Seattle mike mcginn. Then in a landmark ruling here in washington, a state judge has ruled a lawsuit can proceed against psychologists James Mitchell and bruce jessen, two of the architects of the cia torture program. Will the first victims of cia torture finally have their day in court . Amy well speak with attorney dror ladin of the aclu, which has filed the lawsuit on behalf of torture victims. And well also talk to former military Intelligence Officer colonel steve kleinman, who worked with mitchell and jessen at the militarys survival, evasion, resistance, and escape school in spokane, washington. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Dozens of civilians have been killed in an airstrike on a camp for internally displaced syrians in Idlib Province near the border with turkey. At least 30 people were reportedly killed, some of them children, and dozens more wounded. U. N. Humanitarian affairs chief Stephen Obrien said the bombing could be a war crime. Its still unclear who carried out the strike, with reports it was either syrian or russian planes. A witness condemned the attack. We are displaced people and people were set on fire. They set tents ablaze. Followed theck announcement of expanded truce brokered by russia and the United States, which brought a degree of calm to the embattled city of aleppo. But in a message to russian president vladimir putin, syrian president Bashar Alassad said he still sought a total victory over rebels in aleppo, where fighting over the past two weeks has killed about 300 people. House speaker paul ryan, the highestranking elected republican in the country, says he is not ready to endorse Presumptive Republican president ial nominee donald trump. Ryan made the comments in response to a question from jake tapper on cnn. You have said throughout this process you will support the republican president ial nominee, now you have a presumptive nominee, donald trump. All you support him will you support him . To be perfectly candid, im not ready to do that at this point. I am not there right now. And i hope to, though, and i want to, but i think what is read wired is that we unify this party. I think the bulk of the burden on unifying the pop party will have to come from our presumptive nominee. Donald trump released a statement that read i am not ready to support speaker ryans agenda. Perhaps in the future we can Work Together and come to an agreement about what is best for the american people. In a further sign of division , 2012 republican president ial nominee mitt romney said thursday he will skip the Republican National convention in july. Former president s george w. Bush and george h. W. Bush will also skip the event, as will former candidate jeb bush and 2008 republican nominee senator john mccain. Donald trump, who has sparked protests by calling mexicans rapists and vowing to make mexico pay for a border wall, posted a photo of himself on social Media Thursday eating a taco bowl in honor of cinco de mayo. The holiday commemorates mexican armies victory over france in 862. Trumps caption read the best taco bowls are made in trump tower grill. I love hispanics journalist Erin Gloria Ryan tweeted of course donald trump eats taco bowls, the only mexican food that comes with a wall built around it. Democratic president ial candidate Hillary Clintons supporters have reportedly been targeting bush family donors in an effort to convince them to support clinton over trump. Politico reports the clinton teams top targets include jeb bushs former finance chair, new york jets owner woody johnson. Speaking thursday in East Los Angeles, clinton criticized trumps remarks on immigrants. We also not only have to work for comprehensive immigration reform, we have to that the kind of language coming from donald trump is hateful, and we need to repudiate it. Amy meanwhile, hundreds of protesters descended on East Los Angeles college to protest clintons policies, including her remarks calling some youths superpredators in the 1990s as well as her role in the 2009 honduras coup. One protester was escorted out while chanting, she killed berta, a reference to environmentalist Berta Caceres, who was assassinated in honduras last month. You killed her berta edb amy before her death, Berta Caceres herself had singled out clinton for criticism over her role in the 2009 honduras coup. In the race for the democratic nomination, clinton leads in the delegate count, but her rival vermont senator Bernie Sanders has vowed to remain in the race until the final primaries in midjune. Sanders campaigned in West Virginia thursday ahead of next weeks primary there. We have a major crisis. We have an epidemic of opiate addiction and heroin addiction. When i heard this morning in Mcdowell County was that almost all of the crime down there in one way or another was related moneygs, people needing to feed their habits and stealing a so forth and so on. This is a crisis which we cannot turn away from. With a deal with it. But in my view, the most effective way to deal with that is to understand that addiction is a health issue, not a criminal issue. Amy sanders remarks on the opiate epidemic come amid reports the late musical artist prince suffered from an addiction to painkillers. New reports say his friends sought urgent