an earthquake a tsunami and a nuclear crisis that continues to unfold in japan but here's something new the cop a company operating the trouble to plant may be coming to the gulf coast and guess who's request our own president. and bad boys bad boys it seems that the cops the in could go both ways these days talk about what happens when the police become the criminals. you're turning around the war in afghanistan. we are doing that and which way is that there's another question for you why is the united states even there. you want to get off the streets or.

the good. and the life after afghanistan and iraq we're going to take a look at a battle that more veterans seem to be fighting homelessness the news starts now. now we begin with our continuing coverage of the crisis in japan officials there say that another fire has broken out at the fukushima nuclear complex and the tokyo electric power company which operates that plant so that there are efforts underway at the moment to put out the latest blaze we don't know if it's out yet but we will continue to monitor these developments for you but for now let's take a closer look at this company choke electric we're joined by investigative journalist greg palast who is with us from new york city to explain the connection between that company and the obama administration greg thank you so much for being here now just a few months ago president obama had asked congress for four billion dollars that's

four billion with a b in loan guarantees for true new nuclear reactors in the gulf coast and guess who set to operate b s tokyo electric power so what should our viewers know about this company that we're not going to hear on c.n.n. . well first of all c.n.n. didn't tell you that the u.s. government is offering four billion dollars to this company to come here tokyo electric these are the guys who you know are burning up their own citizens they are not a reliable company they are joined and partnered with u.s. companies who have such a bad reputation that they invited tokyo electric in because they would train the u.s. workers on how to build and operate a nuclear plant on the grounds that you know the japanese really know how to do their stuff so they're going to own twenty percent of all subsidized one hundred percent covered by the us taxpayer were totally on the hook and us rate payers are on the hook and tokyo electric is going to bring their methods here which are

pretty frightening you know for example. you'll note that they did not properly evacuate the area they waited late they didn't evacuate in a wide enough area they did not have iodine pills out for people live near the plant those things should been handed out from the day the plant operated people should have them in their medicine cabinets if they are within twenty kilometers of the plant we do that a lot of plants in the u.s. tokyo electric is not to be trusted nor their nor their partner which they called westinghouse but westinghouse is now just a brand name for toshiba and even. graduate and we don't come across as looking like we're hating on japan or something there is a correction go the other way to talk a little bit about how general electric has been contributing to the crisis and in japan at the moment. well in fact one of the reasons we invited tokyo electric to the us is that our own operators have such a terrible record and one of them being general electric we had three engineers who worked on the very plants the design of the very plants that are exploding now who

said that the plants those reactors were missed designed to those are designed by g.e. won by to shiva both all those designs are faulty we know that in addition the two of us plants were designed and the emergency diesel generators designed in the us one designed in japan by the sheba again all everyone of the back of diesel generators which would have saved those plants from melting down every single one all thirteen generators. failed to work and i don't think if they failed to work the evidence is not that they were destroyed by the earthquake or by the tsunami they just didn't work the crankshaft could not hold up and frankly a lot of people here in the us knew those crankshafts couldn't hold up their great if we look at the bridge here if we look at the bigger picture here right i mean we know that the nuclear industry has its flaws we certainly know that the oil

industry has the flaws are going to be we visiting that topic tomorrow when we talk about the chevron ecuador case which i know you've covered at length but this why does it there's that well industry to the nuclear industry to p.d.s. large corporations have any role in why we haven't seen a concrete fall of development of alternative energy uses and in this country and i tell her not only all of these are. yeah when i say not the alternative to nuclear as well is obviously solar power wind power in fifth in fact that south texas plan which is what tokyo electric and houston power are going to build together the power from back is going to cost about twice as much as the power from the same companies wind farms are going to pay them i wired the subsidy the antenna. wire to the table i know i'll end the nukes well they're going to go in the next me because oil and nuclear power have tremendous huge lobbies whereas the wind power lobby is

pretty teeny weenie in the solar lobby is almost nonexistent but these guys have a lot of money they have our money they've been dipping into the u.s. treasury pockets for a very long time and plus we insure them both the oil companies have a seventy five million dollar liability cap which is what b.p.'s legal liability was and the nuclear industry has a seventy five million dollar liability cap so if we get a fukushima daiichi situation and the south coast of texas you know tokyo electric houston power they're only on the hook for seventy five million dollars and you know this is going to be seven and a half billion dollars in damage to begin with just the plants themselves of course the the damage the population will probably be about seventy five billion dollars i hope that we never thought of that and fortunately we are at a time greg palast investigative journalist joining us from new york. that's a day marks the international day against police brutality and event that's hardly

