Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20170512

Prison. The Barrett Brown case is probably one of the most significant threats to suppress freedom that is happening in the u. S. In the last two decades at least. Amy in a democracy now exclusive, we speak with the journalist when greenwald and Barrett Brown himself, still under house arrest in dallas. Then we look at black mamas bail out day, an efforto raise money jeffrey as many africanamerican women from jail as possible before mothers day. All of that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. President trump has once again changed his story about why he fired fbi director james comey. Now admitting on nbc he made the decision in part due to comeys probe russias meddling in the 2016 election. Pres. Trump regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. Just do it him i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. It is an excuse for the democrats are having lost an election that they should have one. Amy President Trumps comment directly contradicts numeral matters numerous statements by white house aides in recent days, as well as trumps own claim he fired, over the handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton and her use of private you now servers. According to the New York Times, comey was fired after requesting more resources for his probing to the russiatrump connection. During that same interview, trump also called comey a show boat and claimed the fbi was in turmoil under his watch. Pres. Trump look, he is a showboat. He is a grandstander. The fbi has been in turmoil. You know that, i know that, Everybody Knows that. You take a look at the fbi a year ago. It was in virtual turmoil will stop less than year ago. It has not recovered from that. Amy the white house has also claimed people within the fbi had lost confidence and trust in comey. But on thursday, acting fbi director Andrew Mccabe rejected these claims when questioned by new Mexico Democratic senator Martin Heinrich at a Senate Intelligence committee hearing. We have heard in the news that claims that director comey of lost the confidence rankandfile fbi employees. You have been there for 21 years. In your opinion, is it accurate that the rankandfile no longer supported director comey . No, sir, that is not accurate. Director comey enjoyed run broadt within the fbi support within the fbi and still does to this day. Amy white house officials have abandoned a plan for trump to visit the fbi headquarters within the coming days after being told the president would not be welcomed or wellreceived at the agency. New details also have emerged about how trump summoned comey for a private dinner in january and reportedly demanded comey pledge his loyalty to trump. The New York Times reports comey promised trump honesty instead. The white house has rejected this account. President donald trump signed an executive order thursday creating a socalled president ial Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The white house says the commission will be tasked with investigating voter fraud, but critics say it will be wielded to enact policies that further suppress the vote. Trump appointed Vice President mike pence as the chair and kansas secretary of state kris kobach as the vice chair of the commission. Kobach, known as a leading proponent of antiimmigrant and Voter Suppression laws, was a key figure in drafting arizonas notorious antiimmigrant racial profiling law, sb1070, known as the show me your papers law parts of which have been found , unconstitutional. He has pushed for the strictest voter identification laws in the country and advocated for a proofofcitizenship requirement at the state and federal levels. Well have more on the Voting Commission after headlines with the nations ari berman. Attorney general Jeff Sessions has released a memo telling Justice Department prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges for drug offenses. He also rescinded two obamaera memos that encouraged prosecutors to avoid seeking inordinately harsh sentences for low level drug offenses. Sessions has long backed lengthy prison sentences and the use of mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes, including for marijuana use, which is now legal for either medical or Recreational Purposes in many states. The senate has approved Robert Lighthizer to be u. S. Trade representative. He served as deputy trade representative during the reagan administration. Hes a proponent of trade tariffs and has been a vocal critic of china. Angry town halls are continuing around the country, including in iowa, where republican congressman rod blum faced four straight nights of packed, angry town halls this week hundreds , of people showed up to events in dubuque, cedar rapids, cedar falls, and marshalltown to jeer, boo and interrogate blum about his support for backing of President Trump and the Republican Health care plan. This is iowa resident dale todd, speaking alongside his son, who has epilepsy, at a town hall in cedar rapids tuesday. I would have thought somewhere along the line somebody would have said that when you impact kids with special needs, who, we sort of have an obligation to take care of our own here in iowa, that we would have thought that maybe we should not be doing that. So i am just trying to fathom where that motivation comes from. [applause] amy in iraq, the journalistic Monitoring Group airwars says at least 35 civilians were reportedly killed and 100 more wounded in airstrikes carried out by either the u. S. Led coalition or the u. S. Backed Iraqi Air Force on tuesday. Airwars also says other strikes likely carried out by the u. S. Backed Iraqi Air Force reportedly killed another 27 people in anbar province, also on tuesday. In argentina, tens of thousands of people poured into the streets wednesday to protest a Supreme Court ruling in favor of a member of a dictatorshipera Paramilitary Group who was convicted of kidnapping and torturing people during argentinas socalled dirty war. The ruling