records wednesday, august 21. you are watching "rt." a military judge handed down a sentence to bradley manning as punishment for releasing government documents including what is now known as the collateral murder video. last month, bradley manning was found guilty of 22 charges including espionage charges. he was facing a maximum of 90 years in prison. the government asked for manning

to serve 60 years. his defendanthe judge settled o. a dishonorable as charge from the army, and loss of pay and benefit. his sentence was reduced i 1182 days for the time he was in prison before the trial and another 112 days because of harsh treatment after his arrest in 2010. his attorney said this in reaction to the sentencing. >> while we were successful in avoiding the aiding the enemy offense, the fact that the government let this offense go forward even after it was clear there was no evidence of any intent to do so should sound an alarm to every journalist. it should sound an alarm to

every concerned citizen. >> i first asked her about the courtroom's reaction when the verdict was read. >> i was sitting in the courtroom when the judge did livered -- delivered the verdict. what i heard, i heard some gasps and despite repeated warnings from the judge and military officers, four members -- for members and spectators to make any comment or shout to we heard members, spectators say things like, bradley, you are our hero, and thank you, bradley. plenty of supporters who made their support clear. >> what do you make of the

sentence itself? the government was asking for 60 years. he could have faced 90 years. he ends up getting 35 years. >> it depends on who you ask whether it was lenient or too strict. it was possible he would face 90 years. the prosecutor asked for 60. the defense did not ask for any particular number of years but they hinted that by the time a lot of the information becomes declassified that he should not be still rotting in a jail cell. the charges that he pleaded guilty to amounted to 20 years alone just for those charges. some people say this could be a happy medium. i will say that during the press conference today that david

cohen's -- koons spoke at, he said to comment on whether it could be perceived as a fair trial, he said no because of the lack of transparency. there have not been any cameras allowed inside. if you could have cameras in the courtroom, a lot of what happened would not have happened. according to the attorney moments ago. >> we have had the trial and at lt verdict. is there anything else? -- we have had the trail anial d a guilty verdict. >> this is not the end. his supporters see it as another

chapter. another kind of beginning. there is another post trial process. he said that next week, he is going to file a request as soon as next week, file a request that president obama pardon bradley manning or at least commute his sentence to time served. he served over three years that he has een in confinement over three years justin this -- throughout the trial and pretrial. the case is going to the army court of appeals and it is possible that it could go all the way to the supreme court. >> thank you. >> for more on what the sentence means for bradley manning and other whistleblowers, is -- i was joined by the national security and human rights director at the human accountability object. and a professor of law at howard

university and a former chief prosecutor at guantánamo bay. i asked colonel davis with this sentence means for manning? > >> that number likely results in private manning serving about another eight to nine years of he will get credit for time served. you get good time credit as a third off 10 days a month. and he is held to per -- perl. -- parole. >> this is the criticl phase of the trial. manning had accepted guilt for some of these charges. the only question was, how long would he be sentenced to prison for and whether serving three years and being tortured was enough punishment as is.

liz wahl interviewed cornell west and here is what he had to say. >> it is a sad day the country when a fellow citizen like -- when he reveals lies and crimes of the u.s. government and is the one that is criminalized. >> do you share that sentiment or is there something to be said about facing some of the consequences for this and has he already? >> he already has. i would limit it to time served which of course included nine months in solitary which even the judge found to be torture or on lawful pretrial confinement. realistically given that the government was seeking 90 and then 60 and the defense was around 25, 35 seems like a good outcome though obviously it is a

very -- it is very steep compared to any other whistleblower on espionage charges. >> down to possibly eight, as you said. but that implies that manning is still sort of a dangerous individual which cannot be the case. he leaked secrets. it is not like he is giving security clearance and will be able to do this again. is this about sending a message, not summits dealing with a crime but making sure people in the future do not. >> the government had the opportunity when private manning pled guilty to improperly disclosing classified information, he stood up and took accountability. the government rather than just accepting his guilty plea in what would have been an appropriate punishment insisted on going forward with the aiding the enemy charge, similar to treason. the government lost on that and all they did was five years of

appeals from here on out. i think private manning has some good grounds for appeal but it is to send a message to the next person sitting out there. i have not heard anyone sing i wish i was private manning. -- saying i wish i was private manning. they will think twice about revealing unclassified information. >> do you think that information has been heard? rex they were unabashed about seeking this. that is all about politics and has nothing to do with justice. in terms of whether it has been heard, at least in my office, it has not stemmed the flow of people coming forward. edward snowden is an example of someone who found the manning case and all these act prosecutions to be instructive in terms of how the u.s. would engage in overkill and try to seek blood from a turnip in any way that it could. i do not think it would be a

