more news today is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. operations are today. along tom hartman of washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture waterboarding well it's not a sport it's a technique of strapping someone down a flat surface place you've been sheet over their face then continuously pouring water over their face. the way to extract information from a terrorist suspect or just good old fashioned torture the g.o.p.'s war on women continues other plan to revoke the right for low income the rape victims to receive

the mercy of war and the legalization of medical marijuana could burn up tell you why the white house is urging state governors to veto their laws. you need to know this today president obama went to ground zero to honor the victims of nine eleven and join new yorkers to recognize sunday's moment of justice when the man behind this unthinkable act of terrorism osama bin laden was finally put to death in a somber ceremony the president offered no public remarks he simply laid a wreath at the site where the towers once stood congressman charlie rangle was on hand and called into my radio show earlier today paint a picture of the circle. i was with the family when he came over and he had a conversation with a little fellow and. i didn't get rushed each to me because i could not find that

we're going to be feeling and that moment speaks for itself and i hope you understand what i did picking up the street i thought it listening to that it was so moving you know not. but since the older kid was everything was the air president did not give a speech to heat not to give a speech he said he spoke to the families that would not be he went to a fire station and wanted to find its newest i would be took off his jacket so that i can. be a poet john said couldn't believe it was the president of the united states of america who is just sitting down and much enjoyed to be on it so having lunch with him was such a day and the sun was shining in the families that they make of this speech.

groups is the here and so anybody that is trying to decide this issue is just nothing for them to work. that's where the president talked privately with the families of victims of nine eleven first responders telling the fighter fire firefighters what happened on sunday because of the courage of our military and the outstanding work of our intelligence sent a message around the world but also sent a message here back home that when we say we will never forget we mean what arse what we say that our commitment to making sure that justice is done is something that transcended politics transcendent sorry it didn't matter which administration was in it didn't matter who was in charge who are going to make sure the perpetrators that horrible act but they receive justice and with that private meeting with families the president by a left manhattan and flew back to washington d.c. . so while president obama was focused on healing the nation bringing closure to one of the worst things that's ever happened to us and holding us all together

right wingers had a different agenda different issue to talk about the wake of bin laden's death and that's torture no sooner had bin laden's body been sunk to the bottom of the north arabian sea and bush apologists were quick to brag that it was torture that led to the death of bin log was that argument's been largely dismissed not only by bush's own deputy national security adviser john brennan the chairwoman of the senate intelligence committee dianne feinstein even donald rumsfeld himself all of whom said torture had nothing to do with funny bin laden although romney did eventually backtrack once you get the right wing talking points so why is the right so obsessed with torture now and even if a shred of evidence the point of bin laden's whereabouts was procured thanks to torture does not make a right joining me now to offer his take is david selig former marine and federal tax practitioner and advocate david walker of the program. thank you for having me on and thank you for your guests the last time i was on i got

a lot of really nice letters and supportive remarks so i appreciate it that's great . david fellow by the new matthew alexander a senior u.s. interrogator who oversaw and performed over thirteen hundred interrogations of iraq guy you know he basically done everything requestion question a waterboarding said this to any good man on her democracy now program. torture and abuse was ok his number one recruiting tool and remember these foreign fighters they came to iraq they made it ninety percent of suicide bombers. they killed hundreds if not thousands of american soldiers and so this policy of torture and abuse did not make america safer what it did was it caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of american soldiers who are now buried at arlington national cemetery stow hundreds or thousands of american soldiers dead because of torture. you know that's nonsense that's absolutely untrue one of the biggest lies that has

been purposely was there upon us by this is this is a guy with one hundred interrogations well that does not mean the ferocity of what he is saying is so i would like to say that the again the biggest lie that has been perpetrated upon us is that this technique does not work it does work it has certainly secured and protected many of our interests and it is saved more american lives than it is ever lost but i would remind you of this tom by comparison it's really nothing compared to what in this case the islamic terrorists still i mean lopping off heads stoning women to killing home a sexual. slaughtering innocent little jewish children i comparison it's like a day at the park so your argument is that if there brutes we should become brutes even if we're not quite as brutish. well i think we have to be pragmatic and we also have to be reality politic there is

