WEBVTT 00:00:16.090 --> 00:00:18.670 From New York, this is Democracy Now! 00:00:20.330 --> 00:00:22.270 I am here asking for your support, 00:00:22.270 --> 00:00:25.670 for your help and labor justice, because I fear for my life. 00:00:26.730 --> 00:00:29.100 Three years ago, Mexican journalist 00:00:29.100 --> 00:00:32.090 Lourdes Maldonado pleaded with Mexican President 00:00:32.090 --> 00:00:33.410 Andrés Manuel López 00:00:33.410 --> 00:00:36.200 Obrador for help because she feared for her life. 00:00:36.730 --> 00:00:39.270 On Sunday, she was shot dead in Tijuana, 00:00:39.270 --> 00:00:42.570 becoming the third journalist killed in Mexico this month. 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:45.290 We go to Tijuana to speak with the Committee 00:00:45.290 --> 00:00:46.900 to Protect Journalists. 00:00:46.900 --> 00:00:49.700 Then to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied 00:00:49.700 --> 00:00:51.910 East Jerusalem, where Israeli forces recently 00:00:51.910 --> 00:00:55.420 evicted a Palestinian family, demolishing their home. 00:00:55.420 --> 00:00:58.690 We’ll speak to the Palestinian poet and activist Mohammed 00:00:58.690 --> 00:01:00.020 El-Kurd. 00:01:00.020 --> 00:01:02.580 The punishment is the process itself. 00:01:02.580 --> 00:01:05.220 It’s losing your youth, losing your hope, 00:01:05.220 --> 00:01:07.440 losing the prospects of your future 00:01:07.440 --> 00:01:11.880 to the lingering threat of homelessness at all times. 00:01:11.880 --> 00:01:14.680 And this reality is not just for people in Sheikh Jarrah. 00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:17.950 It’s the reality for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians 00:01:17.950 --> 00:01:19.650 all across Palestine. 00:01:20.180 --> 00:01:24.160 And finally, Downfall: The Case Against Boeing. 00:01:24.780 --> 00:01:27.740 A new documentary that just premiered at the Sundance Film 00:01:27.740 --> 00:01:28.950 Festival 00:01:28.950 --> 00:01:32.490 looks at the two fatal crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia 00:01:32.490 --> 00:01:39.060 that killed all 346 on board the Boeing 737 MAX planes. 00:01:39.700 --> 00:01:43.520 An Ethiopian Airlines flight has crashed shortly after takeoff. 00:01:43.520 --> 00:01:45.790 Two days after the second crash, 00:01:45.790 --> 00:01:49.310 we knew that this plane appeared to be defective in some manner. 00:01:49.310 --> 00:01:50.910 It was their greed. 00:01:50.910 --> 00:01:53.459 Are the profits more important than the human life? 00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:58.750 We’ll speak to director Rory Kennedy and Michael Stumo, 00:01:58.750 --> 00:02:02.200 whose daughter Samya died in the Ethiopian Air crash 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:03.900 All that and more, coming up. 00:02:09.730 --> 00:02:12.660 Welcome to Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, 00:02:12.660 --> 00:02:14.690 The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. 00:02:14.690 --> 00:02:16.980 A Russian Foreign Ministry official said 00:02:16.980 --> 00:02:20.110 Thursday the U.S. risks provoking a nuclear missile 00:02:20.110 --> 00:02:22.840 crisis with Moscow, unless the U.S. and its 00:02:22.840 --> 00:02:25.530 NATO allies ensure restraint and predictability 00:02:25.530 --> 00:02:27.750 in the growing conflict over Ukraine. 00:02:27.750 --> 00:02:30.990 The stark warning came as Russia’s top diplomat, 00:02:30.990 --> 00:02:34.060 Sergey Lavrov, formally rejected a U.S. response 00:02:34.060 --> 00:02:36.960 to Russia’s demands that offered no new concessions. 00:02:37.920 --> 00:02:39.620 Sergey Lavrov: 00:02:40.430 --> 00:02:42.610 "The main question is our clear message 00:02:42.610 --> 00:02:44.050 that we consider further 00:02:44.050 --> 00:02:47.180 NATO expansion to the east and weapons deployment, 00:02:47.180 --> 00:02:50.480 which can threaten the Russian Federation, unacceptable." 00:02:50.480 --> 00:02:52.310 On Thursday, President Biden 00:02:52.310 --> 00:02:55.010 reportedly warned Ukraine’s president in a phone call 00:02:55.010 --> 00:02:58.040 that Russia could invade in February. 00:02:58.040 --> 00:03:00.350 The U.S. has called a meeting of the U.N. Security Council 00:03:00.350 --> 00:03:02.290 to discuss the crisis on Monday — 00:03:02.290 --> 00:03:04.170 one day before Russia is set to take over 00:03:04.170 --> 00:03:06.360 the rotating presidency of the council. 00:03:07.190 --> 00:03:09.250 President Biden confirmed Thursday 00:03:09.250 --> 00:03:11.220 he would nominate the first Black woman 00:03:11.220 --> 00:03:12.650 Supreme Court justice. 00:03:12.650 --> 00:03:14.230 He made the commitment at a White House 00:03:14.230 --> 00:03:17.420 event for retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. 00:03:17.420 --> 00:03:19.980 Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned 00:03:19.980 --> 00:03:23.460 Biden against a nominee backed by the "radical left" 00:03:23.460 --> 00:03:26.150 as Republicans indicated they would seek to draw out 00:03:26.150 --> 00:03:27.930 the confirmation process. 00:03:30.060 --> 00:03:36.080 The Economic Community of West African States 00:03:36.920 --> 00:03:38.560 is holding an emergency summit today 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:39.960 to discuss the bloc’s response 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:42.050 to the recent military coup in Burkina 00:03:42.050 --> 00:03:45.510 Faso. On Thursday, coup leader Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri 00:03:45.510 --> 00:03:48.080 Damiba gave his first televised address 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:50.050 since he led a mutiny that deposed 00:03:50.050 --> 00:03:51.750 President Roch Kaboré Monday. 00:03:52.520 --> 00:03:55.650 Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Damiba: 00:03:56.800 --> 00:04:01.140 "It is clear that the main priority remains security. 00:04:01.140 --> 00:04:06.090 We must significantly reduce the areas under terrorist influence 00:04:06.090 --> 00:04:08.910 and the impact of violent extremism 00:04:08.910 --> 00:04:11.270 by giving the security forces 00:04:11.270 --> 00:04:13.700 and the Volunteers for Homeland Defense 00:04:13.700 --> 00:04:17.120 the will to fight, and to go on the offensive." 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:20.210 According to U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, 00:04:20.210 --> 00:04:22.310 Damiba received training on multiple occasions 00:04:22.310 --> 00:04:23.640 from the U.S. military. 00:04:23.640 --> 00:04:25.950 Since 2008, African military officers 00:04:25.950 --> 00:04:29.170 trained at American so-called peacekeeping programs 00:04:29.170 --> 00:04:30.760 have successfully led or attempted 00:04:30.760 --> 00:04:33.080 at least nine coups across West Africa. 00:04:33.750 --> 00:04:36.830 In Honduras, Xiomara Castro was sworn in Thursday 00:04:36.830 --> 00:04:39.930 as the first woman president in the country’s history. 00:04:39.930 --> 00:04:43.360 Thousands of supporters attended Castro’s inauguration ceremony 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:46.590 at the national stadium in the capital Tegucigalpa. 00:04:46.590 --> 00:04:48.960 During her speech, Castro ordered free electricity 00:04:48.960 --> 00:04:50.980 for Hondurans living in extreme poverty, 00:04:50.980 --> 00:04:52.960 vowed justice for Berta Cáceres 00:04:52.960 --> 00:04:55.270 and other murdered land and water defenders, 00:04:55.270 --> 00:04:58.350 and said her government will not continue to loot Honduras. 00:05:02.050 --> 00:05:05.260 President Xiomara Castro: "Poverty increased by 74% 00:05:05.770 --> 00:05:08.180 to make us the poorest country in Latin America. 00:05:08.180 --> 00:05:10.630 This figure by itself explains the migrant caravan 00:05:10.630 --> 00:05:12.640 of thousands of people of all ages 00:05:12.640 --> 00:05:15.570 who flee to the north, Mexico and the United States, 00:05:15.570 --> 00:05:17.920 looking for a place and a way to subsist, 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:20.190 regardless of risk it implies for their lives." 00:05:20.190 --> 00:05:22.210 Castro’s presidency marks the end 00:05:22.210 --> 00:05:23.570 of a brutal 12-year regime 00:05:23.570 --> 00:05:25.500 by the U.S.-backed right-wing National Party, 00:05:25.500 --> 00:05:29.160 which first came to power after the 2009 U.S.-backed coup 00:05:29.160 --> 00:05:30.940 that overthrew Castro’s husband, 00:05:30.940 --> 00:05:32.840 former leftist President Manuel Zelaya. 00:05:32.840 --> 00:05:34.780 This comes as many are demanding outgoing 00:05:34.780 --> 00:05:36.870 Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández 00:05:36.870 --> 00:05:39.190 be indicted and extradited to the United States 00:05:39.190 --> 00:05:42.240 to face charges of aiding drug traffickers, 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:44.210 including his brother. 00:05:44.210 --> 00:05:47.710 In Japan, six people who developed thyroid cancer 00:05:47.710 --> 00:05:50.400 in the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima 00:05:50.400 --> 00:05:52.940 nuclear meltdown have filed a landmark lawsuit 00:05:52.940 --> 00:05:54.990 against the Tokyo Electric Power Company. 00:05:55.510 --> 00:05:58.200 The plaintiffs were aged from 6 to 16 00:05:58.200 --> 00:06:00.370 at the time of the devastating earthquake and tsunami, 00:06:00.370 --> 00:06:04.030 which triggered one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters. 00:06:04.030 --> 00:06:05.690 A court acquitted former executives 00:06:05.690 --> 00:06:08.670 from the utility company in 2019. 00:06:08.670 --> 00:06:10.810 Meanwhile, a plan to release wastewater 00:06:10.810 --> 00:06:12.010 from the Fukushima plant 00:06:12.010 --> 00:06:15.070 starting next year has sparked international condemnation. 00:06:16.140 --> 00:06:17.930 At least 70 people in southern Africa 00:06:17.930 --> 00:06:21.580 were killed as Tropical Storm Ana struck Madagascar this week 00:06:21.580 --> 00:06:23.700 before slamming into Mozambique and Malawi. 00:06:23.700 --> 00:06:26.320 Torrential rains triggered landslides and caused flooding 00:06:26.320 --> 00:06:28.660 that washed away bridges, submerged farmers’ fields 00:06:28.660 --> 00:06:30.750 and damaged tens of thousands of homes. 00:06:30.750 --> 00:06:32.160 Hardest hit was Madagascar, 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:34.140 where the U.N. says 1 million people 00:06:34.140 --> 00:06:37.430 are already facing severe hunger from food shortages 00:06:37.430 --> 00:06:39.410 brought on by acute drought. 