, it was a two-pronged air war. one of the primary goals was to wipe out the transmission of people and supplies to the ho chi minh trail between north vietnam and south vietnam which went through laos. the other part was to aid our allies in the north against the communist insurgency. it was much larger than that. >> this is during the presidency of -- what was the rationale of president nixon? and talk about the secrecy around it all. lbjctually, it began with in 1964 before nixon came into office. from reading the air force history of the overall campaign, it looks like lbj began thinking it would just be a couple of small bombing operations in the north of the country, maybe a little in the east. 1964, what we of kind of think about is the bombing that happened in the vietnam war, this sort of huge, large-scale carpet bombing that began by december. nixon vastly increase the amount of bombing that went on in laos, but he really did begin under lbj. >> let's turn to the video you produced to accompany your book. this is the founder of we help war victims. he spoke about the bombing campaign against laos. >> the bombing campaign was to interdict the southbound traffic of north vietnamese soldiers heading into south vietnam. that traffic went down what we call the ho chi minh trail. we also bombed in support of the troops who were allies in the war. a map of laos indicating the full range of the bombing is really staggering for how much of the country was hit. >> karen coates, take it from there. man,ll, when you see that it is almost unbelievable. it still is for me when i look at it today because you can see how the entire country almost was covered layer upon layer upon layer of bombs. and those bombs still, from the ground today. >> jerry, can you talk about what the effects are on people today, your story or your book ands the story of a woman her dead son. can you talk about that story and how representative it is of the hundreds of people you spoke to who are still suffering the effects of this bombing campaign? >> that was a particularly astonishingly sad story. particularly a poor part of the country and close to the vitamins border at an entry point for the ho chi minh trail coming into laos. it was extremely heavily bombed. the people there are very poor farmers and essentially the second crop jameer they have is to go out and collect bomb scrap either in tact bombs, or shrapnel from exploded alms. and trade this for money that scrap metal goes into various other products for rebar or screens and things like that. her son, as far as we could tell from people who survived, he and a couple of other people had found some sort of bomb they did not recognize and were digging it up when it exploded and essentially wiped him and at least two other people out completely. everybody in this village knew the dangers of this sort of thing. people from this village have been killed regularly for years, but they still went out to try to collect it because they were so heavily impoverished. it was really a terrible story. unfortunately, not the only story like that. >> i want to go back to the bomb accident survivor and victim assistance advocate in laos, thoummy silamphan, who was in our studios. he spoke about the legacy of the u.s. bombing campaign against his country. the war stopped many years it has continued to kill and injured people. involvewhy we want to the legacy -- the legacy of war is very, very important for the especially for victims assistance in laos. because now we have more than [indiscernible] now we also have many survivors dissuading for help. >> that is thoummy silamphan, the bomb accident survivor and victim assistance advocate in laos. karen, can you explain the unexploded ordnance, uxo, that remain littering the country and particularly what people in laos feel is the responsibility of the united states today, 50 years later? as well.y in hiweigh in >> the covers all types of munitions left over, but the most, bridie are the cluster bombs or little bombies they refer to earlier. they were packed and canisters that open midair and scattered all across the land. those are particularly dangerous because they are small, but the size of a baseball. they can look like rocks to farmers, toys to children. if a person encounters one, it is nearly impossible to tell whether that thing is going to blow or not. and often, he will blowup if a person moves it or throws it or something -- it will blowup of a person moves it or throws it or something like that. >> they're not designed to injure like a landmine used by the military, meant to take one person out and maybe two other people taken out of battle. these are tiny baseball explosives are meant to kill anything within about 30 yards or so. then you have hundreds of them in an area. it is kind of remarkable to find people who survived accidents with these things because they are intended to murder people. >> they're not the only bombs remaining. >> and the us responsibility today -- and the u.s. responsibility today? >> that is a good question. we've been thinking the united states days to come up with plans for what to do after we go into war. the united states likes to plan coming at the after affects, the aftermath, planning what to do with all the stuff be nothind seems to considered much. >> karen coates and jerry redfern, thank you for joining us, co-author of, "eternal harvest: the legacy of american bombs in laos." thank you to new mexico pbs. that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to [email protected] or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. 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