03/12/14 03/12/14 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! gm has said the defect could lead to the vehicle shutting off, which would lose power to the engine and the front airbags. this could lead to the airbags not to plane than a frontal crash. as of now, 13 people have been killed in frontal collisions where the airbag did not deploy. >> after hundreds of complaints and 13 deaths, general motors the justice department has launched a criminal investigation into how the nation's largest automaker may

have covered of deadly safety defects in its compact cars. we will speak with consumer advocate ralph nader, who is no stranger to general motors after writing, "unsafe at any speed: the designed-in dangers of the american automobile." he won a major settlement against gm for spying on him and trying to discredit him. then as senator dianne feinstein accuses the cia of spying on senate staffers and their computers as they investigated the agencies torture and condition program, cia director john brennan rejects the allegations. >> as far as the allegations of cia hacking into senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth. we would not do that. that is just beyond the scope of reason. >> we will host a roundtable discussion with former fbi director, ray mcgovern, and pulitzer prize-winning investigative journalist about her new book, "dragnet nation: a

quest for privacy, security and freedom in a wolrd of relentless surveillance." since i joined e-mail in 2006, they have been searching -- storing all of my searches. when i started to look at the searches, i realized how revealing they were. there were far more revealing than my addresses because it was a map of every single day. >> all of that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. cia and theween the senate overseers has intensified with open sparring in public. on tuesday, diane feinstein took the senate floor to directly accuse the cia of spying on senate staffers in the computers in an effort to undermine the panel's exhaustive report on the agencies torture and rendition program. report has yet to be released, but reportedly documents extensive abuses and a cover-up by cia officials. in her remarks, she said the

cia's spying broke federal laws and violated the constitution. >> i have grave concern the cia search may well have violated the separation of powers principled empowered in the united states -- embodied in the united states constitution, including the speech and debate clause. it may have undermined the constitutional framework essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence activities or any other government function. i have asked for an apology and a recognition that this cia search of computers used by its oversight committee was inappropriate. i have received neither. >> according to senator feinstein, the cia have also violated the fourth amendment, the computer fraud and abuse act, and an executive order tarring it from domestic surveillance. she said they try to spur justice department investigation

to thwart the panels report. nearby washington, cia director john brennan rejected the allegations. >> as far as the allegations of the cia hacking into senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth. we would not do that. that is just beyond the scope of reason will stop when the facts come out on this, i think a lot of people who are claiming air has been this tremendous spying and monitoring and hacking will be proved wrong. >> despite his denials, the cia's inspector general has referred the spying to the justice department for potential criminal investigation. more on the story later in the broadcast. the search for the missing airliner that vanished on route from elation to china continues to expand. search teams are now covering an area that reaches from the south china sea to the territorial waters of india. in recent days, the operation has shifted to the malaysia's

west coast, suggesting the plane made a sharp detour in the air. some 239 people were on board. president obama is set to host the new ukrainian prime minister today in a show of support just days before secession vote in crimea. russian backed crimean leaders announced the vote lasted week following the ouster of the elected government in kiev. earlier today the ukraine government acknowledged it won't use force to keep crimea from joining russia, saying his troops would be to expose to russian attack. nato has begun flying surveillance flights over neighboring poland and romania and what it calls an effort to monitor the situation in ukraine. on tuesday, the republican-controlled house voted 402 to seven to condemn russia for deploying its rushes -- is forces throw crimea. thousands of people filled the streets of santiago in tuesday to mark the return of chilean president michelle bachelet to office. bachelet was inaugurated for years after she ended her term as chile's first-ever female president.

