a second explosion at the fukushima nuclear power plant in japan has set off panic and speculation about the crisis over fears of a meltdown in japan leave the united states to reconsider its renewed interest in nuclear power. what he viewed as wrong very wrong but whatever happens the rule of law has to be followed in terms of our history. so it's bradley manning just getting what he deserves and what about the now former state department official who criticized the pentagon over manning streetman well hack into the issue. and the u.s.

is arguing that a cia operative was clear accused of shooting two pakistanis should receive diplomatic immunity it's now up to a pakistani court to decide so what can the case of raymond davis tell us about the tangled u.s. pakistani web. and it's more money more problems right well the government seems to think that cutting spending is going to pull this country out of debt but will it really work or could spending more money make less problems. now it's monday march fourteenth seven pm here in washington d.c. i'm lucy catherine of and you are watching our t.v. now while the happy collective anonymous has taken up the case of bradley manning the group gave the u.s. military until today to improve its treatment of the twenty three year old army private or face dire consequences now the computing hacking collective is

threatening new attacks on major u.s. corporations and even government officials as part of an escalating cyber war against those who they claim are abusing power criminals or activists fighting for justice party has decided to go straight to the source and i'm joined now by the informal spokesman and i think now we have a package from lindsay garfield on bradley manning p.j. crowley resigned his post as state department spokesperson yesterday this just coming after his comment saying that bradley readings treatment is stupid counterproductive and ridiculous we know what the state department thinks about this but what do you d.c. residents think let's find out counterproductive and probably stupid you're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. and so i don't think that that is indicative that he is being considered innocent until proven guilty if he's already being tortured everybody could have their day in court and should be treated with dignity or were you surprised to learn that he was in solitary confinement had been

forced to strip naked and had been essentially tortured does that surprise you. well it doesn't surprise me considering all that happened with you know iraq and you know finding out that those who were put in jail were treated unjustly and they were you know the same thing happened with them so it does not surprise me the government cover that up and i did you see what you're saying about iraq because a lot of people have been comparing this to iraq and on the grave but you know they're saying that this is one of our own u.s. citizens being treated the same way that we treated iraqi citizens you had that scares carmen and you know goes around comes around i mean i hate to say it but each three others you know that way i don't think it would come to your own citizens i mean at the end of the day you know it's kind of it's really crazy but it's kind of like you know what goes around comes around you do it to other countries who say who is a line crossed you know so you know until guilty so no one should be treated badly you know rather and get custody if what i mean try and clear things in solitary

confinement is a. you know quite dreadful psychological torture if he is guilty he'll serve the time that you know he needs to serve and that's how it should be but he should not be he should not be tortured you know this isn't a police state we're not this isn't a fascist government that the u.s. has no i don't i don't think that that's appropriate or you know what this country is about but what it is wrong very wrong but whatever happens the rule of law has to be followed in terms of how he's treated if it is true if it turns out he is being found guilty of leaking this information do you think that the punishments more warranted. i don't think torture is warranted an effort. this is one of a military dictatorship my family story contain a military dictatorship and it's sad but it's what you expect from a military dictatorship and this is a democracy and you know the us is about equal rights and it's just not. acceptable

all democracy and equal rights but perhaps not for all americans and i'm talking specifically about the case of bradley manning like i said earlier the hacking collective group anonymous has taken up the case of bradley manning they have threatened potential retribution for u.s. officials and various corporations if the case of bradley manning if it's conditions were not improved if given the deadline of monday and while the deadline has come and gone i'm joined now by the informal spokesman for the group barack brown in dallas texas barrett thank you so much for being here so has the pentagon listened to you and for the pentagon has decided to leave us they haven't quite finished reach out to us to talk shock is. today of course is a good one to dition. with the original plan which was to of intially causes some distrust for those responsible called a certain group commander and a certain other former commander also certain source and for

a certain. partition of that we're also going forward with operation metal gear tradition seems to day. operational your concerns a company called. allen hamilton the federal contractors intelligence work for a number of companies has offices in by cruel. person places and we wish. we had to know they have a project going on we know this from the e-mails it was required or distribution we know that the project is considered to be socially dangerous going source who is close to it but the nature of the project. and as product stores must run software based and we we know that it has it we really know it's it is of interest to the same people that it is your experience in prison serum or was brought in for a meeting. on hamilton's office in late january or right around the time he was going around pinker's anonymous coverage of his research that he thought he had and

