so today i'm announcing my resignation from congress. yeah you can forget all of that because in other real news president obama is getting sued over libya breakdown the fight over checks and balances. is a sign of the times welcome to bloomberg bill a small borough of protesters is setting up shop in new york city and they say they aren't leaving until mayor bloomberg takes back his budget cuts. so just how badly do u.s. want to get their hands on alleged russian arms dealer viktor well the answer is

just to wiki leaks cables away we'll have more on that case. good afternoon it's thursday june sixteenth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm lauren lyster and you're watching our team take a look at the big news coming from capitol hill today. we're waiting for anthony weiner to walk through that door go up to the microphone and announce that he is resigning from the u.s. house of representatives and this is congressman anthony weiner about to announce his resignation let's listen and so today i'm announcing my resignation from congress. so there you have it he's almost exactly four minutes for a lot of anger in that room for the hackling are there seeds of a potential if he were to come back in that. believe it or not winner's resignation

is not the most important news you need to know coming from the nation's capital as united states continues its military intervention in libya the two branches of government are now battling it out as a result ten members of congress are suing the president in an attempt to end u.s. involvement in libya for failing to get congressional approval the white house for its part claims it is not in violation of the law because it's not actually at war but is operating in a support role first i kind of want to look at that i want to throw up a graphic so you can decide what you think the u.s. involvement has been in libya take a look so those are all the u.s. resources when you think about planes and ships and flights and now look at it you know compared to another nato ally like the u.k. quite a different look at it next to france again quite a difference this is not exactly up to today's date but it represents the first couple months of this military intervention you can decide what kind of

a role you think the united states has had how significant it is and has been but here to talk a little bit more about it and to analyze really the legality of this all and how significant this all is is david swanson he is author of this book war is alive because you're right there and he joins us now thank you david for being here now this lawsuit from these time members of congress i want to mention too that it's bipartisan it has republicans and democrats democrats like dennis who financed republicans like ron paul now they argue that the president is in violation of the law and the constitution and that they're attempting to end the military intervention i know that you are one who also argues that this war is illegal the white house says otherwise prove the white house wrong. well the white house doesn't make the arguments that many of its supporters make the argument it made in its report to congress yesterday was that the war powers act does not apply much

less the constitution because this is neither a war nor hostilities this is something else this is a military operation that doesn't rise to the level of hostilities which is absolutely absurd the war powers act was written in one nine hundred seventy three very intentionally and clearly to encompass all military engagements to clearly imminent threats of hostilities and anything i'm only still east and so there was a program yesterday when congressman dennis senator maybe it was this morning congressman dennis kucinich was to painting a former lawyer from the reagan white house who was defending obama and he asked this guy twice never got an answer if there were two thousand missions over the united states by a foreign nation and many of them were dropping bombs would there be war would there be hostilities right i would have raised that concern i want to ask you david because even at you know you say that it doesn't even matter what the u.s. i think that that would be illegal but what about their argument that the u.s.

is in a support role and that they're not engaged in hostilities aren't drones striking libya still is that not hostilities. they are in the president's report yesterday admitted that in sort of apparent better poll remark but the war powers act i have more and more respect for this law it was written in one nine hundred seventy three and it's a significantly says the a c. includes hostilities in military operations for the united states is a partner with other nations in acting in this sort of a role it's in their read that law to argue that it doesn't apply for reasons that the crafters of that law had the foresight to anticipate is just crazy but when president obama going to teach constitutional law what do you think you know he's really thinking here. well he's thinking that he's the president any wants to get away with what he can get away with he could have gotten congress to authorize war in libya it would have been quite easily done he could have done it in

a sixty big gap after he started the war he chose not to there's an intention here to enlarge presidential powers to strip away congressional powers and that's even down in writing in an amendment that sitting in the senate in new york or in a section of the defense authorization act of two thousand and twelve that sitting in the senate like a like dozens of ticking time bombs of future wars waiting to become law presidents want and this president is no exception the power to make wars on their own then for them why not more than ten members of congress that are really calling him on this and a dramatic way. well that's an excellent question i think there should be the full body but you know you hold their efforts in recent weeks as you know minutes tonight only particular bills denying u.s. ground troops expressing their concerns and so forth there has been huge numbers of the jury in the house of representatives of but i think it would be plausible for