could have reduced the sentences for those convicted of crimes committed under the dictatorship, but in response to public outcry, the Argentine Congress passed a law to block the shortening of sentences. In greece, pensioners and workers blockaded the entrance of the finance ministry thursday to call for a general strike on may 17 to protest a new round of austerity measures imposed by International Creditors and accepted by the greek government. This is one of the protesters, a 65yearold pensioner. The amount of harm that has been done to the greek people by all of these policies is unbelievable will stop a battle must be waged. What else can we do . We cannot do anything else. Amy a new report by the International Institute for strategic studies says that mexico endured the secondmost conflict deaths of any country last year with a staggering 23,000 People Killed amid the countrys socalled war on drugs. Mexico was second only to syria, where 50,000 people were killed in 2016 by the ongoing war. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th most dangerous countries were iraq, afghanistan, and yemen. In new york state, residents are celebrating the news that texasbased company Crestwood Midstream announced it is nixing plans to expand a Natural Gas Storage facility in abandoned salt caverns at seneca lake, a Drinking Water source for 100,000 people. The project has faced years of sustained resistance from local residents. More than 650 residents, teachers, health workers, faith leaders, scientists, military veterans, and others arrested blockading construction during the years long campaign. Following this victory, residents say theyre still committed to fighting crestwoods separate plans for a propane Storage Facility in the area. To see our full coverage of the seneca lake struggle over the years, go to democracynow. Org. Meanwhile, in california, students at the university of california Santa Barbara have scored a victory after chancellor henry yang backed the students calls for the University System to divest from fossil fuels. The backing came after hundreds of students participated in a sitin at the Chancellors Office this week. Meanwhile, the 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline has already had its first leak and the pipeline is not even yet in operation. The 84gallon oil spill occurred in tulare, south dakota, about 200 mile south of the site of the massive resistance camps, where thousands of Indigenous People and their allies camped out in efforts to block the construction of the part of the pipeline that crosses the missouri river. Florida university will be awarding Trayvon Martin with a posthumous degree in aeronautical science in a ceremony with his parents on the degree aims to honor the saturday. African american teenagers pilot, before he was murdered by white Neighborhood Watch vigilante George Zimmerman in 2012. And in san diego, california social justice activist and , priest Thomas Melville has died at the age of 86. He was one of a group of catholic activists who became known as the catonsville 9 after they broke into a draft board 1968, office in catonsville, maryland, stole 378 draft cards and burned them in the parking lot as a protest against the vietnam war. Others involved in the action were his wife, marjorie melville, and the late berrigan brothers daniel and phil berrigan. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Voting rights activists are expressing alarm after President Donald Trump signed an executive order thursday creating a president ial Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The move comes after trump repeatedly claimed that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in november because between 3 and 5 3 million and finally and people voted illegally. No evidence has ever been presented backing up his claim. On Deputy White House press thursday, secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders unveiled the plan for the new Election Integrity commission. I would like to announce the president also just signed another executive order establishing the bipartisan president ial Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The commission will review policies and practices that enhance or undermine the american peoples confidence in the integrity of federal elections and provide the president with a report that identifies system vulnerabilities that lead to improper registrations in voting. Amy civil Rights Groups and several democratic lawmakers denounced the Election Integrity commission, suggesting it is designed to perpetuate the myth of voter fraud as a pretense for new policies that will make it harder to vote policies such as voter id laws, eliminating early voting, and prohibiting sameday voter registration. Particularly worrying to voting right activists is the selection of kansas secretary of state kris kobach as the vice chair of the commission. He has pushed for the strictest voter identification laws in the country and advocated for a proofofcitizenship requirement at the state and federal levels meanwhile, and the report has called into question whether President Trump would have duringy won wisconsin the 2016 president ial election without the states strict voter id law. The study published by the Progressive Advocacy Group Priorities usa says the law suppressed the votes of more than 200,000 residents, the majority of whom were African American and democraticleaning. President trump won only 22,748 23,000 votes than Hillary Clinton in wisconsin. Well, for more, were joined now by ari berman, senior contributing writer for the nation, where he covers Voting Rights. His recent piece is headlined trumps commission on Election Integrity will lead to massive Voter Suppression. Explain why. First off, it is important to note this is not an Election Integrity commission. This is a Voter Suppression commission. Because there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud to investigate. Everyone who has looked at this, including trumps own lawyers during