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LINKTV Democracy Now February 8, 2020



has deployed a submarine armed with a low yield nuclear warhead for the first time. will this heighten the risk of nuclear war? we will speaeak with lonongtime joururlist bil arkin who broke the story. then the death toll from the coronavirus has topped 630 peopople in chinwiwith more thtn 31,000 confirmed cases worldwide. we will continue our discussion with pulitzer prize-winning journalist laurie garrett. >> it is only we who aid and abet and we have seen one epidemic after another, the worst-case one being hiv. it is we humans who aid and abet the spread of disease by carrying out our own discriminatory, racist, bigoted attitude toward other humans rather than tackling the virus. amy: and deported to danger. united states importation policies expose salvadorans to death and abuse. a new human rights watch report says at least 200 salvadoran asylum-seekers have been either killed, raped, or tortured after being deported from the united states. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president trump hailed his up each meant portal thursday and lashed out at his d democratitic opponents, calling the congress members who voted to impeach him sick, evil, and corrupt. anding out nancy pelosi mitt romney. this is trump at the white house thursday. pres. trump: this is really not a news conference. it is not a speech. it is not anything, it is just sort of we are -- it is a lebrationn because we have something that just worked out. it worked out. we went through hell unfairly. did nothing wrong. did nonothing wrong. amy: trump also attacked house speaker nancy pelosi and others during the national prayer breakfast thursday morning while she was sitting next to him. from has reportedly been preparing to oust lieutenant colonel alexander goodman, who testified to the house president trump's impeachment inquiry. "the washington post" reports aids within the trump administration are discussing whether to remove or reassign several administration officials who testified during the impeachment hearings. in election news, democratic national committee chairman tom perez is callingng for a recanvs of some of some voting precincts in iowa as the latest caucus results show senator bernie sanders and south bend mayor pete buttigieg virtually tied with 100% of the results now reported. sanders is still leading in the popular vote by thousands, but buttigieg maintains a 10th of a percentage point advantage inn what's known as the state delegate equivalent race. but "the new york times" is calling even these results into question after its investigation found the results released by the iowa democratic party were "riddled with inconsistencies and other flaws." on thursday, sanders declared victory in iowa. this is sanders responding to a reporter's question in new hampshire. >> mayor pete has been declaring a win for days. why should people believe your victory speech over his? i got 6000 more votes. from where i come, when you get 6000 more votes, that is generally regarded to be the winner. amy: latest polls show sanders is leading in new hampshire, where seven democratic presidential candidates will take the stage for a debate tonight ahead of the primary tuesday. in more election news, "the daily beast" reports earlier this week former mayor pete former campaign -- let me start that one again. in this news "the daily beast" weekorts earlier this former mayor pete buttigieg's campaign remove the name of that former head of a data company that contracts with ice, that's immigration and customs enforcement, from the list of co-hosts of a buttigieg fundraiser in washington, d.c., after rain contacted by "the daily beast." jacob shapiro is the former president of giant oak, which was founded by a former high-level customs and border protection official and has received nearly $45 million in ice contracts over the past six years. the chinese doctor who warned the government about a possible coronavirus outbreak has died after contracting the virus while working at wuhan central hospital. 34-year-old ophthalmologist li wenliang warned his fellow medical workers about coronavirus on december 30. he was then investigated by police and accused of "making false comments." his death has sparked a wave of anger and outrage in china, where the hashtag #wewantfreedomofspeech went viral on chinese social media site weibo thursday. the death toll from the coronavirus has s now topped 6 0 people in china, with morere thn 31,000 confirmed cases worldwide. the central chinese government has ordered officials in wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, to round up and quarantine all infected residents. residents are being ordered to report family members who show symptoms of the virus to authorities. meanwhile, a at least 61 people have now tesested positive for coronavirus on a cruise ship that has been quarantined off the coast of japan. at least eight of those diagnosed with the virus are americans. the ship has thousands of people on board, including 428 americans, and all passengers are being forced to stay in their rooms. we'll have more on the coronavirus later in the broadcast with pulitzer prize-winning journalist laurie garrett. president trump says the pentagon has killed the leader of al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula. trump said in a statement the u.s. killed qasim al-raymi in a military operation in yemen. he did not give any details about when or how the killing took place. al-raymi had reportedly led al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula since 2015. in israeli-occupied west bank, israeli forces killed three more palestinians thursday in israel's crackdown against intensifying protests president trump's middle east plan. this comes as a 17-year-old teenager was shot to death by israeli military on wednesday. demonstrations erupted after trump unveiled his so-called peace plan last week, while standing alongside israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. under the plan, drafted by trump's son-in-law jared kushner without any input from palestinians, israel would gain sovereignty over large areas of the occupied west bank, jerusalem would be under total israeli control, and all jewish settlers in the occupied territory would be allowed to remain in their homes. in canada, federal police on thursd r raidethe prott campof indigouous la defenders whhahave bn blblocng the nsnstrucon o of controversial pepelinen wet'wewet'en s sacd terrrrory r r mont. several indinonous aivisists were arrted as t p polic enfoeded