the court to refer you ms case congress to cut off the funding if it chooses congress clearly impeach if it chooses that's not now that's an interesting point i want to talk about tonight because the white house had met that it is spending quite a bit that this has cost the pentagon more than seven hundred million dollars and is expected to cost one point one billion dollars by september but this is existing money from the d o d budget can congress block that i'm just curious it sounds like you're saying they are and ok even if the white house is making this argument that they're not violating war powers act because the u.s. isn't really out war let every think of that does the white house need to go to congress when it spending this kind of money when the government spending is such a huge issue right now. one would think one would hope so that the court case is dramatically strengthened by the fact that congress is not appropriated a dime for war based in libya that helps tremendously the court could easily argue that appropriated funding congress is thereby approved the war what congress may do

with the senate goes along with the house has passed bills denying the use of any money from those particular bills including the defense budget bills for the coming year for a war in libya the fact is the president is willing to route that and taking the money from the incredible slush fund in the pentagon and the cia and the secret budgets and bush's innovation allowing the president to transfer money secretly the secret budget this is out of control but what congress could do in response would be to pass a bill through both houses denying permission to use any money from any source in a war in libya if you do that if you do that tomorrow and that's not on the agenda it should be so kind of shows and the real political well maybe more broadly because i understand even when clinton violated the war powers act in kosovo he went to congress to at least get funding approved which is then seen as at least going to congress at that sixteen game mark i thought it was interesting switching

gears a little bit that i was reading it when your latest writings and you mention that a college student when you were speaking as if he were being extreme to call this war illegal and a point you made was that you know illegal isn't some you know ideological statement you're talking about the law here i'm curious what you think that says about the way the public now sees us war in the u.s. of course being a constitute of war now for ten years. yeah it's somehow implied to radical to talk about war says illegal when that ought to be a more clear cut question than whether a war is moral or desirable of course we have a majority opposing our current wars in this country with no response out of congress that's appropriate but these wars are blatantly illegal and the war in libya is the most glaringly illegal war we've ever seen outdoes clinton by far you know clinton at least had the money clinton didn't violate the sixty day limit and so forth this is intentionally going around congress and avoiding any appearance

whatsoever of any not there is asian from congress that's the intention here and so the offense is intentional illegality but do you think that the government and the public don't really care anymore when it comes to laws and war well i think the polling is somewhat mixed i think there are indications that the public does care i think that there are progressive democrats in congress who care and libertarian republicans in congress who care and a good bunch of republicans in congress who hate obama more than the peace and justice. they're at coalition is making things possible that no one would have imagined a couple months back ok real quickly a group of twenty five u.s. senators almost all democrats had a couple qinghai republicans they sent a letter to up on that her again and to have a sizable reduction of u.s. troop parts as end to lie in afghanistan do you see this as significant as you think it carries any weight. i'm not i certainly hope so and so i don't want to

talk it down but it's not an action it's it's it's an appeal to a higher authority from our first branch of government to its executive it's an inversion of our government to operate you know kids can write letters to the president senators can begin and end wars and that's what they ought to be doing right but yet we see this kind of these token moves i'm curious as yes or no if you see these as more token moves or actually affected instruments well it certainly cannot hurt for senators and congress numbers to be talking about their opposition to the war in afghanistan but there has been a concerted effort by the leadership of both parties in both sides of congress to avoid taking any action on afghanistan and back is a problem that cannot be addressed by elections when this promise arose since an election and will be broken prior to an election we need a withdrawal next month in trying to seize not foreseen it sounds like it can't

happen with a letter either that with david swanson thanks so much for your analysis he's author of war is a law now the cameras have been camped out in queens today pointed it anthony weiner's apartment or cameras have been staking him out at a press conference in brooklyn and these may not actually be the most important places in new york for cameras to be pointed as our news cameras found our teeth and going to shows you what's getting overlooked in a summer of scandal. actually this summer the us media is buzzing with these burning hot stories. mr weiner i've seen it and believe you me you do not want to see it is what was the relationship like between casey and her parents and how is it now that she's accusing her father of sexual abuse the masterminds of the t.v. networks are knee deep in this historic news coverage who could believe that congressman weiner's pictures or not pictures could be the number one story on

capitol hill sexy tweets of a congressman are being stretched to the likes of the lewinsky scandal i did not have sexual relations with that woman. who was looking right at me but he said that and every detail is getting sucked out of the child murder case she's looking to teach she looks pale in the fray are with her here back in a ponytail like a cheerleader. meanwhile new york city has seen the small town of it's only a few blocks away from wall street and near movers backyard. caliph protesters on the steps and people monica last week but the point is that this time the people pushing to camp out here are saying this is just the beginning and they will spend the night here till their message is heard but. allowed no to move ripples budget cuts that would throw more jobs out the window.

