Government of running a deliberate policy of extermination by hanging thousands of civilians at a prison near damascus. Then trump lashes out again at the judges hearing challenges to his muslim traravel ban. Pres. Trump i listened to a bunch of stuff last night on television thatt was disgracefu. Amy we will speak to aclu attorney hina shamsi, who was recently questioned by Border Agents about her pakistani citizenship and her work with the American Civil Liberties union. She says the agents asked her why a person with Different Organization with american in its name would have a pakistani passport. Jeff sessions is confirmed as attorney general we look at how , republicans silenced senator Elizabeth Warren for reading a letter Coretta Scott king once exhibited to the Senate Judiciary committee 30 years ago opposing sessions for a federal judgeship. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted. Mr. President , im surprised the words of coretttta scott kig are not suitable for debate in the United States senate. Amy we will hear Elizabeth Warren in her own words and speak to barbara reynolds, who wrote Coretta Scott kings memoir, my life, my love, my legacy. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The senate has confirmed alabama senator Jeff Sessions as the attorney general after a 52 to 47 vote wednesday evening. Sessions confirmation has faced widespread protests over his opposition to the Voting Rights act and his history of making racist comments. 24 vote capped a contentious hours. On tuesday night, Elizabeth Warren was silenced and rebuked by the senate for reading a 1986 letter written by Coretta Scott king denouncing sessions, who at the time was begins at it for a federal judgeship. The letter reads in part the irony of mr. Sessions nomination is that, if confirmed, he will be given a life tenure for doing with a federal prosecution what the local sheriffs accomplished 20 years ago with clubs and cattle prods. Following senator warrens silencing, a number of Democratic Senators urged their colleagues to vote against sessions by reading the same letter. Senator warrens reading marks the first time coretta s scott kings testimonyny was includedn the congressional record, even though king had some edited years ago. At the time, the Senate Judiciary chair, strom thurmond, a fierce segregationist, did not enter kings testimony to the record. We will have more on sessions confirmation as well as the rebuke of senator warren after the headlines. President trump lashed out at the Appeals Court judges who were presiding over the lawsuit challenging his executive order banning people from seven majorityty muslim m nations f fm entering the United States. Pres. Trurump if you were a god student in high s school or a bd studt inin high schohool, you cn undederstand this. It is really incredible to me that we have a court case that is g going on so long and it could not have been written any more precisely. It is not like, oh, gee, we wish it were written better. It was written beautiful he. Amy thats President Trump, speaking in washington, d. C. , wednesday to a conference of Law Enforcement officials. During his comments he also called the deliberations disgraceful. Trumps attack comes after he also went on a twitter rant over the weekend against federal judge james robart, calling him a socalled judge after robart issued a nationwide injunction halting trumps muslim ban on friday. This rant sparked widespread criticism, including from susupreme Court Nominee neil gorsuch who called trumps , tweets disheartening and demoralizing during a meeting with connecticut senator richard blumenthal. This morning, trumump attacked senator blumenthal on twitter, claiming he was misrepresenting gorsuchs words even though a , spokesperson for gorsuch himself told cnn the judge had voiced concern about trumps comments during the meeting. The mother of a young british woman killed by a mentally ill man in australia in august has written a furious open letter to President Trump after her daughters killing was included in the white houses list of 78 terrorist attacks. Rosie ayliffe wrote my daughters death will not be used to further this insane persecution of innocent people. Her daughter, 21yearold mia ayliffechung, was stabbed to death in a hostel by a frenchman who had a preliminary diagnosis of schizophrenia. After the attack, the media originally reported the attacker, smail ayad, may have been an islamic extremist, but Australian Police quickly ruled out terrorism in its investigation. Senator jackson, the mother of a second backpacker who was killed during the attack, has also criticized donald trump, tweeting realdonaldtrump wake up this morning to see youve used my son murder to further your campaign of hate, how dare you. You are a disgrace. President is facing increasing criticism for not including cases of massacres carried out s in the supremacist white houses recently issued list of 78 terrorist attacks. Among the attacks not included was the recent massacre in quebec city, canada, where a trumpsupporting White Nationalist killed six worshipers at a mosque on january 29. Also not included was the charleston, south carolina, massacre, where nine blacack worshipers were killed by white supremacist dylann roof in 2015. On tuesday, Wisconsin Republican congressman sean duffy tried to defend the exclusion of these massacres from the list