after the russian ambassador to turkey was assassinated by a gunman who scrcreamed, " "don't forget aleppo, do't t forget syria!" we will look at the crisis in syria a and the wawar's brbroadr impact o on the regigion. then we look back at marcus garvey, one of the pioneers of the black freedom struggle. negro is aelieve a man [indiscernible] acknowledge what other men have donone - -- [indiscernible] amy: more than 70 years after marcus garvey's death, his family is asking president obama for of presidentiaial posthumous pardon. in the 1920's, he was started by at the eye director j edgar hoover and sentenced to five years in jail, effectively ending as an afafrican political movement. we will speak with this son dr. julius garvey. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in syria, the evacuation of rebels and civilians from eastern aleppo resumed todayay, after thousands were left strandnd on wednesday amid heaey snowfall a and freezingg temperatatures. syrianan government foforces sad theyey expected the last of thte evacueeses to board buses withtn the coming hours, leaving syria's army to take total control of aleppo which has been , devastated by months of heavy bombing and siege warfare. the evacuation resumed after the united nations general assembly voted overwhelmingly to establish a team to o investigae war crimes and human rights abuseses committeded during the syrian civil war. syria and russia led the opposition to the proposal. we'll havave more on syria after headlines. donald trump has named an ardent critic of china to head the itite hoe e national trade council, in the latest sign the trump administration could launch a trade war with china. peter navarro is an economist at the university of california, irvine, and author of the books, "the coming china wars" and "death by china." meanwhile, trump has named billionaire corporate raider carl icahn as a special adviser on regulatory reform. the 80-year-old icahn is the 50th richest man in the world. in 1985, he took over the airline twa and systematically stripped it of its assets. donald trump's son eric said wednesday he would no longer solicit donations to his charitable foundation after critics accused him of peddling influence in exchange for donations. one online auction offered a chance to have coffee with ivanka trump. it had bids approaching $70,000. it came after the center for public integrity revealed that eric and donald trump, junior, recently founded a separate charity called the opening-day foundation which drafted invitations offering $1 million donors a chance to meet the new president at a private reception as well as a hunting trip with one of trump's sons. the trump transition team later said it was a bungled initial concepts that have not been approved or pursued by the trump family." in germany, migrants and refugees face an anti-immigrant backlash after mononday's truck attack on a christmas s market n berlin, which left 12 people dead and 48 wounded. authorities across europe are hunting for suspect anis amri, a tunisian ex-convict who had been denied asylum in germany and was considered a security risk. this is yaser, a 32-year-old refugee from s syria. >> we e don't t feel good as refugeeses after w what happene. whenever someone commits a crime of whatny, regardless nationality, we as refugees become suspects. amy: monday's attack is threatening to undermine chancellor angela merkel's open-door policy, which last year saw over one million migrants and refugees resettled in germany. on wednesday, members of the far-right afd party protested outside the chancellor's offices, holding placards reading -- "merkel, you have the blood of your people on your hands" and "there will be war." back in the united states, donald trump responded to the attack in germany by reiterating his pledge to create a national registry for muslims and to ban muslims from entering the u.s. trump responded to a question from a reporter outside his mar-a-lago resort in florida, saying -- "you've known my plans all along and they've proven to be right. 100% correct." trump's comments came as the electronic information privacy center reported that a company co-founded by billllionaire trup adviser peter thiel provided secret assistance to the u.s. customs and border protection as it tracked travelers and immigrants. the tools built by thiel's data mining firm, palantir, could help trump limit migration to the u.s. and to create a muslim registry. thiel's company already has contracts with immigrations and customs enforcement, the departments of justice and defense, and the cia. peter thiel drew fire earlier this month when her refused to confirm whether he'd signed an ethics agreement to recuse himself from any matter affecting his self-interest. in minnesota, a judge has sentenced a woman to six months in prison after she ordered a somali-american woman to speak english before smashing a beer mug into her face for speaking swahili. jodie burchard-risch pleaded guilty to last year's assault at an applebee's restaurant, which left asma jama with a bloodied face and 17 stitches in her lip. jama addressed her attacker in court at a sentencing hearing on tuesday. >> i need to forgive to go on with my life. holding featured against you will not serve me well. in front of everyone e here, i o forgivee you and i hope you choose love over hate. amy: minnesota is home to a large somali-american