on your radar screens of politicians or the mainstream media and we often do hear about police injustice in all those other countries with very little attention is focused on the growing problem right here in the united states and countless nameless nameless americans have suffered injustice at the hands of the police but is this just a blatant abuse of power or does it fall under the long trust to serve and protect now the resident dot net show host laurie harkin asked so that question to the streets of the big. march fifteenth is the international day again least we tally is it ever ok for the police force this week let's talk about that have you ever had personal experiences with the story and do you feel like that they were just using force out of line yes i mean if you want to floor where we were with a point you for there's no reason for injury and that's what happened to you whether you were from home or not you don't have no problem at the point you end

user first of course if you think policemen have too much power some of them in especially when you have family members that are higher in rank they think they can get away with whatever they want to do and then you are ranked policeman areola stupid stuff that they do to people that's what happened to me so you fell victim to an imbalance of power with the policeman oh definitely they got a court they both went off which were cited some people view them as bad to me do you think. i guess sometimes with. the authority thing you know people don't like to be told what to do that they are drunk with power or is it that they are just frustrated with the thing criminals out there. just like a murderer. that's what they want to do. you know what you want to do and where you're from they have too much power have you ever had problems with

police i never had problems but it's just in my. mind. it's like. if you think it has anything to do with the fact that you're a white man that looks pretty trustworthy and just you know from a profile point of view that's why you're not scared of him that probably has something to do with them i'm with experience what is that that pushes the police man over there. by case it might have been. wanting to be there. but no one wants to be at their job and doesn't allow them to use force on. the whole would be. a way where that. might. prove to the. public out there that it is a protection which is anyway as we all know whether or not you think it's ok for the police to ever use force the line between coarse and brutality can be pretty clear and it's never ok to cry.

but we decided to shine a light on this issue by turning to someone who has never shied away from the spotlight raymond boots reilly is an outspoken activist and renowned hip hop artist is also the frontman and producer of the coup as well as a street sweeper social club and earlier i spoke about what type of revolution he'd like to see and whom the police should be arresting instead take a listen. if police really wanted to cut down on crime they wouldn't be working in poor neighborhoods obviously they'd be looking and they'd be arresting folks that are running the banks and these major corporations also police work just to stop the crime that does happen in. they'd be working on getting folks jobs that about the laughter race. the two are intertwined right.

that. the working class is divided up in fighting each other based on race and race is a tool. ruling class uses suit keep the working class divide it now is part of that tool means to hate black folks as savages to. tell people that the reason that. people of color are poor and out of work is because of their culture and because of their mind in the you know how wild they are and so there's all these stories that we see and we take into our subconscious as being the reality of how poor people and people of color act and we won't want when we hear these stories of police brutality brutality. we. subconsciously feel like well maybe those folks were acting

a little too wild maybe they were doing something wrong because we've heard all of the stories that are meant to tell us that the reason that people are poor and oppressed is because of themselves and so even when you know you have. programs in the community that are supposedly. helping to uplift the community it's always based on changing the culture of that community let's make people be a little less violent as if violence this is the problem of violence stems from the people themselves who the point is is that we have a system in which a very few people on top almost have everything michael moore quoted a statistic that said to top the top four hundred families in the us the top four hundred richest families in us. have more wealth in the rest of the u.s.

combined the rest of the u.s. population combined. that's a staggering wealth difference i think that the only thing that's going to change many of these smaller problems that we talk about is a change in the system as it stands we don't have a real democracy here we need something in which we control the wealth that we create an intel that happens you're going to have police whose job it is to protect the the. status quo to keep things the way they are you know to protect property of the wealthy. and the police are never going to be honest and how do you get people to believe that they can do something i think that first we need a radical militant labor movement and radical militant labor movement that counts

most of the unions that are in existence out in what we need. are places in which these radical militant labor movements are not only. crew it not only fighting for. to keep the pay of the jobs that exist but but taking places like mcdonald's making them pay twenty thirty dollars an hour you know which they can afford to do taking places like kmart and wal-mart and making them pay more those sorts of movements are what gets at the heart of what people are thinking about every day once you get movements like that going in you can you can build support for an even more radical movement which says hey you see who's on our side and you see who's not let's make even more changes and let's you know and let's change this whole system that people are fighting to put food on the table pride fighting to pay the rich fighting to not be homeless

and we're doing it individually. now it's time for radical organizers to collectivize that struggle and then take it to the next level it's not just about people waking up and realize because people wake up and realize all the time when they have no idea what's it's about organizations. having their finger on the pulse of the people and being involved in the campaigns excite people's imagination and it's about people joining organizations that's key organizations are the key to. that as a musician and activist raymond boots riley and of course if you'd like to watch that full interview please head over to argue to page it's you tube dot com slash r t america. well our top man in afghanistan is back on capitol hill where he spent the morning assuring lawmakers that the war effort is going just fine general david