a certain voice in our. politics are elected officials who think we can depose these individuals and that we can somehow appease them with talk and understanding. as why would we want to be. just a nice why i don't get this why would we want to descend into this presidents from from george washington to franklin roosevelt wars and never used torture why would we i would love an embrace this now in fact we prosecuted it you know we we hung out a man i know there was no use beating no use you know waterboarding to me we hung in world war two we were the firing squad we executed filipino soldiers for using waterboarding against our people and in both cases during the spanish-american war in both cases we called that torture and said it was a war crime we didn't do it and we can we actually cupid the criminals who did it and you're and you're saying we should become wait

a minute your pay you're playing fast and loose with the word torture and you're taking only one aspect of what these individuals did the fact of the matter was waterboarding with the particular enemy combatants you previously mentions was just one thing they were doing ok but waterboarding was called the chinese water in world war two and in the spanish-american war it is hard that's only was nothing they did it was also a lot of other things but again this is the liberally misleading your listening audience to believe that what we did was wrong and it was on par with what these other individuals all do back to take offense to your saying where descending into this because that's not true back to back to matthew alexander again this is a guy who oversaw thirteen hundred terry geishas or participated in thirteen hundred or geishas in a city one of the top. one of the senior officials he said when i was in iraq i oversaw the interrogations of foreign fighters those foreign fighters the majority

of them said time and time again the reason they'd come to iraq to fight was because of the torture and abuse of detainees at both good and guantanamo bay and this is not my opinion the department of defense tracked these districts and they were briefed every interrogator who arrived there the torture and abuse was ok it is number one recruiting tool in the army manual in section one thirty five as part one section thirty five is a recall says explicitly the use of violence is not necessary to to acquire information from suspects and it goes on to say that it actually is counterproductive i mean this is against this is against the u.c. i'm j. it's against the uniform code of military justice here what you're saying against you are absolutely just you're absolutely distorting this argument again you have a loud voice saying something that is wrong is right and something that is right is wrong in this case we're getting waterboarding has been responsible for saving many

american lives and american interests against there's no evidence ideologically opposed i disagree with that but i disagree with the secretary that it's not inciting yes i am your sister here and you're disagreeing with the guy who was actually there and oversaw thirteen or possess i am i most certainly i am not the doctor if you barker this will be how did you do that did you have you ever waterboard anybody and got good into intelligence i have not i have not sir but i have to tell you as a matter of military policy i think it is that or effective tool to have in our arsenal and it would be folly for us to remove it from the medio ok well we'll will we'll leave we'll leave with you having the last word david thank you for for dropping by thank you again zob. in my opinion torture is a war crime plain and simple and waterboarding is torture and those in the bush administration who practice to our war criminals now that bin laden's dead they're

trying to claim that their atrocities are justified but frankly they're not and they never will be bin laden's goal with nine eleven was not to kill americans or not just to kill americans it was also to make america compromise its own ideals for us to behave as evil as been wotton had portrayed us and since we resorted to torture and brutality in many ways like bin laden did in some small ways he won that battle and now we have a president who refuses to go on a same road a war crimes when laden is dead and his cause won't win in the end you know our first president to explicitly say no torture was george washington here's what hillary clinton had to say back on october thirty first two thousand and six speaking before the council of foreign relations about that. on the floor of the senate i recounted a choice that general george washington made twenty thirty years ago. york city and

long island had been captured washington and the continental army had retreated across new jersey to pennsylvania suffering tremendous casualties here in new york american prisoners often held in the halls of boats anchored in the harbor off of brooklyn were suffering unspeakably at the hands of the british the cause of american independence was in doubt then washington wondered that of trenton capturing nearly one thousand prisoners of war and he had to decide what to do with them he ordered he gave should still speak to us treat them with humanity and let them have no reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the british army and their treatment of our unfortunate brethren there can be no mercy for those who perpetrated nine eleven and other crimes against humanity but we have to pursue justice in