community, which has faced a rash of hate crimes. in a campaign stop last month shortly before election day, donald trump railed against somali immigrants, saying some had joined isis and describing somali immigration as a "disaster taking place in minnesota." fox news personality bill o'reilly is under fire for embracing white nationalism after he accused leftists of seeking to take power away from the "white establishment." o'reilly made the remarks on tuesday's broadcast of "the o'reilly factor." >> what privilege in america as an oppressive force that must be done away. they want the power taken with no white establishment, a profound way in -- change in the way america is run. taking power away from t the whe precincts is the quickest way to do that. amy: in july, o'reilly sparked outrage when he said the enslaved africans who built the white house were "well fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government." in north carolina, lawmakers failed on wednesday to overturn the state's anti-lgbt law, which denies transgender people the use of the bathroom, changing room or locker room that matches , their gender identity. house bill 2, or hb 2, also bill as the bathroom prevents local governments from , boosting the minimum wage. hb 2 has prompted boycotts o of north carolina by companies, sports leagues and performers. , as lawmakers adjourned from a one-day special session without a repeal of hb 2 in place, protesters chanted, "shame! shame!" democratic state representative and equality north carolina director chris grow condemned the failure. >> 275 days after this body past the worst anti-lgbt bill in the entire nation, every single day transgender's have been at risk for discrimination and threat of violence and every single day our economy has lost millions upon millions of dollars. paypal is not coming here. bruce springsteen is not coming here. beare going to continue to set out as a state because of the image we are portraying to the rest of the nation and the rest of the world. amy: democratic governor-elect roy cooper said republicans reneged on a promise to repeal the law. last week, the republican-controlled legislature passed a pair of bills stripping the governor of many powers. expecting it would take place, the repeal of hb two, charlotte, the city council, which had passed the initial antidiscrimination bill, repealed their bill because the legislature they thought in exchange would repeal hb2 bang. in news of capital punishment, a new report from the death penalty information center finds the number of u.s. executions in 2016 fell to its lowest level in 25 years. texas and georgia accounted for steam of the year's 20 executions. nationwide, juries sentenced fewer people to death than in any year since 1972 when the supreme court reinstated capital punishment. public support for the death penalty is declining with one poll showing suppoport for capil punishment at less than n half e population. in climate news, foforecasters e predicting parts of the arctic will see temperatures rise above freezing in the coming days, with temperatures near the north pole today set to reach as much as 50 degrees here in height above normal. -- fahrenheit above normal. the freakishly warm temperatures come as arctic sea ice levels are at a record low. scientists say the changes would not haveve been possibible witit greenhnhouse gasmimissions frorm human acactivity. in chinana, tens of thousands of residents have fled an air quality red alert, as a a thick blanket of toxic smog sesettledn over nearly a half billion people. since friday, authorities have warned of off-the-charts air pollution levels in at least 23 cities, mostly in northern china. visibility from the smog was so bad in places that officials closed highways and grounded airplanes. china is the world's largest producer and consumer of coal, which is largely responsible for the e smog. in the phililippines, the committee to protect journalists is calling for the arrest of those responsible for murdering newspaper publisher larry que. he was shot in the head monday morning, shortly after he wrote a column alleging official negligence over an illegal methamphetamine laboratory recently raided by police. another journalist who covered the same raid later reportrted rereceiving death h threats. philippines president rodrigo duterte launched a brutal so-called war on drugs that has seen thousands of people killed by police and vigilantes, and many journalists say they fear they are now targets. in mexico, at least 34 people were killed and dozens more left injured after a massive series of explosions ripped through a fireworks market near mexico city. tuesday's explosions shook nearby towns and sent a plume of smoke thousands of feet into the air. ththe open-airir market was thee of two previous explosions, and a government fireworks regulator recently called it the safest fireworks market in all of latin america. california has ordered uber to remove self-driving vehicles from the streets of san francisco after the car service company defied regulators and began a pilot program that saw the automated cars brereak trafc laws and endangeger lives. 16 of the company's high-tech vehicles had their registrations revoked on after they were wednesday spotted running red lights, blocking intersections, and turning illegally across bike lanes. uber had already been ordered not to deploy the self-driving cars, but defied the order in a move that the company called an important issue of principle. 