in our top story today the rest of an hour to reporter and camera man in america is the topic of debate in a special edition of people of cross talk and that's just moments away. if you can. follow and welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle trampling on freedom of assembly and the right to protest demonstrating in front of one of america's largest military bases even journalists now can be expected be targets of heavy handed cops

. to discuss the state of journalism in america i'm joined by cailin ford in atlanta she's an r.t. correspondent and just released from a georgian jail also in atlanta we have lisa sullivan she is the latin american coordinator and school of americas watch and in washington we cross the michael o'brien he's a journalist and author of america's failure in iraq intervention to withdrawal one thousand nine hundred one to two thousand and ten all right folks this is crosstalk so you can jump in anytime you want when you're at the center of this media storm i know you've been through the day been telling our audiences around the world about your or your experience at this demonstration you as a journalist though were arrested as well as well as other demonstrators again can you give us a little bit of background and just basically what happened to you and then i'd like to go to lisa and talk about the organization that sponsored event go ahead.

absolutely you know we were sent down to cover the school of the americas watch vigil they've been having this event which is peaceful nonviolent for many many years and actually before the sort of melee ensued we had interviewed members of the columbus police department and they had commented to us on you know the nonviolent nature of this movement and how they've never had any problems with vandalism or violence in the past the days started out you know sort of concerts singing prayers there's a very strong spiritual component to the movement which i'm sure at least i will talk about more and when you know when it was time for the crowd to go out they had set erected barricades to keep them from entering from leaving rather the permitted protest on so they asked protesters to leave single file which they did and next thing i knew my hands are behind my back they came up behind us handcuffed as they handcuffed us very very tightly actually my my wrist started to bleed and i had

significant bruising still and then i'm sorry. could you repeat that you were roughed up so much that they broke the skin on your arm and coughing you i mean you're a journalist yeah i don't know if you could be dangerous but. they knew you were a journalist they knew you were a journalist right. that's correct we were members of the process we were accredited we were wearing our press credentials we were not demonstrators we were not part of the movement we were there doing our job and exercising our freedom of the cross in our freedom of speech our first amendment rights and you know they actually put they handcuffs on me so tight that i couldn't i couldn't feel my fingers and so i asked the officer to please remove the handcuffs these plastic handcuffs and at least put one on that was a little bit looser and he said to me well i hope this is ok you know and he took out a hunting knife to remove my handcuffs and that's actually part of the reason i have

the cuts on my wrist so it was you know we were we were treated very aggressively the officer who arrested me you know grabs grabbed me she was a female officer she grabbed me very very strongly very roughly. bordering on sort of sexual assault which was reported by many other of the protesters that were arrested by this woman and you know we were taken to the county jail and we asked on the bus what are we being charged with and one of the sheriff said don't worry no charge the ride is free we're taken to the county jail we ended up spending thirty two hours there inside the county jail waiting for the for this arraignment to occur and waiting to be released or at least if i can go to you part of the sponsors of this here i mean if i understand correctly these protests have been going on for about twenty years has it ever come to this before the level of violence i mean from what i understand this is a very serious is an annual event they know you're coming right i mean they must be

used to you showing up seven or eight twenty years now i mean so in your mind and i must and i'm not asking if you have the answer why is it different this year why the violence. well we're asking ourselves the same thing it as as caitlin said before it almost felt like the tactics of the school of the americas watch teaches to latin american soldiers who treat their own citizens as internal enemies it almost felt like that is how we were treated this year there has never been any incident there's been only peaceful relations were very open we meet with the police force ahead of time we we put in our permits months ahead of time this time there was a notable increase in police presence but what was most shocking was the fact that many people who were simply walking to their cars after the event were pulled from their cars are pulled walking to their call cars pulled into the bus arrested handcuffed arrested charged held these these two days and so we feel like the

message was look you know we don't want you to be there we're going to make it dangerous you know to to make you think twice to even show up and so i think it was a way of trying to deter people from coming and it's it's an extraordinarily peaceful carrots and a moment completely committed to nonviolence and great many of the people the movement our priests our nuns or sisters because so many of their fellow priests and sisters were killed in latin america by graduates of just school and so very much has that commitment to nonviolence and so it was in the shocking to see the difference and i don't know and i'm going to michael in washington is there servers for michael i mean you've been listening to the testimony from both these women in atlanta i mean what is it i mean you're a professional journalist you've covered wars you've been told me that you went through fort benning as we waiting to go on here i mean just a freak incident here because it seems to me that most media is very compliant with american foreign wars basically telling people what the authorities want and then