help from an addiction doctor one day before princes death last month. The doctor, howard kornfeld, dispatched his son, who arrived to discover princes lifeless body in the elevator at his estate. Test results about the cause of princes death are still pending. In the canadian province of alberta, a Massive Wildfire exploded to 10 times its previous size on thursday. The fire has forced all 88,000 residents to flee fort mcmurray, in the heart of cadas oil sands. About 16 of canadas crude Oil Production is offline as companies have cut operations. Over the course of one day, the fire spread from about 18,000 acres to more 210,000 acres, thats about 10 times the size of manhattan. Scientists have linked increased wildfires to Climate Change. A Palestinian Woman has been killed and a number of others wounded in gaza amid a flareup of violence between Palestinian Militants and israeli forces. Israeli forces launched airstrikes in Southern Gaza earlier this week, saying they were responding to mortar attacks on israeli troops. A woman in her 50s was reportedly killed by an israeli tank shell. Brazils Supreme Court has ordered the lawmaker who has led the attempt to impeach president Dilma Rousseff to step down. House speaker Eduardo Cunha has led the charge against rousseff, despite facing trial for corruption. His suspension appears unlikely to stop impeachment proceedings against rousseff. Brazil has been engulfed in a major corruption scandal, but rousseff herself has not been accused of any financial impropriety. This week Vice President michel temer, who would take over for rousseff, was ordered to pay a fine for violating Campaign Finance limits. Turkeys Prime Minister has resigned in whats seen as the latest by the president erdogan to expand his power. The Prime Minister had split with erdogan over his attempts to increase president ial authority. Turkeys main Opposition Leader criticized the Prime Ministers resignation. I should suddenly express that the Prime Minister hate the way for authoritarianism by surrendering to the may 4 coup. But the right thing to do was to defend the duty was commission for by 23 million people. You should have stood by the national will and said, i was brought tohelm by people in a link they can ask me to step down. You should have openly resisted the may 4 alice cooper. Amy president obama has commuted the sentences of 58 federal prisoners as part of his push to ease harsh mandatory sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. Thursdays announcement brings the total number of obamas commutations to more than 300, about a third of whom were saving life sentences. In illinois, cock county states attorney Anita Alvarez has recused herself from the prosecution of Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke for the Fatal Shooting of laquan mcdonald. The 17yearold mcdonald was shot 16 times in october, 2014 but it took more than a year for , alvarez to announce murder charges against officer van dyke. Alvarez has requested a special prosecutor in the case. She lost her reelection battle in march following an activist campaign to oust her over her handling of the shooting. Alabama Governor Robert Bentley is expected to sign into a law a measure banning abortion clinics from operating within 2000 feet of a k8 public school. Its the same rule applied to sex offenders in alabama. The law would force at least two clinics in alabama to close. The Alabama Womens Center in huntsville, alabama is located across from a school. It was forced to move there to comply with the states sweeping antichoice restrictions. And italys highest Appeals Court has ruled stealing small amounts of food if youre hungry is not a crime. The case concerned a homeless man who was convicted of theft and sentenced to six months in jail for stealing 4. 50 worth of cheese and meat. The court overturned his conviction, saying he had taken the food in the face of the immediate and essential need for nourishment. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We are the road at Bellevue College near seattle, washington. With departure of ted cruz and john kasich, donald trump is the Presumptive Republican nominee for president. Meanwhile, democratic challengers Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are pressing on to next weeks West Virginia primary. Despite sanders recent win in indiana, he trails clinton in the pledged delegate count by more than 300. Add in superdelegates, and clinton is just under 200 delegates shy of the number needed to clinch the nomination. But neither sanders nor his supporters seem ready to concede. At a News Conference on sunday, sanders appealed to the Democratic Partys superdelegates. It is virtually impossible for secretary clinton to reach the majority of Convention Delegates by june 14 with pledged delegates alone. She will need superdelegates to take her over the top at the convention in philadelphia. In other words, the convention will be a contested contest. We believe that we are in a very strong position to win many of these remaining contests, and we have an excellent chance to win in california, the state with far and away the most delegates. Where secretary clinton and i strongly agree and where every delegate to the Democratic Convention strongly agrees, is