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. nermeen: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. the united nations general assembly has passed a resolution to investigate responsibility for war crimes in syria. the resolution calls for a special team to collect, consolidate, preserve, and analyze evidence, as well as to prepare cases on war crimes and huhuman rirights abuses committ. syria and russia led the opposition to the proposal. this comes as the syrian government prepares to fully retake eastern aleppo after years of intense fighting. according to the red cross, the last remaining civilians will be evacuated from the once rebel-held area by tonight or tomorrow. the fall of eastern aleppo marks a major victory for syrian president bashar al assad and his russian allies. earlier this week, the foreign ministers of russia, iran, and turkey met in moscow to discuss the ongoing war. the united states was not invited to participate. amy: the talks came just a day after an off-duty turkish police officer r shot dead the russian amambassador to ankara at an art gallery. the gunmnman yelled d out, "do't foforget aleppo, don't forget syri"" despite the killing, turkekey ad russia relelations appear to remain closese. to talk about the crisis in syria, what happened in bererli, the war's larger impact on the region, we are joined by two guests. joining us from istanbul is yassin al-haj saleh, a syrian writer, dissident, and former political prisoner. his forthcomoming book is title, "the impossible revolution: making sense of the syrian tragedy." and joining us via democracy now! video stream from the hague is mouin rabbani, the former head of political affairs for the u.n. special envoy for syria. he is a co-editor of jadaliyya. we welcome you both to democracy now! mouin rabbani, let's begin with you. can you talk about both the assassination of the russian ambassador in turkey and white has taken place in berlin? >> i don't think the two are particularly related. i think the important thing to note about the killing of the russian ambassador in turkey, it does not appear to have affected increasingly close russian turkish. for that matter, turkish iranian relations in terms of addressing the syrian crisis group an independent set of negotiations that will be served revised -- supervised by the three countries to the exclusion of , probably toates large extent from also the united nations. i think people who were describing this as a syria will moment and all of the rest of it, welcome or that might have been true had this happen the year ago, but that is certainly no longer the case. turkey was not disinvited from the recent meeting in moscow, nor did turkey declined to go. in terms of berlin, current indications are that german police are looking for a germany who arrived in or in italy, rather, some years ago. i believe in 2012. had spent some time in prison. application for asylum rejected. there is now talky may be part of a larger cell planning similar attacks. i think we will have to wait to learn more about that. but unlike the killing in turkey, this does not appear to be related in any way. or the berlin attack, for now, does not appear to be related in any way to the syrian conflict. amy: mouin rabbani, to go back to the talks between the foreign ministers of iran, turkey, and russia, could you say why you think the united states and the u.n. were excluded from the talks? >> i think it has to do with the russians trying to translate the military achievements into political ones. and in so doing, to seek to basically jettison the formula of a political transition, which many have understood to be a process that would ultimately result in removal of office from bashar al-assad to an alternative approach, which calls for expanding the government by co-opting some elements of the opposition due to an expanded syrian government. if you can get turkey on board with that formula -- enter forng the most important the opposition -- and there is no need, or it would be preferable from moscow's perspective, and also from tehran's and the government in damascus, do have other sponsors of the syrian opposition excluded from the process -- united states, saudi arabia, al etc., for more control over the political process. response,,get your to russia saying communications with the united states, dialogue with united date, rerelations wh the united statess, is almostt completely frozen expecting a better relationship with donald trump? >> that statement appears to be a general one concerning communications between moscow and washington over a whole host of issues, rather than specifically on the syrian front. i think it is a signal from moscow that they're waiting out the end of this administration, hoping for better things come january 20 when donald trump is inaugurated. nermeen: mouin rabbani, do you think, as some people claim, that iran and russia are the only two state parties that can help to facilitate a political resolution of the conflict in syria, given that they have in terms of external countries, the greatest influence? >> no, by no means would i say they are the only partner. it is my view or -- that a solution to the syrian crisis needs to be found primarily in the region, particularly y betwn iran and s saudi arabibia. to