she won reelection late last year on a platform of tackling income inequality and reforming a constitution dating back to the regime of general pinochet when she herself was a political prisoner. bachelet pledged to seek greater equality. believe there could be a difference when the day comes when i leave this house, i want you all to fill your life have changed for the better. that chile is just not statistics but a better place to live, a better society for all people. [applause] campaignet's cam pledges included a hike in corporate taxes from 20% to 25% and the eventual transition to free higher education. a hunger striking guantanamo bay prisoner has filed a first-ever legal challenge to force-feeding at the president federal court. emad hassan is said to have been

force fed over 5000 time since his first hunger strike in 2005. his attorneys detailed several forms of alleged torture by the u.s. military. they include the water cure, a technique dating back to the spanish inquisition that inserts large amounts of liquid into prisoner stomach that harsh speed, causing severe pain. the case could lead to the first significant court hearing on the legality of force-feeding guantanamo prisoners. a louisiana prisoner has been freed after 30 years on death row. of theord walked out angola penitentiary on tuesday after a judge vacated his murder conviction and death sentence. ford's exoneration came after new evidence emerged clearing him of the 1983 murder for which he was convicted. details have been kept under wraps in order to prosecute the actual killer. ford, who's african-american, was tried by an all-white jury. he spoke rudely to reporters as he left the prison a free man. >> my mind is going in all

directions. i was locked up almost 30 years for something i didn't do. when i left my sons were babies and now they're grown men with babies. >> he becomes one of the country's longest ever serving death row prisoners to be exonerated and released will stop to key players in new jersey governor chris christie's bridgegate scandal were called before a judge tuesday over the refusal to comply with state subpoenas. bridget kelly, was christie's former deputy chief of staff, and bill stepien, his former campaign manager, have refused to hand over documents to investigators. e-mails that have already been released show chris christie aides and officials conspired to close lanes leading to the george washington bridge in an apparent act of political retaliation against the mayor of fort lee. one e-mail from kelly infamously said -- "time for traffic problems in fort lee."

while stepping afforded the hearing, kelly braved a throng of reporters to make her first public appearance since the scandal roped open. her attorney argued that handing over more e-mails and documents would violate her constitutional rights, including the right to avoid self-incrimination. >> they're basically requiring us to incriminate ourselves by asking us to turn over these types of documents and give the testimony of communications that go with the active reduction in and that is unconstitutional. >> governor chris christie has denied involvement or even knowledge of his aides plot to close the bridge lanes. the controversy has threatened his prospects for the republican presidential nomination in 2016. "the new york times" reports the chris christie administration used salvage scraps of metal from the 9/11 wreckage of the world trade center as gifts to new jersey mayors who endorsed his reelection. republican david jolly has won the year's first congressional

race, special election in florida to fill the seat vacated by the death of congressmember bill young. jolly defeated democrat alex sink by under 4000 votes. republican groups have flooded the campaign with millions and outside spending in a bid to cast a vote as a referendum on obamacare ahead of the midterm elections. freelance journalist matthew power has died at the age of 39. matt was an award-winning travel reporter who filed dispatches from around the world for publications including harpers, mother jones, and "the new york times." in his early years, he also worked with us at democracy now! at the time of his death, matt power was on assignment in uganda, where he apparently died of heat stroke. one of his last pieces for gq magazine told the story of a former u.s. drone pilot living with deep regret over the involvement in scores of remote killings. in a statement, the magazine men's journal, for whom he was working on his last assignment, said --

and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. >> welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. the justice department has reportedly launched a criminal investigation into how general motors, the nations largest automaker, may have covered up safety defects in its compact cars that were linked to at least 13 deaths. the problem." six models of cars gm made from 2003 to 2007 suddenly turned off while being driven. means no engine power, no power steering, no breaks, no airbags.

a report by the industry trade that for 11cluded years, gm treated it as a matter of customer satisfaction, not safety. federal regulators may have also failed to take action. despite more than a decade of complaints at the rate of about to bang a month, the national highway traffic safety administration declined to investigate the problem, saying there was not enough evidence. then in february, gm announced a massive recall of some 1.6 million vehicles based on the admissions to which the effect. this is how the advocacy group consumer reports describe the problem. >> they're inviting customers to remove all keychains from their ignition switch and only use the ignition key by open operating the vehicle. you have locked to accessory and to on. what could happen is a very heavy keychain combined with a weak defect could at the key turned back to accessory or even lock. in that situation, the airbags with failed to deploy. >> the justice department's

probe into how general motors may have covered up its safety problems comes as republican and democratic members of the house energy and commerce committee sent letters to the gm chief executive and head of the national highway traffic safety administration, demanding all records of consumer complaints and reports of deaths or injuries. >> in a minute we will be joined by ralph nader, who's no stranger to general motors. in 1965, he wrote the book, "unsafe at any speed: the designed-in dangers of the american automobile." he won a major settlement against gm for spying on him and try to discredit him. he used the lawsuits proceeds to start the center for the study of responsive law. this is ralph nader pointing up a safety flaws of general motors chevrolet corvair. >> what aggravates is the real heel beganhe rear w to check under. and as it does so, they can go from three or four degrees to 11 degrees almost in an instant.

