welcome they load a show at the real headlines with none of the mercy of a lot of washington d.c. now the obama administration has done a complete one eighty on the nine eleven suspects detained it get no i also know they're not going to be tried in civilian court rather military commissions they blame congress but we'll see if they ever even try to fight then could push reyes be heading to the cia according to reports from n.p.r. gen david petraeus might be the next head of the intelligence agency so we'll have

details on what that move could mean both for our wars abroad at her presidential politics here at home and today many people are wondering what about israel all the drastic changes that are happening in countries in the middle east how is it going to if i can this tiny country and its foreign policy to look into it and we'll hash out the details of one u.n. report author who slightly changed his stance on the war in gaza and the countdown to the shutdown continues the government will turn off its lights this friday unless the right and left can reach an agreement on the budget paul ryan's two thousand and twelve budget plan is also out with six trillion dollars worth of cuts over the next ten years old debate who the winners and who the losers will be and then sit back and enjoy a much needed happy hour with us producer jenny churchill and the daily callers mike riggs will join me to discuss the stories making a buzz thus far this week like the slut walk in toronto it's going to be fun we'll have details on all that and much more but first our top story. yesterday attorney

general eric holder made the announcement that collates shaikh mohammed the alleged nine eleven mastermind and four alleged coconspirators will be tried in military commissions at guantanamo bay and stead of in a federal civilian court in manhattan where the crime was committed to move it has many legal experts cringing as the theories debate of military commissions vs federal civilian courts has proven the latter to be more successful to deal harsher sentences and of course to even that that's been tested by time more than two hundred years worth of perhaps worst of all yet another flip flop by the obama administration one of their choosing to blame on congress who passed legislation barring the transferring of detainees from u.s. soil. who where and how to prosecute have always been and must remain the responsibility of the executive branch members of congress simply do not have access to the evidence and other information necessary to make

prosecution judgments yet we have taken one of the nation's most trusted killed in terrorism. off the table and tied our hands in a way it could have serious ramifications. but in politics it really tie obama and holder its hands or did they just choose to succumb joining me to discuss this from our studio in new york is scott horton contributing editor and legal and national security matters for harper's magazine scott thanks so much for joining us tonight now there's a lot to talk about here both for obama and for attorney general eric holder but let's start just hold it right i mean he's the leading prosecutor in the country this is the deadliest crime in american history so arguably one of the biggest cases in american history and yet he really sounds defeated to me it sounds like he's not even really willing to fight for what it is that he wanted. i think that's right i think this is really a shattering moment for eric holder personally and you think back to the interview

he gave to the new yorker's jane mayer last year he talked with pride about his resolve on principle to take these courses these cases forward in the federal court he described that as a defining moment in his tenure as attorney general and i think now we see it is of the fighting moment but it doesn't define eric holder in a positive light he looks incredibly weak and indecisive this decision about where to bring the charges and what charges to bring is eric holder's decision that's clear under the constitution and laws of the united states it's not that the solution that rests with congress in fact but there's that's fixed by our constitution the seventeenth century precedent that says the legislature may not intrude into this area we discover that eric holder had an indictment already secured in the southern district of new york in two thousand and nine he was

prepared to go forward he didn't do it he trembled he set back and he let his adversaries in congress out frank him so right now he looks like a defeated man but what about president obama right because eric holder also in this speech said this power still lies solely within the executive branch and you know i feel like obama the president has decided that we can go to war in libya without any kind of congressional approval for them to point fingers and say that congress is tying his hands when it comes to closing guantanamo bay and to trying these people on american soil i know that argument is kind of lacking for me after we have the actions that he's committed in the last few weeks. it's inconsistent it certainly looks weak i mean you can look back at his predecessor george bush who set up kuantan the mo organize the commissions put things through acts of will as executive never really even caring about what congress had to say until the