we have these protesters people of faith for the most part and then you have by standards like an r t correspondent what terribly went wrong did something snapped in or was this preplanned from what you can see from what we've just heard. well reading about it and hearing and hearing what i just heard it doesn't make any sense it almost sounds to me like there was a the message went out you know like you said i spent time i was in the infantry for benning georgia and as a matter of fact i was in panama in the seventy's or early eighty's and was very very aware of the school of the americas. while i was down there i don't know it just doesn't make any sense to me at all it seems like maybe the columbus georgia police i'm assuming that was the police force involved the columbus georgia police just kind of i don't know why it doesn't really make any sense as i said was there

something was the word that the word go out from from the commander of fort benning or something it's just it's kind of crazy and we're listening to the two ladies listening to what they they said. you know i wasn't there but based based on what the two the two women just said it just doesn't make any sense that that this would be happening the school the americas is come under a lot of scrutiny in the last several years especially after those training manuals came out it was a few years back and it's really come under a lot of scrutiny and that's fine but scrutiny is a good thing but what happened to these ladies and all the other people there again i wouldn't care but based on what i heard it does not make any sense at all ok kayla if i could go back to you i mean again i'm i'm this kind of mystified here ok we've seen there's a history and that it's not in this new u.s. but you know sometimes demonstrators when the march legally they get roughed up

when they march illegally they can get roughed up but you're a journalist i mean what i'm sorry i just can't understand you said to the police officer i am press i am accredited here you leave me alone i'm not part of the demonstration what did they listen to it all and what if they did what was their reaction or they didn't care not. no absolutely not they didn't listen to a saw at all and actually they were i can say with some degree of confidence that they were targeting press and i was arrested first and when they saw that my camera man who's a camera man jonathan conway was also was filming my rats they also arrested him and he wasn't doing anything we had other colleagues from press that were filming all of this going dad they grab them too they didn't you know there was a very tight control and i'm trying to control what kind of information was getting out and it was it was censorship i think was part of it was it was a big factor in it and trying to sort of deter people from getting out on you tube

or from you know on our t.v. or whatever method. video of what was going on video of them arresting they have arrested a minor there was a seventeen year old girl who actually had press credentials for her radio station school radio station that was also arrested with that it was you know once we were brought to the county jail we weren't even told what we were being charged with for another four hours and we were personally charged my cameraman myself as demonstrators they reviewed our press credentials the judge looked at our press credentials and we were still charged as demonstrators to me it's amazing having been a journalist in one doris where there was recently a military coup in two thousand and nine these the streets of columbus georgia looked a lot like the streets of to go see alba yesterday and that's and that's unprecedented at least in my experience as a reporter ok lisa what kind of message. mistake you get involved in this group i mean what kind of message are they did they send you in your group i mean don't come back next year don't practice your right to assembly i mean like i said that

mean this is something that wasn't completely out of the blue they knew you were coming so what are you going to do it again next year you to be prepared a different way but i think i think they were trying to send that message but i think they sent it to the wrong crowd ok they kind of people. who come to this gathering and they come from all over the united states are people who has a very strong convictions that this school should not exist this is a school that we fund taxpayers fund a school which has led to tens of thousands of massacres throughout latin america and some of them very recent for example in tegucigalpa in honduras the two thousand and nine clue was orchestrated carried out by two graduates of the school of the americas general mailbox his very last case and general reese it is a sausage and so the fact that we are pointing this out that the united states continues to be involved in atrocities in training those who are carrying out the most egregious human rights violations throughout the americas are coming from the

school so that i think the message they were trying was to tell us not to come back to be afraid of what i heard again and again this weekend was this is convincing us even more you know all the more that we really must speak well actually the judge actually sat at the end of our hearing that we were all banned from columbus georgia for eighteen months at least some of us were banned and i'm not sure you know what the law is in georgia but this is you know sort of an off there a tarion thing to say and that's not a democracy i'm sure in the only way it can be very very important point i'm going to jump in to go to a short break here after a short break we'll continue our discussion on protecting free speech and assembly in the u.s. state with. seventy

six hours of intense fighting. six thousand. feel several kilometers long. now there is only one person who cares. you see we are surrounded by garbage everywhere but also there are. on this beach which of course is the most appropriate city signification a symbol of everything that's wrong with our goddamn government allowing not only garbage but. where so many guys died. a new battle is going on. will the history be protected. return to terra with julian cooper story on our t.v. .

we'll. bring you the latest in science and technology from the ground floor. we've got the future covered. hungry for the full story we've gone to. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers on the. welcome back to our all star computable to remind you we're talking about journalist rights in the united states and beyond. ok michael fine go back to you i mean hailing just told us something quite extraordinary the article correspondent that was arrested in for thirty two hours

for being covering a protest in the united states she told us that she's been banned from the area for eighteen months i mean i guess i've been gone from the states for a long time when did that law come into effect i mean she was a well what did she tell you i mean i don't know what did she actually do then she didn't have a way to defend herself but she's already been banned my goodness what's going on and now we're treating journalists. i that blew my mind on this whole the whole experience is i find unbelievable there's you know the old expression you know if you've done if you don't have anything you know if you've done nothing wrong you have nothing to hide and the what i'm hearing the behavior of the city of columbus georgia and the joe columbus police department in this judge it simply is remarkable to me why they're acting this way and again like i said a few minutes ago is there it would word come down did they were they there are they doing this on their own or are they are they being given marching orders and

the slated the latest robe revelation that kaitlyn shared with us about this eighteen month ban. well i mean if it were me i'd be i might be hiring an attorney was banned for why for what did i do wrong to keep me from this from was it the city of columbus or the state of georgia for eighteen months that this is it's it's crazy i've never heard of anything like this ok lisa you know to colombia is ok i mean i'm used to hearing and we summer i'm used to hearing things about the the former soviet republic of georgia and how they treat journalist but not from the georgia in the united states we said i mean either you you're doing something very right right now and because you're putting a spotlight on this really ghastly school and there and it's getting on people's radar and you're succeeding and i think that's probably what's going on here is because you know still in the american if in the american mind the ugliness of

american foreign policy in the last century south of the border is judge people just don't know enough about it ok and we're putting a spotlight on that and kate when you're the one that's getting arrested for go ahead lisa tell me. well you know i think you know you're touching something there in the past years the protest has been limited to the gates of fort benning but this year in court this same weekend of there been protests in fifteen different countries in latin america against the school of the americas watch and so the voice is getting out much more strongly four countries have announced that they're withdrawing from the school and so indeed we feel that they're worried they're worried about the pressure of the public light not only in the united states but in the world that's been put on this school it's their flagship school they trained the key the defense ministers the key officers of latin american troops and they have done so for fifty years and they continue again to the these graduates are the

ones carrying out the most atrocious human rights abuses throughout latin america and to until this present time and so that message is getting out one thing to mention another new twist this year five undercover police officers infiltrated the march they participated in the meetings the nonviolence trainings and they were five of those who were arrested and of course they were beat it released and then testified against the others and so this is a whole nother new twist to the police reaction to invited their undercover police to be part of the killing if i could if i could just going to be going to actually going to head out there that you mentioned you know there's many journalists in jail some of them more self interested than others we were surprised that they had you know had put us in jail had first of all because we were innocent and we didn't do anything and we hadn't broken the law but also because we now have

the opportunity shine a spotlight on what's going on in these jails in the united states and it was incredible that some of the stories there was one woman and my cell block who was actually he had been going to court and sentenced to six months in. president but because of prison overcrowding she was in jail waiting to go to prison and he had spent four months waiting but that was four months weren't going to count towards her sentence in prison so she was languishing. there in the jail waiting to go to president and we met many women like that and we heard their stories and we had the opportunity to sort of stand solidarity with people who often don't have a voice it's impossible for a journalist in this country almost impossible to film inside of a president and of course we weren't able to film but we were able to tell those stories so i wouldn't expect the columbus. county jail to to like what's going to come out about them in the next couple of weeks you know michael i mean yeah i mean the more of the more i hear about this the more i don't understand what's going on

in the united states i mean what could a journalist do that warrants i mean i'm sorry a protester do that would warrant a six month prison sentence i'm sorry i can't get my head around to go ahead well what what's happened here peter is that if the school of the americas was under scrutiny before they are really going to be under scrutiny now because what it what has happened to the two caitlin and the other reporters and everybody what they've done is they've just opened up a can of worms the city of columbus georgia. and and you know off an old next army guy and i've been to fort benning you know spent many many months there but i just i just think what they've done is they've really it's a pandora's box now because what they did they just brought all this attention to themselves for no reason at all they really the city of columbus especially