when that happens, nobody can control it. >> surely, they did the right thing, found out something was wrong. >> to why did it take them so many years? this is my point. either it is sheer callousness or indifference or they don't bother to find out how the car is behaving. >> that was ralph nader in the mid-60's. his exposé led to the first of a number of federal laws airing his imprint, including the 1966 national traffic and motor vehicle safety act. he joins us from washington, d.c. the longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic, and former presidential candidate has a new book coming out in april called, "unstoppable: the emerging left-right alliance to dismantle the corporate state." ralph nader, welcome back to democracy now! talk about this latest news about what looks like now the criminal investigation into general motors. >> a criminal investigation is certainly warranted. general motors knew about the defect in 2004.

they kept getting feedback of fatalities, crashes, airbags not going off, engines been shut off and the subsequent years they covered it up and did not report it to the department of transportation audit safety agency -- auto safety agency. they did not even notify the ceo january 31 of this year. that is the pattern that fits the predicate for criminal prosecution, which i understand the u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york is now pursuing. but what this whole tragic episode reveals, amy, is not just layers of bureaucracy in general motors that prevent serious problems from going to the decision-makers arguing for recall, but it also shows the ineptitude of the national traffic safety administration in the department of transportation that knew about this years ago,

did not think it qualified for recall, and it has to reveal a lot of internal documents both in terms of its own operations and relations with general motors that has been donated specifically by the director of the center for auto safety. so i hope this will swell up into a good recall, good correction which will take weeks for 1.6 million vehicles to be straightened out and the congressional hearings will hopefully lead to stronger and tougher auto safety laws and penalties. >> ralph nader, can you explain why it is the national highway traffic safety administration took so long to take action? you suggested their massively underfunded. was that the problem? >> that is one of them. i think the auto safety section of the budget is about $45 million a year, which compares

to the $650 million a year that taxpayers pay for guarding the embassy in baghdad and its personnel. you see the priorities here. safety on the highways should be a real priority. it is also a culture timidity in the auto safety agency. a culture of timidity bred by the lack of -- by the bush white house and to some similar extent, by the obama white house. that of course leads to a reluctance to follow up on the evidence, to stand tall for the american motorist, and that is not why we established the auto safety agency in 1966. maybe this will help turn it around. often it takes a tragedy like this to turn it around. >> general motors filed a time line with federal investigators that shows what a first became aware of the problems with the ignition switch is in some cars turning off between 2003 and 2007 and when it finally issued

a recall of six of those models last month -- about 1.6 money and cars. this is a cbs news reporter recapping earlier reports of problems. trucks and 2004, gm became aware of an accident with chevy cobalt. , but closeds opened with no action. 2005, newfield report of engines losing power. a service bulletin was issued to dealers in place customers complain singers a potential for the driver to inadvertently turn off the ignition. the concern is more likely to occur if the driver is short and has a large and/or heavy keychain. no recall issued. 2007, gm engineer began investigating new incidents of airbags not applying or discovered -- were discovered. 2010, discontinuing production of the cobalt. >> you i want to read from "the

new york times" about consumer complaints about the digitally dangerous shutdowns and six gm models. they were submitted to the national highway traffic safety administration of the rate of about 2 per month since 2003. "the times" reports -- ralph nader, talk about this sequence. as the sequence reflects unwillingness of the secretary of transportation and the chief of the auto safety agency to really pay attention to auto defects, not just gm, but --