that it would be a disaster for this country if donald trump or some other rightwing republican were to become president of the United States. Therefore, in my view, it is incumbent upon every superdelegate to take a hard and objective look at which candidates stands the better chance of defeating donald trump and other republican candidates. And in that regard, i think the evidence is extremely clear that i would be the stronger candidate to defeat trump or any other republican. Amy today were going to take a look at the new movement called bernie or bust. A recent poll found one out of four sanders supporters say they would not back clinton in a general election. About 70 say they would support her. Speaking last week at a victory rally after winning primaries in pennsylvania, maryland, connecticut, rhode island, and delaware, Hillary Clinton appealed to sanders supporters. Because whether you support senator sanders or you support me, there is much more that unites us than divides us. [cheers] agree that wages are too low and inequality is too high, that wall street can never again be allowed to threaten main street, and we should expand social security, not cut or privatize it. Democrats agree that college should be affordable to all, and student debt should not hold anyone down. [cheers] we democrats agree that every single american should and must have quality, Affordable Health care. [cheers] president hat our next must keep our country safe, keep our troops out of another costly ground war in the middle east. And we democrats agree that Climate Change is an urgent threat. [cheers] and it requires an aggressive response that can make america the Clean Energy Superpower of the 21st century. And we democrats agree on defending all of our rights civil rights and voting rights, workers rights and womens rights lgbt writes, and for people with disabilities. Amy the division among democrats who support Bernie Sanders versus Hillary Clinton recalls the 2008 president ial campaign and staunch clinton supporters who joined together under the acronym pumas, or party unity my ass, vowing never to back her thenrival barack obama. Well, for more we are joined by two guests. Mike mcginn is the former mayor of seattle, serving from 2010 to 2013. He hosts a podcast on social change called, you, me, us, now. He is a Bernie Sanders supporter, but will support Hillary Clinton if she becomes the nominee. Kshama sawant is a socialist city councilmember in seattle. Member of socialist alternative, a nationwide organization of social and Economic Justice activists. She also is a bernie supporter who says she will not support clinton. We welcome you both to democracy now Kshama Sawant, you really started hold the whole bernie or bust or bust campaign. But i want to clarify, myself and social started, we did not launch the bernie or bust, we launched movement for bernie, bernie. Org. It is really kind of a bankruptcy strategy to say that all of the people, the millions of young people who are being politicized for the first time in their lives because of sanders message of a Political Revolution against should now all hunker down and support clinton. I think the analysis we need to have has to flow from some essential points. One is, this is a Historic Movement moment and Movement Since the occupy movement. Were seeing a tremendous fundamental shift in american consciousness, and that is in anger against corporate politics and a desire to fight against the establishment. On the other hand, youre seeing the ascendancy of trump, which i think is on everybodys mind. The rise of this rightwing ideology, islamophobia, bigotry. I absolutely find it terrifying. But my problem is if were looking for a real strategy to break working people away from trump, then what we have to do. S present a real alternative sanders is right, bernie is right, in poll after poll, systematically he has done remarkably well in terms of the fact that if he wants to be the democratic candidate, he will deliver a trump being defeat to trump. Why is the Democratic Party establishment not doing everything in their power to promote his campaign . That is the question people should be asking and that is why i was a as a socialist we need an independent party for the 99 and a fantastic way to begin that process would be for bernie to run as an independent. Amy have you talk to him about this . Yes. I think at this moment, as we all know, he has said he has indicated he will probably endorse clinton and clinton herself, you know, understandably, talking about how his supporters need to support her. But i would challenge this idea that all the supporters that were behind her supporting obama, that is the same thing as bernie supporters supporting hillary this year. I dont think it is fundamentally the same situation at all. Bernie is going for Political Revolution against a billionaire class. Hillary is the academy of the political establishment that has promoted the interests of the billionaire class to the detriment of the interest of the working people. Bernie is calling for Single Payer Health care and clinton is the woman who said, well, you cannot do singlepayer health care. And she is being honest. That is a rare moment of honesty for her. On the basis of supporting her and the e