how can the loner show up at the real headlines with none of the mercy or can he live out of washington d.c. down light of the unrest in the middle east the u.s. has come forward with statements were guarding all of these protests except for those going on in iraq so we want to know why the u.s. has been so quiet when it comes to iraq in particular maybe it has something to do with our several year involvement and war in this country well as author michael o'brien next the richest of banker turned prisoners seeks out bernie made off made

several claims in his latest interview including one saying of the entire government is a ponzi scheme so is he just spreading the blame or is this con artist right we'll talk about it with richard also how much will the u.s. be directly affected by the conflicts in libya do americans realize that supporting democratic revolutions may end up hurting their wallets we're going to hash it all out with our team financial correspondent lauren lyster then the hacktivists have struck again after concentrating their efforts on defending weekly anonymous has expanded and recently they attacked a web site for the koch brothers group americans for prosperity so now they've added more groups to their hit list and we want to know why they've advanced their mission we're going to speak with two members to find out and would you put a price tag on your internet privacy some people saying that they'd sell their personal information to companies if the price is right but it brings up a larger issue where privacy isn't just a right anymore it's now become

a commodity and a hot one at that will discuss the changing role of internet privacy with ryan at the end of the show but now let's move on to our top story. unrest continues in a number of countries in the middle east and north africa and officials are reacting with harsh words and harsh actions over the weekend the u.n. security council unanimously set sanctions on libya yesterday the white house strongly condemned the iranian government's organize intimidation campaign. and arrests of political figures human rights defenders political activists student leaders journalists and bloggers and days ago hillary clinton called out iran for human rights abuses for the death of peaceful protesters by security forces but for some reason when it comes to iraq the u.s. has been strangely silent last friday thousands protested in baghdad and other cities and what they called a day of rage it's now being reported that about thirty people have been killed the three hundred journalists intellectuals and lawyers have been arrested and yet

still silence so what does that say for the democracy that america brought to iraq here to discuss it with me is michael o'brien author of america's failure in iraq michael thanks so much for being here now the first starters on this program we've been following this all along the way when it comes to certain inconsistency is in you know the u.s. foreign policy at first we were supporting tunisia but we were quiet on egypt then finally we were supporting egypt but we've been quiet on yemen also a government that we're friendly with but how much worse does it look when you know this is iraq this is a place that we we don't have support this government because we've had a longstanding relationship with them quite the opposite we invaded this country to bring in this government there and now we don't want to say anything or you know i have to say that we invaded the country in my opinion and i think democracy was an afterthought we weren't here to topple the saddam regime but frankly you know in my

in my opinion i don't really know why we invaded iraq in two thousand and three but we did we went there and you know much has been said about the current the reasons for the invasion the conduct of the invasion all of the things that i do i've talked about a lot is in my book and also in my website is the fact that we destroyed much of the infrastructure of iraq we really just you know what you can almost you know the cliche bombed it back to the stone age i was there for fourteen months. and there was no electrical grid there was only power for four hours a day while i was there and i believe that's still the case there was no gasoline it was essentially free before we invaded no three and now it's about it's through the roof a call of the price of fuel and not much has been done about it and a lot of the protests are directly related to services the people have new services and nothing's improved yeah that's right people are protesting because they don't have services because they don't have access to clean water or access to

electricity but how much you know of our reconstruction efforts how much of the money that we're now still spending in iraq is supposed to be going to fixing these issues that we guess you could say in some way created because we bought it and you know brought this situation we very much created it and how much of the money is going into it i really don't know but i can i can tell you tens and tens of billions per hundreds of billions of dollars of going into iraq in general much of which is simply due to the combat operations as as far. how much has gone into the reconstruction of it i know that i was an advisor to the iraqi ministry of defense and we were involved in the rebuilding of the new iraqi army that had been disputed by paul bremmer on the ministry of interior side we were involved in rebuilding creating from nothing the iraqi national police also disbanded by paul bremer but as far as money going into things like infrastructure b. electrical power grid and all that the u.s.

army corps of engineers gulf region district was over there during the initial stages of the conflict and then the the u.s. government through the coalition military was involved in much of the additional ongoing work and today there's room for a lot of a lot of firms that are going over there to american firms and other foreign countries to go over there and rebuild the country but it's not we're going to rise it's just a mess it's a hodgepodge and the people are suffering there's just not electricity there's not running water there's not sewage it's a real mess and much of it was created by our own vision of zero three and i hate to sound so critical but it really is true i think there's nothing wrong with being critical right if we if we invaded a country that we that should look back at it critically and see you know what the results were or perhaps what some of the damage is or that we caused when you mentioned that foreign firms are going in there how about the fact that we give so many responsibilities now are passed on to contractors and just last week