supreme court toppled that will house of cards and force them essentially to go to congress but obama with obama we just don't see anything right that kind of resolve or decisiveness and we see incredible in the situation and weakness in the face of domestic political opposition on this issue and it really is it seems to me that obama's domestic political advisors have told him oh this isn't a good issue for you just let the republicans have what they want even though you think is a matter of principle it's wrong so it makes them appear in the size of it and weak i think. you know i also have to wonder in terms of the military commissions there has been a lot of legal opinions out there flying around saying that well you know these military commissions are very new they have a far smaller success rate than it comes to civilian courts on this case and so i'm

just wondering can people like holy shit muhammad when they go in front of these military commissions can a big use that to their defense to say you know what this isn't really a tried and tested form of justice that you're putting me through here. exactly correct and in fact i think few people who've looked at this have much about the guilt of collegiate muhammad the fact most people expect he's going to plead guilty but there's a big question about the appearance of the process here and i think the federal court system has a lot of integrity to it is widely respected around the world but what about these courts in guantanamo i mean if you listen to what's said by republicans in congress they advocate these courts because they think they are kangaroo courts there's no question of conviction there's no question about what's going to come out of the process i think it's actually a slander of the military justice system but it does reinforce this impression that

they that there's not their justice that's me that here and technically we would say is this a regularly constituted court that's the legal requirement under the geneva conventions very very clear and i think there's almost no one in the world looking at what's going on at one time in the mo whether they think this new system in the new rules are fair or not who would say this is a regularly constituted court it's been tinkered with and changed over and over and over again and of course i think you can also argue that this is only going to perhaps you know help. muhammad's image help the entire idea that he now is a martyr and really you know help him play upon that but i do have to wonder you know for me this is a huge a flip flop when it comes to the obama administration but i wonder if the average american at this is a deal breaker not considering that i think there may be a little more worried about things that get close to home right now and economic matters but we will see how it plays out in two thousand and twelve stopping so much for joining us tonight great to be with you. now we know that there are

a lot of changes coming up for the obama administration and for obama's national security team at the end of this year but if the rumors are true then we may have a better idea of who exactly is going where n.p.r. is reported that several government officials say that general david petraeus is being seriously considered to be the next cia director and leon panetta current cia director will then be taking over for robert gates as secretary of defense now might just seem like a typical washington shuffling or wondering if a rumor of presidential run for betrayers has anything to do with it and of this would mean of the drone strike campaign will be taken to an entirely new and much more intense level joining me to discuss it is kevin zeese director of cumhal america that us kevin thanks so much for joining us tonight first of all i guess these are rumors but do you buy it do you think that there is a big chance of a trace might be going to the cia sure that's a real good possibility. there is. much more active participant in the actual

failure of wars you mentioned the drone strikes in pakistan which is also true in libya and so you can see moving in general into syria to fight wars to make sense from a strategic perspective and i think you also mentioned correctly elections coming up you know twenty twelve you know one general petraeus in the public making speeches about how bad the afghan war is going now is left. to criticize the obama administration when he's thrown for office and afghanistan is not going very well probably will not be going very well too much for a keeper troops inside inquired rather than criticizing a lot of the arts are yeah but in that sense you also have to wonder if this is an easy way out for general petraeus right he took over the war in afghanistan now so you can say this is also on his shoulders so now if he just moves on to the cia then he kind of gets to dump this project and just move on to the next thing move

on to intelligence and also to. one of the by. no question about it and you know iraq is not really one of the well know either you see the iraqi government involved in torture of civilians in iraq with the u.s. government you know the way a lot of those people who are doing the torturing of general petraeus was in charge of training the afghan military and police and so he gets none of the blame for that because there's no spotlight i don't want to but you also see the afghan government civilians who are demonstrating as you are covered so he also that up he was i want to go against in afghanistan easily criticized by karzai there's been civilian deaths he's trying to slow down as it were and so he can eat can leave there now in as it's failing and move on to a higher job at the cia working he would be a war fighter things are really strange in libya right now there's a real battle for who's in charge of the libyan armed forces a former cia agent a criminal have to or is barely now with