a crt injunion n to remove the aivivistsighthtin the construconon of transcana's 400-mileonong, $4.7 bilon coast gaslink pililine. this is a clip of ththursday ght'raid. >> you are not welcome here! you are are not allies people. u arare rtining r landnd you are hurting us. you are killing our people! you wi never sp until u realizthat youre wrong y: in ziabwe, twminers have dieand at lst 20 more pele have en trapp dergrounsince weesday night after a go mine sht collsesed. erators the minwere not alerteuntil thsday whethe mine did noturface athe end ofheir shi. rescuefforts a underery. in bzil, a jge has dlined to pure chargeagainst pulitz prize-wning jourlist ando-foundeof the inteept glengreenwal-- for now. azilian deral precutors january led a crinal complainagainst eenwald connecon to a jor investation he sarheaded th exposedisconducamong feral prosutors ana former judge. the investigation used previously undisclosed private chats, audio recordings, videos and other information provided by an anonymous source to expose the wrongdoing of top officials, including brazil's justice minister sergio moro, who oversaw the anti-corruption crusade known as "operation car wash." in immigration news, the government of el salvador says it is not ready to receive asylum seekers under an agreement brokered between the trump administration and el salvador last year. the agreement allows the united states to send asylum seekers arriving at the u.s.-mexico border to el salvador to apply for asylum there instead. salvadoran foreign minister alexandra hill tinoco said el salvador will not accept wednesday asylum seekers until the country can provide the necessary resources and protection. meanwhile, a caravan of some 200 salvadoran asylum seekers left the capital of san salvador monday and headed north. this is one of the caravan members, 22-year-old oscar lopez. truth is here in el salvador. you can't even pay for your children to go to school or for food. that is why we are fleeing. amy: this all comes as a new shocking report published by human rights watch found that some 200 salvadoran asylum seekers deported from the u.s. were either killed, tortured, or sexually assaulted after being sent back to el salvador. more on that later in the newswscast. states, andunited immigration and customs enforcement agent in brooklyn thursday shot a man in the face while attempting to apprehend the man's mother's boyfriend, who is undocumented. the 26-year-old man was later taken to the hospital, where he is in critical condition. new york city immigration activists gathered outside the hospital for hours and into the night to take guard as ice vehicles were spotted in the hospital's parking lot. this is ravi ragbir, the executive director of the new sanctuary coalition, speaking outside the hospital. >> we're going to stay here get until ice leaves and the family goes home. all right? more and more people are going to come until that happens. this is a sanctuary space. this is a sanctuary city. [indiscernible] amy: in el paso, texas, the white man suspected of killing 22 people at an el paso walmart last august has been charged with federal hate crimes. the alleged killer is accused of targeting latinos in a racially motivated massacre. moments before the august 3 shooting, the white nationalist published an online manifesto echoing president trump's rhetoric about an invasion of immigrants. and luxury fashion brand prada will work to promote cultural followingng massive backlash for selling merchandise that resembled black face. in 2018, civil rights attorney chinyere ezie uploaded a photo on social media that showed the window display of a new york city prada store filled with figurines that she described as "racist and dedenigrating blackface imagery." this is herr speaking at a newss conference in new york city following news of the historic settlement thursday. >> our voices are outraged. ouour deman f for dignified treatment can and will change the world. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as the nation focused on president trump's impeachment trial, a major story recently broke about a new development in u.s. nuclear weapons policy that received attention. the federation of american scientists revealed in late january that the u.s. navy had deployed for the first time a submarine armed with a low-yield trident nuclear warhead. the uss tennessee deployed from kings bay submarine base in georgia in late 2019. it was armed with a warhead which is estimated to have about a third of the explosive power of the atomic bomb the u.s. dropped on hiroshima. the deployment is facing criticism at home and abroad. the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons, called the news "an alarming development that heightens the risk of nuclear war." on capitol hill, house armed services committee chairman adam smith said -- "this destabilizing deployment further increases the potential for miscalculation during a crisis." smith also criticized the pentagon for its inability and unwillingness to answer congressional questions about the weapon over the past few months. meanwhile, russian deputy foreign minister sergei ryabkov responded by saying -- "this reflects the fact that the united states is actually lowering the nuclear threshold and that they are conceding the possibility of them waging a limited nuclear war and winning this war. this is extremely alarming." we are joined now william arkin, longtime reporter who focuses on military and nuclear policy. he broke the storyry about the deployment of the new low-yield nuclear weapon in an article he cowrote for the federation of american scientists. he also wrote the cover story for newsweek headlined "with a new weapon in donald trump's hands, the iran crisis risks going nuclear." he is the author of many books, including "top secret america: the rise of the new american security state." bill arkin, it is great to have you back. to say the least, this has been an explosive week of news in washington, d.c., and your news -- which has hardly gotten reported -- should really be one of the top news stories of these last weeks. >> during the very time when the iran crisis was at its highest, the united states last december deployed a new nuclear weapon. the first new nuclear weapon to be deployed, amy, since the end of the cold war. have not just a momentous occasion, but a weapon which is intended explicitly to be more usable -- i not just more usable against russia and china, but to be more usable against iran and north korea as well. it seemed to me that looking more deeply at this weapon, looking more deeply at the doctrines