this likely would not have the auto safety agency under president carter because she met every week with the defect recall manager. every week in her office, going through every single bit of evidence that might lead to trends that might lead to rapid action for recalls. the second is, the gm bankruptcy, when the taxpayers doled out gm in 2009, they immunize new gm and them from the product liability lawsuits that have been filed on behalf of of deceased or next of defects in gm cars. they just wipe them off. what i'm pressing for now in this terrible tragedy that is unfolding is that general motors voluntarily waive that immunity and allow all those product liability cases that were already in the courts were already filed about to be filed, to be brought to judicial

evaluation. in other words, reinstate the cases. it is not just the 1.6 billion or million category of the chevy gm cars but the other that had defects that produced death and injuries and whose cases were immunized for the bankruptcy job in new york city. unprecedented and very cruel to those people. we are going to go for that as well as press for criminal charges. >> should gm executives be charged with murder? >> it depends on the evidence of how high up the knowledge of the deadly defect percolated, and the extent to which they covered it up. that is why the internal investigation of gm by ceo mary berry and the congressional investigation and the department of transportation and the u.s. attorney in new york, i think they will get to the bottom of it as well as the media on top of it. this is not just a dozen or 13

fatalities. there are more to be discovered. but it reflects the failure of the regulatory process because of the power of members of congress like retiring john dingell from michigan who made a career out of stamping down on the auto safety agency and the department of transportation. not just in terms of opposing strong safety enforcement and penalties, but also feel emissiony advances and controls. so this can open up a whole new opportunity to protect the american people and to support those engineers inside general motors who have tried to do the right thing, but were not backed up. >> we're going to take a break in the move from cars to the issue of climate change and also talking about issues of energy, the third anniversary of the fukushima disaster. our guest is ralph nader. ♪ [music break]

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. i want to ask you about the all-night filibuster staged by more than two dozen senate democrats monday in order to urge congressional action on global warming. this is senator edward markey of massachusetts. fever planet is running a , but there are no emergency rooms for planets. we have to engage in a preventative care so that we deploy the strategies that make it possible for our planet to avoid the worst most catastrophic effects of climate

change. >> republicans dismissed the marathon session and call democrats "alarmist." this came as u.s. department of defense released a new report monday by the threat climate change impacts posed to national security. our guest is longtime consumer advocate ralph nader. could you respond to this? >> this is a welcome development. they went all night led by here he read and senator ed markey in the u.s. senate, making statements about the documentation for climate change and often called global warming, and the need for congressional action. it has to go way beyond that. congress has been an mobile bubble in this whole swelling concern around the country involving the frustrations and buteting and some lawsuits, it hasn't permeated congress. unless we can break through on congress for very little can happen for national convergent from fossil fuels and nuclear over to renewables and energy

efficiency. and the second point is this. when you have a very affluent people like george soros, tom stier, and al gore who are really out front warning about, change, when you have them, they've got to come and build a very powerful external lobby on congress where you have 100 professional scientists, lawyers, organizers, public relations specialist dissent on congress every day -- specialists to send on congress a concern.uilding if that does not occur, it doesn't matter how many demonstrations around the country occur, there may be a few bits of progress here and blockage ishe main congress, which is in a bubble. it is in a deadlock and we are to ask some of these affluent environmentalists to ante up and start a brand-new group so that

congress is literally as overwhelmed by people on this issue as they have by the drug industry or the real estate industry. this unprecedented action in the senate, it took war than three hours for the first raising of the issue of the keystone xl pipeline, which many environment list linked to the issue of climate change. democrat senator tim kaine a virginia may the demand saying, why would we embrace tar sands oil and backside to a dirtier tomorrow? senators are up for reelection in the category of -- democratic category and are going to be disadvantaged if the senate democrats make a big issue out of the xl pipeline. i think the other read is, a lot of these editors think president obama is going to approve it.

half of the pipeline is already built. that the pipe piled up and ready to go. it doesn't look good. it doesn't look good for turning that pipeline down. but you never know what can happen. >> i want to ask about the behavior of u.s. regulators in the days after the meltdown at that addition of power station which happened three years ago this week in japan following a massive earthquake and tsunami. internal e-mails revealed by nbcnews shows the nuclear regulatory commission made a concerted effort to downplay the potential of a similar crisis are occurring on u.s. soil. refusingign included to answer media questions on disaster preparedness, spinning journalists on key data, and even hiding japanese engineers from reporters visiting the nuclear regulatory commission. an e-mail from an rc public affairs director elliott brennan at a march 11, 2011 read --