the banks are sitting on trillions of dollars of our money. we're going to stay here until we get it we want sure we're all prepared so here we actually have pillows this resistance is inspired by global outburst of protests over the last year not only at the governments here in our country but the governments abroad don't seem to want anybody to have any kind of subsistence living. citizen journalists are here. i mean stream media is not once you go outside be. you go outside but heard and you start covering the unions and workers are. there to form a powerful mayor and they want wall streets of. your tax well those are logically your sponsors if you're a big commercial t.v. news operation because the media treads carefully around the issues that people's anger is growing we start. to how many will be camping out here with the media

shaken out of it so from who's to blue to report what matters. now channeling the shantytowns during the great depression known as hooverville is something that we're seeing a few places protesters have done this but a pet tent cities in wisconsin that they are calling walkerville to protest the governor's policies critics call him a union buster and you saw those protesters camped out in new york city and bloomberg bill protesting the mayor's proposed cuts and layoffs joining me now is one of them dean knight spokesperson for new yorkers against budget cuts he is going to break down for us what this all means first thanks so much for being with us i'm just curious you know as our reporter pointed out there have been protests in new york since two thousand and eight since this all came crashing down what is driven you now to camp out for what you believe and what you protest. well it's outrage and it's also. ratcheting up the protest

bloomberg started on the heels of very large protest of city workers and teachers twenty thousand and the very next day twenty five thousand construction workers marched from downtown brooklyn across the bridge to city hall we greeted them with signs of solidarity what we are trying to do is. push harder bloomberg is very insulated very isolated except for his little club of buddies and you know people are hurting and we need to. get this across. find a way to put affective pressure on bloomberg that i cannot use him right sorry i

didn't mean that sorry go ahead and finish your sentence didn't mean to step on your tongue. we want to force bloomberg to do the right thing we know it's very difficult for him to do it he's making money hand over fist by taking money away from us. we don't want to i want to get to what you believe would be doing the right thing but i want to touch on something that you mentioned about the big banks that you that you say that bloomberg is close to and that he's turning their interest more new york has really seen you know is the center of country the country it seen by many as a very cosmopolitan and very wealthy you know wall street is the capital of finance we've seen wall street bounce back on the economic crisis they have had quarters of record profits do you think this characterizes new york or do you think the reality is very different from most people there. well i live in the bronx the bronx is. the poorest urban county in the country. it's followed very closely by kings

county also known as brooklyn. the super rich of wall street the upper east side are surrounded by desperate poverty and deepening economic crisis but those bloomberg. the governor have turned completely deaf called ear to the needs of the vast majority of new yorkers whether it's on the issue of rent subsidies or as a basic right to an education and i mean education at all levels ok what do you think the solution is because this is something that they think they've and states all over the country with major budget shortfalls in their budget and also with major cuts that many are proposing and we've seen protests like yours and other cities of course with content would be a great example but other cities in the midwest and across the country as well so broadly what do you see as the solution to all of these cuts we're seeing across

the nation. we have to reframe it they call it a budget crisis they refer to the deficit crunch they talk about huge debt but we really have is a revenue crisis the rich have seen their taxes for continuously to the low as they have been since before reagan was president reagan reagan institute a revolution today he would be considered an economic liberal the rich people are running roughshod over this country and bloomberg is one of them and what's necessary is first of all to make the rich pay a fair share of the taxes another thing to do would be to stop the wars and cut back the pentagon taxes from new yorkers to the pentagon are about sixty billion dollars which is somewhere between three and four times the combined

shortfall in the budgets of new york state and new york city do you think that. change the conversation and you think there's any political will to do the kind of things that you're doing when many politicians don't like a bloomberg have the interest you're talking about you know wall street big banks corporations that are major political donors well that's why we're hanging that's why we are camping out. in. city hall we have to force them to develop the political will to recognize the need to do justice instead of just supporting the rich really quickly richer and a good way with murder ok really quickly our reporter pointed out that the mainstream media has not really been covering that why do you think that is and do you think that you can achieve what you want to achieve if people are paying attention. well the media in general ignores our rights. protest as a general thing this has been standard for the last two decades and.