much greater extent than it needs to be negotiated between the united states and rusussia, who are not nearly as far apart on syria as our the regional rivals. -- as are the regional rivals. i think russia and iran have greater influence over the government of damascus than any other foreign party, but i think for this to be successfully resolveded, it is also going to need the participation andnd consent of particulularly oththr regional parties, who can do enormous amount of d damage if they are not b brought intoto te negotiations. i ththink it is veryry important that turkeyy is participatiting because of turkey is on board,, that a ao significantntly reducs ththe capacity of other partieso act independently. but i do think it is important a recognize this is not just syrian conflict. this is also a conflict in syria involving all kinds of proxy conflicts between any number of parties. many,y, ifultimately, not mostst of them, who need toe part of any pololitical resolutn for that resolution to succeed and be sustainable. amy: it is interesting russia and iran are working together around syria, considering donald trump, well, has never addressed this by considering russia a u.s.'sand iran one of top enemies. that should presesent an interesting relationship when president-elect trump becomes president. i want to ask about your comment about saudi arabia. the u.s. going to saudi arabia very recently. what its role particularly is, as we wrapup this discussion? >> in terms of syria? -- in theria, yemen region, and the u.s. relationship with saudi arabia? >> well, the u.s. and saudi arabia, obviously, have an extremely close relationship in any number of fields. [indiscernible] in the middle east. now we see the war in yemen is primarily a saudi effort. but it is one in which u.s. is in fact directly for dissipating, both through massive arms sales to saudi arabia, intelligence support, refueling of saudi jets, disrupting -- with many of these peperfect bombing runs all of hr yemen and so on. in terms of syria, i think the situation is a little different. there you have one where saudi arabia has actually been much more eager to go much further in terms of f its support of syrian opposition groups than have united states. but in syria, you have the u.s. more or less exercising the kind of veto over certain kinds of support that saudi arabia and other states are permitted to give to the syrian opposition in a particularly, for example, when it comes to antiaircraft weapons and so forth. so i think it is also fair to say that particularly during the past two years, the saudi ambition or the saudi priority in syria has remained regime change, whereas washington has shifted its attitude where its main concern in syria relate not so much to the conflict between syrian governments and armed opposition groups, but more with regard to the campaign against -- movement in the region. amy: thank you, mouin rabbani, for joining us former head of , political affairs for the u.n. special envoy for syria. when we come back, we will go to istanbul, turkey to speak with yassin al-haj saleh, syrian writer, dissident, and former political prisoner in syria. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: joan baez, has just been inducted to the rock 'n roll hall of fame. this is democracy now!, democracynow.o.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. in syria, the evacuation of r rebels and cicivilians from e eastern alepo have r resumed. after r thousands were left randnded on wedndnesday amid hey snowfall and freezing temperatures. syrian government forces said they expxpected the lalast of te evacuees to board buses within the coming hours. leaving syria's army to take control of the city, which has been devastated by months of heavy bombing and warfare. amy: to talk more about syria, we are joined by yassin al-haj saleh. he is a syrian writer, dissident and former political prisoner. his forthcoming book is titled, "the impossible revolution: mamaking sense of the syrian tragedy." thank you so much for joining us from istanbul. i wanted to start by asking you your response to the assassination of the russian abbasid are to turkey in ankara on monday. well, i have a sense of deja vu. we have seen or read about this in the 19th century when russia was the color of reaction is him in europe. they're playing the same role in syria and the region. the assassination was always an integral part of the real thetics of the elites like one ruling in russia. it did not come from another world. notice that the young man who assassinated the ambassador is not a jihadi. maybe he is a muslim believer who felt insulted by what the syrians has been doing in and aleppo in the last few weeks when he shouted "don't forget syria!" he't forget was just identifying with those people he -- being humiliated. being displaced. from the local population. and he felt he can't take justice -- can take justice with his fans. this cannot be justified, but this does not come to us forcednt from the displacement and killing of people in aleppo comes from. nermeen: i want to ask you also about the fact you have said that u.s. and russia have played active roles in guaranteeing the failure of any political .esolution to the war in syria now, given that, what is your assessment of russia hosting these talks between iran, turkey, and in which russia itself is involved? do you see that as