"what one reporter knows or has guessed that there are japanese here in our ops center in communication with her home authorities, we will not make them available and we will not volunteer their presence." wrote -- "while we know more than these essay, were sticking to the story for now." insurance, loan guarantees. this is an industry that would fall completely if it had to face for enterprise risk patterns. unfortunately, there've been very few lessons learned from the fukushima disaster, which has led to an uninhabitable region in japan with over 250,000 people homeless or

refugees come and still more tonnage of radioactive water pouring into the pacific and even being seen on the west coast in our country terms of detection. nuclearve to phase out power as fast as possible. the indian point reactors, two of them, they are aging. they are 30 miles north of manhattan. it is not de facto bowl in case of an accident. new york city has trouble evacuating at rush hour time. the combination of nuclear power is it is uneconomic, it is unnecessary, it is uninsurable, unevacuable and unnecessary. the sooner we face it out, the sooner we avoid the risk of rendering hundreds of square miles in our country radioactively uninhabitable. it is not worth the risk in

order just to boil water. that is what these nuclear plants are built for. from the uranium mines in spent fuel rods and radioactive waste and the security problems around nuclear power, it's all designed just to boil water. to produce steam. what are our descendents going to think of us if we don't move our energy technologies over to the best fusion reactor we will have or have, which is the sun and its various manifestations? plus, imris advances in efficiency. -- enormous advances in efficiency. we're on a policy, amy, that can be called technological insanity. the first priorities to shut down those 18 nuclear plants in our country that are near mass

population centers, already nuclear power cannot compete with natural gas. it requires 100% government loan guarantees. some clans are being shut down like the one in california, and others are being mothballed. the industry is in decline -- >> and yet, ralph, the old om administration has approved $6.5 billion to back the construction of the first new nuclear power plant and more than 30 years. -- one currently understood under construction in georgia. the announcement coming as the administration investigated radioactive leak at a nuclear waste site in new mexico. wise president obama doing something that bush never would have dared to because of the backlash she would've faced, which is pushing for this new construction for the first time an honest 40 years. >> because his energy policy, number one, is cowardly.

coal, nuclear, solar, conservation, oil, gas, not all energy systems are the same, as we all know. they have different consequences, different prices, this respect, respect for prosperity. he is surrounded not only by the nuclear industry by the hypocritical republicans in congress who say they believe in the free enterprise system and are basically supporting a 100% taxpayer guarantee technology is building these nuclear plants in georgia and elsewhere, which will take years, if ever, before they open. barack obama is stuck with this all of the above. he has to get out of it if he believes in the national security of the u.s. nuclear power and nuclear power risks, spent fuel rods and pools around these plants and is the

very risk itself, in case of an earthquake or other disaster, is a major national security carol -- peril. and barack obama has to face up to it. >> finally, ralph, the issue of minimum wage. do you support president obama who has pushed to increase at an executive order that would pay at least federal workers $10.10 an hour? it is too small. listen to this. to show you how far back we have gone into the future, adding 30 million workers a wage today equivalent to what workers made in 1968, adjusted for inflation, would've been $10.90 an hour. it is 30 million workers would get a raise, spend the money, would be an economic stimulus and would bring it up to ontario or other western countries that are way ahead of us in minimum wage. and will reflect the opinion of

over 80% of the american people, including a majority of republicans around the country and southern whites that were polled around the country that are for an inflation-adjusted minimum wage so people can provide some of the barest necessities for their family and their children. if president obama's $10.10 over three years, mind you, doesn't you can totally until 2017 or so, it is not enough. by the time that comes, the $10.10 will be further eroded by inflation. i think california will lead the way with conservative run on the process of putting on the ballot . $12 california minimum wage his argument from a conservative point of view, to show you how we're seeing a left right coalition on this issue as well as others, as reflected in my new book, his argument is, the more people get the wage a deserve given the huge wage