as such we know that in since they start the project we're about forty on only north of the e-mails and because of other things we found out we know that it therefore is is relevant to the kind of research that arab army is doing which we all know are involved a lot of dangerous stuff involving the privacy of individuals the situation total balance using their families as sort of anchors. and even somebody's air force that they rip you know asking for patience on a program whereby a single airman who controlled by one person army of fake people on once these are dangerous developments anonymous is still beautiful so this an official declaration of war against a bill is allen hamilton and possibly other contractors oh yeah we just got under the no warrants just now but we do not alter all right well let's talk about the situation with bradley manning. obviously we've seen p.j. crowley the state department spokesman resigned not a fan of bradley manning or wiki leaks for that matter what does that say to you

when especially the face of america's foreign policy steps down for calling his treatment stupid and inappropriate. he should have stepped down and. i was just i mean that's absolutely incredible and i'm really stunned that's a stunning against obama has been served by a number of people has come to own this act of torture against us all are. going to go on as a resource for to resort to proving us we would have to tell them exactly what we. aren't they should be this is spend more time figuring out what the image does in this country and its ideals to try to sort of look at the very i have to ask i mean we've seen how the u.s. government has treated bradley manning we've seen how they're now going after julian a thaw and there's rumors of potential or extradition to the united to sweden and potentially charges for the united within the united states are you not worry that

even an informal involvement with anonymous as going to end up with you targeted with you potentially going to jail for the us. i mean sexism violence is like a good texas bar mitzvah i mean my my downs and you know i got rooms indicted on prison i mean and you know how kids and they and they're cool with twenty three hours a day they get an othello with one hour to get it i'm not a soldier and i'm gonna civilian over serve my country so i get treated better. next time and it's for some reason you know that's since going to come up you know i don't we only know my name is on documents are going to sell two thirds in those one two months ago before they're going to stop it and pulled since i'm armed and obscene on mrs grose capabilities and social commentary a threat to our best interests and such for we know we are being targeted by our governments and the truckers another part of what people are just missing you guys aside as the essentially hack says you know anarchist you think that any concrete change can come of these kinds of our releases that you guys are doing what an

artist and many an arms around are so well and so many people support us and work with us aren't you sir look what has come so far on the situation is figure is when most and so successful most occasions are conducted by non-state you believe great deal of telling information about where this nation operates in terms of subsequently and other things the last article about the ethics of major corporations and even justice department so i think it's been so so far and it's far from over and very quickly you know we're getting out of states talk about freedom internet freedom abroad do you think that there's been a clamping down on internet freedom here in the united states i would say so yes all right well that was barrett brown spokesman for anonymous making news right here on our t.v. . now the ongoing case of raymond davis the cia contractor who sees the murder charges in lahore for the execution style slayings of two men reportedly pakistani intelligence agents has sparked a diplomatic crisis between the united states and pakistan and the details of this

case are burkey lost among the rubble of spin room or an even secrecy in fact it seems the only certainty in the situation is that u.s. intelligence operations are increasingly being contracted out to private companies and with those contractors do wrong the blowback can be severe so now we turn to one man who is taking a close look at what's really at stake in the raymond davis case scott horton is a contributing editor harper's magazine and he joins us right now from our studios in new york scott thank you so much for being here now there is a lot that doesn't really seem to add up in this case now if you listen to the united states they would have us believe that this is just you know a clean cut former soldier a u.s. diplomat with immunity who killed two men but did so in self-defense which of course is not really what we're hearing from the pakistani side walk us through some of the more glaring inconsistency is here. but if you're reading the press accounts and pakistan you know the that ray davis was not

a diplomat that he was a cia contractor probably the station acting station chief in lahore pakistan that he shot two young pakistanis through the windshield of his car then got out of the car pumped for the rounds into their bodies and photographed them or this was done coolly and methodically and if you're reading the pakistani press you also would have heard that the two pakistanis he shot were not young street thugs they were pakistani intelligence officers who had been assigned to tail him because of concerns by the i.s.i. pakistan's intelligence agency that he had crossed a red line so we have entirely different accounts and i have to say frankly if you're following the pakistani media you're getting a lot of information that's hyperventilated and excited but also a great deal more detail about what's happening most of which stands up for scrutiny i mean you start with the fact with what was actually in his honda civic