a way that lifts up our values the rule of law and sets an example we can point to with pride not shame and in fact george washington's policies were followed as a result of. hundreds of thousands of british soldiers actually deserve good to the american side knowing that they would be treated well and it was one of the things that helped us win the war. flash forward to world war two hitler is having victories and he's just taken france a top secret facilities put together for what it's called p. o. box eleven forty two the at this facility they conducted over four thousand interrogations the highest value nazi targets henry cole for example was one of the master interrogators he was actually a physicist from mit the washington post under such an act over sixty two thousand and seven an article by petula dvorak titled four hunts quiet men break silence of world war two. quoted henry caught the guy who ultimately was

well here's the here's the quote actually from we got more information out of a german general with a game of chess or ping pong than they do today with their torture said henry call ninety an mit physicist who had been assigned to play chess in germany with hitler's deputy rudolf hess about high value targets. in the article she continued several of the veterans all men in their night eighty's and ninety's denounced the controversial techniques and when the time came for them to accept honors from the army's freedom team salute one veteran refused citing his opposition the war in iraq and procedures that have been used to guantanamo bay in cuba she went on to write actually this is a quote we did it with a certain amount of respect and justice this is said john gunther dean eighty one he was talking about interrogation became a career foreign service officer ambassador to denmark the interrogators had standards that remain a source of pride and honor and finally george frankel eighty seven of kensington

said during the many interrogations i never laid hands on anyone we extract that information in a battle of wits i'm proud to say i never compromised humanity george w. bush took us to a place where we as a nation compromised our humanity fortunately president obama has as repudiated that and let's hope it never happens again. it's time for our daily poll your chance to tell us what you think here's today's question do you agree with president obama saying no go on the bin laden death photos your choices are yes i agree with him we don't need to trot this out as a trophy is obama said that's not who we are or no as sarah pail and said stop pussyfooting around and show photos as a warning to others so far over eighty percent of you voted yes you can log on to thom hartmann dot com let us know if the poll will be open until. coming up plant

workers in japan or vaca back at the fukushima daiichi plant and the two months after the nuclear meltdown so what's first on their to do was to try to stop a total world wide disaster. for. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so silly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here see some other part of it and realized everything you saw you

don't i'm sorry to see. every single republican as representatives yesterday voted to pass a radical piece of legislation that redefines rape and further subordinates women yes with one in seven people in stamps in america republicans are focusing on the important issues like how to screw over victimized women and no taxpayer funding for abortion act passed it was pretty much a party line vote dropping women who've been victims of a variety of forms of nonviolent rape like rape children incest victims or victims of date rape for medicaid coverage for abortions the bill also raises taxes on small businesses and women by a limb an aging tax deductions for health insurance plans that may cover abortion

services even the chamber of commerce acknowledged the bill was a tax hike the bill also forces women who have to have it worse than using federal dollars to undergo rape audit or she will have to prove to the i.r.s. with written documentation that she was indeed a victim of rape incest or that her life was in danger or the one hundred thirty five thousand people petitioned speaker of the house john boehner did not pass this radical new law he ignored every single one of them since as a man he knows much more about abortion and women too so why on earth is going after pregnant women the top priority of the republican party who offer their takes on this issue of the sermon conservative strategist and managing owner for forty group public relations and sam bennett president and c.e.o. of the women's campaign forum eather sam welcome heather to paraphrase grover norquist. it seems the republicans are hell bent for leather and shrinking government down to the size where it can fit into a woman's uterus what is small limited government about trying to can trying to

legislate and involve the federal level women who've been raped but let's not forget we're not going to we're focusing on abortion as well and we have in two thousand and ten overwhelmingly people said we want pro-life representation and therefore. no no no no that's not no they want of the economy to the six that is the beddoes are not mutually exclusive are theirs they are not going to tell you who has it i'm sorry it's always worth having to have started experimenting to go towards abortion go ahead but start talking about what really happened what really happened in two thousand and ten with a mandate on the economy had nothing to do with choice so proceed we had over one hundred percent it's coming we're pro-life and they were outspoken about it and that was not something that worked against them that actually worked for them it's not the latest known to be pro-life and pro-choice government it's not when the early meetings have a good airline showing towards abortion let's not fall down though the lesson. by