increases for the bosses of , the lessorations they will have to rely on food stamps, housing assistance, medicare, and other public welfare support. from a conservative point of view, people are saying this is good because it saves taxpayer dollars. walmart should pay workers at least what walmart workers got 46 years ago, adjusted for inflation. our website is timefor araise.org. it is really easier than we think to turn this country around on one issue after another. less than 25,000 people in the last year and a half, some of them picketing mcdonald's and walmart, some of them doing research, some of them writing articles and some of them lobbying state legislatures, city hall and congress have turned the minimum wage into

what is now the number one economic policy advocacy for the democratic party. putting the republicans on the defensive. just 25,000 people. i want to convey it is easier than we think to turn our country around, whether it is energy or anti-poverty or tax reform or whether it is electoral reform. stop thinking we are powerless. we start with the constitution "we the people those quote not " we the corporations." why are they ruling us? >> ralph nader, thank you for , formerth us presidential candidate and author of many books. his latest book that is coming out in april is called, "unstoppable: the emerging left-right alliance to dismantle the corporate state." when we come back, we host a roundtable discussion on the

latest accusations of the senate intelligence committee and senator dianne feinstein at the cia is spying on the intelligence committee. stay with us.

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. of the senate intelligence committee harshly criticize the central intelligence agency tuesday for attempting to obstruct its investigation into the cia's use of torture following the 9/11 attacks. the report has yet to be released, but allegedly documents extensive abuses and a officials toia

congress. senator dianne feinstein took to the senate floor on tuesday to accuse the cia of accessing computers used by senate staff. >> i have grave concerns the cia search banwell violated the separation of powers printable's embodied in the united states thetitution, including speech and debate clause. it may have undermined the constitutional framework essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence activities or any other government function. i have asked for an apology and a recognition that this cia search of computers used by its oversight committee was inappropriate. i have received neither. >> feinstein also accused the cia secretly removing more than 900 documents from computers used by the senate intelligence committee, and said it tried to intimidate congressional

investigators by requesting an fbi inquiry of their conduct. at a public event nearby in washington, cia director john brennan rejected the allegations. >> as far as the allegations of cia hacking into the senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth. we would not do that. that is just beyond the scope of reason. >> meanwhile, former national security agency contractor edward snowden accused feinstein of hypocrisy for criticizing alleged cia spying on u.s. senators walk and owning government surveillance of private citizens. in a statement to nbc news, he said --

snowden was apparently referring to german chancellor angela merkel's failure to condemn the nsa for mass surveillance of communications of german citizens and her indignation that reports the u.s. had listened in on her personal conversations. >> or more rehearsed a roundtable discussion with three guests. i german as a fellow at nyu's brennan center for justice. from 1988 to 2004, he served as a net bia agent specializing in domestic counterterrorism. he left after reporting deficiencies in fbi counterterrorism operations to congress. his recent piece in the guardian is "the nsa was won't shut up about snowden, but what about the spy who stole more?" ray mcgovern is a former cia analyst whose duties included chairing national intelligence estimates and preparing the president's daily brief, which he briefed one-on-one to

president ronald reagan's most senior national security advisers from 1981 to 1985. in 2003, he helped create veteran intelligence professionals for sanity to expose the way intelligence was being falsified to justify the war on iraq. and we're joined by julia angwin , pulitzer prize winning best to get of journalists. she is a new book out called, "dragnet nation: a quest for privacy, security and freedom in a wolrd of relentless surveillance." there's a lot to take on right now. ray mcgovern, let's begin with you. explain what this conflict is about. two things, the cia, how did they spy on the senate intelligence staffers and what was the report that the senate diligence committee is trying to put out? >> this goes back to the key question of supervising the intelligence community. in the 1970's, it was the church committee looking into abuses of all kinds, illegal wiretapping, assassinations, and that kind of thing. it was recognized you need congressional oversight. that meant congressional

oversight, not congressional overlook, which is what we have had the past couple of years. if you fast-forward, 9/11, people always say after 9/11, everything changed. well, it did change. after 9/11, the president actually on the evening of 9/11 said, i don't what -- don't care what the international lawyers say, we are going to kick some ass. how do i know that? there. richard clark was the next up, they took some prisoners in a in a stand and the first person tortured was an american citizen. who was told about this in terms of oversight? that robertes, and jay rockefeller. they had a habit of taking notes and putting it in his own sake because it was classified, right? 6ur years later, september