when he was captured in that included two fire arms that included an arsenal of weapons including armor piercing bullets included theatrical make up a g.p.s. device which evidently have been used to help target drone strikes and was era stand and i.d. badges in different names for different consulates so all this of course points to the fact that he was a spy which you know two weeks later the united states grudgingly had to admit and you know they've been media coverage and this is so unusual because you have what i don't understand is how it is that it could be felt badly reported in the pakistani press and yet almost i don't silence when it comes to the united states perhaps in fact it wasn't until one. when a british newspaper spilled the beans that the american media suddenly said ok we knew that this guy had cia contacts that he may have been involved in the cia talk

about the inconsistency here in the media coverage and the role that the u.s. press played in sort of playing up the u.s. line essentially. what do you call it exactly right i mean i was looking at these issues in real time and was being told by a reporters that major publications we can't trust this information that's in the pakistani newspapers and i would go back to them and say they're reporting what the police report says and the my experience police reports go mess with this sort of information and of course after the fact we had the new york times acknowledge that yes they knew all along he was a spy but they didn't print this information because the cia had asked them not to print it and that's a pretty serious matter. and i think it's serious and several scores i mean we can understand in fact in fact i think publications that many countries will withhold the identity of spies of their countries on the request of intelligence services

that happens almost all the way around the world but what was going on here was essentially relaying false or highly misleading accounts of the talent the of what happened so they were misleading their readers and they only got around to correcting that much later two or three weeks later and of course most readers already formed their opinion early on so why is all this of course when greenwald here at the salon dot com harshly criticized the new york times washington post and others for their basically played being propagandist for the united states government i think no matter how you cut it that's true their defenders have said no they're patriots and that may be true to a certain extent as well except one has to wonder about a patriotism that results in their readers giving false information or incomplete information and one has to wonder indeed alice scott horton contributing editor at harper's magazine now more than one hundred thousand people filled the streets in

madison wisconsin this weekend and what's been described as the largest protest in the state's history but the battle that's unfolding in wisconsin indiana and else. where in the united states isn't necessarily just about union rights the bigger issue at hand is how cash strapped governments will do more with less at a time when unemployment foreclosures high deficits have all kept the united states in the worst economic downturn since the great depression the solutions from washington are few and far in between but it seems that spending cuts are now in vogue cutting workers' pensions social security home heating assistance programs everything in fact except for meaningful cuts to the pentagon's budget but that's a separate story but it will the push to spend less really pull the united states out of this economic mess but earlier i spoke with dean baker of the center for economic and policy research here's part of that conversation. well it's a little hard to see i always want to go around and ask you know store owners factory owners go well you know we just laid off however many government employees

do you intend to hire more workers and the basic story doesn't make any sense or in the standard term because we had a collapse of the housing bubble that is driving the economy because through construction the housing wealth created by the bubble led to this big consumption boom that's going on now the reason why we're in the downturn is a lack of demand the government has to fill that gap it has to spend more we have to run deficits if we instead say oh no no we have to cut government too we didn't need deeper hole it makes no sense and that's what you know what seems to be the agenda for the day you just said spend more and more in washington i'm just shocked that the floor didn't open up below you and you know what it is how is it you know common sense economics you know have to be you know ph d. economists to get this one spending is what drives the economy and the reason we're hurting this we lack spending and it be great if we conserve snap our fingers and get the private sector to spend but it doesn't work that way so until people can climb out from their indebtedness the government pick up the tab and they may not like it but that's the world how do we get this situation where it seems like the rhetoric the message war is that it's really these pensions that are screwing up