00:06:39.410 --> 00:06:42.490 Last year the World Food Programme warned Madagascar 00:06:42.490 --> 00:06:46.020 faced the first-ever famine caused by climate change. 00:06:47.420 --> 00:06:50.510 One of the largest icebergs ever observed 00:06:50.510 --> 00:06:52.920 has broken up in the southern Atlantic Ocean. 00:06:52.920 --> 00:06:55.910 When it drifted away from Antarctica in 2017, 00:06:55.910 --> 00:06:59.300 Iceberg A68a was roughly the size of Delaware, 00:06:59.300 --> 00:07:03.470 weighing in at an estimated 1 trillion tons. 00:07:03.470 --> 00:07:05.820 Scientists warn melting ice from the berg 00:07:05.820 --> 00:07:08.410 has dumped billions of tons of fresh water 00:07:08.410 --> 00:07:10.570 into salty seas near South Georgia Island, 00:07:10.570 --> 00:07:13.669 with unknown consequences for marine life and the environment. 00:07:14.460 --> 00:07:16.420 A federal judge in Washington, D.C., 00:07:16.420 --> 00:07:19.670 has canceled oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico, 00:07:19.670 --> 00:07:21.510 ruling the Biden administration’s auction 00:07:21.510 --> 00:07:23.160 of 80 million acres last year 00:07:23.160 --> 00:07:26.360 failed to sufficiently account for the climate crisis. 00:07:26.360 --> 00:07:28.320 It’s a major victory for environmentalists 00:07:28.320 --> 00:07:30.020 who’ve been fighting what would have been 00:07:30.020 --> 00:07:33.570 the largest sale of offshore oil and gas leases in U.S. history. 00:07:34.290 --> 00:07:35.790 The Los Angeles City Council 00:07:35.790 --> 00:07:38.460 has voted to prohibit new oil and gas wells 00:07:38.460 --> 00:07:41.420 and phase out existing wells within city limits. 00:07:41.420 --> 00:07:43.880 The measure also creates a program to help oil 00:07:43.880 --> 00:07:46.810 and gas workers transition to jobs in other industries. 00:07:48.020 --> 00:07:49.540 Council President Nury Martinez 00:07:49.540 --> 00:07:51.360 spoke ahead of Wednesday’s unanimous vote. 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:52.660 Council President Nury Martinez: 00:07:52.660 --> 00:07:54.410 "For far too long neighborhood drilling 00:07:54.410 --> 00:07:56.740 has disproportionately affected the health 00:07:56.740 --> 00:07:58.690 of our low-income communities of color. 00:07:59.410 --> 00:08:02.470 From freeways to power plants, our frontline communities 00:08:02.470 --> 00:08:05.310 bear the brunt of pollution and climate impacts." 00:08:05.880 --> 00:08:08.710 A 2021 study by University of Southern California 00:08:08.710 --> 00:08:10.080 researchers found residents 00:08:10.080 --> 00:08:13.550 of majority-Black and Latinx communities in South Los Angeles 00:08:13.550 --> 00:08:17.230 who live near oil and gas sites have lower lung function, 00:08:17.230 --> 00:08:18.430 which may contribute 00:08:18.430 --> 00:08:20.370 to environmental health disparities. 00:08:21.050 --> 00:08:23.380 President Biden heads to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 00:08:23.380 --> 00:08:24.920 today to promote his recently passed 00:08:24.920 --> 00:08:27.220 $1 trillion infrastructure bill. 00:08:27.220 --> 00:08:28.920 Hours before Biden’s visit, 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:31.470 a bridge connecting Pittsburgh’s Regent Square 00:08:31.470 --> 00:08:34.320 and Squirrel Hill neighborhoods collapsed. 00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:38.020 No injuries were reported, but residents reported 00:08:38.020 --> 00:08:40.540 a strong smell of natural gas in the area. 00:08:41.520 --> 00:08:43.710 The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended its search 00:08:43.710 --> 00:08:46.370 for dozens of migrants who are feared dead after their boat 00:08:46.370 --> 00:08:49.270 capsized off the coast of Florida Saturday. 00:08:49.270 --> 00:08:50.550 Five bodies have been found, 00:08:50.550 --> 00:08:52.640 while 34 people are still missing. 00:08:52.640 --> 00:08:54.480 One survivor was rescued earlier this week 00:08:54.480 --> 00:08:56.390 as he clung to the hull of the sinking boat, 00:08:56.390 --> 00:08:58.870 which had departed from the Bahamas. 00:09:00.350 --> 00:09:03.620 Oklahoma prison officials have carried out the first execution 00:09:03.620 --> 00:09:05.220 in the United States this year. 00:09:05.220 --> 00:09:08.040 Forty-six-year-old Donald Grant was strapped to a gurney 00:09:08.040 --> 00:09:10.040 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary 00:09:10.040 --> 00:09:11.460 in McAlester Thursday morning 00:09:11.460 --> 00:09:14.090 and injected with a lethal cocktail of three drugs. 00:09:14.090 --> 00:09:16.490 He was declared dead at 10:16 a.m. 00:09:16.490 --> 00:09:17.700 Grant, a Black man, 00:09:17.700 --> 00:09:19.720 had asked federal courts to halt his killing, 00:09:19.720 --> 00:09:22.730 saying Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol 00:09:22.730 --> 00:09:25.850 presented an unconstitutional risk of pain and suffering. 00:09:25.850 --> 00:09:27.700 It was Oklahoma’s third execution 00:09:27.700 --> 00:09:29.910 since the death penalty was reinstated 00:09:29.910 --> 00:09:31.250 after a six-year pause 00:09:31.250 --> 00:09:34.220 that followed a string of botched executions. 00:09:34.220 --> 00:09:37.170 Last October, 60-year-old John Marion Grant convulsed 00:09:37.170 --> 00:09:38.490 and repeatedly vomited 00:09:38.490 --> 00:09:40.990 after he was administered a sedative in an execution 00:09:40.990 --> 00:09:44.520 that witnesses described as drawn-out and tortuous. 00:09:45.550 --> 00:09:46.860 Here in New York, 00:09:46.860 --> 00:09:49.590 workers at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island will vote 00:09:49.590 --> 00:09:51.910 on whether to unionize their workplace. 00:09:51.910 --> 00:09:53.830 The effort is being led by Chris Smalls, 00:09:53.830 --> 00:09:56.930 who Amazon fired in March of 2020 00:09:56.930 --> 00:09:59.070 after he organized a wildcat strike 00:09:59.070 --> 00:10:00.690 demanding sanitized workspaces, 00:10:00.690 --> 00:10:04.150 protective masks and COVID-19 tests for workers. 00:10:04.150 --> 00:10:06.570 The Staten Island workers will vote 00:10:06.570 --> 00:10:08.670 on whether to join a grassroots worker group 00:10:08.670 --> 00:10:10.250 called the Amazon Labor Union, 00:10:10.250 --> 00:10:12.810 which is unaffiliated with any national union. 00:10:14.530 --> 00:10:16.230 Hundreds of street vendors in New York City 00:10:16.230 --> 00:10:17.970 led a march to Times Square Thursday, 00:10:17.970 --> 00:10:19.440 demanding labor protections 00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:21.570 and for the city to stop issuing heavy fines 00:10:21.570 --> 00:10:24.640 to vendors who haven’t been able to get selling permits. 00:10:24.640 --> 00:10:27.250 Bronx Councilmember Pierina Sanchez 00:10:27.250 --> 00:10:28.710 is backing new legislation 00:10:28.710 --> 00:10:30.120 that would end the criminalization 00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:32.430 of street vendors and increase the number of vending permits. 00:10:32.430 --> 00:10:33.740 Councilmember Pierina Sanchez: 00:10:33.740 --> 00:10:38.180 "So, we’re coming to 10,000 permits, just about, by 2032. 00:10:39.210 --> 00:10:41.820 It sounds good, right? It sounds OK. 00:10:42.890 --> 00:10:44.310 Except you think about the fact 00:10:44.310 --> 00:10:49.040 that there are 20,000 street vendors on our streets today. 00:10:49.980 --> 00:10:52.840 All they want to do is feed their families. 00:10:53.460 --> 00:10:56.490 All they want to do is make ends meet." 00:10:56.490 --> 00:11:01.240 Saturday marks 20 years since then-President George W. 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:04.130 Bush branded the nations of Iraq, Iran and North Korea 00:11:04.130 --> 00:11:05.630 the "axis of evil" 00:11:05.630 --> 00:11:07.520 during his first State of the Union address. 00:11:07.520 --> 00:11:08.780 President George W. Bush: 00:11:08.780 --> 00:11:12.300 "States like these, and their terrorist allies, 00:11:12.300 --> 00:11:14.390 constitute an axis of evil, 00:11:15.210 --> 00:11:17.720 arming to threaten the peace of the world." 00:11:17.720 --> 00:11:20.660 A little over a year later, the U.S. invaded Iraq, 00:11:20.660 --> 00:11:22.360 despite lacking any evidence 00:11:22.360 --> 00:11:24.260 Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. 00:11:24.260 --> 00:11:28.180 The attack was widely considered illegal under international law. 00:11:28.180 --> 00:11:31.020 According to the Costs of War project at Brown University, 00:11:31.020 --> 00:11:34.840 there have been over 180,000 Iraqi civilians killed 00:11:34.840 --> 00:11:37.900 by direct violence since the U.S. invasion. 00:11:38.710 --> 00:11:40.710 And those are some of the headlines this is Democracy 00:11:40.710 --> 00:11:43.760 Now, Democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. 00:11:43.760 --> 00:11:45.060 I’m Amy Goodman. 00:11:45.060 --> 00:11:47.430 AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Mexico, 00:11:47.430 --> 00:11:49.400 where a wave of murders of journalists 00:11:49.400 --> 00:11:51.530 in the last two weeks prompted reporters 00:11:51.530 --> 00:11:53.710 and their supporters to take to the streets 00:11:53.710 --> 00:11:56.370 in protests nationwide Tuesday. 00:11:56.370 --> 00:11:59.530 PALOMAR FIERRO: [translated] I’m here with a lot of grief, 00:11:59.530 --> 00:12:01.210 because more than 100 journalists 00:12:01.210 --> 00:12:03.740 have been murdered in the last couple of years, 00:12:03.740 --> 00:12:05.800 no matter how many times we’ve protested. 00:12:05.800 --> 00:12:07.280 I was in several protests, 00:12:07.280 --> 00:12:09.610 one in 2008 dubbed "We want to be alive," 00:12:10.260 --> 00:12:13.360 one right after the killing of Javier Valdez. 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:14.710 Despite all our protests, 00:12:14.710 --> 00:12:16.570 the killing of journalists continues. 00:12:16.570 --> 00:12:19.140 I come here with more sadness than indignation. 00:12:19.670 --> 00:12:22.370 AMY GOODMAN: Mexico is one of the deadliest countries 00:12:22.370 --> 00:12:24.670 in the world for journalists. 00:12:24.670 --> 00:12:26.780 Yesterday, people gathered in Tijuana, 00:12:26.780 --> 00:12:28.570 a city bordering the United States, 00:12:28.570 --> 00:12:31.980 for the funeral of reporter Lourdes Maldonado López, 00:12:31.980 --> 00:12:34.000 a well-known broadcast journalist, 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:36.810 who had already faced multiple attacks on her life 00:12:36.810 --> 00:12:39.460 when she was shot dead in front of her home Sunday. 00:12:39.460 --> 00:12:41.730 She was the third Mexican reporter killed 00:12:41.730 --> 00:12:43.970 in the first weeks of 2022. 