perhaps creating the possibility of an enduring cease-fire, which might lead to talks to resolve the war in syria? >> no, not at all. of the wartinuation -- in aleppo in syria are different by different means. --is the failure of politics you know russia is part of the powers that supporting the regime. host acould russia wereng for peace process political solution in syria? it is something that is unbelievable. i think it is something related to crisis management, not to politics. for politicsment [indiscernible] in relation to the palestinian coups. we know the fate of the peace process in palestine. in syria, we are walking on the path to a situation, conditions of eternal war will be created, russians, iranians, shia sectarian militias re-occupying aleppo now, i think we are seeing a situation that will put an end to any political solution. it is not the beginning, it is an end. it is a step further and putting an end to any political -- any hopes for political solution in syria. amy: yassin al-haj saleh, can you explain further why you believe the united states is making impossible any kind of conflict resolution or cease-fire or solution in syria? russia was a partner of in a chemical deal in september 2013. i think from that time, the message that we got as syrian democrats, as syrian opposition people, that we are left at the mercy of a brutal junta and its allies -- the regime gained something from that deal, which is to stay in power. to stay in power forever. the regime. save [indiscernible] it is from whom the inspiration of that deal came, gained something. again, to disarm the regime. who lost everything? see weeks who only before t that sort of deal lost 1466 people. in the killer was given a new license to kill them with other warplanes, even with chemical weapons. and this way, chances for political solution were dissipated. there was no pressure from that time, the al-assad regime, it will not face any real pressures from the u.s. or any other power . and that is why the regime gave, in six years, conceded nothing of its real power to any opposition. you cannot achieve political solution when the regime is given license to go on its killing business and facing, you know, pressure. nermeen: some people have expressed concerns about who now constitutes the opposition fighghting thehe assad regime in syria. and you have talked about this three stages that this uprising has gone through. the three stages of the revolt ininst assadad, which began 2011. could you talk about what those three stages are and how the opposition has been transformed in that time? are after around six years of the uprising. i can differentiate between three states. maybe after aleppo, there is a .ourth stage i can't say anything about it now. yearirst stage covers the 2011 and 2012, maybe the first two or three months of the year of 2013. -- freesition was syrian army, fighting against the regime defending the local communities, local towns or neighborhoods. and it was syrians versus syrians. i mean, it was our civil war. actually our civil war ended in 2013. it began maybe in september or october of 2011 because there was a peacefulperiod of the revolution. only -- june 2012, then still syrian against syrian, up to the intervention of hezbollah , open intervention of has the law, up into the attendance of daesh. both of them appeared in april 2013. this time in early spring 2013, .egan the second stage other shiaollah and militias came from iraq, afghanistan, and of course lebanon and from iran. this second stage ended, in my opinion, september 2014 when the americans intervened after daesh occupied mosul and iraq. then a year later, the russians also -- this is the beginning of twothird stage, where the superpowers became the main actors in syria. report, sayyou something about -- this not a victory of bashar al-assad, but you ran. it is not a victory for the syrian army, it is for hezbollah and the sectarian militia in aleppo. the first stage, the opposition was made -- was a relation with a political opposition who fought against the regime for whole generation. my generation in the 1980's where tens of thousands of syrians were killed and arrested and tortured. , 2013, 2014, stage the mass exodus of syrians, the mass killing. stage, a less chaotic situation with a global -- syria is a globalized country . syrian opposition has weakened. weekenakened.ey are we need now, in my opinion, different dynamic for inclusion, for reconciliation. this requires real substantial change in the political environment in syria. something that cannot be achieved while bashar al-assad is still in power. i wantssin al-haj saleh, to ask you about your own history. you mentioned being a dissident in syria. you are arrested and imprisoned under bashar al-assad's father. can you talk about where you fit into the resistance today? and also talk about the terrible loss of your wife, who was kidnapped several l years ago along with the prominent syrian activistd human rights . >> what i want to say is our struggle hasn't begun five or six years ago. because going for two generations now. we were young -- i was less than 21 when i was arrested and stayed in prison for 16 years. my colleagues [indiscernible] i'm sorry, tens of thousands were killed and tortured. it was -- i found myself naturally part of this second wave of struggle for democracy, for freedom, and for justice in my country. i lived