the recounts in michigan and other states, have said that the election was not tainted by fraud. So the only reason to do this and to announce it this week, other than to trumps ego and distract from the news about comey and russia, is to perpetuate the myth of voter fraud in order to the groundwork for policies that will suppress the vote. Explain what the commission is all about. How came about, what its history is, and what exactly it is going to do. I guess you could say the roots of it happened after the election when trump startled everyone by saying he would have won the popular vote except for the fact that millions of people voted illegally. He subsequently tweeted and set it. He has provided no evidence for these claims. It is in attempt, just like what he said about wiretapping. There was no evidence of it any calls for an investigation. Basically, he manufactured this issue. There was no evidence. Now we have an entire president ial commission designed to investigate it. There is going to be taxpayer money. Some of the heaviest hitters and the Republican Party are part of this commission. I think it is easy to dismiss it as another laughable thing that trump is doing to try to distract from the news. But the real worry is that theyre going to say all of these outlandish things about voter fraud. It is going to have the venue of a president ial commission, and then theyre going to say, oh, by the way, there is this voter fraud and now we should pass voter id laws. We should pass proof of citizenship laws. We should purge the voting rolls. We should not just do it in the states where it is are in the happening, but on the national and federal level as well. The president the United States endorsing a policy of Voter Suppression is absolutely chilling. Amy as you said in general, President Trump called for this Major Investigation of voter fraud as he continued to falsely assert you lost the popular vote Taylor Clinton because 3 million to 5 million unauthorized votes were cast in the election. Abc anchor david new york questioned trump about those claims. When you say in your opinion, millions of illegal votes, that is something that is extremely fundamental to our functioning democracy of a fair and free election. You say youre going to launch an investigation. What you prevent presented so far has been debunked. Pres. Trump take a look that he reports. He said they found evidence. Rest of what it he write the report . Then why did he write the report . Again. Is growling i always talk about the reporters that grovel with a want to write something that you want to hear but not necessarily millions of people want to hear or have to here. Amy so that is donald trump. Is kobach defended trumps unfounded claim that millions of people illegally voted, supposedly costing trump the popular vote. This is kobach being requested by reporters question by reporters. I think of president elect is correct, the number of illegal votes cast exceeds the popular vote margin between him and Hillary Clinton at this point. What evidence is there that that happened . This is the problem with aliens voting and registering. There is no way you can look on the voter rolls and say, this one is an alien, this one is a citizen. Once a person gets on the voter rolls, you dont have any way of easily identifying them as aliens. You have to rely on postelection studies like the corporate of congressional survey or you get data from aliens themselves say, oh, yeah, i voted. It doesnt view that aliens to vote a very large numbers. Amy that was kris kobach in november after the election. All of the Available Evidence shows voter fraud is a very small problem in american elections, and that noncitizens voting is an even smaller problem in american elections. Think about it, amy. If you are a noncitizen and you vote him you are risking deportation. Youre risking a felony. Youre risking never being able to vote again if you become a u. S. Citizen. So all of these things are a huge risk to somebody. People who are here either illegally or here legally but are noncitizens, the last thing they want to do is vote and get supported. This does not make much sense. Just the numbers that we have show that in the 2016 election, the Washington Post that only four document dated documented cases. Reviews since then have found at most a few hundred alleged cases of voter fraud. Not millions. In kansas, kris kobach is the only secretary of state in the country with the power to prosecute voter fraud cases. He has only convicted nine people of voter fraud since 2014 out of 1. 8 million registered voters in that state. He has only convicted one noncitizen of voting. So if this problem was as widespread amy did they vote for trump . There was a different noncitizen who voted in texas, not knowing she was unable to vote. Usually, if youre a noncitizen and you vote, it is usually because you believe you are qualified because you have documents like a green card or a drivers license and you believe you are part of the political process. At thesk for the dmv if you want to register to vote. Theres nothing nefarious. In iowa, someone voted for trump because she believed her claims of the election were going to be rigged. Im not saying it never happens, but it is a very, very, very small problem. Usually, it is human error, not conspiracy. Amy last are, then grothman of wisconsin made headlines with his comments about wisconsins controversial new voter id laws, which prevented thousands of registered voters from casting ballots in wisconsins primary. Speaking to nbc, grothman admitted that he believed the states voter id laws would give the republican president ial candidate an advantage during the upcoming general election. He was questioned by Charles Benson of nbc. Me to november. You know a lot of republicans since 1984 the president ial election have not been able to win in wisconsin. Why would it be in a different for ted cruz or donald trump . I think Hillary Clinton is about the weakest candidate the democrats have ever put up, and now we have photo i do. I think photo id will make a little bit of a difference as well. Amy that was republican congressman grothman speaking last year. Under report has called into question whether President Trump would have actually won wisconsin during the 2016 president ial election without the states strict voter id law. The study was published by the Progressive Advocacy Group Priorities usa. It says the law suppressed the votes of more than 200,000 residents, the majority of whom were African American and democratic leaning. President trump won only about 23,000 more votes than Hillary Clinton in wisconsin. I wrote about this this week. They found that overall, turnout increased by 1. 