a former gadhafi interior minister general yunus and it looks like the cia may get control over the libyan rebels and having to trace and charge that would make a loss and so it's a very long time from that goes and it really may be showing that the cia will become even more of an active military player they're already yeah definitely within their i mean i think that we've definitely seen the cia and the military really fuse together in some ways even switch roles when it comes to conducting some of these wars abroad in iraq and afghanistan but in pakistan in yemen you could say especially with these drone strikes our idea of my standards for egypt saudi. pakistans very interesting you know what we have at blackwater agent who the new york times wouldn't tell their readers was a was a cia agent who was forced out of the country and hundreds of other cia agents were forced to leave as well as has an active and secret and not approved by congress

war going on by the cia in pakistan and in some similar going on in libya so these are really interesting times for petraeus to come into that job that yes this job because the cia sees me as a player in this ongoing never ending a war on terror going from country to country going into first troops in as they did in libya and also connect the illegal war in pakistan so patrice is a master at propaganda he is very good with the media he's very good with congress he is loved by the traditional corporate media and so he did a great propagandist to have the cia. well petraeus is definitely someone loved by congress as well i can imagine the pride would have to type of a time in confirmed for something like this you know some of our to take away that sure it would just be you know a completely unanimous decision and let's say they want to run down the line let's say that he wants to run in twenty sixteen is that also just going to to beef up his credentials if he now says that he's worked at the cia but as you know we've

had one other. became president that was a george bush the first and so i think there will be a resume for those who are hawkish and there are a lot of those i do agree the thirty will have an easily easy confirmation through through to the senate which will be of loyal lot of controversy a lot of infighting something obama doesn't mean so i think this is a really legitimate rumor. would be beneficial work the truth is into abramoff i think if this was a series what was up around those is this really this is a not only rural lately scenario to unfold before us but you know i think a lot of people might have thought that perhaps becoming the next joint chiefs of staff chairman coming up into admiral mike mullen he's going to step down from his fall would have been more of a step up so as a kind of a dig but he isn't even in the running for that one. that's a really interesting question i mean portrays has you know a very puffed up image in the military i mean there's

a lot of i think exaggeration of fact here with the diplomat for a duma peter galbraith said exactly that that there's a lot of exaggeration about his record in fact when he succeeded in more soon will you know setting up the afghan police and in getting control as soon as he left it fell apart. and when he also was very involved in building up the civilian police and in the military and in iraq he did the largest weapons procurements his war to where thirty percent of weapons went missing we don't know where they went according the g.a.o. in the washington post was a and petraeus was in charge of that so you know there have been some some scandals have snuck out it may not be good to put him in the joint chiefs of staff because of that kind of stuff i think the cia maybe even more appropriate for the kind of skills here which is fighting counterinsurgency wars with the media only with congress if they can if he does he may be more effective there if you're for support us foreign policy which is very militaristic intelligence based i can i

thank you very much for joining us and giving us your insight on this and i guess we're just going to have to wait and see that definitely will be an interesting change thanks. thanks a lot. now coming up next it's been one year since wiki leaks released video collateral murder and the look of the ascension of wiki leaks from a little known web site to any member of the author of the last year how to say it the middle east has radically changed forever it is clear from how israel and the united states trying to deal with it is not to take a look at the changing dynamics of the book. you know some good to see a story and it seems so for late sleep is that you understand it and then you live something else here's some of the part of it and realize that everything is just you know you don't know i'm trying hard look at the big picture.

let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right. i think iraq the bombing be the one to well. we never got the says the keeping safe get ready because their freedom. hi guys welcome to sharon's hell on the on a shelf we've heard our guests have to say on the topic now i want to hear our audience just go on to you tube the video response for the twitter for part of the questions that we've host on you tube every monday and on thursday with the show your responses we like your voice be heard.