20,006, a big day. first off, general michael hayden who was the head of nsa when he decided to violate his oath of the constitution and allow illegal wireless are tapping of american citizens, he had earned his spurs and become head of the cia. when the president, president bush at the time, decided he would make a clean breast of things and defend what he called an alternative method of her seizures, which now have become enhanced interrogation techniques, torture, he was going before the cameras in september 2006. general hayden hustle down until the rest of the senators what was going on. 4.5 years late about torture. what is the other thing that happened? this is significant. the head of army intelligence,

but in a general who made his career -- which in a general who made his career of interrogation, he preempted the president and the pentagon and said "no good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices. i think history tells us that. i think the empirical evidence , hard last five years years, tells us that." ?? what is the point the point is the army and everybody else knew the number one, that torture was going on. and it was ineffectual if you wanted reliable information. if you want unreliable information, man, torture works like a charm. that is what they wanted. they wanted somebody to be tortured into saying there were operational links between iraq and al qaeda. guess what?

the president quoted him the next day in congress voted to authorize the iraq war. it was that bad. what we're hearing now is senator feinstein playing catch-up ball. she is very upset, at least ostensibly, that her people are being monitored. there is a crimes report out there, actually. arrivedmight german had this morning. i said, what do you think is going to happen? he said it will probably be a beer summit and will be smoothed over. >> on tuesday, senator dianne feinstein also indicated the source of some of the cia documents may have been a whistleblower. the internal panetta review refers to an internal review initiated by then cia director leon panetta of the detention and interrogation program. >> we have no way to determine who made the internal panetta review documents available to the committee. further, we don't know whether

the documents were provided intentionally by the cia. unintentionally by the ca. or intentionally by whistleblower. >> mike german, could you explain what the significance is of diane feinstein indicating the source may have been a whistleblower from within the cia? >> sure. part of the issue is how the senate staff has gotten this document. to a certain extent, with the cia director john brennan said is correct. they didn't hack into the computer because they did not have to. they created a cia computer for the senate staffers to use. 2010, thehe course of ca staffers found out the documents they had reviewed on this system were disappearing from the system. there was a dustup over that bureaucratically behind closed doors. 2013, the cia issued a rebuttal to the senate

intelligence report and later they found out there was this internal document that conflicted with the rebuttal. when that was discovered that the senate had that, the cia apparently went back into their own computer that was being used by the senate and, apparently, is trying to find out how it was that they got this document. and that senator feinstein issuing that it may be a whistleblower raises concerns because her committee has been very unresponsive to request to provide protections for intelligence community whistleblower's. right now they are not very well protected. it is the intelligence committee in the house and senate that have been resisting to allowing legal protections for intelligence community whistleblowers. so this whistleblower who may have given the senate this report is basically unprotected. >> explain how it works.

in the senate intelligence staffers are doing their research, they go to the cia and the cia provides them with computers and then spies on what they look at in the computers. >> right. this is an extraordinary situation because to what ray said. this is supposed to be oversight of the cia that the senate is doing, not allowing the cia to set the terms for the oversight of their own work. and this is an extruder situation where through agreement, rather than giving the cia documents to the committee as asked, they require the committee staff to come to a facility in virginia where they had access to apparently a stand-alone system that was created for this purpose, that they then put some 6 million documents in but there was some dispute about who controlled the documents, with the senate could do with the documents, and this document apparently was printed off and taken back to the senate, which is what the cia

computing crimes report is about is that there were something inappropriate with that. >> when you work for the fbi, the recusing the cia, bringing in the fbi to fourth or investigatiton. >> is basically intimidation of the overseers. i not become too aggressive in my oversight, i might be charged with a crime in this highly classified area which might make me be a little less robust in my inquiry. >> let's not let this whole conflict of secure what it is that is being investigated -- obscure what it is being investigated, torture and rendition. but another example, the senate report, supposedly over 6000 pages, was finished over a year ago and yet it is the cia holding up the publication of