in hiding in damascus for years from the beginning of the revolution, and i participated in many activities. i tried to be part of this uprising -- great struggle of syrians for change, for real change. samira, my wife, herself was a political prisoner. she was arrested for four years and tortured. in douma inther 2013. go to raqqa again in hiding for a while. it was impossible samira accompany me in my heart, dangerous trip. -- they were december 2013. we have some concrete information about the culprits, but we don't have, i'm sorry to say, any trustworthy information of the four for the last three years and 13 days. nermeen: before we conclude, could you say something about what you think the u.s. should be doing now as far as what is going on in syria? maybe they all, should stop giving the priority to the war on terror, on our struggle for justice and for freedom. that of the war of terror is good for elites, good for people like bashar al-assad, netanyahu. it is very bad for people, not only in our country, even in the west. the war on terror, a war on democracy. they cannot be the real basis for struggle, for freedom, and for justice. so this is the first thing. the second thing -- actually, my hopes are very limited when it comes to the u.s.'s role in syria or the middle east. but i hope they realize there should be another method apart from crisis management. politicstiations and -- a policy that is not related from the shoes of justice and freedom and democracy. the longer we adopt this method in s syria, in palestine, the middle east, things will go far worse. example ofw any success of the war on terror. it only breeds more terror and more blood, more violence, and more dictatorships like the assad regime and the likes. amy: as we wrap up, you said you have been shocked by the less response to syria. can you explain? >> i'm sorry? amy: you said you have beenn shocked by the left's response to syria. can you explain? felt our coups, we have been struguggling for democracy for two generations. we paid a heavy price for it. -- they sideople with our struggle and understand excusesill never find for vevery brutal regime like bashar al-assad. the problem -- joint amy: we have just lost yassin al-haj connectionsatellite to assemble. we will continue the conversation at a future point full top yassin al-haj saleh is a a syrian writer, dissident and former political prisoner. his forthcoming book is titled, "the impossible revolution: making sense of the syrian tragedy." when we come back, we come home to an appeal by the son of marcus garvey, the black nationalist leader, to be pardoned posthumously by president obama. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: "marcus garvey" by burning spear. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: earlier this week president obama granted clemency , to 231 prisoners -- the most individual acts of clemency granted in a single day by any president in u.s. history. according to the white house, obama has commuted more sentences than the last 11 presidents combined. but obama has taken no action on several of the most high-profile prisoners seeking pardons or clemency. on wednesday, we looked at the cases of native american activist leonard peltier and chelsea manning. tomorrow, we will talk about puerto rican independence activist oscar lopez rivera. today we look at another request for presidential pardon. this one from the family of marcus garvey. a pioneering figure in the black freedom struggle in the early 20th century who inspired generations of civil rights activist a around the world. in the 1920's come fbi director j edgar hoover targeted garvey for his political activity as a leader of the pan-african movement. garvey was convicted in 1923 on a charge of mail fraud and sentenced to five years in jail. his charges and conviction effectively ended garvey's political movement and eventually led to his deportation back to jamaica. this is marcus garvey's son dr. julius garvey of the justice for garvey movement, announcing thte -- speakining i in august.. >> the civil rights movement started with marcus garvey. it is acknowlededged by brother malcolm m and martinin luther kg anand historyry. the president stands on that foundation. so we rank that the time is now to exonerate marcus garvey by a prpresidential posthumous pardo, and that is why we are here. amy: we will be joined by julius garvey and a second. president calvin coolidge commuted marcus garvey's sentence in 1927, however, the commutation still left garvey's conviction in place. we're goioing to ask dr. julius garvey about the case. he is a cardiothoracic and vascular surgeon who is leading the justice4garvey effort. great to have you with us, dr. garvey. welcome to democracy now! tell us what you're doing. >> basically, we have placed before the president a petition for the posthumous pardon of my father. it is well documented in terms of the legal aspect of it, because that is the foundation. political aspects. the legal aspect was prepared by a well-known law firm. they spent almost two years working on it and going to the case. there are thousands of pages, etc., as well as the appeal, which was also denied. it is a will prepare document that shows there was no evidence that there was -- there was a prejudiced judge, perjury. there is an empty envelope which was stamped with the black star line on it. nobody knew what was in