determined -- a deterrent to other whistleblowers. >> does this confirm a lot of his suspicions about facing trial in the united states and how difficult it is nowadays to mount a whistleblowing defense case? >> whistleblowing is not a defense in a criminal case. it does not provide an affirmative defense and the kurt -- all the courts that have heard these charges, none of them have been sustained. in the drake case, they were dismissed. the espionage charges failed. manning is the case where it succeeded. that is in a court-martial context, a significant portion of which was conducted in secret and which the public had no access. >> we had a series of civilian on showcases that have shown it is hard to prove guilt. zimmerman coming to mind. this was a military court. how does that change the bird him a proof -- burden of proof

and make the defense more difficult? >> the standard is still beyond a reasonable doubt and a lot of the attorneys that have been in got -- involved in the guantánamo cases they gained respect for the military justice system. the system has gotten a black eye because of the mishandling of the sexual assault cases. you have the manning case today and you have major jassan and -- hassan and khalid sheikh mohammed in guantánamo. today was a positive step that can hopefully redeem some of the luster this system has lost. >> the other option is to get a presidential pardon from president obama. what is being worked -- is that hopeless? >> that will be a cold day in hell for that to happen. obama just finished our security, he was the one who approved of this.

same with all the other espionage act prosecutions of whistleblowers. i do not think he would have an epiphany or moment of truth that this is not a wise path in a democratic society that is supposed to be transparent. >> many -- manning did try to reach out to the "new york times." woul -- what does that tell you about journalism in general, the wikileaks angle and julian assange? >> it sounds like they blew him off. no one responded. given their coverage of the trial, it has been abysmal. they have not shown up during much of it. in terms of whether they would cover it, i do not know. i do not know if they would have covered his disclosure. i am not sure what they would

have done on that. there is a war on whistleblowers and journalism and a cracked out on information if it happens -- a crackdown on information if it embarrasses the government or exposes crime. >> thank you. >> moving on to the nsa. it has been roughly 2.5 months since the edward snowden leaks were exposed to the world and the mass surveillance operations unveiled. to this day, the nsa still is not sure of the extent of these leaks. unnamed sources within the intelligence committee told nbc news that the nsa is overwhelmed trying to figure out what edward snowden took. keith alexander was asked in july about just how much the agency knows regarding the extent of the leaks. >> let me ask you about edward snowden. you cannot tell us what he got but do you feel now that you

know what he got? >> yes. >> this latest report contradicts that claim. alexander answered the question in a more general sense, a spokesman said. more news is breaking about the scope of the nsa's surveillance of the internet, particularly u.s. networks. more unnamed government and in taligent's officials -- intelligence officials said the u.s. has the ability to monitor 75% of the domestic internet traffic here. it does this through a series of relationships with internet providers that at the request of the nsa, hand over various streams of traffic to be further reviewed using complex nsa algorithms. how these requests are handled differs between each internet provider. with some internet providers employing their own legal team to determine which data should be handed over to the nsa and which should not.

often, the way these requests are handled has "has caused friction between internet providers and the nsa." and definitions of what is a foreign to medication to be handed over to the nsa is still being worked out. as officials say, americans e- mail content and metadata is inevitably be swept up into the nsa's vast databases. in one instance, documented by the "wall street journal's" report, it was monitored. and the ap reports the nsa collected 56,000 e-mails every single year for three years longing to americans with no connection to terrorism before

the top-secret fisa court stepped in and ordered the nsa to change its collection methods. for more on this topic i was joined earlier by a senior attorney at the center for constitutional rights in new york and by brian dugan, technologist at the open technology institute in d.c. and i started by asking bryan about the government's claim that it is not fully aware of the extent of edward snowden's leaks. >> it is incredibly disturbing that they do not know what was taken, no audit trail was created. that is the type of abrogation of trust that the united states government needs to restore and that is why the president of the united states needs to instate an independent, external council of experts to review the nsa spying.

on all these systems that edward snowden was using, they, by default, should be creating audit trails of every single action of every single administrator on the machine. edward snowden was not the top- level administrator of this machine. he happened to have access across domains at a top-secret security level. there is no excuse for any administrator to not keep logs of that type of information, and it is entirely disturbing and untrustworthy of the nsa to not keep track of that type of intermission -- information. >> or they are being less than truthful as we have seen or just gross incompetence that they cannot seem to track what is going on on their net max -- networks. given the way the governments have reacted to these leaks, most recently detaining glenn greenwald's partnered a big veranda in the uk, does that not

show that it does not know the extent? >> only if you believe that a bit miranda was carrying some of the documents. it seems implausible that any one sent with valuable documents. this was an attempt to intimidate glenn greenwald or any journalist like him who was thinking about reporting on stories that involved classified information that the government does not want out there. a man with a family can be made to do anything and this is probably the most intimidating thing you can do to a journalist. >> nsa has the ability to collect 75% of internet data. it is inevitable that americans communications are getting swept up into these databases. at what point does the administration concede see that it is collecting mass quantities and it has a de facto domestic spying operation?