during an interview with cnns alisyn camerota. Congressman, what isnt the presesident talkining about thee white terrorists who mowed down six muslims who were praying at their mosque . I dont know. I would just y you, ththere is a deathth and again, murderer on both sides is wrwro. And if you wanant to take ththe dozens of f scenarios whwhere is inspired attatacks have takaken innocentnts there was an example in canada how about the Charleston Shooting . It was a what extremistst. Yeah, h he was. T that doesnt mamatter . It does matter. Look at the good things that came from it. Nikki haley took on the confederate flag. That was great. Amy congressman duffy also refused during this interview to acknowledge that in his home state of wisconsin, a white supremacist killed six people in 2012 during a massacre at a sikh temple. Meanwhile, the white house is also considering officially designating more groups as a foreign terrorist organization, including the Muslim Brotherhood one of the middle easts oldest and most influential islamic groups. Protesters rallied at demonstrations nationwide wednesday to protest the army corps of engineers announcement it will be greenlighting the construction of the contested 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. The Company Behind the pipeline, Energy Transfer partners, says it will start work immediately upon being granted the final permit. Hundreds of people gathered outside the white house in washington, d. C. , to protest the project, which many fear could contaminate the missouri river, which serves as a drinking source for over 10 million people. Crowds also gathered in los angeles, manhattan, denver, and san francisco, where about a dozen people were arrested blockading the doors of the federal bubuilding. More protesters rallied in ithaca, new york, columbus, ohio, and in chicago, where four people were arrested after lockining themselves to each otr to shut down a c citibank to protest its investments in the pipeline. Many of the protesters were furious not only about the , pipeline but also about , trumps recent claims that no one had called the white house to express opposition to the project. Pres. Trump as you are no, as you know, i proved to pipelines that were stuck i in limbo forerever. I dont t even think itt was controversial. I have not had one call from anyone saying, oh, that was a terrible thing you did. I have not had one call. Amy as multiple news outlets have reported, the white house shut down its Public Comments phone line, following trumps inauguration. However, hundreds of thousands of people have written statements denouncing the prproject since the army corps f engineers opened up the Public Comment period in late january. On wednesday, a group of veterans and indigenous water protectors delivered electronic versions of more than 200,000 of these comments to the Army Corps Office in manhattan. Meanwhile, the city council of davis, california, has voted to unanimously divest 124 million in city y banking servis from wells fargo over concerns about the banks backing of the pipeline. In phoenix, arizona at least six , protesters were arrested last night blockading an immigrations and Customs Enforcement van, in efforts to stop the deportation of 35yearold Guadalupe Garcia de rayos, a mother who has been living in the United States for the last 21 years. Rayoyos was arrested andnd detad wednesday by immigration agents during one of her routine, rerequired checkckins with immigration officials. Advocates say her arrest signals a clear shift toward the ramping up of deportations under the Trump Administration, even of people like rayos, who had been deemed a lowpriority for deportation under president obama. Rayos lawyer said were living in a new era now, an era of war on immigrants. In protest, hundreds of people surrounded the ice van carrying rayos. One man locked himself to the wheels of the vanan while others , blockaded it with ththeir bodies. We are herere [indiscernible] therrow m maybe my mom in nenext they mighght be your mom. We need toto stop the dedeportations. They a are milillions of peoplet risk. [indiscernibible] we have to stop it. T. Whwherever you are, you can do this, too. Amy President Trump is facingg potential conflict of interest after he attacked the Department Store nordstrom in a tweet from his official government account, saying my daughter ivanka has been treated so unfairly by nordstrom. She is a great person always pushing me to do the right thing terrible the tweet came after nordstrom announced it is dropping ivankas clothing line, a business decision they said was based on performance. Sean spicer claims nordstroms decision was an attack on trumps daughter. But multltiple reporters have quesestioned how this is an attk on ivanka given she claimed she accept away from her clothing line after trumps election. Pennsylvania senator bob casey has referred the tweet to the u. S. Government, the u. S. Office of government ethics. Ivanka has no official government role, but she frequently sits in on top meetings with her father and her husband, jared kushner, a Senior Adviser in the white house. Meanwhile, in another potential conflict of intnterest, the pentntagon is looking to rent office space in trump tower in manhattan, which means the government might end up funneling money directly to one of trumps businesses. Cnn reports that renting a floor in the tower cost about 1. 