3 percent in 2016 over 2012. States that adopted strict id laws, turnout dropped by 1. 7 . It dropped in wisconsin by 3. 3 . So much trader decrease much greater decrease than the national degrees. They found that 200,000 more people would have voted in wisconsin if not for their strict voter law. Trump only one the state by 23,000 votes. The largest drop off was among black and democratic leaning voters. They only triggered wisconsin to other states like minnesota right next door which had similar demographic internet rates and found there was a much larger dropoff in wisconsin and minnesota, which does not have a voter id law. Counties with a large africanamerican population had a larger dropoff. This is yet another study showing that voter id laws suppress the vote. I feeling is, these laws are bad regardless of the state impact in the election because were making a harder to vote for no reason. In wisconsin, we have a very clear case study that is not impacted the final results of the president ial election. Amy the significance of the timing of the commission, two days after trump fired fbi director james comey, and also you have cans and kobach as the heads of it . Clearly, this is in a 10 to distract from the news. Voter fraud is something that place to trumps base. When people were testifying fbi expertsess, said, one of the things the russians did, one of their active measures in the president ial election was to raise doubts by the legitimacy of the election. So this is something trump always dusts off when there is controversy. If you look at the people leading it, mike pence is from indiana, the first state to adopt voter id law which started this whole Voter Suppression craze. The state police in indiana in 2016 shutdown of voter group, raided the office of a group that was registering black and low income voters. You look at kris kobach, the feist chair of the commission. He is behind Voter Suppression efforts, behind into immigrant efforts. He is a very, very powerful and dangerous figure within the Republican Party, making him the vice chair of this commission shows it is designed for one purpose, to try to suppress the vote. Amy very quickly, less than a minute, the fact that the census director has now quit. Can you talk about the significance . Greasing of the because the census decides who is counted, literally, in terms of congressional in terms of congressional representation, who is counted in terms of people getting resources, federal money, government programs. Often blacks, latinos, asian americans, low income voters are undercounted already by the census. If the census has no money, youre going to see a further lessening of representation and further lessening of minorities, lowincome people counting in society. It is one of those under the radar things that has a big impact on democracy. Amy and it determines how Many Congress members represent a state. Absolutely. It literally determines who is and who isnt counted. If the census director resigns, there will be a whole new round of redistricting after the president ial election, this is very signifint. Amy ari berman, thanks for being with us, senior contributing writer for the nation, where he covers Voting Rights. His recent piece is headlined trumps commission on Election Integrity will lead to massive Voter Suppression. Ari berman is the author of give us the ballot the modern struggle for Voting Rights in america. When we come back, and exclusive democracy now interview. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We turn to Investigative Reporter Barrett Brown who recently completed a fouryear prison sentence related to the hacking of the private Intelligence Firm stratfor, which exposed how the firm spied on activists on behalf of corporations. At one point, brown faced 100 years in prison before pleading guilty to lesser charges including transmitting threats, accessory to a cyberattack, and obstruction of justice. Supporters say brown was unfairly targeted for investigating the highly secretive world of private intelligence and military contractors. Prior to his arrest, brown appeared in the documentary we are legion and talked about the importance of information obtained by hackers. Some of the most important things that ahead of far most reaching influence of been the most important in terms of what has been discovered is the result of hacking. That information cannot be obtained by the or wont be obtained by Congressional Committee or a federal oversight committee. For the most part, that information has to be obtained by hackers. Amy in 2009, Barrett Brown created project pm which was dedicated to investigating private Government Contractors working in the secretive fields of cybersecurity, intelligence and surveillance. He was particularly interested in the documents leaked by wikileaks and anonymous. In 2011, the Group Anonymous hacked into the Computer System of the private Security Firm Hbgary Federal and disclosed thousands of internal emails. Barrett brown was not accused of being involved in the hack itself, but he did read and analyze the documents, eventually crowdsourcing the effort through the project pm. One of the first things he discovered was a plan to tarnish the reputations of wikileaks and the journalist Glenn Greenwald, who would later win a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on