so they marks a very sobering anniversary it's been a one year since the video collateral murder was released to the public by then a little known website called wiki leaks now we have been around for years but this is the leak that really put them into the spotlight and show the world yet again the horrific realities of war or helicopter of u.s. soldiers opened fire on

a group of civilians and journalists in iraq. i am i right i am. i am the attack which left civilians and reuters reporters that also showed how the casual rhetoric used by the soldiers was when they opened fire using terms like light him up like it was a video game and i personally sat down with wiki leaks co-founder julian assange on the day that this video was released to the public and explain to us the purpose of sharing these graphic videos with the world. we believe in releasing food source documents to the world together with analysis to put them in context for people to understand them because the food source material is what helps keep journalism just independently verifiable independently checkable assertions a trickle in the same way as a scientific paper is checkable it's a full source material was released the public. ever since this video was shared

with the world joined us on has become a household name in winking makes us become public enemy number one of the us government and while some people praise dishonor for bravely showing these clips to the world as well as thousands of war and diplomatic documents others they washington's political elite say that he's put the country's safety at risk these are the same is true foreign terrorist organization is that they were engaged in terrorist activity there or what they're doing is clearly aiding and abetting terrorist groups or using your information against american. information warfare is warfare and doing son is engaged in warfare information terrorism which leads to people getting killed is terrorism and julian assange is engaged in terrorism i think the man is a carer's. and has gone into such events going it is enormous damage to our country and i think he needs to be prosecuted to the full fullest extent of

the law and if that becomes a problem need to change the law one leaking the material is deplorable i agree with the pentagon's assessment that the people working at least could have blood on their hands it sure looks to me on the facts that mr assad and we could so violated america's espionage with great. negative consequences for us. are a short while later he came out of the government imprisoned at the man they suspect of leaking the government documents and the video to wiki leaks p.f.c. bradley manning tarver there's never been an official says. the ation made between manning and songe and then of course came the massive leak of diplomatic cables it was like christmas for the media when the cables came out exposing our every facet of the us government feels about foreign policy foreign leaders so if issues and that is just scratching the surface but as soon as washington found out about the classified information now being made over to the public the outcry from lawmakers

was really really loud. or leaked that information is cool to the tradition if you can use english addiction to. what most washington lawmakers couldn't explain was why we could weeks was any different than the new york times or the washington post which has exposed classified government information for years now when they called out the u.s. government on its hefty amount of state secrets they were applauded when a wiki leaks did it they put our national security in jeopardy and as the public debate rages bradley manning has sat in solitary confinement quantico subjected to an ethical treatment and he still to this day has not been convicted of any crime i keep in mind that all of this happened under the obama administration president obama announced on day one that he would have the most transparent administration in history but it's become very clear that he hasn't kept true to his word on that when he even accepted a transparency award ironically behind closed doors perhaps to avoid any obvious

questions from the press and makes you think about how much difference just one year can make or the word transparency started out as something that our government would strive for but ultimately became the enemy and all efforts were put towards protecting state secrets and fighting whistleblowers efforts so strong that both songe and manning are now facing serious criminal charges so the as the protests continue and the call for more transparency gets louder just stop and think for one minute today about how the u.s. government our government has changed the course backtracked and cornered itself when it comes to being honest with the world and just think that it all started with a video. oh not only is he quickly changing middle east raising questions about israel's foreign policy future but the heated debate over the gaza war in two thousand and eight in two thousand and eight backed off as well this week richard goldstone the chair of the u.n. fact finding mission to look into war crimes and civilian deaths in the conflict

and whose name is on the final report came out with an op ed in the washington post this week changing his stance slightly goldstone said that how do you down then what he knows now after israel conducted their own investigation the findings the report may have been skewed differently and that the attacks on civilians by israeli defense forces may not have been deliberate and it sparked a division within the u.n. which is about to send a report to the security council with the aim of referring both israel and hamas to the international criminal court for alleged war crimes but perhaps we need to ask first and foremost if this puts all such reports into question especially when all sides participate in the findings or discuss it with me is more erekat human rights attorney active as an adjunct professor at georgetown university all right thanks so much for being here tonight i think you have now for starters goldstone did this op ed is he didn't completely changed his stance i think a lot of people are misreading a little bit but he did say that he had a few reservations that perhaps it might have been a little different had there been the information that he knows now then what is it