and getting us and trouble it's really all of these the union workers it's really all of you know the working people and not really the people that had led us into the crisis in the first place how did that message get lost somewhere along the way well it's really remarkable i mean part of it is much of it is that you have some very powerful money interests that have wanted to well they've been beating back workers' rights for decades and they you know if we look at public sector workers while they still have pensions for the most part they still have health care those were lost a lot of private sector workers over the last three decades because of deliberate efforts to weaken our workers in the private sector so you have serious moneyed interests that have been behind this effort and i have to say the media is the one to go along so you have the situation where most reporters think it's good reporting that someone comes out there and just you know accuses accuse me of murdering someone that they. no evidence for and then they let me say oh no i didn't and they go ok we gave you the story i guess as long as you scream that while they get some evening news now switching gears

a little bit you tell legislature recently passed a bill that basically would think gold and silver coins to be used as legal tender in the state what is the symbol to you of moves like this i mean there's been sort of similar moves in other states to either move to alternative currency or return back to the gold standard what does that say about the dollar and the confidence that we have with our own economy well i think it says a lot about the crazy economic going around i mean if anyone doesn't want dollars or whatever address and they can send it to us i mean it's it's close to crazy and you know the fact is the vast majority of people in the world are very confident in the dollar they're going to hold them and if you have people in this country they don't want dollars you know their money will be at stake you know and you know look we have things we could look at like the inflation rate is actually very low and i know people would say i think it's made up you know i'm sorry it's not you know believe that it's made of green cheese you're welcome to we can look at the interest rate that people are putting tens of billions of dollars on the line what

they demand when they want to lend money to us governments very low three four three five the government's about to collapse the dollar's worthless they won't do that so that if people don't want dollars you know by all means go kerry go for fear of an actual sound i can hold people from od'ing that i mean you have a lot of people who have a political agenda some are profiting from that some so go you know say i don't first i was by my goal you know sir people do that but all i can speak is the economic reality there's no basis for this now one of the most unfortunate economic realities that one continues to this day is the growing gap between the rich and the poor and it really does seem like more and more of the the golden pie is going to those at the top all the rest of us are sort of left out of the shadows do you think do you see anything at all and the current economic climate that could potentially change this trend well the economics perhaps not but the policies yes i mean that's why. hundred thousand people protesting in madison wisconsin is really big deal because we got this huge gap in inequality because the conservatives the

business interest took over the political system and managed to read the rules to their benefit it's the people wake up it's the middle class you know the workers wake up and say no we're tired of this rigging we're going to just the rules so that all the money doesn't flow upward that can change it but i think they have woken up and yet i don't see any big change being talked about or will know it is a long way to go and most people you mother stand you know the moment ago talking about the dollar well we should want the dollar to fall because of one increase of manufacturing sector the best thing we could do is get the dollar down by twenty or thirty percent again so the clearances most people say that here in washington the go what you want to we learned the i want us to manufacture goods in the united states the news media lower down. an interesting analysis there from dean baker the co-director of the center for economic and policy research now explosions at japan's fukushima nuclear complex have increased fears of a reactor meltdown as officials continue to monitoring the unfolding crisis in japan some american lawmakers have called for putting the brakes on nuclear power

so how will the fukushima disaster affect the nuclear industry in the u.s. and could a japan style crisis happen here at home the answer we turn to one woman who's covered the nuclear industry at length we did a king joins us live from new york city frida thank you so much for joining us but you can't really talk about nuclear power what would have to something the fear that really does come along with it when you look here in the united states the three mile island disaster in pennsylvania way back in one nine hundred seventy nine you know it did not result in any casualties and yet we haven't seen a new nuclear plants commissioned since that time in your estimation how will this crisis in japan affect the nuclear industry in america. it really could go either way i mean at this point depending on restart the situation's very dynamic right now so we're still waiting to find out is there going to be a nuclear core meltdown if so will there be multiple or meltdowns if so how lied to

spread the radiation. so the problem with radiation of course is that it's invisible you can at least though it could be around for generations and the effects are long lasting and insidious then not necessarily short term an obvious in many cases though a nuclear industry as a whole if there are no immediate an obvious casualties from what's happening in japan and it really depends you know how to go now if the situation isn't used ethically and becomes more apparent that there are dangers and it could be detrimental to the industry as a whole and who can we really rely on for accurate information about the dangers here because i mean the japanese government obviously does not want to panic its people we have the mainstream media where there's all kinds of experts and so-called experts standing the flames of fear i mean is it possible that we don't actually know the extent of of the damage that the situation could be more dangerous then then it seems sure i mean we have first in are. eight point nine