nsa whistleblower edward snowden. While serving in prison, brown won the 2016 National Magazine award for columns and commentary for columns he wrote for the intercept. He was released from prison earlier this year, but was unexpectedly rearrested late last month, one day ahead of a scheduled interview for an upcoming pbs documentary. Barrett brown was detained for four days and then released without receiving any formal written explanation for the arrest. Despite pressure from authorities not to speak to the media while under house arrest Barrett Brown has opted not to , keep silent. Nermeen shaikh and i spoke to him earlier this week along with Glenn Greenwald who was in our new york studio. I began by asking Barrett Brown why was imprisoned for four years. The fbis original search warrants came out after we began documenting the doj, fbi, the legal involvement with intelligence contractor the search warrants stated there were looking for information on hb gary, one of the firms mentioned that have been involved in these crimes, and another from we were looking at, and another which we compile this research. Later on, they charged us with entirely different Crimes Involving the stratfor hack, which had already occurred before the illegal search warrants. They were just looking for something to get beyond that would not involve going into some of these more various projects they were indirectly involved in. I originally led to after they dropped a number of bizarre charges involving leaking information after a public outcry, i played guilty to interference with the search warrant, threatening federal agents, and accessory after the fact for having called the executive from stratfor and offering to redact information. What they got me on, eventually. So i did four years in prison. Document it further abuses. Spent about six months altogether in the shu of those four years. I did what i could to try to show people how the prisons operate, the extent to which to process violations are very common. You can only document so much in a culture like this and expect anything to happen from it. A difficult culture to get journalism to work in. Tell us whatd you reason you were given, if any, for your . Before i was arrested, they were claiming i was not allowed to interview without their permission. It is documented very clearly in the Bureau Prisons Program Statement i media contact, that there is no such relation. Even inmates in prison can talk to journalists by phone or mail without permission. Permissiont requires is for journalist was to come into an actual prison on a certain day and interview inmates at that prison. Me top was trying to get force pbs and Vice Television develop these forms, which work inappropriate. I told them i would not do it until they show me a Program Statement saying otherwise. In our recorded conversations with the local representative, in which they threatened me with abusing an order charge if i illegallysign these obtain documents. The next day i was arrested and held for four days. A law firm hired by one of my other publishers, threatened the bop and said they would go to challenge my confinement. I was immediately released after that. Nermeen had you been informed at all that you are not permitted to speak to the media . They were telling me that, and i recorded the conversations in which these officials in a Halfway House staff tried to tell me that. As i said and recordings, theres no such dictate in the Program Statements. Unless im showing the statements saying i dont have the right, i will exercise the right. That will not help them force Media Outlets to seek prior restraint authorization from a random official before doing their job. That is contrary to a number of principles that not just journalists have, but the First Amendment. It is not legal. It is not a power they have. They knew they could get away with holding me for a few days. This is a prison issue in one way, but a larger issue of the rule of law and whether or not it actually exists which i claim a dozen. Amy Barrett Brown, you have said youre considering taking a silent overseas after being reimprisoned asylum overseas after being reimprisoned . Yes. Sometimes there are silly, inconsequential things, but lured an exciting. In this case, even after i made very clear and did my best to document that it extraordinary crime against the First Amendment and against journalists, not just me but others, have been committed, that we really know press coverage there is no press coverage except for a few independent outlets, the bop and doj and the fbi can operate on eent, to a prey hi especially when dealing with activist. I will connue to do actism and try to organize citizens against state criminality, but i cannot do that from here you know, without being arrested by an official who chooses to do so. I have no problem doing prison time for being oppressed in the public eye if it helps. But it doesnt help that often. It doesnt lead to anything. This is not the kind of society which people say, oh, no, something terrible has happened, lets act on it. In germany, he years ago, it impressed me when the state prosecutor was found investigating a news website that had been publishing documents. After he came to light, several days of marches and two days after that, the prosecutor was out. That would never happen in the u. S. That is the kind of country a want to live in, with people who share some degree of decency. Amy can you freely leave . After my probation is finished, which will be at the maximum two years from now, but more likely one year, i will be able to only the country. At which point, i will be giving up my citizenship and seeking citizenship elsewhere. Nermeen by analyzing the information from the hb gary hack, you discovered the Security Firms plan to undermine our guest journalist Glenn Greenwalds defense of wikileaks. One slide read without the support of people like glenn, wikileaks would fold. Each big area intended to spread disinformation to