this report so we can see what it is, rather than the senate is saying, it is our report, we can vote and put it out and give the cia a chance to redact with a think is necessary. but if they want to that, we're just going to publish it. and that is astonishing that the overseers are being prevented the people they're supposed to oversee. >> and what about, ray mcgovern, what edward snowden just said to nbc? you went to russia. you gave edward snowden and award. you have senator feinstein now taking on the cia who has been rather vicious and taking on edward snowden. she is considered one of the greatest apologist for the agency. or her to take on his agency, the agency might be in big trouble, but what about how snowden stock units fit into the story? >> well, how much of what senator feinstein did yesterday was posturing we will know in the next few weeks.

on the face of it, for senator feinstein and her speech yesterday to decry the violation of the fourth amendment when she has sat by -- >> search and seizure. >> yes, the one that says no one shall be deprived of the right to have privacy. she has defended it. now all of the sudden, she is against the nsa or anyone else invading the senate's privacy. in a way, it struck me as giving hypocrisy a bad name. i think the beer summit is likely the outcome. the president is a lawyer and he will get them together and say, can't we smoothed this all over? but maybe not. maybe john brennan has overreached himself. his record for truth is not very good. it may be senator feinstein and

the president will face up to the fact that this is not the right person to be head of the cia. can you talkin, about how this will affect future whistleblowers and journalists and the publication to cover them? >> already journalists and whistleblowers are in a tough situation. it is hard to ensure a confidential source that you can keep your information confidential. if the senate intelligence committee cannot keep its investigation of potential, it is very difficult for me to say i'm a i will be a little do it. not all sources are willing to go live in russia. we are in a difficult time for whistleblowers. this is why wrote the book because i felt we are in a world where ubiquitous surveillance is really killing our speech. people are afraid to talk to the press. it looks like maybe the senate is afraid to publish its report on the cia and this is the result of the surveillance. >> mike german, can you say what

the mechanisms are that are being considered to protect whistleblowers? with the situation sits now, since 2012, they passed or congress passed the whistleblower enhancement act. they cut out a section that would've given intelligence community whistleblower's better protection. the president issued a directive that ordered the agencies to create an internal process but so far that has been delayed. i'm not aware of any whistleblowers using that process, if it even exists at this point. >> is it the threat of retaliation? >> the administration is been more aggressive against whistleblowers than any previous administration with very serious charges with like the espionage act. errors and insider threat program their initiating -- there is an insider threat program that their nation that encourages employees to report on one another when they see

conduct they believe is suspicious. it is this competing values they're doing on the one hand saying they care about whistleblowers and on the other hand, ca persecuting and prosecuting them. rareward snowden gave a in austin,sxsw texas. it is the first time yesterday the u.s. >> this is a global issue. the people who are in this room now, you guys are all the firefighters. [indiscernible]

>> that was edward snowden speaking through a number of proxies, little hard to understand. he added he believes his whistleblowing has improved u.s. security and he would not hesitate to leak the same nsa files again. when greenwald address the festival later in the day in julian assange addressed the festival on saturday via video stream from the ecuadorian missy in london where he has political asylum. .he significance of all of this julia, you are a pulitzer prize winning journalist. what this means for your work and your own quest for privacy as you went online to document how you can protect yourself? >> it has been incredibly difficult task these days. edward snowden mention some of the tools he uses to protect himself when he goes online, and they are incredibly cumbersome. in my book, i tried to see if i could use these tools and still live in the modern world.

i have to say, it wasn't the easiest task. one of the hardest things was trying to convince my sources to use these really cumbersome encryption programs to communicate securely. honestly, i started to think maybe we should just all go back to the postal mail. they need a warrant to open it, unlike your e-mail. >> what are they cumbersome? there difficult or take a long time? >> the encryption programs are often built by open source communities. some of the tools are not that well maintained because the people who built them are not paid. it's like a second job. one thing i've been thinking about is we have this idea we