magnitude so we have here in the united states you know two nuclear plants at least two that are built in seismically dangerous zones in california one of which is near the shore and the other is. good both of them are not equipped let's say to deal to be able to enter the quake of this magnitude coupled with a tsunami so you know it really is a dynamic situation in the aftershocks in japan right now are that again we know magnitude or higher in many cases so we're still looking at a situation where containment dome could be cracked or at another tsunami could inherit the really early recovery effort and then now i'm glad you mentioned the california plan as as you said there are two operational nuclear power plants operating in california at the moment there's one and they are below canyon which is a power plant that's actually sits near several bought lines and then there's a second one that you mentioned those in san diego county i mean i'm sure a lot of california or athens itself right now could this happen here. absolutely it could and it really comes down to luck of course the industry has had to fortify

against the possibility of a catastrophe i mean there are multiple contingencies that are that are planned for but what we're looking at now is a dynamic environment in which nobody people say you can't predict i think of failure of imagination of course you can't predict but it seems so unlikely that business models are not constructed around the unlikeliest possible scenario and yet that's what we're looking at here in japan and so could it happen in the u.s. i'm not an alarmist i'm not saying because it happened in japan it will happen here but of course absolutely it could happen or you know when it comes to united states and power in general our reliance on power it seems like it's almost a lose lose situation obviously we've seen the dire consequences of our reliance on oil unrest in the middle east leaving gas prices so on and so forth and then when you come to other sources of power like nuclear power we're struck with this fear we're stuck with the potential of a meltdown is there any way of sort of getting out of this nasty i mean what can we

turn to for for sustainable fuel or in the in the situation well we've barely even begun to tap the possibility of a true are turning solution we really haven't come to terms of responsible consumption we are really just been nice in beginning of that effort and so part of what we're seeing right now there's one thing intrinsically for us today you know the kind of our hearts we're going to look at the situation and try to find a better way that almost never happens and particularly in the united states with regard to energy consumption and power as you as you say. but now that we're faced with one global crisis after the next and we have to get half a point saying you know it sure it's science is job to figure out what part of it we're in it now we're in it now i mean if you look at here look at japan and look at it in pakistan it's one flood and wonder where. one barking after the next so

we're in it now and we need to really learn how to be agile and nimble and creative in that complex duress environment so we really look at our options at this point and i believe that while there are challenges to all sorts of alternative energy we really have not begun a widespread campaign of understanding how to harness this and work together to meet it happened but we don't unfortunately when you're talking about politicians and what actual policy that comes out of washington people are very shortsighted if we actually were to make a concrete switch to all these alternative powers there would be some cost adjustments that would not be a cheap thing to get into and nobody wants to raise prices in the short term so i don't really see as optimistic as it is these crises resulting in any sort of concrete shift in power i mean even had president obama talking about tapping the strategic petroleum reserve just to cushion against the oil prices so you really genuinely think the folks in washington will somehow wake up and magically change their tune overnight i don't think they will ever change their tune i think we're

because we're at the nascent beginning of this shift right now we're still navigating one crisis after the next but inevitably this continues i mean with power grid getting knocked out across the entire nation i mean and we're not an immune to it here is you saying it because katrina gulf coast the power grid was completely knocked out in huge sections of. the gulf coast and so people are without power for a long time what if that were to happen in an area of the united states where you know that seriously cause more of a reaction to your garrulous angeles right and so there at this point no i'm not optimistic that we're that we're going to make a switch nor do i think these moratoriums on nuclear power are they can't last is a cheap source of electricity but it can happen here and it's only luck that prevent there are a well unfortunately it's only in times of disaster that we unfortunately ask ourselves. these difficult questions that was read as

a king founder and creative director of dancing productions now that does it for now for more in a stories that we've covered please go to our team dot com slash your say and check out our you tube page it's youtube dot com slash r t america and of course please follow me on twitter it's lucy capital and of course we're going to see you right back here in a half an hour thank you for watching. let's not forget that we had an apartheid. i think. either. we never got there as their safe get ready for freedom.