david petraeus told a senate panel this morning that u.s. nato forces have halted the taliban's momentum in much of the country but he warned that the gains are fragile and reversible are key correspondent christine for sours at the senate armed services hearing and she filed this report. it was meant to be an honest and open conversation about the state of the war in afghanistan and who better to report then general david petraeus himself the past eight months have seen important but hard fought progress in afghanistan a report card of sorts for those serving on the senate armed services committee like senator joseph lieberman of connecticut nobody's under any illusions sure that this is turning around the question that things to have many answers is in which direction it's turning here's one side we're there for a reason we're making progress we have made a great deal of progress in afghanistan since the last hearing of this committee on the subject just over a half

a year ago while the security progress achieved over the past year is significant it is also fragile and reversible this line fragile and reversible uttered so many times in the last few days it may almost be worthy of a drinking game this progress remains fragile and reversible but in the same hearing room just last week a bit of a different tune was sung we have enjoyed. an operational successes against the taliban however the taliban does remain resilient and will be able to threaten u.s. and international goals in afghanistan through twenty or also at the hearing and intelligence assessment about the future from national intelligence director james clapper i think. the concern. is. after that and the ability of the afghan government to. pick up their their responsibility for government over the last few weeks there has

been additional hardship in the mission and an increase in anger after nine afghan children were killed in a nato led attack here's secretary gates last week like to begin by joining general petraeus and offering my personal apology. for the accidental killing that nine afghan boys by coalition forces and here's president karzai talking about incidents like this and civilian casualties as a whole they want it stopped. they want it both reduced they want to stop president karzai said he actually wanted foreign troops out of afghanistan so not only are they losing the u.s. supported president of afghanistan now new evidence that the war is losing support from the general public as well this washington post a.b.c. news poll just out shows sixty four percent of americans do not think the war has been worth fighting and a much larger number seventy three percent thinks the u.s.

government should withdraw troops this summer as a regionally planned michael prysner veteran and member of the antiwar answer coalition agree there is a sense that afghanistan is a popular uprising of afghans from all walks of life from all backgrounds in every corner of afghanistan who rightfully see the occupation of their country as an empire trying to gain a foothold in the region that's of strategic importance for resources and for dominating the region and that in the hearing some signs that transition in kabul could be in the works it is afghan police who are the face of security on the streets is the afghan army a bit further out there as security responsibilities in every given night in that city so what's the purpose of these hearings well what fred inside these walls is meant to give lawmakers inside a progress report so they know how to best vote for the future of what happens in afghanistan or what could become increasingly difficult for them next messages when

what they're hearing from general petraeus continues to differ immensely from what they hear from reports in five and outside of afghanistan in washington i'm christine for that r.t. . well we may be thing mixed messages from u.s. officials but it seems that the american people are speaking loud and clear and they want out of an ghana stamp and yet there's new numbers out today that show that u.s. support for the longest war in our history is now the lowest ever in fact almost two thirds of americans say the afghan effort is not worth the fight we're here to make us help us make sense of all this is gentle america he is the founder of veterans for rethinking afghanistan and our team thank you so much for being here and so you know aside from convincing lawmakers that everything's ok and hey give us more money in afghanistan part of the job ahead of petraeus is to really convince the american people that we should remain here at a time when they don't want to why are we still in afghanistan. we're in still in afghanistan because president obama doesn't know how to control the pentagon. we

should have paid attention from would president bush this enormous leadership step between president bush had had wolfowitz had cheney had rumsfeld had these washington national security elite he couldn't control the pentagon would be going into the iraq war president obama with very little if no foreign policy credentials has almost no control over the pentagon and as a result the pentagon gets to dictate the political policy and they also get to dictate the operational policy that's why we're still there about and you know who do you blame people. who do who do you blame in an administration that's actually overstepping on what should be in terms of foreign policy operations the first thing that has to be set forth is a political objective after politics there's an operation or there's a tactical breakdown in terms of directing our efforts so the top of the class the you have to go into the politics you have to look at with the supreme court

sanction this you have to look at where the congress vote giving the money of the appropriations for and you have to say with the president's political goal and basically all three of the political branches have been manipulated by the pentagon in my opinion but the thing. it seems that us politics is so often driven by fear and we say that hey if we pull out of ghana standard terrorists are going to take over and then everything is going to go to hell and so politicians seem to cave to that because nobody wants to look like they're weak on national security and defense lawmakers case for that and the president has to look at that as well how do you get out of this mentality i mean of course things may be difficult if you pull out but at some point you have to look at the way the cost and the benefits of being there and right now it doesn't look like it's adding up in our favor that's right you know it's not adding up in our favor and one of the reasons that we still keep we keep staying put is basically because the american population has been sort of the they've been hoodwinked in terms of how much afghanistan costs how much it costs not only socially but economically and in terms of our international clout