behind it, and then really what surprised me in my reporting, looking more at donald trump and the role that he might play in the future, was a story that was just as important, if not more important, then what was going on in the political world. amy: talk about what does it mean low yield nuclear weapon? >> low yield is a little bit wrong. the united states actually possesses nuclear weapons with even smaller yields at five to six kilototons, which i is whats is estimated at. that is 5000 to 6000 tons. that would become if you thought of it in manhattan terms, it would be probably something on the order of 20 square city blocks of ---- obliterated in radiation coming from that area. littleay low yield is a bit wrong. but it is the lowest yield missile warhead available through the strategic nuclear forces. and the real reason behind deploying a trident warhead with this though yield weapon was that the united states, the nuclear planners, felt they did not have a prompt and assured capability to threaten russia or threatened other adversaries. prompt, meaning would be quickly delivered, 30 minutes or even a submarine is close, as low as 15 minutes. and assured, meaning it is in an in order to get to the target. those two things, prompt and assured, is what they really wanted. anand putting a warhead on the missiles, , on the submarines, allowed them both covert employments as well as getting close to the target. amy: talk about with his means between the united states and russia. really doesn't change much between the united states and russia. the russians can denounce the trident warhead, but the reality is they have 2000 of their own small new weapons of this sort opposite europe. and one of the justifications fofor the deployment of this new nuclear weapon, amy, was that the russians in fact, if you will, had a numerical advantage against nato. and there was a desire to have a more usable new there weapon in order to eliminate that advantage. i think the u.s.-russian situation is certainly tense, but it is not really what this weapon is about to stop what this weapon is about is having a more usable nuclear weapon against countries like iran and north korea, where in fact a shocking first use of nuclear weapon, perimeter of nuclear weapons would be used to either stop a war or to destroy a very important target, say, for instance, if there were a missile e on the launchpad ready to strike at that united states. amy: in a 2017 general john hyten, who is now vice chairman the joint chiefs of staff, said militaryalready has capabilities to respond to russian deployment of nuclear weapons. >> the plans we have right now, one of the things that surprised me most when i took comommand nonovember 3, was the flflexible options and all options today. so we have very flexible options in our plans. so if something bad happens in the world and there is a response and i'm on the phone the secretary of defense and the president and the entire staff, which is the attorney general, secretary of state, and everybody, i actually have a series of very flexible options from conventional all the way up to large-scale nuke that i can advise the president on to give him options on what he would want to do. amamy: bill arkin, if you could respond? >> options. that is what they are always think of options. they need better opoptions to do this or that. you have to look at this do weapon and say, in its most basic terms, what does it give the united states that it doesn't already have? and those two things i already mentioned, a prompt capability -- being able to strike a target in 15 minutes or less -- and second, and assured capability -- that is a missile that is able to penetrate any enemy air defenses. that makes it a particularly dangerous weapon in the hands of the current president because i have heard from many people -- more than i expected in my reporting -- that they were concerned that donald trump in his own way might be more prone to accept the use of nuclear weapons as one of options when he was presented with a long list of options. one senior officer said to me, we are afraid that if we present donald trump with 100 options of what to do in a certain crisis and only one of them is a nuclear option, that he might go down the list and choose the one that is the most catastrophic. and that officer said in 35 years of my y being in ththe militaryry, i've never thought before that i had to think of the personality of the president in presenting milititary optiti. amy: let's talk about iran and what this means for iran. >> the deployment happened very quickly. the decision was made in february 2018. the trident warhead was already on the production line for the strategic submarines. soso i the end of the run of the warheads, they made about 50 new woods that were at the low yield variety because the production line was already operating. so it happened very quickly. ironically it happened at the very time the house of representatives was debating whether or not the weapon should even be deployed. by the time that was finished and president trumpad signedd the defefense appropriations bil on december 20, the weapon had already been in the field. so it shows really a disconnect as well in the congressional debate between what is actually happening on the ground and what it is they are talking about. been passed..ave the hououse is controlled by democrats. so the democrats passed this. >> correcect. but in the end, the senate turned down the house recommendation that the weapon not be deployed. in really, the tragedy here is whilell of this occurred the tennessee was being loaded with the new missile, while the tennessee was being prepared to go out on a new patrol, while the tennessee actually went out into the atlantic ocean. amy: talk again about iran exactly. >> iran is important because injury -- in june when the drone was, the president declined to retaliliate militarily. and i think he got a lot of criticism from his party, from his wing that he had made the wrong decision, that the united states should have retaliated against iran. i think that stuck with donald trump. i think in the end when it came to the killing of qassem soleimani, the head of the kuds force killed on january 2, that strike people have told me specifically was approved by donald trump, enthusiastically pushed by donald trump because it kind of erarased the mistakef him not retaliating in june. at the same time, the united states was also increasing the u.s. military presence in the persian gulf, the iran area, b-52 bombers were flown to qatar, the

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