00:12:44.520 --> 00:12:49.330 On January 17th, another Tijuana journalist, Margarito Martínez, 00:12:49.330 --> 00:12:51.480 was shot dead in front of his residence 00:12:51.480 --> 00:12:54.880 after he had just returned from an assignment. 00:12:54.880 --> 00:12:56.200 He covered police and crime 00:12:56.200 --> 00:12:58.880 and worked as a fixer for international media. 00:12:58.880 --> 00:13:02.510 On January 10th, the body of reporter José Luis Gamboa 00:13:02.510 --> 00:13:04.350 was found in the state of Veracruz 00:13:04.350 --> 00:13:06.050 after he was stabbed to death. 00:13:06.860 --> 00:13:11.570 The murder of Lourdes Maldonado has drawn widespread attention. 00:13:11.570 --> 00:13:14.190 She was reportedly enrolled in a protection program 00:13:14.190 --> 00:13:16.700 for journalists overseen by the Mexican government. 00:13:16.700 --> 00:13:19.670 She had a panic button in her house. 00:13:19.670 --> 00:13:22.230 In 2019, she went to a press briefing 00:13:22.230 --> 00:13:23.470 with the Mexican president, 00:13:23.470 --> 00:13:27.180 Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and pleaded for his help. 00:13:27.180 --> 00:13:28.760 LOURDES MALDONADO LÓPEZ: [translated] 00:13:28.760 --> 00:13:30.680 I am here asking for your support, 00:13:30.680 --> 00:13:34.450 for your help and labor justice, because I fear for my life. 00:13:34.450 --> 00:13:36.730 I know that there’s nothing I can do against the corruption 00:13:36.730 --> 00:13:40.150 I’m experiencing in Tijuana and with this powerful person 00:13:40.150 --> 00:13:41.970 without your support, Mr. President. 00:13:42.510 --> 00:13:44.930 AMY GOODMAN: That was 2019. 00:13:44.930 --> 00:13:47.690 This is Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador 00:13:47.690 --> 00:13:51.550 responding this week to the murder of Lourdes Maldonado. 00:13:51.550 --> 00:13:54.290 PRESIDENT ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR: [translated] 00:13:54.290 --> 00:13:58.020 I wanted to address this murder, deplorable and painful 00:13:58.550 --> 00:14:01.630 like many other cases, but this one in particular. 00:14:01.630 --> 00:14:03.990 We are going to investigate thoroughly. 00:14:03.990 --> 00:14:06.040 I’m saying this because yesterday 00:14:06.040 --> 00:14:08.000 there were reports that she was here, 00:14:08.590 --> 00:14:12.090 reports saying she went to the president asking for protection, 00:14:12.090 --> 00:14:15.020 and now look what happened, as if we dismissed her, 00:14:15.020 --> 00:14:17.670 as if we didn’t care and left her without protection. 00:14:18.870 --> 00:14:23.180 AMY GOODMAN: This comes as Lourdes’s dog refused to move 00:14:23.180 --> 00:14:26.430 from guarding the entrance to her home this week, 00:14:26.430 --> 00:14:28.280 after she was killed. 00:14:29.060 --> 00:14:31.040 For more on the calls from Mexican authorities 00:14:31.040 --> 00:14:33.510 to investigate these killings and what should be done, 00:14:33.510 --> 00:14:36.540 we go to Tijuana to speak with Jan-Albert Hootsen. 00:14:36.540 --> 00:14:38.170 He’s the Mexico correspondent 00:14:38.170 --> 00:14:39.810 for the Committee to Protect Journalists. 00:14:39.810 --> 00:14:42.800 He attended Lourdes’s funeral yesterday. 00:14:42.800 --> 00:14:45.430 Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Jan. 00:14:45.430 --> 00:14:49.970 This is a horrible loss for so many, not only in Mexico. 00:14:51.040 --> 00:14:53.580 You were at the funeral. Can you describe it for us? 00:14:53.580 --> 00:14:55.630 You spent time with the family. 00:14:55.630 --> 00:14:58.610 Tell us who was there and what the family is demanding. 00:15:00.860 --> 00:15:02.750 JAN-ALBERT HOOTSEN: Hi. Thanks to be here. 00:15:02.750 --> 00:15:05.070 Yes, I was yesterday at Lourdes’s funeral here 00:15:05.070 --> 00:15:06.330 in Tijuana. 00:15:06.330 --> 00:15:08.210 It was a relatively small-scale event. 00:15:08.210 --> 00:15:10.660 I think there were about 40 people, 00:15:10.660 --> 00:15:13.270 and at least half of them were journalists. 00:15:13.270 --> 00:15:15.050 It’s a big story here in Tijuana 00:15:15.050 --> 00:15:16.900 because most of the journalists here in the city 00:15:16.900 --> 00:15:19.080 actually knew Lourdes. 00:15:19.080 --> 00:15:20.780 So, for them, it was extra tragic. 00:15:20.780 --> 00:15:23.930 They had to gather at the graveyard here in Tijuana 00:15:23.930 --> 00:15:25.640 and basically cover the murder 00:15:25.640 --> 00:15:27.540 of their own friend and colleague. 00:15:28.380 --> 00:15:30.080 The family of Lourdes was there. 00:15:31.100 --> 00:15:33.260 There were family members from the United States, 00:15:33.260 --> 00:15:35.510 who lived in San Diego, just across the border, 00:15:35.510 --> 00:15:37.780 and family members from here from Tijuana. 00:15:37.780 --> 00:15:41.230 They spoke briefly with the media amongst myself. 00:15:41.230 --> 00:15:43.960 And they were asking for justice. 00:15:44.510 --> 00:15:48.090 Her brothers said that they forgave the people who did this, 00:15:48.090 --> 00:15:50.330 and otherwise they are very anxiously 00:15:50.330 --> 00:15:52.710 waiting for the Mexican authorities 00:15:52.710 --> 00:15:56.490 to provide them with an update about what happened. 00:15:56.490 --> 00:15:58.980 And I think, going back to your other question, 00:15:58.980 --> 00:16:00.330 what should be done, 00:16:00.330 --> 00:16:03.240 I think that’s the first thing that should be done. 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:05.530 Authorities here in the state of Baja California 00:16:05.530 --> 00:16:08.660 need to provide clarity on who might be involved 00:16:08.660 --> 00:16:10.860 and what might be the motive behind this killing, 00:16:10.860 --> 00:16:12.560 because we don’t know that so far. 00:16:14.040 --> 00:16:16.830 AMY GOODMAN: So, can you talk about the kind of reporting 00:16:16.830 --> 00:16:18.660 that she did, 00:16:18.660 --> 00:16:23.050 and also the fact that she had a panic button in her house? 00:16:24.190 --> 00:16:25.410 JAN-ALBERT HOOTSEN: Sure. 00:16:25.410 --> 00:16:30.060 She was a online radio and television show host. 00:16:30.060 --> 00:16:34.010 She worked for a streaming provider 00:16:34.010 --> 00:16:36.280 called Sintoniza Sin Fronteras. 00:16:36.280 --> 00:16:38.910 And as such, she had several shows each week, 00:16:39.620 --> 00:16:42.500 in which she was heard commenting on local events. 00:16:42.500 --> 00:16:45.240 She never pulled any punches. It was about politics. 00:16:45.240 --> 00:16:47.130 It was about crime and security, 00:16:47.130 --> 00:16:49.850 Tijuana being one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico 00:16:49.850 --> 00:16:51.230 right now. 00:16:51.230 --> 00:16:53.570 She also addressed the murder of her colleague 00:16:53.570 --> 00:16:55.520 Margarito Martínez one week earlier. 00:16:56.120 --> 00:16:59.850 And according to the Baja California state authorities, 00:16:59.850 --> 00:17:01.950 which I spoke with earlier this week, 00:17:01.950 --> 00:17:03.950 she was enrolled in a protection scheme, 00:17:04.930 --> 00:17:07.640 and she had a panic button at home in her house. 00:17:08.510 --> 00:17:10.780 But, you know, at 7 p.m., when she got back, 00:17:10.780 --> 00:17:12.120 when she was attacked, 00:17:12.120 --> 00:17:14.360 apparently she didn’t have the panic button with her. 00:17:14.360 --> 00:17:16.860 And another thing that actually we need more clarity about 00:17:16.860 --> 00:17:18.880 is that the Baja California state authorities 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:22.760 told me that she had regular police check-ins, 00:17:22.760 --> 00:17:25.220 meaning a patrol car would check in with her residence 00:17:25.220 --> 00:17:28.280 every once in a while to see if she was OK. 00:17:28.280 --> 00:17:29.880 And apparently this wasn’t enough, 00:17:29.880 --> 00:17:32.820 and they were not present at the time when she was attacked. 00:17:32.820 --> 00:17:34.910 So, this means that whatever security measures 00:17:34.910 --> 00:17:36.800 the Mexican state had provided her, 00:17:36.800 --> 00:17:38.800 they’ve been woefully insufficient. 00:17:40.220 --> 00:17:43.560 AMY GOODMAN: One of Lourdes Maldonado’s last broadcasts 00:17:43.560 --> 00:17:45.660 was January 19th. 00:17:45.660 --> 00:17:49.210 It was dedicated to the Tijuana photojournalist, 00:17:49.210 --> 00:17:52.250 Jan, who you just mentioned, Margarito Martínez, 00:17:52.250 --> 00:17:55.920 who was assassinated outside his home last week. 00:17:55.920 --> 00:17:59.230 This is a clip of Lourdes on her own program Brebaje, 00:17:59.780 --> 00:18:02.840 which means "Potion," paying homage to Margarito, 00:18:02.840 --> 00:18:06.480 not knowing she’d be killed days later herself. 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:12.180 LOURDES MALDONADO LÓPEZ: [translated] Margarito’s death, 00:18:12.180 --> 00:18:15.380 his assassination, has left a big hole in journalism. 00:18:15.380 --> 00:18:18.080 He was recognized around the world for his work, 00:18:18.080 --> 00:18:21.340 reporting on the violence in Baja California, on the murders. 00:18:21.340 --> 00:18:23.540 He had tremendous knowledge on these issues. 00:18:25.740 --> 00:18:27.060 AMY GOODMAN: Jan-Albert Hootsen, you know, 00:18:27.060 --> 00:18:29.030 we, in addition to having you on, 00:18:29.030 --> 00:18:32.410 were trying to reach some Mexican journalists in Tijuana, 00:18:32.410 --> 00:18:37.450 but no one would come on, fearful for what it could mean, 00:18:37.450 --> 00:18:39.530 how much danger they face. 00:18:40.350 --> 00:18:43.240 Can you talk about the danger they face 00:18:43.240 --> 00:18:47.060 and what this federal protection program is for journalists 00:18:47.060 --> 00:18:50.800 and why one is needed in Mexico, why it’s one of the deadliest 00:18:50.800 --> 00:18:53.150 places in the world for media workers? 00:18:55.550 --> 00:18:56.880 JAN-ALBERT HOOTSEN: Sure. 00:18:56.880 --> 00:19:00.760 I was actually yesterday at the home of Margarito Martínez. 00:19:00.760 --> 00:19:03.790 I spoke with his wife for quite a long time. 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:08.010 The place where he was killed, it’s very chilling. 00:19:08.010 --> 00:19:10.820 You walk up to her home, and there is a spot, 00:19:10.820 --> 00:19:13.620 a very large spot, that was very clearly cleaned, 00:19:14.560 --> 00:19:19.260 with flowers and with candles standing right next to it, 00:19:19.260 --> 00:19:22.620 sort of like a silent witness to what happened to Margarito. 