i can't really speak you know it sounds like the like fort benning itself was not really involved it was more the city of columbus in a can a really good if i thought if i could say yes by the way they acted if i could stay with fort benning and i don't want to put you on the spot here right now might you when you were when you were in the army you went through the the fort do you have any idea how important the school of americas is for fort benning i mean it seems like lisa and her organization in our correspondent hit a raw nerve. well you know i it from the reaction of the columbus police you know it you have to think that you have to think that maybe they did they want the reporters to stay away like i said before when i was down in panama the school was down there and i think in the eighty's it got moved up to four benning georgia which actually fort benning georgia if people don't know is the is the infantry center it's the home of the you're knighted states army

infantry branch it's also the paratroop school airborne school in ranger school i went to all those courses and i was at fort benning when i was a brand new infantry second lieutenant. and now the school is up there and i remember when the school moved from panama from i believe it was a fort clayton in panama when it moved from there i think it got out of panama because they they were having a little bit of problems with it being down there so they wanted to bring it stateside but it has been under a lot of scrutiny of there have been a lot of problems especially when those manuals were released about ten years or so ago and then you're thinking you're gone what really is going on there at that school what really is going on i would like to mention one comment i mean and then this is just my personal opinion. it lisa mentioned some graduates of the school that have been indeed linked with atrocities you know is that to say that they are trained at the school to commit atrocities or they just went to the school and then

after they left they committed atrocities i don't know i don't know but if they are graduates and they're linked to atrocities it certainly doesn't look good for the school but then on the other hand what happened to kaitlyn and all these other people just make it look worse why or what are they are they trying to hide something and well it seems to me and a normal person they do some research which connects him obviously dots here i'm killing if i can go back to you. you sound like you were intimidated at the very end don't come back are you would you be afraid to go back without proper legal backing in having people watching you because i mean it really up the stakes haven't they they've upped the stakes with free journalism in the united states at least in the state of georgia. you know if i think as journalists were called upon to be the eyes of the world especially in those places where where no one is

looking and to me this was this was an example of of being that and i didn't intend to get arrested far from my i didn't do anything illegal i was brought into that process i was brought into the system i was i saw not only the reality of of protests and the state of you know freedom of expression in freedom of assembly in the united states today but also the state of our prison system today which i would have never had to you know the chance to see if it were not for my thirty two hours and county jail you know i'm not intimidated in the sense that i really believe that as journalists we have an obligation to do that and you know i would i would like to continue telling the truth and i would like to continue telling the stories of those people who really don't have a voice whether they be in latin america or the you know the county jail in georgia as i have done in the past ok lisa i'm going to give you the last word on this program what do you want to tell my international viewership what should they be

doing and supporting you in your cause. well first of all i do not think that it was just a coincidence nor was it the fault of the georgia police something it's clear that there's concerns at the head of the school of the americas that we are shining a light on this school it's getting larger and larger it's getting more international perspective we have more and more members of congress looking carefully at this school and so obviously the police of georgia got the message to tighten down the control been completely cordial relations and till this year it's an extraordinarily different experience and so the our message is there something going on at that school and as taxpayers who fund the school let's take a closer look this is our interpreters our relation with our neighbors of latin america is that what we want it to be to train those who want to commit the greatest human rights atrocities or do we want to send a different message a different kind of relations so i people take a closer look at the school and i invite people to stand in solidarity with with

those people who were targeted and those people who spent you know spent time in jail and who continue to spend time in prison and to call attention to exactly what lisa has mentioned all right thank you very much we've run out of time i want to play my god like i'm sorry we're out of time michael many thanks to my guest today in atlanta and in washington and thanks to our viewers for watching us here at we see you next time and remember cross talk news.

the first. we felt as journalists that we didn't have protection of freedom of the prize we

didn't have first amendment rights. freedom of speech violence censorship and also a correspondent on tumblr might have been released on bail on her dead on the promenade lansdale arrested while covering the protests against a bunch of them from home but training center and. want to see our videos of those days are numbered i can't see the euro survives of this decade and the year proves a massive bailout for all and and the government and the flounces ones will bear the future hold for the troubled european a lot in that single currency. also russian newspaper has published details of the european anti-missile defense system has proposed by russian president dmitri medvedev he's trying to trace its responsibility evenly between nato and russia. on from economic lifeline to make a logical catastrophe i don't see troubles to the arrow scene in central asia to see how decades of mismanagement have exposed and have been friends.