actually bloomberg has achieved more media attention then all of the work that we've done in the last year if it's necessary to just work harder to. get our people together and push very hard but it is an uphill battle we'll keep fighting until we get what we're fighting for all right well we're not ignoring you here i want to thank you for coming on our show that was the night if folks are sent for new yorkers against budget cuts. here on our team you think you're being an international arms dealer but it seems the u.s. arm twisting of its own to get their hands on deck but take a look at what wiki leaks has to reveal about a case that's not. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through and maybe who can you trust no one

who is in view with the global mission would see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called sessions when nobody dares to ask we do our tea question more. we go through. and yet. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you deliver something else here's some other part of it and realized everything is ok you don't. charge is a big. for

the. hard part. i think. he'd want to well. we're never going to get says he's very safe get ready for freedom.

welcome back a grand jury is investigating wiki leaks antic a witness a friend of alleged wiki leaks and forment bradley manning argues the goal is really to intimidate whistleblowers and regulate journalism here's what he told r.t. yesterday after he testified and pled the fifth my new before the grand jury in alexandria virginia. i think that over time they're going to try to influence public opinion by launching these tactics which chilled the personal rights association of the u.s. government is trying to finish the job it started four years ago with the pentagon papers the station it is trying to find a matter to regulate journalism in media both domestically and internationally and i feel that is trying to use investigating its we keep beats to establish policies which would give the government broad censorship powers in determining how source

information actually makes it to the head of the media and all of this as the legacy of leaked documents on wiki leaks continues to prove its journalistic value one example the case of victor boot he's a russian man that america accuses of being an international arms dealer as is a legal saga in the west continues r.t. of the marina found some revealing details of his role actually the u.s. role rather in this case and some of those wiki leaks diplomatic cables take a look. he is the russian citizen america thought relentlessly to adopt that there but was secretly and swiftly extradited to the u.s. seven months ago and this may be where he stays indefinitely is found guilty on arms smuggling and terrorism related charges if you use could be. he's looking at life there's no parole there's no early release of the federal system really the

only way in the federal system to get a reduction in your sentence. a significant reduction is if you cooperate with the united states government some have argued mr blue needs to be on captain america's team however captain america is being accused of playing dirty and illegally to remove the air cargo business man from thailand according to documents released by wiki leaks all levels of washington top to bottom now the political pressure against bangkok to gain custody of boot in a u.s. cable dated august thirteenth two thousand and nine u.s. president barack obama was urged to call the highlands prime minister directly about boot the us attorney general and state department were encouraged to call the thai ambassador highlighting the massive drug enforcement administration commitment to thailand and the us ambassador in bangkok urged the thai government to issue a public statement of disappointment at the judge's ruling not to extradite boot

some arab is the world's most powerful nation but it's not more powerful than the world unfortunately the way things stand right now they're willing to flawed every international law to get what they want and that means doing all these illegal things in the case of their to move to extradite him or i should say kidnapping who was arrested in bangkok in march two thousand and eight during a u.s. sting operation he was charged with conspiring to sell weapons to colombian fark rebels on two occasions the thai court rejected america's extradition request when an entourage of armed u.s. agents removed him from thailand following a decision of the thai government his extradition was still not legally approved the covert operation was kept secret from russia but it's family and his attorney pull in. the transfer of victor boot to america was a violation of a very important tie american treaty signed in one thousand nine hundred which the political offenders cannot be extradited the case was not finalized and was moved

to the us america used various means political. another's outside the boundaries of due legal process to get to the root that means that your goot is not getting a fair deal to this day high officials have not provided official documents explaining the legal grounds behind boots extradition this despite repeated inquiries made by the russian foreign ministry that we know for sure that the sixteenth two thousand turned in a moment when big debate was physically taken out of the time prison his case was being considered by the time cool to the appeals that is why there are no legal grounds for him to face a u.s. court. meantime picture book remains in a u.s. prison held in solitary confinement his wife doubts her husband will receive a fair trial from the country she says violated international and bilateral laws to get him but. it's clear to everyone that the case has long been moved from the

sphere of law to politics i think or rather i would love to think that the american court is unbiased but i have strong doubts about it because i think such pressure could be put on anyone including the jury. the perjury accusing victor boot of arms dealing now finds itself accused of political harm for state come october an american jury will decide if the boots future day political pressure at your side by the u.s. remains evidently we are in a fortnight artsy. as going to do it for now for more on the stories we cover go to our team. usa and check out our youtube page it's youtube dot com slash r t america you're going to want to come back at five we have lots of new news we will speak with our chief correspondent and a staff here charkha who has covered with cars and and to get going to get her take on what this all means.