00:19:22.620 --> 00:19:25.080 And the kind of journalism that Margarito Martínez 00:19:25.080 --> 00:19:29.360 was specialized in was the crime and security beat. 00:19:29.980 --> 00:19:32.440 What he did is he would get up in the morning 00:19:32.440 --> 00:19:36.280 and listen to radio frequencies of the Tijuana municipal 00:19:36.830 --> 00:19:39.190 and Baja California state police, 00:19:39.190 --> 00:19:40.620 as well as the Red Cross. 00:19:40.620 --> 00:19:42.830 And whenever any incident would come in — 00:19:42.830 --> 00:19:45.460 Tijuana has on average five homicides a day — 00:19:45.460 --> 00:19:47.420 then he would jump in his car 00:19:47.420 --> 00:19:51.200 and just go to the place where the incident was reported, 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:55.190 get out as soon as he can, take pictures, drive back home 00:19:55.190 --> 00:19:57.590 and then upload those pictures to one of the — 00:19:58.190 --> 00:20:00.550 one or more of his many employers. 00:20:00.550 --> 00:20:02.780 And that particular kind of journalism 00:20:02.780 --> 00:20:05.090 is quite dangerous in Mexico, 00:20:05.090 --> 00:20:08.280 and especially Tijuana, because it happens very often 00:20:08.280 --> 00:20:11.120 that when a journalist takes photos of these incidents, 00:20:11.120 --> 00:20:14.260 there might be someone there who doesn’t like them to do it — 00:20:14.260 --> 00:20:16.609 for example, gang members or the family members 00:20:17.670 --> 00:20:20.180 of the people who were killed, who were shot. 00:20:20.180 --> 00:20:22.830 And journalists will be followed. 00:20:22.830 --> 00:20:24.629 They will be harassed by the police. 00:20:25.280 --> 00:20:26.500 They might receive death threats. 00:20:26.500 --> 00:20:29.450 So, it’s really a daily struggle for people like Margarito. 00:20:30.090 --> 00:20:33.280 And one of the things that I think is very important, 00:20:33.280 --> 00:20:36.420 and which I think the Mexican state needs to clarify, 00:20:36.960 --> 00:20:39.410 is that Margarito actually got in touch 00:20:39.410 --> 00:20:41.540 with the Federal Mechanism for the Protection 00:20:41.540 --> 00:20:43.670 of Journalists and Human Rights Defenders. 00:20:43.670 --> 00:20:48.760 That’s an institution that functions under the coordination 00:20:48.760 --> 00:20:50.110 of the Mexican federal government. 00:20:50.110 --> 00:20:52.180 It was created 10 years ago this year. 00:20:52.980 --> 00:20:55.720 And it is a small institution that’s focused 00:20:55.720 --> 00:20:59.150 on coordinating protection efforts with state governments 00:20:59.150 --> 00:21:02.670 and with federal agencies. The problem with this mechanism 00:21:02.670 --> 00:21:04.730 is that it’s woefully insufficient. 00:21:04.730 --> 00:21:07.450 It’s highly centralized in Mexico City; 00:21:07.450 --> 00:21:10.490 it doesn’t have any regional representation in Mexico. 00:21:10.490 --> 00:21:13.400 And even if it were — even if it did have enough money, 00:21:13.400 --> 00:21:14.640 which it really doesn’t, 00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:17.520 because it’s only working with a budget of approximately 00:21:17.520 --> 00:21:19.860 just over 15 million U.S. dollars a year — 00:21:20.860 --> 00:21:22.920 even if it had enough money, 00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:27.900 and even if it had enough public officials 00:21:27.900 --> 00:21:30.120 working for it that were well trained, 00:21:30.120 --> 00:21:33.200 then there was still the issue of impunity, 00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:35.370 the issue of crimes not being properly 00:21:35.370 --> 00:21:38.380 investigated by the Mexican authorities, 00:21:38.380 --> 00:21:41.320 which is what keeps incentivizing these killings. 00:21:41.320 --> 00:21:43.260 Apologies for the background noise —I’m here in Tijuana, 00:21:43.260 --> 00:21:46.970 and there’s a little bit of a siren back there just now. 00:21:46.970 --> 00:21:48.670 AMY GOODMAN: We totally understand. 00:21:49.180 --> 00:21:53.540 Can you talk about the effect of the U.S.-backed 00:21:53.540 --> 00:21:57.810 so-called war on drugs, its rise in Mexico, 00:21:57.810 --> 00:22:01.360 and whether it is connected to violence against journalists 00:22:01.360 --> 00:22:03.060 and human rights defenders? 00:22:04.560 --> 00:22:05.860 JAN-ALBERT HOOTSEN: There’s a case of, 00:22:05.860 --> 00:22:07.090 about five years ago, 00:22:07.090 --> 00:22:09.170 the murder of a journalist, Miroslava Breach, 00:22:09.170 --> 00:22:11.490 in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. 00:22:11.490 --> 00:22:13.310 And in the years after she was murdered — 00:22:13.310 --> 00:22:15.760 she was a correspondent for national newspaper La Jornada — 00:22:15.760 --> 00:22:17.740 there have been numerous investigations 00:22:17.740 --> 00:22:19.670 into the circumstances of her death, 00:22:19.670 --> 00:22:21.800 and one of those investigations focused 00:22:21.800 --> 00:22:23.500 on the ballistic evidence. 00:22:24.030 --> 00:22:25.829 And the people who looked into that, 00:22:26.350 --> 00:22:28.490 they were able to link the murder weapon, 00:22:30.230 --> 00:22:32.540 the pistol Miroslava Breach was killed with, 00:22:32.540 --> 00:22:34.070 directly to the United States. 00:22:34.070 --> 00:22:36.950 It was a gun that was bought across the border, 00:22:36.950 --> 00:22:39.920 smuggled into Mexico and then used for numerous crimes, 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:41.969 including the murder of Miroslava Breach. 00:22:42.630 --> 00:22:44.940 In the case of the murder of Margarito, 00:22:45.610 --> 00:22:47.010 Baja California state authorities 00:22:47.010 --> 00:22:49.430 have already been able to link that gun 00:22:49.430 --> 00:22:51.230 to at least five crimes. 00:22:51.230 --> 00:22:52.940 And there’s a very high probability 00:22:52.940 --> 00:22:55.530 that that gun, too, has been smuggled into Mexico 00:22:57.120 --> 00:22:59.860 and then used by criminal gangs here. 00:22:59.860 --> 00:23:04.700 I think we cannot see the violence 00:23:04.700 --> 00:23:06.630 against journalists in Mexico 00:23:06.630 --> 00:23:09.670 as something independent from the war on drugs, 00:23:09.670 --> 00:23:14.960 because the numbers, at CPJ, that we have indicate 00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:17.800 that the violence against journalists exploded 00:23:17.800 --> 00:23:20.210 just at a time when Mexico declared 00:23:20.210 --> 00:23:23.160 its U.S.-backed drug war against organized crime groups. 00:23:23.800 --> 00:23:25.970 The United States is a player in this violence, 00:23:25.970 --> 00:23:27.220 whether it likes it or not, 00:23:27.220 --> 00:23:29.430 because this is a transnational problem, 00:23:29.430 --> 00:23:35.180 and we just have no other way than to view the war on drugs 00:23:35.180 --> 00:23:38.730 as probably the main factor that fuels this violence 00:23:38.730 --> 00:23:40.990 from a sort of transnational, international perspective. 00:23:40.990 --> 00:23:45.860 AMY GOODMAN: Finally, USA Today reports the Mexican government 00:23:45.860 --> 00:23:48.360 estimates more than half a million guns 00:23:48.360 --> 00:23:51.280 are smuggled from the U.S. each year. 00:23:51.280 --> 00:23:53.140 Can you end on that note, Jan-Albert? 00:23:54.720 --> 00:23:56.590 JAN-ALBERT HOOTSEN: Absolutely. 00:23:56.590 --> 00:23:58.270 One of my colleagues, Ioan Grillo, 00:23:58.270 --> 00:23:59.690 a British reporter here in Mexico, 00:23:59.690 --> 00:24:02.990 actually wrote a book about that called The Iron River. 00:24:02.990 --> 00:24:07.610 And it’s a phenomenon that is apparently unstoppable. 00:24:07.610 --> 00:24:10.330 There are so many guns flowing southward. 00:24:11.450 --> 00:24:13.450 There are hundreds, if not thousands, 00:24:13.450 --> 00:24:15.820 of gun stores just across the border. 00:24:16.700 --> 00:24:20.240 The ease with which smugglers can buy guns 00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:21.460 in the United States 00:24:21.460 --> 00:24:25.250 and then smuggle them over the border to Mexico is staggering. 00:24:25.250 --> 00:24:27.770 And the current government under President López Obrador 00:24:27.770 --> 00:24:31.130 has actually been very vocal about the United States 00:24:31.130 --> 00:24:32.980 having to take measures against that. 00:24:33.690 --> 00:24:35.240 I think it’s a very tall order. 00:24:35.240 --> 00:24:39.290 It is a matter of bilateral cooperation. 00:24:39.290 --> 00:24:42.250 In the United States, there isn’t a lot of incentive 00:24:42.250 --> 00:24:43.960 currently to change it, 00:24:43.960 --> 00:24:46.120 you know, despite all the mass shootings in the U.S., 00:24:46.120 --> 00:24:48.930 but I don’t think there’s any other way than to — 00:24:49.500 --> 00:24:52.330 to drop the violence than to at least address 00:24:52.330 --> 00:24:54.660 this issue in a bilateral sense. 00:24:55.180 --> 00:24:56.390 AMY GOODMAN: Well, Jan-Albert Hootsen, 00:24:56.390 --> 00:24:58.400 we want to thank you so much for being with us, 00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:01.970 Dutch journalist and Mexico correspondent at the Committee 00:25:01.970 --> 00:25:06.050 to Protect Journalists, speaking to us from Tijuana, 00:25:06.050 --> 00:25:10.590 where Lourdes Maldonado was just memorialized 00:25:10.590 --> 00:25:12.890 at her funeral yesterday. 00:25:12.890 --> 00:25:17.230 She is one of three journalists to have been murdered in Mexico 00:25:17.230 --> 00:25:21.620 so far this year, in the first weeks of 2022. 00:25:22.690 --> 00:25:24.610 Next up, we go to Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood 00:25:24.610 --> 00:25:25.890 in occupied East Jerusalem, 00:25:25.890 --> 00:25:29.250 where Israeli forces recently evicted a Palestinian family 00:25:29.250 --> 00:25:31.390 and demolished their home. 00:25:31.390 --> 00:25:35.470 We’ll speak to the Sheikh Jarrah resident Mohammed El-Kurd, 00:25:35.470 --> 00:25:37.670 well-known Palestinian poet and activist. 00:25:37.670 --> 00:25:57.290 Stay with us. 00:26:45.830 --> 00:26:47.070 AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, 00:26:47.070 --> 00:26:49.040 democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. 00:26:49.040 --> 00:26:50.430 I’m Amy Goodman. 00:26:50.430 --> 00:26:53.020 An Israeli court has rejected a petition 00:26:53.020 --> 00:26:56.670 by a Palestinian family to let them rebuild their home 00:26:56.670 --> 00:26:58.130 in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood 00:26:58.130 --> 00:26:59.890 in occupied East Jerusalem, 00:26:59.890 --> 00:27:04.050 a week after the Israeli military destroyed their home, 00:27:04.050 --> 00:27:06.300 demolished it. On January 19th, 00:27:06.300 --> 00:27:10.240 Israeli forces raided the home of the Salhiyeh family 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:12.080 early in the morning while the family slept. 