and it's because basically the american population cares they really care about what happens to the troops they really don't want to be involved in sort of occupations and this sort of thing but they've been misled by between the media between the pentagon's p.r. task force and in many ways i think also if you look at journal patrols general petraeus has a has a national security network that's in afghanistan that's about one hundred people that's worked for him simultaneously to develop power so you and brought obama has none. because not even to have the equivalent of what general petraeus has in terms of looking at the overall strategy and what not so basically we have a president who i think in many ways is is in terms of foreign policy is is i didn't say i think he's incompetent i think it doesn't you know i don't think he has the skills to control the pentagon to separate political objectives and to justice forward because he's been strong armed by the pentagon so obama unqualified to be in the white house when it comes to foreign policy yeah well you know you

brought up the fact that the fact that american people of course do support the troops and you brought up the fact that this war is costing us a lot but it does look like when it look at when we focus on the treatment of the troops once they return home from these wars that money is not. going there so when are we going to start investing in america and not in afghanistan i don't think that's going to happen i think that basically what we're going to see in the next year or two has been we're going to see a. basically a strategic arms arrangement in which the u.s. is going to have permanent troops in afghanistan and i think it's because strategically if you look at the policy wonks here in washington they're concerned about long term oil revenues that can come from the caucus states or can come from the black sea area and different areas like that i think that's that's the general apparatus we're going to see on a stick or a bear to r.t. blogger and founder of rethink. what general petraeus says that the united states

is making progress in afghanistan veterans here at home are not having as much luck artie's among the lindo investigates the homeless crisis the homeless veterans crisis here in the united states i joined the army to fight for my country to make a better life for myself there were no jobs where i live so to farm is going to be forever i joined the army to prove myself worthy of becoming a united states citizen the reason is army doctors are really. so my choices are going to be like oh sweet words the promise of a life full of action a step up on the career ladder or even the dream of u.s. citizenship this is the doctor a pitcher of the army but every critter's being completely honest about what awaits service members in the battle. or what they can really expect when they come off it and so they treat them with all these promises of a better life i don't think people end up going in throwing their lives away in iraq and afghanistan and coming home to

a situation described of homelessness of unemployment and substance michael prysner is an iraq war veteran he recognizes that war can destroy both body and mind of a soldier something seldom mentioned as the media has tired of showing america's wars americans are becoming more disconnected to their troops in battle and losing sight of the consequences of growing number not just a veterans but of homeless veterans you know. and. that was it i am joss my wife. is lost when he tries to remember what it was that finally landed him on the street the army veteran proudly fought in the first iraq war and now feels like he and many other vets are being trampled on trying to go to be. and they said was going to take time like three years four years five years.

start thinking about the veterans they come with. these days veterans are ending up homeless sooner than ever so if you want to get off the streets. four years ago marian wright really hunter was serving his country in iraq today he is hooked on drugs and living under a bridge. i'm going to punch problems was used was i want to be here the head of told. no that showed up as a mentor when he said he gets by with some food an extra clothing from the nonprofit group national veterans foundation their outreach efforts failed to get where government agencies like the v.a. have failed before he would only see like one really. every three or four months and now every time we go we see somebody for prom i reckon again

a fellow from the first gulf war some people join the armed services in hopes of having financial stability once they're done with their duty unfortunately some of them end up here on the streets now here in los angeles there are more than forty thousand people without a home on a daily basis many of those are better ins and the problem is just expected to get even worse as more and more serious members return from the war to an economic situation with very few prospects join the military for a paycheck. if you can of the wrong place for a cordoba a marine served four tours in iraq as he helps homeless vets cordoba admits that while some recruiters are concerned about the future of the young men and women joining the armed forces others simply see them as numbers well there's a cliche saying in the military every soldier says my recruiter lied to me if you're something that we all know you know the reality is you're less likely to

find a job when you get out of the military despite promises they are more marketable on the job market the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff admiral mike mullen recently expressed concern over the creation of a generation of homeless vets a practical and moral burden for the u.s. for decades to come despite the warning some conservative lawmakers like michele bachmann have proposed cutting funding for veterans that is something that proud american bet's don't like to hear take care remember in. case. the world. america is not. a los angeles. r.t. . well that does it for now for more on the stories that we covered please go to r.t. dot com slash usa as i said are you to page it's youtube dot com slash r t america and of course you can always follow me on twitter it's after lucy catherine of one word had a great evening.