the way you know when you know when our when our country is falling apart and we have literally one in seven americans on food stamps one in six americans living below the poverty line. are there are there are things i mean you know sure we can we can have a debate and probably should about abortion and you know all these things in congress at some point but shouldn't the shouldn't republicans last representatives be focused on getting jobs for people you know like the promise that john boehner made when he convened one hundred twelfth congress that the most important priority would be the economy so far it is not in the same as he said not a single thing it is all been about ramrodding through this is a piece of blackmail this is not a piece of reasonable legislation it is blackmail it is blackmailing women who are at the receiving end of rape who don't have the money to. pay themselves out of their pocket so what are we going to do with that it is a form of blackmail against small businesses it's against of it's a form of blackmail against people that have to pay their own life their own health

insurance and it's a way of telling health insurance companies we're not going to we're going to penalize you penalize you if you offer of the full headers this is no it's not this isn't penalize this is not a very hard to see who it was actually it was are you showing preferential treatment towards insurance companies that. nonsense what this is saying is we're no longer in his view that we're you know i'm saying here this is not going to affect a woman who earns a couple hundred thousand dollars a year or who comes from a family that has millions of dollars dozens are not going to fight them at all because she can get exactly exactly thank you so i mean is it shouldn't that enough itself cause all of our antenna to go but if i could if on this one the eighty seven percent of the american people said that they are tired of abortion being part of this debate they said we support reproductive health choices we supported and nine percent of extremists way over there have been dictating all

of this legislation trying to pull all of this happening that the election in two thousand and twelve i'm so i'm twenty troublesome ahead of myself in two thousand and ten whether that was about the economy that was about jobs the fact that one hundred legislators got elected that happened to be anti choice not pro-life they were anti choice that was not about their only knowing of a set of them were roach i'm not and i'm also pro-life no because you were in the directory and i think they're here and i have a child let me know if i want that we're on our shelves acted on that they were related on the economy and they have via this is john boehner has violated every promise he made and he's allowed nine percent of extremists to pull the whole legislative agenda that well this is my question is is if if the whole thing is supposed to be about the economy if this is what we're supposed to be concerned about right or if we want to make it just about abortion and talk about whether abortion should be legal. illegal or at what trimester when does life begin or any of those debates why would why would the pro-life movement support peace with

a solution movement please doesn't in my presence be a story whatever you whatever you want to call it why would their movement want to support a piece of legislation that has no impact whatsoever on rich women it has everything to do with the economy we're talking about no no more the bill is titled no it can only be your money for abortion it flew down to his workers saying we don't need that or only one and only hold on we're going to back on the economy no only for we're going to give you no no no no no i have a great solution either way i'd agree a solution let's say to save the taxpayers money that all poor children will not be educated thank you we've just so i think i think that they're actually doing that detroit but anyway let's just say this is all the say that all poor children cannot be educated in texas they're going to lay off sixty seven years it's also say that women who have been at the receiving end of. who are put in or less than one percent of those and i don't come portions oh ok fine you made us all got very kind and it's not all about rape it knows that that's the that is the lot that is what

this law says they've gone out of their way they all know that planned parenthood will help you get an abortion if you need to know that and i believe out there not even feel percent of the services that planned parenthood offer are about reproductive choices and options a fraction of what they invest their dollars to just. i mean we just have twenty seconds left and i was. just curious about both of your thoughts very quickly on the obama justice department cracking down on the anti-abortion groups it looks like they're going to start finally going through so much they i don't see how they could have any sort of legal reason for doing that given that we've been working with them and they're around you know you haven't started a lot of i mean no you have to bring i was either side been doing i said you're going to be nice and there is a thank you obama for finally doing this it will say we'll see how it gets and i was thinking i was going to have a choice and. how do i say it and how they say i say in advance obama thank you so much for vetoing this bill if it gets out of the senate and thank you both for