00:27:12.080 --> 00:27:14.710 Several members of the family were assaulted. 00:27:14.710 --> 00:27:16.400 At least six were arrested. 00:27:16.400 --> 00:27:19.020 Mahmoud Salhiyeh and his daughter Yasmin 00:27:19.020 --> 00:27:20.700 spoke about what happened. 00:27:20.700 --> 00:27:25.120 MAHMOUD SALHIYEH: [translated] At 2 a.m., my son woke me up 00:27:25.120 --> 00:27:27.330 and said that the army are entering the house. 00:27:27.330 --> 00:27:30.180 I couldn’t leave the room. They came in and arrested me. 00:27:30.180 --> 00:27:32.170 They stepped on my back, and the officer said, 00:27:32.170 --> 00:27:34.600 "I told you I will come evict you from your home, 00:27:34.600 --> 00:27:37.570 and I will let you leave your house like a dog, barefoot." 00:27:37.570 --> 00:27:39.150 He stepped on my back and told me, 00:27:39.150 --> 00:27:40.370 "Put your head down." 00:27:40.370 --> 00:27:42.880 I told him, "I never put my head down." 00:27:42.880 --> 00:27:46.530 YASMIN SALHIYEH: [translated] The house was demolished. 00:27:46.530 --> 00:27:49.490 I saw videos and live videos. My heart is broken. 00:27:50.040 --> 00:27:52.130 I don’t know how to express myself. 00:27:52.130 --> 00:27:54.250 The house that I was raised in now is torn up. 00:27:54.250 --> 00:27:57.550 Everything in the house is gone. The feeling is so hard to see 00:27:57.550 --> 00:28:00.950 that my father’s hard work for 25 years is demolished. 00:28:01.650 --> 00:28:03.980 Our memories, my father’s heritage in this land, 00:28:03.980 --> 00:28:06.490 everything is gone. Even the cats and animals 00:28:06.490 --> 00:28:08.389 that were raised on the land are gone. 00:28:09.650 --> 00:28:11.740 AMY GOODMAN: At least another 18 Palestinians 00:28:11.740 --> 00:28:13.310 who were at the home in solidarity 00:28:13.310 --> 00:28:15.310 with the family were also detained. 00:28:15.310 --> 00:28:18.150 Palestinians say it’s the latest in a series of evictions 00:28:18.150 --> 00:28:20.280 aimed at expropriating land for Israeli 00:28:20.280 --> 00:28:22.610 settlers in violation of international law. 00:28:23.140 --> 00:28:25.160 We’re joined by Mohammed El-Kurd, 00:28:25.160 --> 00:28:27.450 a Palestine correspondent for The Nation, 00:28:27.450 --> 00:28:30.900 author of the recently published book of poems, Rifqa. 00:28:31.410 --> 00:28:33.540 His family’s home is in the Sheikh Jarrah 00:28:33.540 --> 00:28:35.360 neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem. 00:28:35.360 --> 00:28:37.760 He’s joining us, though, now from New York City. 00:28:38.510 --> 00:28:40.450 Mohammed, welcome back to Democracy Now! 00:28:40.450 --> 00:28:44.770 Can you explain what happened to the Salhiyeh family? 00:28:44.770 --> 00:28:49.240 In fact, before the Israeli military destroyed their home, 00:28:49.240 --> 00:28:51.760 they said that they would burn it down 00:28:52.370 --> 00:28:55.180 to resist the eviction and the destruction. 00:28:55.180 --> 00:28:58.830 Tell us why their home was destroyed and what happened. 00:29:00.030 --> 00:29:01.390 MOHAMMED EL-KURD: Absolutely. And thank you, Amy. 00:29:01.390 --> 00:29:03.290 It’s good to be back. 00:29:03.290 --> 00:29:04.970 You know, we’ve all seen the videos 00:29:04.970 --> 00:29:07.090 of the Salhiyeh family’s home being demolished. 00:29:07.090 --> 00:29:10.800 It’s important to note that the Israeli occupation court 00:29:10.800 --> 00:29:14.770 ruled that their land would be expropriated for, quote-unquote, 00:29:14.770 --> 00:29:18.290 "public use," for the building of a special needs school. 00:29:18.920 --> 00:29:21.920 The house, in fact, did not have a demolition order on it. 00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:24.680 What many Palestinians see this as is, 00:29:24.680 --> 00:29:25.990 in fact, an act of revenge, 00:29:25.990 --> 00:29:28.650 because the Salhiyeh family stood its ground 00:29:28.650 --> 00:29:32.780 on the eviction day and confronted the forces 00:29:32.780 --> 00:29:35.120 and said that they would burn themselves alive, 00:29:35.120 --> 00:29:37.460 should they be thrown out of their homes. 00:29:37.460 --> 00:29:39.070 And so, this violent spectacle, 00:29:39.070 --> 00:29:44.010 this coming in and smacking down the doors at dawn 00:29:44.010 --> 00:29:46.830 under the cover of darkness and insulting you and arresting 00:29:46.830 --> 00:29:49.230 and detaining the people in solidarity with you, 00:29:50.420 --> 00:29:53.110 is not just to intimidate Palestinians 00:29:53.110 --> 00:29:54.430 and quell the resistance, 00:29:54.430 --> 00:29:56.510 but it’s also to send a victory image 00:29:56.510 --> 00:29:58.990 to the Israeli audience, that was very intimidated 00:29:58.990 --> 00:30:00.670 by the Salhiyeh family’s powerful 00:30:00.670 --> 00:30:04.050 stance against dispossession. 00:30:04.570 --> 00:30:07.750 This is in fact an act of revenge. 00:30:07.750 --> 00:30:10.500 It also must be pointed that this is illegal 00:30:10.500 --> 00:30:13.770 under international law, given that Israeli jurisdiction 00:30:13.770 --> 00:30:15.870 over Palestinian land is illegitimate. 00:30:17.070 --> 00:30:19.980 AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the neighborhood 00:30:19.980 --> 00:30:22.790 of Sheikh Jarrah, where you and your twin sister 00:30:24.570 --> 00:30:28.630 and other Palestinians live? You’ve been detained many times, 00:30:28.630 --> 00:30:31.920 though your family’s home has not been destroyed. 00:30:33.850 --> 00:30:35.610 MOHAMMED EL-KURD: Absolutely. Sheikh Jarrah 00:30:35.610 --> 00:30:37.760 is one of the many neighborhoods in Jerusalem 00:30:37.760 --> 00:30:43.230 that is facing violent dispossession in a systemic raid 00:30:43.230 --> 00:30:45.720 to replace native Palestinians by — 00:30:46.570 --> 00:30:50.240 to replace them by settlers. In Sheikh Jarrah particularly, 00:30:50.240 --> 00:30:53.270 this is a case that has been going on for now 50 years. 00:30:53.270 --> 00:30:55.710 Our families have been going to court every single month 00:30:55.710 --> 00:30:57.340 trying to defend our homes, 00:30:57.340 --> 00:31:00.780 going up against billionaire- backed settler organizations. 00:31:00.780 --> 00:31:02.940 But I must say that this is not a unique situation 00:31:02.940 --> 00:31:04.280 for our neighborhood; 00:31:04.280 --> 00:31:06.880 it is happening all across colonized Palestine. 00:31:07.690 --> 00:31:08.990 Our family — my family today, 00:31:08.990 --> 00:31:13.590 our neighbors still await a court decision pending, 00:31:13.590 --> 00:31:16.950 to see whether or not we are going to remain in our homes. 00:31:16.950 --> 00:31:18.730 And this is just the reality for many, 00:31:18.730 --> 00:31:21.810 many, many hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. 00:31:23.170 --> 00:31:25.340 AMY GOODMAN: What will happen to the Salhiyehs now? 00:31:25.340 --> 00:31:27.830 How long had they lived in their home? 00:31:29.610 --> 00:31:31.310 MOHAMMED EL-KURD: They have lived — 00:31:32.090 --> 00:31:34.380 they’ve lived in their home for many, many decades, 00:31:34.380 --> 00:31:37.400 even before the Israeli occupation 00:31:37.400 --> 00:31:41.440 got to East Jerusalem in ’67. No one knows. 00:31:41.440 --> 00:31:44.210 You know, many Palestinians that are expelled from their homes 00:31:44.210 --> 00:31:46.470 are working-class families with nowhere else to go, 00:31:46.470 --> 00:31:48.610 with no one to turn to, 00:31:48.610 --> 00:31:51.850 and they are rendered homeless in the street. 00:31:51.850 --> 00:31:54.570 And this is happening in the cold of winter, 00:31:54.570 --> 00:31:56.270 no less, nonetheless. 00:31:57.750 --> 00:32:00.800 AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what is happening, 00:32:00.800 --> 00:32:04.130 in related news, in the occupied West Bank, 00:32:05.740 --> 00:32:11.470 where Omar Abdulmajeed Asaad was just killed? 00:32:11.470 --> 00:32:15.600 Israeli forces — it’s believed he was 80 years old. 00:32:15.600 --> 00:32:17.300 He’s Palestinian American. 00:32:17.920 --> 00:32:19.770 They stopped him while driving home, 00:32:19.770 --> 00:32:21.140 then dragged him out of the car, 00:32:21.140 --> 00:32:23.460 gagged and handcuffed him, left him to die. 00:32:23.460 --> 00:32:26.000 What do you know about this American citizen? 00:32:28.780 --> 00:32:30.180 MOHAMMED EL-KURD: I know that he has gone through 00:32:30.180 --> 00:32:35.230 what many Palestinians have gone through of brutal Zionist force. 00:32:35.230 --> 00:32:38.100 I believe that he was killed by the Israeli occupation forces. 00:32:38.100 --> 00:32:42.240 You don’t take a Palestinian elderly 80-year-old man, 00:32:42.240 --> 00:32:45.290 gag him, blindfold him, drag him in the street 00:32:45.290 --> 00:32:48.300 and leave him in the cold with no intention to harm him. 00:32:48.300 --> 00:32:52.930 He was unresponsive while the Israeli forces were still there, 00:32:52.930 --> 00:32:54.610 according to eyewitnesses, 00:32:54.610 --> 00:32:56.810 and they just left him there to die. 00:32:56.810 --> 00:32:58.380 Of course, now the Israeli military 00:32:58.380 --> 00:32:59.930 is going to investigate itself, 00:32:59.930 --> 00:33:01.810 and it’s going to find that it in fact 00:33:01.810 --> 00:33:03.930 have committed no atrocities and no crimes, 00:33:03.930 --> 00:33:05.850 and no one is going to be punished 00:33:05.850 --> 00:33:08.200 for what happened to this elderly man 00:33:08.200 --> 00:33:10.640 who very tragically was killed. 00:33:11.860 --> 00:33:13.740 AMY GOODMAN: Mohammed, we usually speak to you 00:33:13.740 --> 00:33:15.580 in Sheikh Jarrah. Can you talk about 00:33:15.580 --> 00:33:17.350 what’s brought you to the United States? 00:33:17.350 --> 00:33:20.290 And also, the anthology of your poetry, 00:33:20.290 --> 00:33:24.030 can you talk about Rifqa and why you named it Rifqa? 00:33:25.820 --> 00:33:27.440 MOHAMMED EL-KURD: Well, I am here 00:33:27.440 --> 00:33:30.730 in the United States pursuing a master’s degree. 00:33:31.370 --> 00:33:34.620 And I’ve come also to write and — 00:33:35.190 --> 00:33:36.550 I have come to write and publish 00:33:36.550 --> 00:33:38.670 writing in English about dispossession, 00:33:38.670 --> 00:33:40.750 about the ethnic cleansing in Palestine. 00:33:40.750 --> 00:33:42.210 And this is why the name of my book, 00:33:42.210 --> 00:33:45.070 you know, is called Rifqa. It’s named after my grandmother, 00:33:45.070 --> 00:33:47.790 who was dispossessed of her home in 1948 00:33:47.790 --> 00:33:51.250 and then again in 2009. And had she been alive today, 00:33:51.250 --> 00:33:54.100 she would be facing the prospect of yet another Nakba, 00:33:54.100 --> 00:33:57.600 yet another act of violent displacement. 