5 million every yeyear. In northererafghanistan, six red crcross workers were killlled wednesday after their cars were ambushed. Two more are still missing. Taliban has denied involvement, and local officials have blamed the attack on isis. On wednesday, isis claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack outside the Supreme Court building in kabul on tuesday, which killed at least 22 people. In romania, thousands of people braved the snow for a ninth straight day of antigovernment and anticorruption protests. The massive nightly mobilizations have been the largest in romania since 1989. They were sparked by the passage of an emergency ordinance that decriminalized misconduct by officials, but have continued even after the government rescinded that decree. This is one of the protesters. We are keeping our position strong. We won our government to resign. You cannot trust this government. Their passing laws for corrupt politician in the middle of the night. We cannot trust this government anymore. Billy thing that can satisfy us right now is the resignation of the Prime Minister and the government itself. Amy at least three players on the new England Patriots say they wont visit the white house for the traditional super bowl celebration as a protest against President Trump. Linebacker Donta Hightower and safety Devin Mccourty have joined tight end Martellus Bennett in boycotting the visit. Mccourty said i dont feel accepted in the white house. With the president having so many strong opinions and prejudices, i believe certain people might feel accepted there while others wont. The patriots won the super bowl 3428 sunday night after a historic comebeback over the atlanta falcons. And a Pennsylvania State senator has issued an unusually strong denouncement of President Trump, calling him a fascist, loofafaced, [bleep]gibbon senator daylin leachs tweet was a response to trumps threat that he would destroy the career of a texas state senator who was proposing legislation to require police to obtain a conviction before seizing ones property in a process known as Asset Forfeiture. Currently, Asset Forfeiture allows police to seize peoples property even if they are never even charged with a crime. After trumps threat, daylin tweeted hey realdonaldtrump i oppose civil Asset Forfeiture too why dont you try to destroy my career you fascist, loofafaced, [bleep]gibbon and those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Nermeen and im nermeen shaikh. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Amnesty international has released a shocking report claiming as many as 13,000 people, mostly civilians, have been hanged in a Syrian Government military prison in recent years. Amnesty accuses the alassad government of running a human ater house and engaging in deliberarate policy of extermination by hangingng thousands ofof prison theres listeners in damascus. Amnesty says the killing amount to war crimes and crimeses agait humanity. Earlier this week, amnesty releaseded a video describing hw they uncovered the mass killings. Correct when he 11, tens of thousands of people have disappeared into a vast network of Detention Centers run by the Syrian Government. Many have been taken to a notorious and terrifying prison where detainees are incarcerated in horrific conditions, systemematically and brutally tortured. Thousands have dieied in confinemement. Inaccessible to journrnalists ad independent monitoring groups, the prison is a blackhole of which no recent images e exist. The memorories of thohose who survive it are the only available resource e with whicho undederstand what happens within the prisonon. In april 201016, amnesty internatioional and forensicic architecturere travel to tururko meet a groroup osaydnaya survivors. We used architecturural and acououstic modeling to r reconst thee p prison and there expxpres of detention. And their experiences o of detention. N. Because the e prisoners were hed in d darkness and silence, ththr memorieses depenend on sound. Footststeps, doors o opening and lolocking, watater dripipping. All of these sounds shook should detainees experiences of space and time anand for boat what w w to come. Testimonies, we have conststructed m model of te entirere prison and located the witness testimonies and the sounds they r recl within i it. These testitimonies are traraumc recollections and are rarely released descriptions of event. The architecture of the present emerges and only as a location of torture, but i itself as an instrument in the perpetration. Nermeen the Syrian Justice Ministry has rejected amnestys findings issuing a statemement that read the Justice Ministry denies and condemns in the strongest terms what was reported because it is not based on correct evidence but on personal emotions that aim to achieve wellknown political goals. Amnestys report was published on tuesday, less than two weeks after President Trump signed an executive order banning refugees indefinitely and temporarily barring entry to all citizens muslimria and six other majority nations. It also comes as fox news is reporting russia has just sent syria the largest shipment of missiles between the two countries to date. Amy we go now to london where we are joined by nicolette waldman, Amnesty International researcher specializizing in dedetention issues. She is the coauthor of the new report. The title is chilling,