thank you for taking time to appreciate. just for the record the bill has no chance of passing the democratic controlled senate but for the pro-life movement hope for two thousand and twelve springs eternal. as breaking news coming out of japan in the nearly two month long effort to prevent a nuclear catastrophe tepco workers walked inside one of the crippled nuclear reactor buildings at the daiichi plant for the first time today to try to reconnect ventilation equipment within the reactor one so they can get the cooling system back on line to stop the reactor core from melting and they're going to try to perform a cold shutdown there are still high levels of radiation in the building so plant operators will be working in shifts until were errors are finished and should take about five days so one of these new details mean is the situation close to being resolved here to offer some answers kevin camps radioactive waste watchdog at beyond nuclear or kevin welcome thanks to see again it's the. first of all what's called shut down well cold shutdown means that the water is no longer boiling and

they declare that define that as a stable condition of the reactor core and they're far from that in multiple reactor cores that fukushima daiichi they have above boiling temperatures they're admitting the company itself that they have fifty five percent fuel damage and you know one thirty five percent unit to thirty percent unit three the situation is almost as out of control as it was on march eleventh because incredible damage mean that the rods have been busted up the fuels the road it's in the water at the very least if not melted down severely like and unit to the worst damaged reactor we have most melted fuel on the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel likely melted through the bottom of the vessel and on the floor the primary containment which is severely damaged so those are directly asked i mean that's a concrete floor it's this is a metal primary containment floor and if enough of that molten fuel gets together in one place it can burn its way through the primary containment which is. already damaged this is we don't necessarily want to water but it hits the concrete floor and you're right it burns its way through that into the water table but whatever

explodes back out of it exactly the explosions of groundwater that form steam and so none of this is under control you know what are they doing to try to reassert control of her pouring unlimited amounts of water into these reactor buildings they're stressing the structures to the point where another aftershock that's big enough could completely destroy what's left and then massive catastrophic radioactivity releases and lo and the water that is being continuously poured in and if it's continuously going in it's got to be continuously going out someplace it's being out it's passing exposed damaged radioactive material so is it coming out radioactive going to the ocean you've got it they are announcing even now further leaks into the ocean we're talking massive leakage of radioactivity into the ocean over the past six weeks seven weeks incredibly u.s. government agencies like the f.d.a. the e.p.a. and noah have to clear that they're largely dismantling whatever added monitoring

they have put in place they say the food is safe coming from the ocean and i notice that today that the federal government so that we're not going to be testing seafood coming from asia the attitude is like once it goes in the ocean it disappears into nothingness that is not the case these are massive quantities of radioactivity they're completely ignoring this phenomenon called bio accumulation bio magnification but food chain is going to reconnaissance really what they claim is being diluted to harmless levels in the ocean there is no harmless level of radioactivity the food chain will recounts and trade at a much more hazardous levels i've noticed there are geiger counters available for sale and some measure altho some measure of a dose on measure both if somebody wants to get very paranoid get a geiger counter but sit with what should they get well it's not paranoia it's protecting ourselves as the federal government of this country tries to. downplay the magnitude of this nuclear catastrophe one of the best companies out there is called international medcom they're based in sebastopol california they have been

supplying radiation monitors to the anti-nuclear movement the environmental movement around the world for decades and they've helped people mature noble region set up their own monitoring systems they've helped people in this country set up monitoring systems around nuclear power plants because the real tool of the nuclear establishment not only here but around the world is to deny to downplay the highs in principle you can't smell it you can't see it you can't feel it can't taste it yeah it is very convenient for them and really what's at foot is a murdering of the truth i mean people are dying in japan in evacuation centers because they don't have care that each of these people who's going into the into this reactor they're all being exposed to cancer causing levels of radiation that's right they try to rotate people in and out to you know lower the individual doses but people are getting massive doses of radiation at the site was this tragic this is just tragic. kevin thank you for the great work you're doing thanks for taking us tonight going to.