00:33:57.600 --> 00:34:00.370 This is also very true for the Salhiyeh family, 00:34:00.370 --> 00:34:02.070 whose home was just demolished. 00:34:03.440 --> 00:34:06.420 They once lived in the western part of Jerusalem, 00:34:07.070 --> 00:34:09.780 before 1948, before they were forcibly expelled 00:34:09.780 --> 00:34:11.920 from their homes by Zionist militias. 00:34:11.920 --> 00:34:15.730 And now this is their second time experiencing the same agony 00:34:15.730 --> 00:34:19.380 and the same ethnic cleansing at the hands of the very same 00:34:19.380 --> 00:34:22.530 Zionist militias, only under a different name this time. 00:34:22.530 --> 00:34:23.820 AMY GOODMAN: Let me also ask you 00:34:23.820 --> 00:34:25.640 about what’s happening in the Naqab, 00:34:25.640 --> 00:34:27.340 in the Negev region. 00:34:28.750 --> 00:34:30.060 MOHAMMED EL-KURD: Yeah, thank you for bringing that up. 00:34:30.060 --> 00:34:31.960 I think it’s really important to note 00:34:31.960 --> 00:34:34.890 that there are thousands of Palestinian Bedouins 00:34:34.890 --> 00:34:36.310 currently in the Naqab region 00:34:36.310 --> 00:34:38.600 in the south of historic Palestine 00:34:38.600 --> 00:34:41.690 that have cultivated their lands and inhabited for decades 00:34:41.690 --> 00:34:43.040 and decades on end, 00:34:43.040 --> 00:34:46.590 yet have not had their ownership, quote-unquote, 00:34:46.590 --> 00:34:48.880 "recognized" by the Israeli government, 00:34:48.880 --> 00:34:53.330 that are now facing displacement at the hands of the JNF, 00:34:53.330 --> 00:34:54.650 the Jewish National Fund, 00:34:54.650 --> 00:34:59.400 which, as Al Jazeera’s journalist Zena Tahhan reports, 00:34:59.400 --> 00:35:03.130 is a quasi-government agency that is mandated with leasing 00:35:03.130 --> 00:35:04.970 and developing land with Jews only 00:35:04.970 --> 00:35:09.540 and owns 13% of Israeli, quote-unquote, "state lands." 00:35:10.460 --> 00:35:11.960 Most of these lands were obtained 00:35:11.960 --> 00:35:15.120 through the anti-Palestinian absentee property law 00:35:15.120 --> 00:35:18.500 that expropriated property from Palestinian refugees 00:35:18.500 --> 00:35:21.750 who were forced out of their homes in 1948. 00:35:22.710 --> 00:35:24.400 All of these thousands of Palestinians, 00:35:24.400 --> 00:35:28.890 Bedouins today face the prospect of homelessness 00:35:28.890 --> 00:35:30.800 and also face a violent crackdown, 00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:33.480 because they have said no, time and time again, 00:35:33.480 --> 00:35:36.470 to this forestation effort by the JNF — 00:35:36.470 --> 00:35:39.390 which, by the way, many have called greenwashing. 00:35:39.390 --> 00:35:42.480 They are uprooting Palestinians to replace them 00:35:43.050 --> 00:35:45.810 with invasive species of trees. 00:35:46.550 --> 00:35:47.980 It’s also really important to note 00:35:47.980 --> 00:35:51.560 that the JNF is a charity — 00:35:51.560 --> 00:35:53.210 is registered in the United States 00:35:53.210 --> 00:35:57.330 as a charity organization, as a tax-exempt organization, 00:35:57.330 --> 00:36:00.090 that is committing international law violations abroad, 00:36:00.090 --> 00:36:02.320 and thus violating American law. 00:36:02.320 --> 00:36:03.840 I also want to echo the calls 00:36:03.840 --> 00:36:08.940 and demands for the global days of actions made 00:36:08.940 --> 00:36:12.620 and called on by the activists from the Naqab 00:36:12.620 --> 00:36:15.650 in the south who are facing this dispossession. 00:36:15.650 --> 00:36:20.910 They are asking that their demolition orders be ended, 00:36:20.910 --> 00:36:22.920 that the forestation efforts be ended 00:36:22.920 --> 00:36:25.520 and that ethnic cleansing at large in Palestine 00:36:25.520 --> 00:36:26.900 must come to an end. 00:36:26.900 --> 00:36:29.210 There are global actions all around the globe today 00:36:29.210 --> 00:36:31.520 and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow 00:36:31.520 --> 00:36:33.740 demanding an end to ethnic cleansing, 00:36:33.740 --> 00:36:36.800 be it in the Naqab, in the South Hebron Hills, 00:36:36.800 --> 00:36:39.130 in Jerusalem or in the West Bank. 00:36:39.130 --> 00:36:40.380 AMY GOODMAN: Well, Mohammed El-Kurd, 00:36:40.380 --> 00:36:42.590 I want to thank you so much for being with us, 00:36:42.590 --> 00:36:45.950 Palestine correspondent for The Nation magazine, 00:36:45.950 --> 00:36:49.740 author of the recently published book of poems, Rifqa. 00:36:49.740 --> 00:36:51.830 His family’s home is in the Sheikh Jarrah 00:36:51.830 --> 00:36:54.370 neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem. 00:36:54.970 --> 00:36:56.240 When we come back, 00:36:56.240 --> 00:36:58.710 Downfall: The Case Against Boeing. 00:36:59.300 --> 00:37:01.950 A new documentary just premiered at Sundance 00:37:01.950 --> 00:37:06.940 that looks at the two fatal crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX 00:37:06.940 --> 00:37:12.790 in Ethiopia and Indonesia, killing all 346 people on board. 00:37:12.790 --> 00:37:16.680 We’ll speak with the director of Downfall, Rory Kennedy, 00:37:16.680 --> 00:37:19.810 as well as the father of one of the victims, 00:37:19.810 --> 00:37:21.510 Michael Stumo. Stay with 00:38:13.680 --> 00:38:15.380 us. 00:38:40.400 --> 00:38:41.600 AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, 00:38:41.600 --> 00:38:44.540 democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. 00:38:44.540 --> 00:38:46.080 I’m Amy Goodman. 00:38:46.080 --> 00:38:50.410 Relatives of passengers who died in a pair of fatal crashes 00:38:50.410 --> 00:38:54.190 of Boeing 737 MAX jets in Ethiopia and Indonesia 00:38:54.730 --> 00:38:57.650 are urging Attorney General Merrick Garland 00:38:57.650 --> 00:39:00.820 to reopen a $2.5 billion settlement 00:39:00.820 --> 00:39:03.180 that the Trump administration reached with Boeing 00:39:03.180 --> 00:39:05.490 in its final days in office last year. 00:39:06.020 --> 00:39:07.240 Under the settlement, 00:39:07.240 --> 00:39:10.960 Boeing avoids criminal prosecution over its role 00:39:10.960 --> 00:39:14.680 in two of the deadliest airplane crashes in years. 00:39:15.690 --> 00:39:17.940 Attorney General Garland held a video meeting 00:39:17.940 --> 00:39:19.830 with several family members Wednesday. 00:39:19.830 --> 00:39:24.810 The first crash occurred on October 29, 2018, 00:39:24.810 --> 00:39:26.920 when a Lion Air flight in Indonesia 00:39:26.920 --> 00:39:29.380 crashed after taking off from Jakarta, 00:39:29.380 --> 00:39:32.230 killing all 189 people aboard. 00:39:33.380 --> 00:39:38.530 Just after five months later, on March 10, 2019, 00:39:38.530 --> 00:39:41.860 an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed minutes 00:39:41.860 --> 00:39:43.920 after taking off from Addis Ababa. 00:39:44.470 --> 00:39:48.620 A hundred fifty-seven people died — everyone on board. 00:39:49.290 --> 00:39:51.350 Both planes were using a new, 00:39:51.350 --> 00:39:54.210 flawed automated flight control system 00:39:54.210 --> 00:39:56.400 that activated erroneously. 00:39:57.110 --> 00:39:59.440 The story of the Boeing crashes 00:39:59.440 --> 00:40:02.810 and the company’s push for profit over safety 00:40:02.810 --> 00:40:06.260 are told in a stunning new documentary called 00:40:06.260 --> 00:40:08.510 Downfall: The Case Against Boeing. 00:40:08.510 --> 00:40:11.560 It just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. 00:40:11.560 --> 00:40:15.020 This is an excerpt featuring Garima Sethi, 00:40:15.020 --> 00:40:16.980 the wife of Bhavye Suneja, 00:40:16.980 --> 00:40:21.840 who died in the crash of Lion Air Flight 610 in Indonesia. 00:40:21.840 --> 00:40:23.540 He was the pilot. 00:40:24.400 --> 00:40:26.260 GARIMA SETHI: My husband prepared his flight bag, 00:40:26.910 --> 00:40:28.170 checked his schedule, 00:40:28.170 --> 00:40:30.820 checked out with his colleague that he’s flying with. 00:40:32.200 --> 00:40:35.540 We had a meal and had a chat for 20, 30 minutes. 00:40:37.510 --> 00:40:40.410 That was the normal routine before he left for his flight. 00:40:42.330 --> 00:40:44.820 After he left, I went back to sleep. 00:40:45.710 --> 00:40:48.500 And after a few hours, I was expecting a call from him. 00:40:49.700 --> 00:40:51.499 You know, just a normal working day. 00:40:58.280 --> 00:40:59.610 AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Lion Inter 610 cleared 00:40:59.610 --> 00:41:01.680 for takeoff, runway 2-5 left. 00:41:02.460 --> 00:41:04.380 CO-PILOT: Lion Inter 610 cleared 00:41:07.030 --> 00:41:13.100 for takeoff, 2-5 left. 00:41:21.110 --> 00:41:23.200 WARNING SYSTEM: Airspeed low. Airspeed low. 00:41:23.200 --> 00:41:25.140 CO-PILOT: Indicated airspeed disagree, Captain. 00:41:25.140 --> 00:41:28.670 WARNING SYSTEM: Airspeed low. Airspeed low. 00:41:30.150 --> 00:41:31.850 CO-PILOT: Feel differential. 00:41:34.310 --> 00:41:36.160 WARNING SYSTEM: Bank angle. Bank angle. Bank angle. 00:41:36.850 --> 00:41:38.550 CO-PILOT: Altitude disagree, Captain! 00:41:44.070 --> 00:41:45.770 AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Lion Inter 610? 00:41:49.330 --> 00:41:51.030 CO-PILOT: We have a flight control problem! 00:41:57.230 --> 00:42:03.200 WARNING SYSTEM: Pull up. Pull up. 00:42:05.030 --> 00:42:06.730 CO-PILOT: Fly up! Fly up! 00:42:07.400 --> 00:42:09.400 GARIMA SETHI: I got a call from one of his colleagues: 00:42:10.160 --> 00:42:12.160 "We are not able to find his aircraft." 00:42:13.420 --> 00:42:15.100 I’m like, "Don’t worry," because I knew — 00:42:15.100 --> 00:42:17.390 I knew my husband. I knew how he flew. 00:42:19.160 --> 00:42:20.880 I was just expecting a call from him, you know? 00:42:20.880 --> 00:42:23.479 I reached. That was the norm that we used to follow. 00:42:24.170 --> 00:42:27.550 So I was expecting that call from him instead of anyone else. 00:42:29.930 --> 00:42:33.070 And after that, it’s just been — everyone knows. 00:42:33.780 --> 00:42:36.170 AMY GOODMAN: That was Garima Sethi, 00:42:36.170 --> 00:42:39.570 the wife of the Indonesian pilot in the Lion Air flight 00:42:39.570 --> 00:42:41.720 that went down in 2018. 00:42:42.350 --> 00:42:46.800 And that excerpt is from the upcoming Netflix documentary 00:42:46.800 --> 00:42:49.020 Downfall: The Case Against Boeing. 