Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20170405 : vimarsana.com

Bethe west would not excepted, not just United States, france, england, the United States, refused to even consider it. At the time, they believed they could overthrow assad. The war went on. Could it have worked . We would never know for sure, but it could have been pursued. Amy we will speak with a worldrenowned linguist and political dissident noam chomsky about syria, israel, venezuela, the possible rise of fascism in the u. S. , and his new book requiem for the American Dream the 10 principles of concentration of wealth power. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In syria, the death toll has risen from a suspected chemical weapons attack in the Northern Province of idlib. At least 72 people have died, including 20 children. Hundreds more were wounded. Its been described as the largest chemical attack in syria since 2013. The United States, france, and britain have accused the assad Syrian Government of carrying out the attack and have proposed a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning it. Russia is claiming the gases were released after an airstrike hit a depot where rebels were making chemical weapons. On tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the chemical attack will not change u. S. New policy that the u. S. Priority is not getting assad out of power. Todays chemical attack against innocent people, including women and children, is reprehensible and cannot be ignored by the civilized world. There is not a fundamental option of regime change as there has been in the past. I think we would look, to some degree, rather silly now technology the political realities that exist in syria and what we need to do is fundamentally do what we can to empower the people of syria, to find a different way. Amy the u. S. Continues to carry out airstrikes in syria as part of its fight against isis. The journalistic Monitoring Group airwars says there are reports the u. S. Led coalition carried out at least four separate airstrikes tuesday around the syrian city of raqqa, which is controlled by isis. Citing local news sources, airwars says these airstrikes may have killed as many as 11 civilians. We will have more on syria after the headlines. The United Nations says more than 300,000 iraqi civilians have fled mosul amid the ongoing u. S. And iraqi militaries offensive to retake the city from isis. The journalistic Monitoring Group airwars reports u. S. Led Coalition Airstrikes in recent days have reportedly killed and injured more civilians in recent days. One u. S. Led Coalition Strike on the yarmouk neighborhood of west mosul reportedly killed three members of the same family another strike, believed to be sunday. Carried out by the u. S. Backed iraqi military, reportedly hit a funeral procession in the farouk neighborhoodalso on sunday. Airwars says u. S. Led Coalition Airstrikes reportedly killed hundreds of civilians in mosul last month. Airstrikes on 17 that killed up march to 200 civilians. North korea launched a Ballistic Missile test today. Its the latest in a series of missile and rocket engine tests north korea has launched in recent weeks. The test comes as the u. S. And south korea are wrapping up weeks of military Training Drills on the korean peninsula. The drills include more than in response to the missile launch, secretary of state Rex Tillerson said the United States has spoken enough about north korea. We have no further comment. On thursday, President Trump and chinese president xi jinping are meeting at trumps private maralago golf resort in florida. 22 advertisers have pulled ads from the fox news show the Oreilly Factor in response to revelations that at least a half dozen women have accused oreilly of sexual harassment. Among the companies to pull ad spots are mercedesbenz, hyundai, bmw of north america, mitsubishi motors, lexus, bayer, allstate, and coldwell banker. The New York Times goes with revealed fox and bill oreilly have paid 13 million to five women who accused him of sexual investment and more women continue to come forward. President Obamas National Security adviser susan rice is rejecting allegations that she leaked the names of Trump Associates whose communications were swept up by u. S. Intelligence agencies foreign surveillance. Earlier this week, it emerged that rice was the official who unmasked the names of Michael Flynn and other Trump Associates, whose names repeatedly came up in the u. S. Surveillance records targeting the communications of russian officials. While the names of americans who are swept up by u. S. Foreign surveillance are to be kept concealed from the public, top u. S. Officials, such as susan rice, have the power to unmask their names internally so they can understand the con of the context of the conversations. This is susan rice, speaking with Msnbcs Andrea Mitchell tuesday. Did you seek the names of people involved did you unmask the names of people involved in the trump transition, people surrounding the president elect . In order to spy on them . Absolutely not, for any political purposes, just by, expose, anything. Did julie the name of mike flynn . I leak nothing to nobody. Amy President Trump is facing criticism for signing an executive order revoking the 2014 fair pay and safe workplaces, aimed at protecting equal pay for women. Equal pay day was tuesday. According to 2016 data from the pew research center, for every dollar a white man in the u. S. Earns, women earn . 