Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20170712 : vimarsana.com

Trump when the election. What does this mean for the future of the Trump Presidency . A shocking spy scandal in mexico. This is an operation by the state, were the agents of the utilized our have resources, our taxes, our money to commit seand make a we will w the Mexican Government used an israeli made spy software to surveil a team of International Investigators who had been dispatched to mexico to investigate the highprofile disappearance of 43 students in 2014. We will look at some recent major news from the United Nations that has received little attention. 122 countries have approved a global treaty to ban the possession and use of Nuclear Weapons, despite the u. S. Leading the opposition to the treaty. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The white house is in crisis mode following revelations that Donald Trumps own son openly embraced an effort by the russian government to peddle information incriminating Hillary Clinton in an attempt to help trump win the election. On tuesday, donald trump jr. Personally released a series of emails dealing with a meeting he had in june 2016 at trump tower with chaired kushner and Paul Manafort and a person described to trump jr. As a russian government attorney. The meeting has been the focus of a series of articles in recent days by the New York Times. Trump jr. Released the emails shortly after the times told him they were about to publish the content of the emails. The explosive emails begin with a message from music publicist Rob Goldstone about how the crown prosecutor of russia had offered to provide the Trump Campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate hillary. Goldstone went on to say this is obviously very high level and Sensitive Information but is part of russia and its governments support for mr. Trump. Minutes later trump jr. Replied, if its what you say i love it especially later in the summer. Within a week, on june 9, trump jr. Met with a kremlinconnected attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya at trump tower. The meeting have been kept secret until kushner recently made reference to it in a a form torsion of obtain a security clearance. This is donald trump, jr. Speaking out about the meeting that he had with the lawyer, kushner, and manafort on tuesday. In retrospect, i probably wouldve done things differently. This is before the rush of mania, before they were building it up in the press. Tuesday, trump junior his father knew nothing about it. Did you tell your father anything about this . It was such a nothing there was nothing to tell. I would not even have remembered it until you start scouring through the stuff. Amy but many are questioning trump jr. s claim reporting to remarks donald trump made on the campaign trail just hours after trump jr. Confirmed the meeting with the russian attorney. Pres. Trump i am going to give a major speech on probably monday of next week, and we are going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the clintons. I think you will find it very informative and very, very amy that was candidate donald trump speaking june 7 only hours after his son confirmed the meeting with the kremlin linked lawyer. The meeting took place june 9, two days after the speech. Earlier this week, trump jr. Hired a personal attorney. The attorney began his career as a top defense lawyer for the mob. The white house has been almost entirely silent amidst the growing scandal. White House Press Briefings have been offcamera this week. On tuesday during another offcamera press briefing, Deputy White House experts in their Huckabee Sanders read a short statement by President Trump and which she said my son is a highquality person and i applaud his transparency. President trump has been out of the public view for the last three days. He is flying out to paris tonight for a trip to france for bastille day on friday. Vice president mike pence is publicly trying to distance himself from the scandal. On pences spokesman said the tuesday, trump jr. Meeting took place before pence joined trumps campaign. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, republican operatives have reportedly launched a campaign to discredit the journalists reporting on donald trump jr. s meeting. Thats according to the Washington Post, which reports the effort includes scouring through the reporters previous work, demanding corrections, and blasted any errors on social media and on rightwing news outlets. Amid the widening white house scandal, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell has delayed the senates august recess by two weeks. Mcconnell is vowing to unveil a new version of the republican Healthcare Plan on thursday and says hes pushing for a vote on the legislation next week. That, news of the day is as i think you already know, will be on health care next week. Revisedbe laying out a version of the repeal and replace effort, the text of that, on thursday morning. We hope to have a cbo score by the beginning of the week and a motion to proceed that bill next