00:42:49.020 --> 00:42:50.610 We’re joined now by two guests: 00:42:50.610 --> 00:42:53.690 the film’s director and producer, Rory Kennedy — 00:42:54.210 --> 00:42:56.640 she’s an Academy Award-nominated, 00:42:56.640 --> 00:42:59.770 Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker — 00:42:59.770 --> 00:43:02.830 and Michael Stumo, who is the father of Samya Stumo, 00:43:02.830 --> 00:43:07.830 who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash in March of 2019, 00:43:07.830 --> 00:43:10.670 not six months after the Indonesian flight. 00:43:11.380 --> 00:43:12.910 Michael, I want to begin with you, 00:43:12.910 --> 00:43:15.760 and I wanted to start off by sharing 00:43:15.760 --> 00:43:18.830 all of our condolences on the death of Samya, 00:43:18.830 --> 00:43:22.430 who I had gotten a chance to meet when she was alive, 00:43:22.430 --> 00:43:28.790 a beautiful young activist committed to social change. 00:43:29.300 --> 00:43:31.730 I wanted to give my condolences to your family. 00:43:31.730 --> 00:43:37.060 We had spoken with Ralph Nader, her granduncle, at the time, 00:43:37.690 --> 00:43:40.620 but I haven’t spoken to you and to your wife Nadia. 00:43:41.810 --> 00:43:43.510 Thank you for joining us. 00:43:44.790 --> 00:43:46.550 MICHAEL STUMO: Thanks for letting me be here. 00:43:47.280 --> 00:43:49.030 AMY GOODMAN: So, Michael, you just met 00:43:49.030 --> 00:43:51.540 with Merrick Garland, the attorney general. 00:43:51.540 --> 00:43:57.890 Before we talk about this really stunning documentary, 00:43:57.890 --> 00:44:00.510 I wanted to ask you about this latest news, 00:44:00.510 --> 00:44:02.210 what you are calling for. 00:44:04.750 --> 00:44:06.070 MICHAEL STUMO: The criminal settlement, 00:44:06.070 --> 00:44:08.250 the deferred prosecution agreement with Boeing 00:44:08.250 --> 00:44:10.330 in the latter days of the Trump administration 00:44:10.330 --> 00:44:13.490 after Attorney General Barr had left, 00:44:14.280 --> 00:44:20.150 caused surprise, anger and grief among all the crash families, 00:44:20.150 --> 00:44:22.440 who are connected in a WhatsApp group globally, 00:44:22.440 --> 00:44:25.720 just erupted in anger. They never talked to us, 00:44:25.720 --> 00:44:27.280 despite me and my wife 00:44:27.280 --> 00:44:30.790 asking to speak to the DOJ a few months before. 00:44:30.790 --> 00:44:33.930 "Hey, what is going on in this criminal investigation?" 00:44:33.930 --> 00:44:36.400 They said — they denied there was an investigation. 00:44:36.400 --> 00:44:38.010 Everybody knew there was an investigation. 00:44:38.010 --> 00:44:40.130 They denied there was. We knew we had rights, 00:44:40.130 --> 00:44:43.010 under a law called the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, 00:44:43.010 --> 00:44:45.340 to meet and confer with prosecutors 00:44:45.340 --> 00:44:48.010 and have a say in their investigation, 00:44:48.010 --> 00:44:50.500 in their decisions. They said there wasn’t one. 00:44:50.500 --> 00:44:53.850 Then, all of a sudden, on January 1st, 2021, 00:44:53.850 --> 00:44:56.520 we find, oh, there’s a criminal settlement, 00:44:56.520 --> 00:44:59.970 a deferred prosecution agreement that immunizes Boeing executives 00:44:59.970 --> 00:45:02.019 and throws a couple pilots under the bus. 00:45:02.700 --> 00:45:07.430 So, this challenge is by a law professor, Paul Cassell, 00:45:07.430 --> 00:45:09.730 who’s an expert in crime victims’ rights, 00:45:10.310 --> 00:45:14.180 and it alleges that the Crime Victims’ Rights Act 00:45:14.180 --> 00:45:17.860 was violated. We want to reopen the DPA. 00:45:17.860 --> 00:45:22.180 We don’t want Justice to fight us on that. 00:45:22.180 --> 00:45:24.700 It’s under new leadership with Merrick Garland. 00:45:25.220 --> 00:45:29.090 Garland has in fact fought for victims’ rights 00:45:29.090 --> 00:45:32.050 in a prior life, in the past, as a lawyer. 00:45:32.630 --> 00:45:38.150 And we asked that he agree with us, 00:45:38.150 --> 00:45:41.210 or at least not fight us on it, on asking that — 00:45:41.210 --> 00:45:43.040 a declaration that our rights were violated, 00:45:43.040 --> 00:45:46.250 and that we should have the opportunity to meet and confer. 00:45:46.250 --> 00:45:50.620 And, in fact, we ultimately want this agreement reopened, 00:45:50.620 --> 00:45:52.360 so that our input is reflected 00:45:52.360 --> 00:45:55.820 and it’s not a hasty rush job at the end of an administration. 00:45:55.820 --> 00:45:57.720 AMY GOODMAN: And what’s your sense of the direction 00:45:57.720 --> 00:46:00.440 the attorney general will go? Again, to summarize, 00:46:00.440 --> 00:46:02.370 the Department of Justice has charged 00:46:02.370 --> 00:46:07.120 Boeing with criminal conspiracy to defraud the FAA, 00:46:07.120 --> 00:46:08.910 the Federal Aviation Administration. 00:46:08.910 --> 00:46:11.850 Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion 00:46:11.850 --> 00:46:13.860 in fines and compensations, 00:46:13.860 --> 00:46:16.140 but the arrangement allows the company 00:46:16.140 --> 00:46:18.290 to avoid criminal prosecution. 00:46:20.820 --> 00:46:23.140 MICHAEL STUMO: Yeah, so, just one correction there: 00:46:23.140 --> 00:46:27.560 Boeing only paid $243.7 million in fines. 00:46:27.560 --> 00:46:30.810 The rest of it was mostly to airline customers 00:46:30.810 --> 00:46:32.870 that they had harmed, 00:46:32.870 --> 00:46:35.820 where they had to owe the money anyway because of the grounding. 00:46:35.820 --> 00:46:37.500 So they threw that money, 00:46:37.500 --> 00:46:40.990 plus a bit of some money to families, 00:46:41.510 --> 00:46:43.150 to make it look like a bigger settlement. 00:46:43.150 --> 00:46:44.910 It was only $243 million. 00:46:45.640 --> 00:46:47.160 As expected in the meeting, 00:46:47.160 --> 00:46:51.290 Merrick Garland was very empathetic, very sincere. 00:46:52.510 --> 00:46:53.910 He listened carefully. 00:46:53.910 --> 00:46:56.120 We did not expect him to say which way 00:46:56.120 --> 00:46:58.320 he was going in the meeting, and he did not. 00:46:59.570 --> 00:47:01.610 AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring Rory Kennedy 00:47:01.610 --> 00:47:05.990 into this conversation. This film is jaw-dropping. 00:47:05.990 --> 00:47:08.780 You go deep into Boeing’s history 00:47:08.780 --> 00:47:12.150 and, essentially, into the cover-up. 00:47:12.150 --> 00:47:14.680 Talk about why you decided to make 00:47:14.680 --> 00:47:17.070 Downfall: The Case Against Boeing 00:47:17.070 --> 00:47:20.520 and what you discovered as you investigated this. 00:47:21.820 --> 00:47:23.250 RORY KENNEDY: Thank you, Amy. 00:47:23.250 --> 00:47:25.900 And I appreciate so much being on your show, 00:47:25.900 --> 00:47:27.600 being back here with you. 00:47:28.500 --> 00:47:31.560 Like so many people, I followed this story, 00:47:32.360 --> 00:47:35.930 where we witnessed two airplanes crash 00:47:36.620 --> 00:47:37.960 within five months of each other, 00:47:37.960 --> 00:47:40.280 the same airplane, the 737 MAX. 00:47:40.280 --> 00:47:42.920 Three hundred and forty-six people lost their lives. 00:47:43.640 --> 00:47:46.140 And I wanted to know what happened. 00:47:46.140 --> 00:47:48.960 I wanted to know who knew what when, 00:47:48.960 --> 00:47:52.390 who was responsible for these planes crashing, 00:47:52.390 --> 00:47:54.370 for these lives lost. 00:47:54.370 --> 00:47:57.980 And I wanted to ultimately make a documentary 00:47:58.730 --> 00:48:00.780 where we could learn from those mistakes, 00:48:00.780 --> 00:48:02.980 hold those people accountable, 00:48:02.980 --> 00:48:06.490 and try our best to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. 00:48:08.110 --> 00:48:12.050 AMY GOODMAN: So, take us through the two crashes. 00:48:12.050 --> 00:48:17.250 I mean, what was some of the most galling parts of this 00:48:17.250 --> 00:48:24.080 were the blame that Boeing placed on the pilots 00:48:24.080 --> 00:48:26.190 and also on the countries, 00:48:26.190 --> 00:48:28.380 as if to say, in developing countries, 00:48:28.380 --> 00:48:31.060 they just can’t handle quite our planes. 00:48:31.060 --> 00:48:34.120 Let me turn to another clip from the documentary 00:48:34.120 --> 00:48:35.930 Downfall: The Case Against Boeing, 00:48:35.930 --> 00:48:38.270 which premiered Friday at Sundance. 00:48:39.090 --> 00:48:40.670 NEWS ANCHOR: An Ethiopian Airlines flight 00:48:40.670 --> 00:48:42.900 has crashed shortly after takeoff. 00:48:42.900 --> 00:48:45.080 REP. PETER DEFAZIO: Two days after the second crash, 00:48:45.080 --> 00:48:48.690 we knew that this plane appeared to be defective in some manner. 00:48:48.690 --> 00:48:50.290 GARIMA SETHI: It was their greed. 00:48:50.290 --> 00:48:52.970 Are the profits more important than the human life? 00:48:53.670 --> 00:48:55.370 AMY GOODMAN: "It was their greed," 00:48:57.070 --> 00:48:58.730 says Garima Sethi. 00:48:58.730 --> 00:49:05.130 And you also see in this clip Congressmember DeFazio, 00:49:05.130 --> 00:49:09.170 who led a deep investigation into what took place, 00:49:09.170 --> 00:49:11.870 the Oregon congressmember. But talk about, 00:49:11.870 --> 00:49:16.310 first, Lion Air and how Boeing responded, 00:49:16.310 --> 00:49:18.940 and then this unprecedented crash. 00:49:18.940 --> 00:49:21.900 Just months later, the same thing happens. 00:49:23.250 --> 00:49:24.520 RORY KENNEDY: Yeah. 00:49:24.520 --> 00:49:29.440 Well, I mean, one of the things that was shocking to me 00:49:29.440 --> 00:49:32.460 to discover in the making of this film 00:49:32.460 --> 00:49:37.460 is that as far back as 2013, there are meeting minutes, 00:49:37.460 --> 00:49:40.130 that we document and are shown in the film, 00:49:40.130 --> 00:49:45.220 that show that Boeing was trying to hide the existence 00:49:45.220 --> 00:49:49.250 of the MCAS system to the FAA, to the regulators. The MCAS — 00:49:49.250 --> 00:49:51.870 AMY GOODMAN: And explain MCAS, which no one knew, 00:49:51.870 --> 00:49:53.640 even the journalists — 00:49:53.640 --> 00:49:57.770 even the many technicians and FAA folks, 00:49:57.770 --> 00:49:59.940 even knew what MCAS was. 00:50:01.080 --> 00:50:02.500 RORY KENNEDY: Well, worse than that, 00:50:02.500 --> 00:50:05.090 a lot of the pilots didn’t know what it was 00:50:05.090 --> 00:50:06.580 and that it was in the plane. 00:50:06.580 --> 00:50:09.990 So, the MCAS system was basically a computer system. 00:50:10.530 --> 00:50:16.030 This plane was built based on a model from — 00:50:16.030 --> 00:50:18.610 a 737 model that was built in the '60s. 00:50:18.610 --> 00:50:23.370 So, it was basically retrofitted with larger engines, 00:50:24.830 --> 00:50:28.000 because Boeing wanted to get to market faster 00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:31.300 and wanted to save money. So they retrofitted. 00:50:31.300 --> 00:50:33.350 They put these very large engines, 00:50:33.350 --> 00:50:35.610 and the aerodynamics of the plane 00:50:35.610 --> 00:50:38.700 didn't function properly in certain conditions. 