discredit both been greenwald and wikileaks. The director spoke to the former ceo about these plans. It seems like youre trying to attack a journalist here. You know, i dont want to talk too much more about Glenn Greenwald, but other than what ip loosely previously said, there were so intent to attack journalists. Not a my part. I guess i should say i should generalize that to say i would never just hourly attacker journalist other than if i felt there was a journalist in my mind i was acting unethically, that that is fair game for having a public discussion about. Nermeen so that was the hb gary ceo speaking in the documentary we are legion. Barrett brown hummocky explain what hb gary is and is significance of what happened . What they were doing was significant. We saw a number of contractors aligned with the doj going after private citizens. It is very nefarious combination of state and corporate actors, wasknow, bank of america concerned with wikileaks and the chamber of commerce was concerned, can go to the doj, and did, and say, hey, can you help us go after our enemies . The doj will say, ok, lets do you and touch with the law firm and they will arrange and game systems and will set up a covert servers and will hack is that of activists on charges of fraud. That is an extraordinary symptom of what is wrong with this country. What is important about this, [indiscernible] this was one of several great examples of crowd source journalism. We went on to document further abuses both by hb gary and others that show they were lying when they said this was one person only involved in it and they did not approve of it, but a number of employees were actually on the emails. There were other projects as well that i think are indicative of the interests and what they can do now. Oneona management was particularly frightening technology that involved fake online personas they can operate. These are owned by private copies which can turn around and sell them to anyone else including four and depose despots. Does bit d. C. That company in rain crowd sourced journalism did in this case what mainstream journalists could not do, which was stay on the subject. Go through all of the enough and even after the headlines were the, after months of aftermath of the actual hack was over. We kt on it. We created an array of sort of relationship that other journalists would use as a starting point if they wanted to go after this larger story. Glenn greenwald, if you could comment on this, because you were a subject of this. Andain more who hbgary is their attempts to discredit you and what it meant for you. Them he just say the Barrett Brown case is let me just say the Barrett Brown case is probably one of the most significant threats to press freedom in the u. S. I would say a last two decades at least. It has received remarkably little attention in the Mainstream Press because they only Pay Attention when they themselves are attacked. So donald trump attacks some post some childish insult about the media or calls an enemy of the people and it is walltowall coverage on cnn and the New York Times. Here is barrett doing some of the most intrepid an important journalism, digging into this incredibly opaque and powerful faction. Because of his journalism into those areas, that is what directly triggered this fbi investigation. The reason he got so little support from media organizations defending his press freedom was because they only care about press freedom when it comes to large corporate Media Outlets that are not actually threatening to the government. A case where barrett discovered extreme levels of wrongdoing and corruption including the slide that said it wanted to destroy my reputation, to prevent me from continuing to defend wikileaks, talking about defending or destroying the reputation of people who are activist against the chamber of commerce. He was doing incredibly important work. He is obvious the a talented journalist. The scribblings he did for us in the National Magazine award for the columns we publish. Now he is saying, just like ras said, he cannot safely do journalism in the u. S. We talk about russia and press freedoms there, even though we have no impact on it when we do, but we spent very little time talking about the real threat to press freedom in this country because they havent of people like Barrett Brown rather than two msnbc and the New York Times. Amy lets talk about hb gehry. These contractors that very few people have heard about, including hb gary had never heard of them until this happened, the Organization Funded by the billionaire peter thiel, exert extreme levels of power inside of the murky world of intelligence and defense contractors. What they were planning to do is they were putting a pinch together to bank of america , a powerhouse in dce, to try and tell the bank of america, which at the time thought it was going to be the target of a wikileaks disclosure, let us use our dark art and dirty little tactics to destroy the people who will be your critics. That was the plan that are putting together that anonymous discovered and barrett reported on. The only reason it was discovered is because anonymous randomly hacked into it. There were dozens of people talking about these plans that were illegal or certainly unethical, and not one person ever said, wait a minute, isnt this going too far to destroy journalists for reporting on these events . That is how common this mentality is in that world and how much impunity there is for it. That is what Barrett Brown was on the verge of uncovering at the time the fbi began trying to put him in prison. Nermeen in an interview on tuesday with the aclu, you talked about or elaborated on the point you made now about how the media itself persecuted its own sources and that journalists take the lead in advocating for policies that would restrict their own press freedom. Could you explain why you think that is . It is completely counterintuitive. You think in a normal, healthy democracy you would have the government over here thing