week. Amy multiple previous republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care act have failed after republicans failed to muster enough votes from their own party. The latest Senate Republican Healthcare Plan would cause 22 Million People to lose their Health Insurance over the next decade. Russia is ramping up its threats of relation if the United States does not lift sanctions imposed by the Obama Administration in december over the alleged russian hacking of the u. S. Election. This is Russian Foreign minister sergey lavrov. To your question about the russian real estate in the United States, we are closely following the situation. We are still hopeful the u. S. , as a proponent of the rule of law, will respect their international obligations. If this is not the case, if washington to 5 decides not to solve this issue, we will have to take retaliatory measures. Amy Amnesty International says the u. S. Led coalition and the u. S. Backed iraqi forces violated International War and may have committed war crimes during the battle to seize control of mosul from isis. International found both isis as well as Iraqi Coalition forces inflicted massive harm on civilians during the battle for west mosul. On the one hand, isis was systematically moving thousands of civilians into the fight and then they trapped them there. Then on the other hand, Iraqi Coalition forces bombarded the same areas with a relentless series of attacks that killed and injured thousands of civilians. Amy Lieutenant General stephen townsend, who oversees the campaign against isis in iraq and syria, denied the u. S. Led coalition broke International Law, claiming instead the campaign is the most precise campaign in the history of warfare. Thousands of civilians were killed during the ninemonth battle in mosul and nearly one million residents were forced to flee their homes. The United Nations is expressing concern for syrian civilians trapped inside raqqa amid an ongoing u. S. Led Coalition Air strike and ground offensive by u. S. Backed troops to seize control of the city from isis. The u. N. Estimates between 30000 and 50,000 people remain trapped in raqqa, although, certainly, getting the precise numbers is difficult given the lack of access. Availability of food, water, medicine, electricity, and other essentials has been dwindling with the situation rapidly deteriorating. It is imperative the trapped civilians are able to secure safe passage out, to reach safety, shelter, and protection. Amy in a report released today by the journalistic Monitoring Group airports says civilian by the u. S. Y caused coalition or other highest level since the coalitions bombing began in 2014. Air wars says a record 4400 munitions were fired into raqqa in june by the u. S. Led coalition, over four times more than in may. This urine observatory for human rights as it has evidence that isis leader Abu Bakr Albaghdadi has been killed in deir ezzor province in eastern syria. Its the latest report of baghdadis death, which has not been confirmed by isis. Last month, russia claimed it may have killed baghdadi in an airstrike on the outskirts of raqqa in northern syria. Unnamed u. S. Officials say the Trump Administration may be planning to significantly ramp up its military involvement in libya. The plan could include reestablishing a permanent u. S. Presence in libya, which the u. S. Has not had since it shuttered its embassy in tripoli in 2014. It could also include deploying a rotating team of u. S. Special operations troops to libya. The u. S. Marine corps says its sentenced a marine to a reduction in rank and 10 days confinement after he pled guilty to showing naked images a fellow female marines in a private maleonly Facebook Group. As many as 30,000 male marines were members of the inviteonly Facebook Group called marines united, in which they shared thousands of naked or sexually suggestive photos of their fellow female marines, along with a barrage of misogynistic comments, including some saying the women should be raped. The pentagon says it successfully tested its thaad antimissile system for the 14th consecutive time on tuesday. The scheduled test in alaska comeas tensions continue rising between the u. S. And north korea. The u. S. Has deployed a thaad antimissile system to south korea amid the rising tensions, despite widespread opposition from south koreans, including the current president. In North Carolina, the state medical Examiners Office has confirmed a white North Carolina state trooper shot 31yearold African American Willard Scott in the back, killing him in february as he was running away from the trooper after a traffic stop in durham. Prosecutors have not yet charged trooper jerimy mathis. The case is reminiscent of the Police Killing of walter scott, who was fatally shot in the back eight times while he was running away from white Police Officer Michael Slager in South Carolina in 2015. Meanwhile, a third mistrial has been declared in the murder cast involving a white former oklahoma Police Officer who fatally shot his daughters African American boyfriend, reportedly firing multiple shots when the boyfriend reached out to shake the fathers hand. This is the third time a jury has deadlocked over whether to convict former tulsa Police Officer Shannon Kepler for killing 19yearold jeremey lake. Police say they did not find a gun on lake or at the scene, contradicting officer keplers claims he was acting in self defense. Tenants and housing rights activists are converging on washington, d. C. , today for a National Tenant march. The march is protesting President Trumps proposed 7. 