00:50:38.700 --> 00:50:41.610 So, instead of rebuilding the plane, 00:50:41.610 --> 00:50:45.840 they, again, in an effort to save money, 00:50:45.840 --> 00:50:49.950 decided to rely on this system, a computer system, 00:50:49.950 --> 00:50:52.100 to fix the problem. 00:50:52.100 --> 00:50:54.970 And basically, what this computer system 00:50:54.970 --> 00:50:58.130 did was push the nose of the plane downward. 00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:02.410 The problem — I mean, one of the many problems 00:51:02.410 --> 00:51:04.890 was that it relied on a single sensor, 00:51:05.670 --> 00:51:11.020 which is not consistent with regulations. 00:51:11.020 --> 00:51:13.010 You can’t have one sensor 00:51:13.010 --> 00:51:15.450 that could have a catastrophic impact. 00:51:15.450 --> 00:51:17.580 That sensor broke. 00:51:17.580 --> 00:51:21.620 It sent erroneous information to this computer system. 00:51:21.620 --> 00:51:24.700 And the nose of the plane kept pushing downward. 00:51:24.700 --> 00:51:26.749 Every 10 seconds, it would push downward. 00:51:27.670 --> 00:51:31.190 And in the first plane, that Lion Air airplane crash, 00:51:31.700 --> 00:51:34.700 they didn’t even know this system was on the plane. 00:51:34.700 --> 00:51:39.890 We later find out, which was — equally just blew me away, 00:51:40.790 --> 00:51:45.480 that Boeing knew, based on their internal research, 00:51:45.480 --> 00:51:48.260 that if a pilot didn’t respond within four 00:51:48.260 --> 00:51:52.890 to 10 seconds of the system breaking down, 00:51:52.890 --> 00:51:54.870 that the result would be catastrophic. 00:51:55.400 --> 00:51:58.360 And catastrophic means that the airplane would crash, 00:51:58.360 --> 00:52:00.270 and everybody would die on it. 00:52:00.270 --> 00:52:03.370 So they knew that as far back as 2016, 00:52:03.990 --> 00:52:07.180 and they still put these planes up in the air. 00:52:07.840 --> 00:52:12.210 And, as you point out, after that first Lion Air crash, 00:52:12.830 --> 00:52:17.230 they blamed the pilots, even knowing that it was 00:52:17.230 --> 00:52:21.520 the system that was faulty on this aircraft. 00:52:21.520 --> 00:52:28.180 So, it was, you know — I mean, you can imagine Garima, 00:52:28.180 --> 00:52:30.500 who we just heard from, 00:52:31.300 --> 00:52:33.910 not only having to deal the loss of her husband, 00:52:34.820 --> 00:52:39.400 and who had committed himself to really protecting his passengers 00:52:40.100 --> 00:52:42.840 and was an extraordinary pilot — 00:52:43.720 --> 00:52:46.120 to not only have to deal with his loss, 00:52:46.120 --> 00:52:50.550 but then to deal with this onslaught of press 00:52:50.550 --> 00:52:53.530 that suggested that her pilot husband 00:52:53.530 --> 00:52:55.230 was responsible for this. 00:52:57.390 --> 00:52:59.740 AMY GOODMAN: And so, that was Lion Air. 00:52:59.740 --> 00:53:02.350 And they could get away with that 00:53:02.350 --> 00:53:04.960 for as long as there wasn’t the second crash, 00:53:04.960 --> 00:53:06.820 where the same thing happened. 00:53:06.820 --> 00:53:10.090 And in fact, these pilots, because of the first, 00:53:10.090 --> 00:53:13.530 though they weren’t trained in a simulator, 00:53:13.530 --> 00:53:18.020 they were alerted to this MCAS, which, as you said, 00:53:18.020 --> 00:53:20.130 pushed the nose of the plane down. 00:53:20.130 --> 00:53:24.580 You had to act within 10 seconds, turning off the system. 00:53:26.520 --> 00:53:28.220 They couldn’t deny it anymore, 00:53:28.220 --> 00:53:31.190 though it seemed like they were hiring more PR people, 00:53:31.190 --> 00:53:33.430 as you point out in the documentary, 00:53:33.430 --> 00:53:37.450 than they were dealing with how to take these planes 00:53:38.900 --> 00:53:41.199 out of service until they could figure it out. 00:53:43.200 --> 00:53:45.260 RORY KENNEDY: Well, you know, the truth is, 00:53:45.260 --> 00:53:48.990 Amy — I mean, OK, so, between the first crash 00:53:48.990 --> 00:53:51.440 and the second crash, the other thing — you know, 00:53:52.140 --> 00:53:58.080 an additional memo and document is revealed in the film, 00:53:58.080 --> 00:53:59.780 which is a TARAM report. 00:54:00.390 --> 00:54:04.450 And the TARAM report showed that Boeing knew and the FAA 00:54:04.450 --> 00:54:10.490 knew that this plane had a likelihood of crashing 15 times 00:54:10.490 --> 00:54:12.280 over the course of its lifetime. 00:54:12.280 --> 00:54:15.540 So, that would average out as once every two years 00:54:15.540 --> 00:54:17.839 there would be a catastrophic crash like this. 00:54:18.590 --> 00:54:21.620 And they decided to keep the plane in the air, knowing that. 00:54:22.580 --> 00:54:27.130 That’s, to me, absolutely outrageous, 00:54:28.210 --> 00:54:31.040 I mean, to think that we are putting our children, 00:54:31.040 --> 00:54:33.650 our families, ourselves on these airplanes 00:54:33.650 --> 00:54:38.570 and that Boeing and the FAA would allow a plane like this 00:54:38.570 --> 00:54:43.450 to go back in the air, again, in the interest of saving money, 00:54:43.450 --> 00:54:48.430 because to ground the plane would cost Boeing millions 00:54:48.430 --> 00:54:50.140 and up to billions of dollars. 00:54:51.810 --> 00:54:55.590 But still, after the second airplane crash — 00:54:55.590 --> 00:54:58.550 first of all, they kept it in the air for three days, 00:54:58.550 --> 00:55:00.600 until there were a number of other countries, 00:55:00.600 --> 00:55:03.430 including China and the European Union, 00:55:03.430 --> 00:55:05.590 that grounded the aircraft. 00:55:05.590 --> 00:55:10.130 We only did that after three days here in the United States. 00:55:10.130 --> 00:55:12.580 And Boeing still blamed the pilots 00:55:12.580 --> 00:55:14.750 after that second airplane crash. 00:55:14.750 --> 00:55:16.390 AMY GOODMAN: Talking about their stupidity. 00:55:16.390 --> 00:55:17.970 I mean, the whole thing was incredible. 00:55:17.970 --> 00:55:20.510 But you also point out the corporate merger 00:55:20.510 --> 00:55:24.090 between Boeing and McDonnell Douglas played a key role. 00:55:26.290 --> 00:55:28.680 RORY KENNEDY: Yes. This was back in the '90s. 00:55:29.310 --> 00:55:31.600 You know, I mean, Boeing is a company 00:55:31.600 --> 00:55:34.010 that I have huge respect for. 00:55:34.010 --> 00:55:38.670 It's been a driving force in our economy 00:55:38.670 --> 00:55:41.870 and really was on the forefront 00:55:41.870 --> 00:55:45.930 of pushing the envelope in commercial air, 00:55:46.510 --> 00:55:49.730 allowing us to be able to travel all over the world 00:55:49.730 --> 00:55:54.290 after World War II. You know, it was involved 00:55:54.290 --> 00:55:57.090 in getting the rockets up to the moon. 00:55:59.820 --> 00:56:03.310 So it’s had this extraordinary history 00:56:03.310 --> 00:56:08.330 and has really focused historically on engineering 00:56:08.330 --> 00:56:11.340 and excellence and safety. 00:56:11.930 --> 00:56:14.040 And that all seemed to change 00:56:14.040 --> 00:56:16.600 when they merged with McDonnell Douglas. 00:56:18.350 --> 00:56:21.250 McDonnell Douglas was a flailing company, 00:56:21.250 --> 00:56:26.240 and somehow the people who worked at McDonnell Douglas 00:56:26.240 --> 00:56:29.310 ended up — you know, one person interview said 00:56:29.310 --> 00:56:31.990 they bought Boeing with Boeing’s money 00:56:31.990 --> 00:56:34.860 and somehow took charge of the company 00:56:35.680 --> 00:56:37.480 and really turned it into a company 00:56:37.480 --> 00:56:42.160 that prioritized profits over safety. 00:56:42.160 --> 00:56:44.320 AMY GOODMAN: Michael Stumo, 00:56:44.320 --> 00:56:50.790 the organizing that the families of the plane victims did, 00:56:50.790 --> 00:56:54.920 what you did, going hearing after hearing to Washington, 00:56:54.920 --> 00:56:58.940 D.C., this international community, 00:56:58.940 --> 00:57:02.150 because one of the planes went down in Indonesia, 00:57:02.150 --> 00:57:03.840 one in Ethiopia, 00:57:03.840 --> 00:57:08.260 and the image of you standing behind the CEO of Boeing 00:57:08.260 --> 00:57:09.600 in one of those hearings, 00:57:09.600 --> 00:57:14.490 each of you holding the pictures of your loved ones. 00:57:14.490 --> 00:57:16.210 Talk about the organizing 00:57:16.210 --> 00:57:20.130 that has exposed so much of what Boeing did. 00:57:20.130 --> 00:57:23.420 MICHAEL STUMO: The crash happened 00:57:23.950 --> 00:57:25.620 on March 10th of 2019. 00:57:25.620 --> 00:57:28.600 At the end of April, we learned that the FAA 00:57:28.600 --> 00:57:32.720 was planning to update pilot training for the MAX 00:57:32.720 --> 00:57:36.220 so that they received another hour of computer training. 00:57:37.050 --> 00:57:39.250 We knew then that the fix was in. 00:57:39.250 --> 00:57:43.260 They were trying to just do the minimal changes 00:57:43.260 --> 00:57:45.140 to get that MAX up in the air. 00:57:46.830 --> 00:57:50.560 We were, you know, on the floor. 00:57:50.560 --> 00:57:55.530 I mean, we were just grieving. We’re trying to recover. 00:57:55.530 --> 00:57:58.830 And then we realized: We have to go to Washington. 00:57:59.350 --> 00:58:01.930 All the while, my wife Nadia 00:58:02.890 --> 00:58:06.740 and I were connecting with families, family members. 00:58:06.740 --> 00:58:09.089 Crash families were reaching out to each other, 00:58:10.480 --> 00:58:13.980 connected in a WhatsApp group, connected in other ways. 00:58:14.650 --> 00:58:18.030 And Nadia and I went to Washington 00:58:18.030 --> 00:58:20.130 and met with 56 different members 00:58:20.130 --> 00:58:21.810 of the Senate Commerce Committee 00:58:21.810 --> 00:58:23.560 and House Transportation Committee to tell — 00:58:23.560 --> 00:58:24.830 AMY GOODMAN: We have 20 seconds. 00:58:24.830 --> 00:58:27.570 MICHAEL STUMO: — our story every time. 00:58:27.570 --> 00:58:32.590 And the getting the families to Washington with the pictures, 00:58:32.590 --> 00:58:35.500 many times in front of the decision-makers, 00:58:35.500 --> 00:58:39.490 was difficult but important to let them know what was at stake. 00:58:40.010 --> 00:58:43.120 AMY GOODMAN: And we will continue to follow the pressure 00:58:43.120 --> 00:58:45.970 you’re bringing on the attorney general and on Boeing, 00:58:46.580 --> 00:58:51.790 on what will come out of this horror that took place. 00:58:51.790 --> 00:58:54.060 Michael Stumo, father of Samya Stumo, 00:58:54.060 --> 00:58:55.990 who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, 00:58:55.990 --> 00:58:58.530 and Rory Kennedy, director of Downfall: 00:58:58.530 --> 00:58:59.850 The Case Against Boeing. 00:58:59.850 --> 00:59:02.050 I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.