>> a lot of people in the media believe that the american public is blasé abou surveillance. all the polling data for the last seven years shows the american public does not care of the surveillance seems like it is targeted at terrorists and foreigners, but they do care greatly if it is during the debt every american order ordinary americans. you see all the administration's talking point saying we are not listening to domestic content, we are only gathering your phone numbers or we are targeting terrorists or only foreigners. the nsa is not particularly good at limiting itself to targeting foreigners if that is even what they are trying to do. half an hour ago, three opinions declassified from the fisa court. there were repeated inaccurate statement about the targeting and use criteria and these were inconsistent with the spirit of

the statute. that the nsa's actions were. when the cord gets information from the nsa that is accurate that can serve as a check at the nsa is not doing a good job of limiting itself to surveillance of foreigners. >> what are we supposed to make of this claim that 75% of the internet is being monitored? why not 100%? >> it is in the rest of the world or isp's that the nsa is not using -- tapping in. >> if the nsa is relying on these internet providers to hand over the first stream of data that they asked for, could that be a profession -- a potential pressure point to target these isp's and say we will not do business with you. we have seen organizations like lavabit shut down rather than

hand over this information. >> that is one area that the -- they are providing alternatives to the internet. if you look at prism-break.org, you'll will find a host of applications and tools that users can use to protect against surveillance. one is called mesh technology. it allows communities, people to generate their own networks that are entirely separate from the internet. you have to trust someone and we should demand trust from the organizations that we need to communicate. >> on to egypt where fallout from the violent crackdown on morsi supporters is rippling across the european union. that

crackdown has claimed the lives of more than 900 people. eu member states agreed to suspend exporting licenses that could be used against the egyptian people. the eu did promise to continue aid. the release of former president husni mubarak could be imminent. the prosecution has exhausted its appeals to keep him behind bars. he could be released as early as thursday. mom and morsi remains under house arrest and was joined by the most senior leader. i am joined by a political analyst. the release of embarq -- mubarak

might come tomorrow. what impact would that have on a country that is already in turmoil? >> mubarak was not acquitted. he is the temporary incorporation -- and incarceration. -- is in temporary incarceration. >> why have they not been able to start a trial? >> the first one is the killing of the demonstrators in january 2011. he has been sentenced to 25 years. the appeals court pointed the sentencing and he is a retrial. some of these cases they can

settle and pay the funds in question and then the charges can be dropped but the major case was the killing of the demonstrators and this bill still on. the latest update is that the prime minister of egypt has issued a decision to keep former president hosni mubarak under house arrest. >> he is not going to be released tomorrow. he could be released to house arrest. would that be temporary why they settled this appeals process? >> yes. >> assuming that this appeals process is not settled, what influence does the old regime have an egypt and if you were to be -- what impact would that have on civilian elections? >> first, the establishment is

still there or what is referred to as the deep state. still in place, still active, still influential to do things. it is not yet cleansed. it will take a few years even with the next president. the impact on the election, it is too early to say what will happen. there is still a debate on whether to allow elections for the parliament to be individually undertaken. each candidate will run independently. each party will submit a list together with their programs for the electrodes to choose which program they would like to take. we have tried the system before. it did not yield much result. the muslim brotherhood had a 30% guaranteed loss.

they would be part of any future government that would be coming as a result of the election process. >> the military was instrumental in mubarak's ouster. what is the relationship between the military and the deep state? >> mubarak was part of the egyptian armed forces. he was air force commander. he had gone through a few wars. one of them in 1973 as the commander of the air force. mubarak was ousted on the popular demand supported by the military. >> is it possible that once the muslim brotherhood is out of the picture, that the military could come back and support old regime forces moving forward? >> that is the $1 million question and that will determine

whether we will go into a civil war path or into establishing a democratic transition process. >> what do you think? >> it will all depend on the actions the military would take and which group is going to support him. if they still -- stay neutral we have a chance. >> what do you make of what the u.s. has -- how the u.s. has reacted? >> u.s. government, the senators on capitol hill, they are threatening to suspend military aid to egypt, 1.3 billion dollars and i am you it will not happen. there is not -- lots of repercussions. that would give the military a cause to suspend some of the articles and the peace treaty signed in 1979 at the white house and we can increase the number of -- they can increase

the number of their forces. the israelis will do the same and they will come back to the u.s. government to pay the bill for the economic hardship they will go through. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> al jazeera america launched in the united states. one before -- hour before they were on air, they were dropped by at&t uverse. a spokesman said, we dropped the current tv channel and will not carry al jazeera america due to contract disputes. we provide value for our customers and business. judges era america faced a similar setback when it was dropped by time warner cable after acquiring current tv. 48 million households in the can tune into al jazeera america but major networks like cnn, msnbc,

and fox reach more than 100 million households. that does it for now. for more on the stories we covered, go to youtube.com/rt america. you can follow me on twitter. we will sasee you back h ere at -- back hee at 8 p.m.

hello there. welcome to "newsline." it's thursday, august 22nd, i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. the people who operate the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant are wrestling with yet another challenge. they'd already confirmed that more than 300 tons of highly radioactive waste water has leaked from a storage tank. and now they say it may have flowed into the pacific ocean. workers with t