adversarial to press freedoms and you would have journalists defending the power of the freedom of the press. That is how it is supposed to work. Yet in so many cases, is actually when the government targets journalists who are not popular among or working within these mainstream outlets, not only do the journalists ignore it or acquiesced to these situations, they become the leading cheerleaders. When i first started doing this note and reporting, it was not James Clapper Rickie Fowler 10 are going on tv calling for my imprisonment, it was David Gregory were or other journalists who work at the New York Times. That is a huge problem because so many mainstream journalists in the United States identify not with journalism, but with serving the interests of u. S. Government and the National Security state, they become the leading spokespeople come the leading advocates for the right to criminalize journalism. The u. S. Government does not have to defend trying to put Julian Assange in prison for publishing documents. Journalists are happy to take the lead in arguing that will happen, even though it will jointly threaten them. Amy has that changed at all under trump . Now that trump has called the ed of the enemy of the american people, the media has found its backbone in some cases. Definitely. Amy do you think that will extend to what you are describing . No, i dont. There are certain lines the resistance including the media, wont cross. When trump bombed syria with no plan, thenal media church. When they drop the largest bomb short of Nuclear Weapon in afghanistan, the media cheered. And now that the cia and Jeff Sessions are threatening to prosecute wikileaks and Julian Assange for publishing documents, you have major media figures, since it because they hate wikileaks or are incredibly shortsighted, supporting Jeff Sessions, supporting mike pompeo in the idea that wikileaks i locations. Amy im wondering, Barrett Brown, if you do anything differently given that you ended up in jail for four years . No. Amy and i am wondering your thoughts on donald trump firing james comey, the fbi director . Does say the least, you had a lot of dealings with the fbi. There was a great deal of disingenuous argument over the last year over the Senate Investigation on both sides. I watched comey testify before congress during the clinton decision [indiscernible] everyoneaid we treat the same, there was audible laughter in the audience. The fbi first of all, noah can really say one way or the other what the fbi does. There is no broad set of procedures is the individual fbi agents across the country largely act as they feel is appropriate. Fbi lies routinely. In my case, you can see them try to present something that someone said on fox news about killing assange. Again, see over and over theres no negative feedback to the system. There is no reason why a orsecutor should not lie withhold evidence, as they did in my case. There is no reason why the fbi should not pick and choose who they prosecute or go after, you know im a based on ideological, personal factors. My mother was indicted for obstruction of justice, for hiding my laptops in her Kitchen Cabinet when they did not have a warned for her house. Hillary clinton, had she been someone else, probably would have been indicted. Having said that, george bush, george w. Bush and many of his a administration, had there not been a political element there or an establishment sort of backscratching ethos, they would have been indicted as well had they just been regular people. The fact is, none of the people in the senate and Congress Know what is normal for the fbi. There is no normal other than disingenuousness that changes from case to case. The doj, the same thing. None of these people who were so upset about loretta lynch, Hillary Clinton which is an egregious act none of them were upset about when the doj was conspiring to go after journalists and activists in a way that not only goes against our charter, but against the entire being. There is a great dance of disingenuous that goes on. Part of it is wrapped up in the establishment figures, whether be in journalism or Law Enforcement or politics. Part of it just has to do with the deterioration of how we think in society, what kind of people make it to the top, what kind of people lead our national conversation. It is the huge allencompassing problem. It is all the more dangerous because of such a powerful nation with an extensive machinery the goes all across the world. Amy Barrett Brown, are you able to step foot outside . You are under house arrest. I can go to my front yard. I am supposed to be here unless im going to work or some other wholesome appointments. I really dont mind it. Im kind of a homebody. I will be on probation. The local Probation Department in the Northern District of texas is actually very kind. Run by social worker types who wanted to get into this kind of business to help people. It just goes to show how these institutions theyre not monolithic. Theres nothing you can really say about them that they want to do this or this. It comes down to when the rule of law does not apply, when procedures can be violated when, both for good or ill, youre dealing with amorphous mass rather than pristine rule of law procedures that you can point to and say, this is a wholesome system of governance, something we can definitely practice and expect our rights will be maintained. It is more confiscated the net. Amy are you allowed to use a computer . That is debatable. The dop representative, just like with her interview stipulations, now backed off of richly claimed under my terms of home confinement that im not allowed to use a home computer and theyre basing that off of my terms of supervised release which does not even start yet. Amy that is investigative journalist Barrett Brown speaking role under house arrest in dallas, texas. He recently served a fouryear prison sentence. When he was released a few weeks ago, he was rearrested and inexplicably released. Also we were speaking to Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist Glenn Greenwald. Only come back, black mamas bail out day, an effort to raise money to free as many black women from jail as possible before mothers day. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. This sunday, mothers day will be a lot happier for scores of women across the country. On Racial Justice groups began thursday, bailing women out of jail as part of black mamas bail out day. The effort, taking place in nearly 20 cities, raises money to bail out as many black women from jail as possible in time for a mothers Day Celebration with their families. This is a clip from the Campaign Video announcing the project. Are corrupt criminal Justice System but innocent people who pose no threat. Women oftentimes lose our homes, children. Even job i some women, like sandra bland, even lost their lives. Thousands of families go through this every day. Organizers are calling for an and to the cash bail system which keeps millions of people who of not been convicted of any crime in prison in jails everyday nationwide will they await trial. From more were joined by mary , hooks, codirector of southerners on new ground, or song, an atlantabased regional lgbtq nonprofit and one of the organizers of black mamas bail out day. Welcome to democracy now so lay it out, what are you doing leading up to sunday . Hello, friend. A have set out with a vision and intention to bellow out as many black mamas as possible. We know about 80 of women sitting in cages right now are Single Parents and caretakers. We know one of three black trans in theho have spent time cage have experienced Sexual Violence in the cage. One out of nine black children have parents who are incarcerated. Our goal is to be able to free our people from these gauges using the traditions from our ancestors that bought each others collective freedom to get our folks back home and highlight the crisis around the cash bail system, put pressure on all of these institutions who are making money off of our people suffering. But most importantly, restore the life that this cash bail system has taken from our people. Amy you spent much of yesterday at a jail in atlanta with your team bailing out women. Can you describe the scene and how they responded . My word. I get chills thinking about it. We got there about 10 00 a. M. We left about 1 00 a. M. A crew of folks set up outside so we could make sure we had some immediate needs gift ,ags, loose cigarettes, water love, music, packets of information to access direct services. We had nurses and therapists onsite. We also were able a first round of folks was about seven people. Ad built such a rp with rp with the folks in the jail, that when the women were coming out, we were in tears, they were in tears. It was amazing. I think that is part of what we long to do inside of our work is to organize and replace a desire and longing and love. It was in the air. Amy can you explain what the cash bail system is and how it is so many women and men are held without having been convicted of a crime, but in jail . We have a system that says, you know, regardless if you dont have money and you are held pretrial, meaning you have not been convicted, you have not been tried, you have not told your story come if for some reason you dont have enough money, you have to stay in the cage and some else who has money to pay money to get out. You have to stay in the cage and await your trial. Obviously, in certain states, there is a limitation on what a speedy trial looks like. It you look at cases like Kalief Browder who sat in a cage 360 of those days in solitary confinement for over two years awaiting trial. So we have folks who are sitting in cages literally after three days after two days one day is enough, or losing or housing, their jobs, their children because they cannot afford to pay the money in order to get out, be able to mitigate their cases and be able to show back up to court. So we are seeing up to 700,000 people daily languishn cages beuse they cannot afford bail. It is modernday bondage. It is hostage. Our people are being hd at ransom. A new report finds reated a way to profit from usurping the role and function of the courts, trapped families in debt while escaping scrutiny for consumer practices, made armed arrests and surveilled people without meaningful oversight by police, and evaded insurance regulators. Sandra bland comes to mind. She ends up dead in her jail cell because she could not raise the bond money to get out three days later. Were wrapping up with this comment, mary hooks. Mary, with your comment on women like sandra and he you are trying to save . Sandra forike women like sandra, for women like myself, for the women like my family members and my comrades and folks who we are bailing out, for people who dont get killed by police in that interaction come the slow death happens in the cage. Inspiresis this action other folks to take action, to know that we can take down this cash bail system, to know we can get our people out of cages. Right now theres a longterm head fight. In a cup we will continue this discussion in the coming days. Thank you so much for being with us, mary hooks codirector of , southerners on new ground and an organizer of National Black mamas bail out day. That does it for the show. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york [announcer] P Allen Smiths garden to table is brought to you by the berry family of nurseries growers of edibles, hardy trees and shrubs, and fresh holiday greenery. And by the makers of jobes organic fertilizer now in spikes, granular and water soluble formulas easy gardener. Com were teaching kids where their food comes from right after this. Thats looking great. Hi, im allen smith. Welcome to garden to table. You know when i was a kid i spent a lot of time out in the garden with my family planting. Its a great way to get kids involved in well learning where their food comes from and helping them live a healthier lifestyle. I want to show you some ideas that will help edu