that he knows now so what also ended in his op ed was that he left it very very very open to interpretation and that's why you see these israel running with that in saying the thinking it all back you see the thing that is this about them but human rights practitioners can read into it and see where he's actually mean teams when he if the original findings including his commitment to justice accountability the application of the laws of war to an armed conflict and so what he knows now is not very much more which makes this very odd all he knows now is that israel has said what it had been accused of being deliberate killing was actually an act the negligence but there's nothing to underpin that and make all some very clear. in their findings because the independent committee of experts headed by judge mary mcgowan davis said that israel semester investigations were thorough impartial or independent and leave a lot to be desired but i think you know this really highlights the main focus here is the problem with all of these investigations in many ways right because

goldstone also said he had hoped that hamas would participate and make their own investigation which you know dream on i'd say you know israel also refused to be a part of the un's investigation and only wanted to do their own so you have to ask is along the way everything is really so politicized you know he also said this is by no means anything like a judicial process so how can you really trust any the finding that's the that's the point these findings are not to be conflated with fact the point of it is that you have enough findings that rise to the level that you need a judicial inquiry and also it is very clear from the beginning that nothing in the report is an indictment against israel or against hamas but at least rises to the level of being referred to a jury additional body like the international criminal court which has been the point from the very beginning in the desire and the demand to make a distinction between hamas and israel in terms of investigating itself whereas reviewers have found that headmasters and even have a capacity to review itself israel which does have the capacity does have the

judicial bodies does have all of the trappings of investigatory body to do the best the investigation is unwilling to do so and that's why that two years later of the thirty six investigations that goldstone did in the report only a third of them have been completed by israel and none of them have necessarily been met with accountability for the palestinian victims so what do you think that he was trying to do here by writing this i mean the timing is interesting because as i mentioned they want to take it to the security council to the international criminal court both or israel and hamas i don't know if he was trying to postpone that get them to change their minds or was he trying to. israel perhaps to somehow come back and try to join with the un here so from the very very beginning israel did not want to be a part of this they boycotted it even before the mission began and accused it of being biased even before it began which makes israel's position very very curious and so it wasn't happy that last week on march twenty first in the sixteenth

russian of the human rights council the human rights council decided finally to move the goldstone report from geneva to new york and the general assembly where it could be followed up with some action and actionable follow up like referral to the un security council and either hemis or israel was interested in it nobody was saying anything most speculated that it would probably die because the security council would overturn it also and didn't have to do anything if you was worried about israel's standing folks really what's going on he didn't have to do anything because more or less it was going to die somewhere the fact that he put out this is makes one wonder does he feel that he could have lured israel to the table had he done things differently or been more accommodating and by the way it's not just him it's a four person panel so even if he rejects that there's three others still go to end the entire process but or is this something else that play that song was so worried that he felt he needed to defend israel on the sign and the fact that today he's

accepted of an invitation to visit israel makes me wonder that there's something else there's something personal that's going on that we don't know about and i think that nicoleta don't want this to be a really conservative report and was shocked when he found that the entire world responded with this is great you actually did a thorough investigation and so it really is curious why he's done this and at best he was absolutely right leave at worst he would be an opportunist and i thank you very much for joining us i think that we won't really know he's not speaking out too much since when it comes to this what exactly he was meeting to. you hear but like i said it definitely brings into question me this is the fact that you know this is a war people obviously want to investigate these types of scenarios and deciding so every side is always going to think they're right of course you know hamas like i said perhaps doesn't want to investigate themselves like you said perhaps they don't even have the capacity to.