a report came out saying that billions of dollars have been we said because there is just no central database for anyone to even figure out how much money we've given to these contractors who also do for the government on a regular basis but you know what else is really interesting about these protests that we're seeing in iraq right now is as we watched the same thing happen if be in libya or in iran here you have you have dictators and so you look at this people fighting for democracy in iraq you already have a democracy right this is a well supposedly supposedly the. elected government i want to ask them it was the government starts firing on its own people and killing its own people what does that mean well you know i if i if i mean it's your question by backing up just a little bit. no one will deny that saddam hussein was a bad actor absolutely put it was in the middle east as it is tribal and in the tribal tradition the leader runs the show and everybody follows and saddam was that guy he was

a bad guy you know absolutely no question about it but the iraqis that i worked with when i was over there by a laura life if you stayed out of trouble you had a half decent life you really did after our invasion of zero three all that money out the window and what's what have we done we invaded that country with no plan for after the invasion and then as again at the very beginning of this i said that the marker c. was an afterthought were there we might as well make it a democracy which is fine but can it be to sustain and no form of government can be sustained if the people don't have the basic services that government is supposed to provide and when i was there we were trying to form the new iraqi government that we're after our own to include contracting for goods and services the iraqi government can't do it because of not only of corruption but we're used to having them use our own government federal at u.s. government federal acquisition regulations which they can never understand they

just don't where it's the graphs the concept yet the iraqi government is awash in oil revenue but because of the systems we put in place after the invasion they can't spend their own money i talked about this at night and what work well you know i ended watching not only is now looking a looking at the corruption in iraq which has been obvious now looking at their violent reaction i feel that you know the silence from the u.s. government is not going to bode well for us i mean are you so much it's not true thank you thanks for having me thanks now still to come as rights well what has prison wisconsin are not giving up over plans by the governor and lawmakers to eliminate elected guarded rights or workers whatever apart from that same parties and i think it's would you have an oil prices on the rise in the rest of the middle east if you americans realize. the democratic revolutions are the what's part of that and the cast parties are mr porson to come to the lowest so what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to

put it through i think maybe who can you trust no one will is imbued with the global machinery see where are we heading state controlled capitalism is called sanctions when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more. leg. lifts. lifts. the with the flow

the the. us. hey guys welcome to show and tell on the alone a show we've heard with our guests not to say on the topic now we want to hear our audience does go on to you tube does video respond wanted to twitter first part of the questions that we post on you tube every monday and on thursday in the show your responses during the week slate your voice be heard. well many americans might not realize that problems in the middle east are directly affecting people here at home gas prices are on the rise thanks around certain

uncertainty in countries like libya which happens to be hot spot for some of the biggest oil companies in the world americans also supports the idea of democracy in the middle east so are you ready to come to terms with the fact that a changing world the fall of dictators well affect your thoughts our fees or list or takes a look at. tunisia. egypt. ok algeria libya protest in countries seeming to fuel one another unrest spreading like wildfire through the middle east and north africa all raging in or near the oil rich countries that helped fuel the world's use of more than eighty four million barrels of crude a day uncertainty over production has set prices soaring mean a shock waves from the middle east turmoil are being felt worldwide well is

a valuable resource on the planet today and for. extremely now the mideast crisis is eating home for average americans as oil prices have skyrocketed so too have the prices people paper gasoline and now the price americans pay at the pump is threatening to derail the u.s. economic recovery a surge in oil. prices will be the u.s. economy. and to the recovery there's no more. a reality peak oil expert michael c. rupert sees happening at oriel hits one hundred fifty dollars a barrel which he believes is inevitable this year others predicted going to two hundred twenty dollars it's so devastating because oil. fuels more than just cars. it fuels the entire global economy. though there's no doubt that if gas goes to

five dollars a gallon for americans actually i'm predicting there would be a high political price to pay for the obama administration you know yeah saline prices go up and watch and for a very long period. of your. your political impact yet there's no denying the u.s. has played a role in the events that have transpired in the middle east every time u.s. president barack obama went to the podium calling for this that there must be reform political social and economic reforms that meet the aspirations of the egyptian people and calling for egyptian president hosni mubarak's resignation he was calling for an end to the status quo which means a rise in uncertainty in the oil rich region so did leaders weigh the toll it could take on their own economy some argue they don't have the power to. back up trying to push their back against an avalanche and i don't regret

a lot of success that may not stop the u.s. from trying to take control some observers believe the u.s. may intervene militarily in libya were all reserves are massive under false pretenses of helping protesting people has nothing to do with interest. it has everything to do with the interest of the us corporate oil corporations military for profit either way analysts say the price of fuel going up will simply fuel public rage and the government is largely helpless the american people are going for a very nasty ride and there is no way out of it now but i can tell you the government understands that it's coming lauren mr r.t. new york. well for more on this we'll go to our studio in new york are joined by art he's lauren lyster al gore and walk us through the past couple of weeks in terms of the way the markets have been reacting there there has been some up and