82, black women earn . 65, and Hispanic Women earn . 58. Trumps daughter, ivanka, is also facing blowback for having for tweeting equalpayday is a reminder that Women Deserve equal pay for equal work. We must work to close the gender pay gap she did not acknowledge her father rolled back equal pay perfections just days before. Meanwhile, i since parliament has introduced legislation requiring both public and private businesses to prove theyre paying men and women workers equally. If it passes, it will be the first such law in the world. The ncaa has lifted its boycott on holding championship events in North Carolina following the repeal of the states antilgbt law hb2. Trans activists had demanded the ncaa keep the boycott in place, saying North Carolinas replacement law, hb142, is also discriminatory against the lgbt community. This is North Carolina trans activist joaquin carcano, speaking on democracy now hb 142 is a repackaged hb2 under different name. We still dont have any safety. We dont have any protections and we are still actively restricted from navigating our daily lives. We continue to ask for a boycott to the state for the ncaa to not return to North Carolina and for the state and the nation to continue to see that North Carolina is actively discriminating disseminated against our community. Chicago, workplaces from nation on the basis of Sexual Orientation violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Investigation by the guardian has revealed undercover officers of the new York Police Department work to infiltrate a group of black lives matter protesters. The investigation draws on emails obtained through a freedom of information request, which shows how undercover officers posed as protesters and gained access to small message groups used by the protesters to. This is kim ortiz with the Group New York city shut it down, which has been holding a weekly protest every monday night for the last two years, highlighting a different person killed by the police. Their undercover is in our marches. We had a foia request and we know they have been trying to infiltrate our spaces. All were trying to do is call for accountability. Amy meanwhile, the new York Police Department is facing accusations it arrested a local activist in retaliation for his work of filming Police Brutality as part of a cop watch program. The activist, jose lasalle, says he was arrested twice within 24 hours after filming police stop and frisks. At a press conference on monday, he released audio from inside the precinct where you can hear the officers cheering and taunting him. [indiscernible] [cheers] [indiscernible] amy activists with black lives matter and other antiPolice Brutality groups are criticizing and ridiculing a pepsi ad that coopts and misrepresents the Resistance Movement in order to sell soda. In the ad, white, 21yearold reality tv star Kendall Jenner is presented as a hero after she offers a can of pepsi to a Police Officer in the middle of a peace march. The Police Officer, who is not clad in heavy riot gear as most officers are during protests, accepts the can of soda, appearing to suggest that pepsi could smooth tensions between Police Forces and demonstrators who have spent years protesting Police Killings of unarmed people, disproportionately people of color. In phoenix, arizona, sheriff paul penzone has announced he will be closing the fms tent city, and outdoor city jail which longtime former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was referred to as his own concentration camp. He was voted out of office in november after a massive Grassroots Efforts by immigrant rights activists. In response to the announcement of the closing of the tent city, Carlos Garcia said we applaud sheriff penzone making the decision to close arpaios tent city. The next step in removing arpaios stain from the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office is to remove federal deportation agents from its main jail. And in maryland, governor larry hogan has signed a law permanently banning fracking in the state. The ban comes after years of grassroots organizing against fracking in maryland. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We turn first to syria, where at least 72 people have died, including 20 children, in a suspected chemical attack in the Northern Province of idlib. Its been described as the largest chemical attack in syria since 2013. The United States, france and , britain have accused the Assad Government of carrying out the attack and have proposed a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning it. Meanwhile, russia is claiming the gases were released after an airstrike hit a depot where rebels were making chemical weapons. Survivors of the attack describe being unable to breathe. We were sleeping an hour house. Was between 6 00 and 7 00 a. M. I went out to help people and there was a smell coming out. How did you know it was a chemical attack . Because i had trouble breathing and i fell to the ground immediately. There was a rocket. A rocket explosion that had a lot of smoke coming out of it. There was a lot of smoke and there was a smell. It was very difficult to breathe. We could not breathe anymore. We could not breathe anymore. Amy the World Health Organization is reporting some of the victims had symptoms consistent with exposure to nerve agents. The chemical attack comes just days after u. S. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson suggested washington would not push for assads removal. I think the status in the longerterm status of president assad will be decided by the Syrian People. Amy on tuesday, White House Press secretary said tuesdays chemical attack was a consequence of what he described as the weakness of former president obama. These heinous actions by the are aalassad regime consequence of the past administrations weakness and irresolution. President obama said in 2012 that he would establish red line against the use of chemical weapons, and then did nothing. Amy for more, we are joined now by rola hallam dr. , a britishsyrian doctor speaking at the women in the world summit today. Shes the founder and ceo of the nonprofit cando. Late last year, she led the peoples convoy, rebuilding a Childrens Hospital. She led a team of british doctors to the syriaturkey border with a convoy filled with medical supplies. Dr. Rola hallam, welcome to democracy now thank you for inviting me. Amy what do understand took place in idlib . It would seem about 6 30 in the morning, there was an airstrike in a town that resulted in hundreds of civilians, mostly children, i believe, about 50 of them, to exhibit signs of exposure to a nerve agent. So they were found to be either comatose, not breathing, foaming at the mouth, having spasms, vomiting. Many were rushed to a nearby hospital, as well as an msf based clinic that were also been hit by near strike. I believe the death toll now is about00 civilians, with 380 injured. Amy and who do you believe did it . As far as im concerned, there is it is committed by an airstrike communally the assad regime or the Russian Air Forces have that capability. Amy lets go to the International Rescue committee responding to the chemical attack in syria, calling it a breach of International Humanitarian law. This is spokesperson oliver money. What we want to remind people of, the people paying the price of the civilians, the civilians are learning about who have been attacked in idlib this week. But it is not just in idlib. These attacks are taking place across the entire country. Of to half a Million People have died in this conflict. We have seen, i think it is half the country displaced, so 11 Million People. 5 million of those are refugees that up by the neighboring countries and also some of which to europe as well. This is a conflict the 21st century has not seen before. Something of this scale. We are not addressing either the root causes, and we need to do so much better helping civilians who are getting targeted like this. Amy your response, rola, defraying what he has to say . Talkm sorry nine amy more about what is taking place, what you found is there, and what you believe the United States should be doing and the world. I mean, amy, syria has become a circus of debt. There are so many incredible ways in which civilians are now being slaughtered. Ana doctor, as anesthesiologist, the targeting of health care and of doctors in these last few years over 300 facilities have been attacked. Nearly 800 and my colleagues, doctors, nurses, and aid workers have been killed for delivering aid. And now you have this chemical weapons attack. I was in syria when the last large attack happened in 2013. Those images yesterday, i have to say, paralyzed me for most of the day as they brought back horrific memories of what i witnessed myself, not in damascus with the chemical weapons, but similar aerial bombardment with women and children who also arrived unable to breathe because of their choking. That is not even considering the over one million who are being starved to death. , there is arcus need to uphold humanitarian law and the geneva conventions, as well as stopping these indiscriminate murderers attacks on civilians. Amy it is reported a few hours after the alleged gas attack, a rocket hit a nearby hospital where the victims were being treated. The syrian observatory for human rights says it does not know whether the attack was carried out by the Syrian Government or its ally russia. Meanwhile, russia is saying that it would have been an error attack that hit a site where rebels were making local gas. You know, what i find incredibly frustrating about these discussions is, to point a finger at whodunit, we forget the civilians and we forget the incredible her relic work of the civilian humanitarians. We have to get up and dust ourselves off day in and day out as civiliansack, get attacked. We are not discussed. The suffering does not get discussed. There are hundreds of people who have lost her children, lost their wives, lost their husbands. There even fewer medical facilities when we already know 11 Million People are endeavored need of health care. What