4 billion cuts to hud, or the department of housing and urban development, which oversees Public Housing in the United States. Nearly 70,000 websites and organizations are slated to take part in a massive day of action today aimed at saving net. Eutrality for dissipating websites are display messages on their homepages and encouraging users to take action to save the internet as we know it. Supporters of the day of action include twitter, amazon, facebook, google, and. Ajiter this year, outlined his plan to dismantle the roles despitepai polling that shows most americans support a free and open internet. And in mexico, protesters gathered outside the Attorney Generals Office tuesday to demand justice amid a growing number of femicides in the state of mexico. This is activist marta avalos. We are protesting because of the lack of attention and followup the authorities give in the country. Because the government does not support us. They give us false figures and we want them to take into account all of the disappearances and homicide and punish them, reaching the final consequences. Amy we will go to mexico later in the broadcast to look at the Mexican Governments widespread surveillance against mexican activists, journalists, and human rights workers. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The white house is in crisis mode following revelations that Donald Trumps own son openly embraced an effort by the russian government to peddle information incriminating Hillary Clinton in an attempt to help trump win the election. The smoking gun comes in the form of a series of emails donald trump jr. Personally released on tuesday dealing with a meeting he had in june 2016 at trump tower with a person described to him as a russian government attorney. The meeting has been the focus of a series of articles in recent days by the New York Times donald trump jr. Released the emails shortly after the times told him they were about to publish the content of the emails. The explosive emails begin with a message from music publicist Rob Goldstone about how the crown prosecutor of russia had offered to provide the Trump Campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate hillary. Goldstone went on to say this is obviously very high level and Sensitive Information but is part of russia and its governments support for mr. Trump. Minutes later trump jr. Replied, if its what you say i love it especially later in the summer. Within a week, on june 9, trump jr. Met with a kremlinconnected attorney at trump tower. Also at the meeting were his brotherinlaw Jared Kushner and his Fathers Campaign manager Paul Manafort. They were both included on the email chain made public by trump jr. On tuesday. The meeting had been kept secret until kushner recently made reference to it in a revised version of a form required to obtain a security clearance. To help make sense of these recent developments, we are joined by marcy wheeler. Shes an independent journalist who covers National Security and civil liberties. She runs the website emptywheel. Net. Welcome to democracy now thank you for having me. Amy can you talk about this latest series of emails that have been released by donald trump, jr. , but only because the New York Times was about to release them itself . Right, so the email as a bunch of remarkable new details to what we know. Most importantly, that the Trump Campaign knew that russia was trying to get donald trump even therobably before intelligence community. We had known the cia had gotten a tip from a foreign partner sometime in june that even today, nsa still does not think was that great of a piece of intelligence. But meanwhile, we learned in early june, don jr. Was getting this female saying there is an effort on the part of russia to get your father elected. As part of that, were joined us in this dirt on Hillary Clinton. Don jr. , having read that you know, said, great, bring it on, give me that information. Amy talk about what happened next. Was the meeting. As you said, both Paul Manafort dnd Jared Kushner were also cc on the mill. They both knew, at least from reading the subject line, this was from russia. This was about information from russia. So the lawyer came in, there was a conversation i mean, everyone is providing their version of what happened at this meeting. These versions keep changing. You know, i was joking yesterday, i expect the New York Times to come out with what really happened by the end of the day today. They claim is the dirt the lawyer had to offer was not all that interesting and don jr. Says, he kind of tuned out. The reason the lawyer was t