down it hasn't all been a consistent rise. you know you're absolutely right last week was markets and everybody reeling or this bike that we saw as a result of concern over what was going to happen in saudi arabia with what's happened in libya production of their oil has been cut by barclay's estimates is one million barrels a day they typically produce one point six million barrels a day which the world relies on so without the supply being cut in saudi arabia needed to come out and reassure that a they could produce that amount of oil and also people were concerned that that any kind of revolution might spread to saudi arabia and in that country if anything was to affect the oil supply there that would be devastating for the world which relies on twenty five percent of its oil supply coming from saudi arabia so these were the concerns that sent a spike in oil last week index which is really what impacts more of america's oil usage and has a greater bearing on the u.s. that breach one hundred and oil broker that i spoke to said that everybody was

freaking out that investors were rushing and rushing and rushing to cover their investments because this was unexpected and unprecedented and not something that they were ever expecting or elles been trading and eighty eight to ninety four range and then it went up to ninety six and then it's breached one hundred now it's back down to ninety seven and then with crude which is something that has a greater bearing on europe for example that's one fall which is also high that's gone from in the low seventy's to one hundred twelve in the month of february so we're seeing a more gradual rise there and then a huge spike in the deputy i index and and you're right it has come down because saudi arabia did come out and say that it can produce it can make up for the loss of production that we're seeing in libya but there's still a lot of concerns and investors are all looking to see what's going to happen next in the middle east and if any other opec nation was to go offline analysts i've spoken to say that is a real concern that would send oil prices surging through the roof now i think

there are a lot of people out there that would like to see khadafi out but of course the big question is if he does if he is out who is going to control the oil supply in libya so you know quickly what are some theories that are floating around out there. well that's a million dollar question and one that the areas of maybe if you call that i interviewed for this story is that the u.s. is already involved in trying to get control or garner control of the oil reserves of this rebellion started in the oil rich city of benghazi that's where many of the forty six billion barrels of reserves that libya have are near that's where the oil production a largely happens and it's started by the national front for the salvation of libya which reports hundreds on the internet tied to the cia that there's many reports indicate that this opposition group is financed and trained by the cia so that's one of the indicators that people see that they say the u.s. is already involved in this and then also we're hearing lawmakers call for a no fly zone in libya this is something that for people is reminiscent of the iraq

war this is rhetoric that we have not heard in terms of involvement in egypt or tunisia or other countries where people are dying sudan and people argue that we're hearing it here because it's all about oil it's all about oil interests it's about those reserves it's about the u.s. corporations that operate in libya that are already halting production and having to get out of there because of the unrest like i said oil production has been cut by a million barrels a day and the world relies on one point six from libya so there is a lot at stake here and people say that that's why we're hearing these military interests and actions being called for being hinted at or the u.s. being connected to and it's interesting you wonder if american people really put two and two together because you know recent rasmussen polls which show that sixty percent sixty seven percent of the population thinks the u.s. shouldn't get involved in should stay out of the conflicts in the middle east but then again when it comes to oil you know that's where the government is going to get involved and affect our pocketbooks learned thanks so much. now let's turn our

attention to wisconsin our protests continue to go out in fact this past weekend the state had their biggest protester turnout since the vietnam war and yesterday police caved and refused to forcibly remove the people who are occupying the state capitol now reports are coming forward that governor scott walker is having the windows welded shut to avoid people from passing food to those who are inside are also seeing other states follow suit as the war on unions is becoming a nationwide battle parties especially if you're going to has more. america's middle class fighting or more already done historic. i will win out is no people me option where it is did sound is the man who over two weeks major protests that kicked off in wisconsin and spread to other states have been regional and in the fight for workers' rights you see protesters moved in small little towns that nobody organized he would have showed up at city hall are you seeing that kind of spontaneous action coming i think this new search spreading throughout the united states. to begin with the demonstrators were not asking for much in the only

list is just just not the cake away their collective bargaining rights but the state politicians proved said to chop you new laws to give stability to government workers the people's outrage stronger that's scary there needs to be oversight there needs to be a chemical that it was this congress building them up like it's my back up and us politicians the. teachers are the people there we are getting louder in the biggest middle class uprising. america has seen in years and i was thinking more and more than that and i think a lot of sand it's going to he's running. during his election campaign reform a promise to walk in more step with america's workers but in reality as steve far away from the people who have been begging him for support probably. because we're