it because e the person who presend the envelope could not remember what was inside the envelope. and also, he was a perjured witness. he was told by the prosecuting attorneyey to lie about the contents. whether he worked with the unia, etc. amy: before we go into that, for people, especially young people who have not heard of your father, talk about the context in which all of that took place. talk about who marcus garvey was. >> this was a very important time.. 20thw was the early century.y. my father formed unia in 1914 in jamaica and came to the intended states in 1916. this was 1914, the first world war, the so-called great war. movement oflarge african-americans from the agricultural south coming to the north because there were jobs that were available in terms of the industrialization to backup the war machinery. " going to "white men war so there werere many jobs of north. there was this migration. we had a southern african americans who had been subjected to come he might say, the lack of reconstruction subjected to the black codes and jim crow laws and so on coming up north being able to be employed in the industrial process. in a sense, asking himself, what is freedom? how do i manage? southern subjected to and justice. here i am in the north, i mean, what is my dimension of freedom? what are my citizenship rights? what are my huhuman rights as a person? hadather come in a sense, the answer because he had been all over the world and seen the conditions of african people in the caribbean, on the continent, and also now in the americas. his idea was really to unite african people around the world because it was a process that had subjugated them. now, this was 400 years of slavery, you know, 50 or so years of colonialism. colonialism started in 1885 with the berlin conference. africa is simply invaded. dispensed to different european groups who took over, you know, reduced our populations. post slavery, there was no assessment of the needs of african people who had been enslaved for such a long time. there was no reparations for african people. the reparations was for the slaveowners. african people were destitute all around the world because of slavery, because of colonialism. marcus garvey -- my dad felt it was important to unite african people because with that unity, we would have some e strength in terms of our resources, human and otherwise. nermeen: let's turn to marcus garvey in his own words speaking and 1921 shortly a after returng from a long tour of the caribbean and central america. the universalthat negro improvement assosociations an organization that seeks to unite into one solid body he 400 .illion negroes of the world industrial, educational, social, political conditions. as you are aware, the world in isch you live today different race and nationalities sto. [indiscernible] there are 400 million africans in the world who have negro blood coursing through their veins. we believe the time has comome o unite these 400 million people. nermeen: let's go to more of marcus garvey from july 1921. >> we want to unite the negro race in this country. on the great continent of africa. [i[indiscernible] pioneers have e been sent to lay the foundations upon which the 400 million negroes of the world will build. if you believe the negro is a acknowledge must what negroes can do. we want to build up citities, nations so we will be able have a chance to rise from the loins of the african commonwealth. nermeen: that was marcus garvey speaking in july 1921. julius garvey, can you tell us what happened to him and what you are calling for now, and whether you think there's any prospect that obama will grant a posthumous pardon? >> basically, he was targeted by j edgar hoover of the fbi as early as 1919. he called him a negro educator in harlem who was -- agitator and harle in harlem. she infiltrated my father's organization. wasfirst black fbi agent hired at that point in time to infiltrate the organization, and were many others. hoover and the justice department were looking for some means to criminalize marcus garvey so he could be deported. because he was an immigrant. yet filed his first papers, but they were keeping them from becoming a full citizen. every time he left the country -- etc., etc. he had an attempt on his life by someone who came in to liberty hall. shot three shot at him, two grazed him. one in his leg. that person ended up committing suicide within 24 hours after he was arrested -- in prison. he said he wasn't going to take the rap for himself. ththere was a concncerted effory whomever, but we do know j edgar hoover. they were trying everything. across theg a woman state line. wife, myhat was his mother. the black star line, which was his signature. economic project to trade between africa, the caribbean, and the united states. again, the whole idea was a political trial to destroy him and destroy the movement. amy: have you heard from the white house? >> know, we have not. amy: we will do part two of this fascinating discussion of your father, marcus garvey's life, imposed show discussion and post it online at democracynow.org. dr. julius garvey is a cardiothoracic and vascular surgeon who is leading the justice4garvey effort. seeking a posthumous presidential pardon for his father, the civil rights leader marcus garvey. and 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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