simply politics like everybody else are forced to pander. you know voted for obama but i'm tired of democrats to reverse. this sentiment has grown even stronger as americans remember wall street not being similarly north but its actions spawn the economy out of control if we allow the right wing media and the glenn becks of the world and these kinds of folks who are older convince us that this problem is about state workers and not about j.p. morgan chase jamie dimon got seventeen million in bonuses it was ok we're here because a wall street reckless gambling angry ok that is why we're all here people are suffering as days of protesting turn into weeks the realization of being left to fend for themselves as many the president took office there's this feeling that some day the president is going to come in and just see everybody people feel that way anymore the feelings they have to fight for themselves and some are beginning to stress if the massive uprising continues to be ignored the tide could turn on

obama president obama will not win two thousand and twelve without states like wisconsin a middle class that was forced to resign is not going to get tired even if. i think we'll still be here until it's. an end to the battle of the workers is nowhere in sight it was their own making and then america now so divided along political and class lines he says in turkey. madison wisconsin. all looks like anonymous has struck again that he centralize happy this group is now targeting the koch brothers yesterday they temporarily took down the website of the koch funded group americans for prosperity and now in a press statement anonymous has said that it's come to their attention that david and charles koch have quote a long attempted to assert american democracy their actions to undermine the legitimate political process in wisconsin are the final straw and the statement goes on to say that in a world where corporate money has. become the lifeblood of political influence the

labor unions are one of the few ways that citizens have to fight against corporate greed and anonymous cannot ignore the plight of the citizen workers of wisconsin or the opportunity to fight for the people in america's broken political system so not only is the list of groups and on mrs targeting growing but apparently so are the anonymous ranks joining me now are two people affiliated with anonymous connie a participant in aqua's concent an anonymous source within anonymous now scotty i'm going to start with you because you are in wisconsin and so i'm just curious what is it that made you want to participate in what they're doing. basically. we need all the help we can get here. the voices of the protesters here in madison are clearly not being heard. everyone in the political groups keeps on saying that this is about money it has nothing to do with any and it's getting to be less and less about unions and more and more about rights and

democracy. the governor and the republicans especially are not listening to their constituents who they were. voted in to represent. so do you feel that becoming a participant with anonymous. is somehow furthering this cause you to go it makes a strong statement what they're doing. i think it does i came to anonymous after hearing that they were siding at least with the rights of people everywhere. they are a force to be reckoned with they are something that cannot be ignored. anonymous you know just hearing that strikes fear into the hearts believe of politicians of perforations of pretty much anyone who hears it because there is no one that they can think or there is no one that they can stop. now i know on i want to switch to

you know the koch brothers might be a good example of you know corporate power in the u.s. which is what you talk about in your press statement they were pretty good financier's of scott brown but you know they're not the only ones so now should anybody to perhaps help finance a campaign for governor now taking on the unions should they all be concerned that they might be targets as well. hard to say is that. i'm going to go ahead and say yes this operation could possibly expand become a lot bigger if it is here in wisconsin oh as i stated before necessarily. lay out an entire gameplay there isn't really a whole came clearly. one of the some other it. was a your press release says that you know you're asking people to boycott coke paper products while you search for other vulnerabilities knew what kind of a vulnerability is are we talking about sounds like you're searching for a plan. oh yeah. coach. similar to what

h.p. build in their systems. you know a lot of things came to light we found out what they were up to exactly. these people are looking for a solution just. so that up is just taking. necessarily a listen. oh it's. ok so maybe sometime soon we'll see a leak of thousands of e-mails from americans for prosperity or some other coke company . you know there's no centralized structure to anonymous i'm just wondering how are these decisions made when it is the you when you decide to give a press statement like that not everybody who is a part of anonymous agrees with every attack with going after the koch brothers or going up to companies that what dr weiqi leaks or age to gary.

this is this is something that we like to reiterate to the press how is a part of anonymous but not all and on our. arm of the collective and even in operations like this. it's necessarily you know on the bandwagon so to speak. but with the same sort of work any ideas or submitted constantly for things to do targets of attack what to do so on so forth. the good ideas or people support our run with the idea infrastructure will be set up support will be gained in the operation will be launched. so it's a bit difficult really trying to speak on this side this operation as there is a lot of politics involved and. getting too political and this sense after the company because of what it's doing not necessarily because of any

of the politics involved fars. ok. all right well i don't know it sounds like you guys are getting pretty political to me with some of your recent statements but john and scott i want to thank you both for joining us and you know i guess we'll just have to be waiting to see when you do expose or if you do find those vulnerabilities within the koch brothers just. now still to come on tonight's show in our tool time segments banning teachers from talking about homosexuality in the classroom one state is actually considering that ridiculous idea and that is the entire u.s. government's ponzi scheme already made off and serving one hundred fifteen years in jail for running the world's largest ponzi scheme thinks that it's. a charmer over here broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture.