thank you. both. welcome to the lower show we'll get the real headlines with none of the mercy like i live in washington d.c. now today we'll speak to attend a colonel anthony shaffer who thinks that obama needs to give back the war that he was given on transparency i say maybe we should give the nobel peace prize back as well then we'll speak again carney about how isolationism is becoming the new dirty word to any one of the g.o.p. who might be questioning our wars abroad but first let's take

a moment to check out what the mainstream media has decided to waste of time with small missing these bigger stories. always win or gate finally coming to a close what's the media to do what garbage can they dig to keep them in their screen so they don't dare to report on something that actually matters you know that would really suck for them right real analysis it's one of those things they try to avoid at all costs it's like the plague it's like changing a baby's diaper it's like getting your prostate checked ok i'll stop but i think you get the point that the it seems like this morning the real news most forward leaning trusted fair and balanced networks just turned on the today show and the early show to get some ideas a site broke out this morning outside the casey anthony trial in orlando florida. punches were thrown as some people tried to cut in the wife's already been a tense morning outside the casey anthony murder trial n.b.c.'s jerry sanders is at

the court with the tales gary good morning. well good morning it was an ugly morning here outside the courthouse as folks jockeying for position in line to get eventually to work really sixty two seats where the seats writable and started punching and shoving. that's right a flight of broke out over a seat at the casey anthony trial i sure sign of the decrepitude of our society what in the midst of economic crisis the never ending wars that's of brings the true passion the revenues that were bother with any real stories one way you've got a viral video potions are running high outside the court room to fight broke out this morning among the traders waiting in line for a chance to get inside and. sign a fevered emotions outside the casey anthony murder trial of fight broke out among people why they wanted to get into the courtroom and that is accused of murdering her two year old daughter and people often spend hours in line waiting to go in and

sit in this trial all day there were no arrests today in this melee but from now on they came up with a new idea we're going to hand out the tickets at four pm the day before. really are they going to start covering every single fight that breaks out we know that's the easy way out during the christmas season when you see those hundreds of shoppers flood the wal-mart in the macy's in the country but it's a little early to start getting that lazy but what's next fight over american i don't think it will send chuck todd to the scene i've got an idea for what should be making the headlines want to seek a look at this by the pentagon reportedly wants the president to wait until the fall of two thousand and twelve to bring the thirty three thousand surge troops home but some on capitol hill are arguing the opposite a bipartisan group of senators is asking the president to bring the troops home beginning next month. yeah go war going on way out there in afghanistan we've got one hundred thousand troops the place to respond one million dollars per soldier

per year the war that's become the longest in u.s. history next month a drawdown of our forces are scheduled to begin we have yet to hear from the president as to what that to look like we have yet to hear from general petraeus as to what he's going to be recommending and finally finally a little whisper comes out that basically crushed. is the entire idea of a significant withdrawal as obama promised by the way after the killing of osama bin laden and there's no coverage fox news gave a good thirty seconds but everyone else nada let's go over just a few points here the troop surge of thirty three thousand extra troops that obama decided to send in december of two thousand and nine was the first sign of major proof where this president would be taking this war and that means expanding it massively that surge specifically had an end date of july two thousand and eleven on it and now the pentagon wants to keep that surge until the fall of two thousand and twelve right before the presidential election but they swear the politics has nothing to do with it now we also know that the u.s. is quietly negotiating basing agreements with the afghan government so troops can

stay far past the withdrawal deadline and fact so troops can in some way maintain a permanent presence there that's all the time when the majority of americans don't think that the war has been worth fighting and when cuts are being made to social services well defense glides on through untouched this is a big breaking deal but for some reason the mainstream media is just so much more entertained by a video of fly over take it to casey anthony's trial you want good pictures try actually covering a war where there's death destruction bombs guns and plenty the last year the media only devoted four percent of all of their coverage to the war in afghanistan and i've got a feeling the figures this time probably will be similar despite the fact that it's a war that takes more casualties with every passing year i guess about just might not suit some corporate owners appetite if anyone were to see what actually happens with the weapons that are produced in this country consequence is a dirty word that no one likes to talk about unless of course it plays out in a courtroom where pretty young girl is crying and that's where the cameras point

awards completely missed. well this year on march twenty eighth president obama was given a transparency of ward at the white house it was reported to him by phone. five open government organizations l.m.b. watch the national security archive the project on government oversight reporters committee for freedom of the press and open the government org now if you remember we covered it here on this show but we couldn't show it to you because the entire ceremony was closed to the press a little bit ironic don't you think now a number of prominent whistleblowers including daniel ellsberg and tony shaffer are asking for those organizations to take it back to you and me to discuss this is lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer a senior fellow at the center for advanced defense studies and who still serving as a reserve lieutenant colonel tony thanks so much for joining us tonight now like i said we covered this on the show when it first happened when he was awarded this

the transparency war and we made a lot of fun of it because of course of the irony of them doing it behind closed doors not allowing any president and basically for the fact that he just doesn't deserve it so i want you and i to do an exercise right i'm going to start with some of the reasons why obama has become probably one of the least transparent presidents and maybe you can just follow on an add on from there right we have the senate here is a waging a war against against whistleblowers including thomas drake of course including whistle excuse me weekly leaks let's see extraordinary rendition those are cases that he's thrown out we using the state secrets privilege about extraordinary rendition about torture about warrantless wiretapping he has a secret assassination last minute you go on from there well i think obviously one of the things i'm most directly understand no is the fact that it went after my book operation which we talked about a number of times where the public has not been really been attention to it because

of other scandals relating to shootings in the news of. these two lawsuits that are currently ongoing right now by turning. over the right to publish my first edition which through ten copies of an edition of another was organization or transferred. organization known as judicial watch actually sued the within the last month relating to documents they continue to refused to release regarding something called able danger which is also something we talk about so i think the grand irony here is after all those things you listed these are real so ongoing cases in the courts this very day and obviously the obama white house helping to try to resolve this and anywhere and i think you know even some of the easiest things they could have done like releasing those white house logs they also have not done it to this day but tony i want to get more into you know the story with your book let's not forget that they actually burned what was it ten thousand copies of the book once

it was printed is that ever happened before now is work act it's on president has never happened and one of the funniest things was when i was first told this i told mark zaid my attorney that they're doing they're going to they're going to buy the books and destroy him and he said no that's not going to happen they've never done that so this was never done before and the bottom line here is we still can't figure out why they did it i mean it was almost an emotional response and something you should be done to talk about something that should have been done out of the public eye you would have thought it would have been missed but i think many of us feel and i've talk a number that was about was this was done to send a message this was not something maybe it has to secure national security it was meant to intimidate and try to force people or make people think twice about doing any anything and we speaking up against any issues what do you think that any of that has really been you know in the defense of national security of course that's the reasoning i pay us but does any of it actually help me let's say that some of those trials were able to go on without state secrets privilege is being invoked

there these things are mostly publicized because of the fact that they're suppressed and because of the fact that state secrets privilege is are used and the trial doesn't actually go anywhere well that's part of the issue here and i think this is a trend that's very frightening and the american people should understand this the . the executive branch is now trying to establish the president that they don't have to share anything classified with you as nothing so the idea here is that the executive branch wants to have a card launch a blank check to do all the wrongdoing at once because we can make it any time we don't want somebody to see it and frankly that is what's happened especially over the last few years if they don't want to talk about something it becomes a state secret classified we can't talk about it and clearly that is not the intent of having a system of security checks and balances and yet of course it's five organizations decide to give them a transparency of war and now i'm guessing that this is maybe more of

a symbolic move right it's not that big of a deal this is a this award but why are you guys really going after them and saying you know give it back if anything i would say give back the nobel peace prize i think that was even less earned. well i think you get the prize for if he wants to insinuate peace at any nest at any cost with that said i think the whole idea of what we're seeking is to is for really ultimately accountability one of the things is very clear and all of your own daniel bryan and i would like them i get along with them much help them improve your circumstance they help me in this case i think it would be counterproductive to not call them on the issue to say there's something dreadfully wrong here and if you all can't see it then there's something wrong with it was a long process so i think it's old and ugly calling foul on the very same groups which push the government they have to a account for why they allowed to go for this secret i mean come on

a secret transparency ceremony that's less like a sort of than live skit and the other thing is i think everybody is just fed up everybody not just the whistleblowers was this up this whole idea that there's total transparency here if you don't betray some of the white house yesterday it was not a public meeting why everybody knows afghanistan is being discussed why would you not disclose it this is part of the problem well let's actually go on to some of the revelations that we learned about afghanistan this week we learned of course that there are secret negotiations going on or for bases to be built for basically a permanent presence to be arranged within afghanistan we also found out that somewhere in the persian gulf there is a base being built from which to launch drones if you ask me that sounds like we're there for the long haul and not like we're planning on winding down any of our operations in the middle east. it is correct in his work that one of the things on the truth right the reporter not one of the sticking points was cars i was actually telegraphing to the negotiators he wanted to stay in for another term after twenty fourteen so i think that was one of the big sticking points is like you know it's

kind of like what's going on here the problem is this no one is clearly defined the end state other than to say we want to have a stable government really you know ok why is why is that so important when the very government so is corrupt secondly what is in it for the long term is it afghanistan it is not afghanistan it's the indian pakistani conflict president obama said this that will issues and we're seeing this play out in the press right now with with the problems with you guys i mean pakistani army pakistan is the issue they have nuclear weapons and so frankly i'm not quite sure why we're pushing so hard in afghanistan when the issues that we should be looking at as a nation are really on the other nations around afghanistan ok finally i just ask you one last question and i'm a switch back over to gavin even though we're talking about afghanistan and that i can hear you and i have had this talk before about the legality of doing certain things and now we find out they're expanding the cia's role in launching drone strikes because i guess it takes away some of the attention or because they think that it's a legally not a sticky as you know if the military might be carrying them out again right that is

there any legal precedent for the cia to do it over the military for anyone to really be doing that well the bottom line is there has to be an approval by president obama to do this but some would call the finding if i knew something it's proof to the president he has to get congressional approval so whatever's going on congress is going on with that said i'm not for the expansion of the drone program it's a it's the lazy man's way of war you're logging things and you don't know the target all the time you killed so many civilians and i think the overall gain of what you can get by killing these people and things were so strong is not worth the ultimate return good and frankly i am for capturing. well interrogating him and finding out what you know a dead man does not talk so right now whatever is happening it's commercially driven at least a congressional approval. but it's something along that line i think the obama administration's in love with the grown programs and for all the wrong reasons and

i thank you very much for joining us tonight as always and we'll see if that transparency award actually gets taken out of his hands also whole thing about that thank you i would. i don't go anywhere there's still a lot more to come tonight a lot security has been having fun with government websites and their expense announcement from the n.s.a. makes many people question if there are techniques i think crossing the line and it's isolationism a dirty word for the g.o.p. presidential candidates are siding with a typical republican policies put those that make them outcasts within our own party and find out everything. you know sometimes you see a story at the scene so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here's some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew . her as if it.

were your early. and yet though. fuck fuck fuck. fuck. let's not forget that we started right.

i think. he wanted. whenever the governor says they're very safe get ready for freedom. politics the economy hollywood those are the typical topics you often hear on the news recently and there's the new topic that they just can't help but pay attention to hackers and the cyber world. security have proven that they're a force to be reckoned with after they've successfully taken over several government websites including senate dot gov and cia and that's something that

obviously concerns the government so much so the national security agency has an ounce of they'll be taking part in a pilot program where they can team up with internet service providers to scan e-mails and other digital digital traffic to stop a cyber attack before it happens now this project apparently started last month and as of now it's all happening on a voluntary trial basis with regular eye as piece like eighteen c. and arise it and it's all directed at the internet traffic that goes towards defense contractors but the gist here is that the n.s.a. is going to keep tabs on what data get sense of these firms in a determine if any of that information seems suspicious or unusual so i've got a little question here and they would also fear this it really is just i don't know a segue way for the government to start keeping tabs on all of us critics are already calling for some sort of regulation of discussion before this pilot program becomes the norm you know they say that this could become a backdoor form of surveillance for all people hypothetically the government can keep tabs on what you're doing online e-mails even when you interact with on social

media sites so could this be more evidence of the government's newfound obsession with the cyber world see just a short while back we told you how d.c. is amping up its cyber departments and more importantly the back of the obama administration is claiming a cyber attack is legitimate grounds for engaging in war the white house released a report saying when warranted the united states will respond to hostile acts in cyberspace as we would to any other threat to our country we reserve the right to use all necessary means diplomatic international military and economic in order to defend our nation so it's become pretty clear the obama administration feels justified in taking any cyber threats or questionable cyber activity. as grounds for starting a war and frankly the mainstream media is playing a right along with team obama on this one but the tories computer group known as a low security has been on a rampage lately this week openly posted sixty two thousand stolen years of aims and passwords of regular internet users they've hacked p.b.s.

show me and now the u.s. senate and even the cia they've set up a hotline to take requests for which sites to attack next if groups like these can wreak havoc freely what does that mean about our ability to fight actual cyber terrorism that's taking place from china and russia and to protect our most vital yeah it's my understanding that the russians and the chinese and whether it's efficiently sanctioned by the government or not that's an open question but they are the most active internationally trying to various things in u.s. government systems at what point do we call this what it is which is a former church. a form of terrorism and let's make a few points crystal clear here when it comes to law security yes they're considered hackers but they've successfully interfered with government sites like senate. there was any information take it from those pages i was struck i bring in the russians and the chinese into the discussion revolving around first of all and

nobody's found a correlation between the hacker groups in those countries and as his guest later points out to him one of the best tricks out there for hackers is make it seem like it came from one place when it really came from another so maybe we should just slow down for one second or we start labeling people terrorists and this and as a pilot program i easily argue that this is definitely not the first time that our e-mails hello there the government and there have been several reports in the past where the government considered keeping tabs on what you do on the worldwide web and frankly i that money that's already happening so this pilot program announcement has been a p.r. move to make it pretend like they have already invaded your privacy i'm just predicting that right now the d.o.d. is going to create a. cyber terrorism watch list just like they do for the no fly list and the like it's only a matter of time. now does opposing america's endless wars abroad make you an isolationist is a description that we hear thrown out there a lot and even more often lately directed towards members of the g.o.p. ron paul's long called for us to stop bombing muslim countries and bankrupting

ourselves and tarnishing america's name and focus on getting our own house in order but last week even that romney jointing i want those troops to come home based upon not politics not based upon economics but instead based upon the conditions on the ground the term of the generals but i also think we've learned. that our troops should go off and try and photo war of independence for the nation only the afghanis can win afghanistan's independence from the tow about. and that's a state of the staff quickly had to start walking back by the way it's a little too radical for the establishment republicans but at the end of the day opposing war doesn't mean you want to cut off your country from the rest of the world let's face it the u.s. is the world's reserve currency and as globalized world we depend not only on investment in our bonds are lots of it but trade with other countries as well so why has isolationist become a dirty word to throw around and it's true isolationism even exist anymore here discuss this with me is tim carney senior political columnist for the washington

examiner ten thanks so much for being having me you seem especially irked by this terror of isolation is being thrown around some of the g.o.p. candidates or even you know politicians out there why well it was a couple of days ago both national public radio and time magazine on their web site had items talking about republican new isolationism and one of the. people we pointed at we strong huntsman he is running for president former governor of utah and he had said well maybe we shouldn't we shouldn't go into libya and you should get out of afghanistan and the world isolationism us with him struck me as utterly absurd considering this is a form. or ambassador to china intern singapore deputy secretary of commerce and deputy u.s. trade representative who has a degree in international relations but the word isolationist was use simply to refer to somebody who opposes some foreign interventions or opposes nation building . is try solution as me even exist anymore like i said i mean think about the way

the world works today if you want to be a true isolationist or not only are not engaging in military and hours around the world that means you're closed off to the world completely no trade agreements are not involved only five of treaties and even if even if you were to take a looser definition of it what i see is that the word gets used as a slur to attack people who resist foreign interventions for military operations so ron paul being called an isolationist rates me as absurd because he believes in open immigration and completely free trade so if you believe in those two things i don't think you can be called an isolationist and again if you look at who is using the word not so much time magazine but other places and they are your are insinuating then the liberal press is using the word and a lot of a lot of the more hawkish conservative press will use the word isolationists as an insult to try to be little the people who oppose their wars as being somehow narrow minded well i think you know that's the problem here too is that everyone sees things in black and white there's just no nuance there's no in-between because the

way the isolation is likely thrown out if you were publishing it and it's out there you know being someone who isn't conservative minded myself if i don't support going to war or occupying a country apparently i'm unpatriotic if i don't support torturing people then apparently that makes me a terrorist and yet isolationists i guess is mostly used against conservatives right liberal if they're going to be slaughtered for opposing the war if they're called a commie peacenik or if it is mostly used against conservatives but the nuance is appearing again in the republican field i think that you can have mitt romney be staking sort of a middle view that you're not just saying oh we're going to invade libya say in afghanistan stay in iraq there's some people are trying to say yes here and no there are some nuance is returning to the republican field and that is a blessing and i think the media can help that along but no longer using these terms like isolation so i mean the media is pretty worthless these days i think we've realized that by watching for the past few weeks they can only do things that we're eager. you know or who are paying for something completely black and white

but i'm curious though do you really think you said that a little bit of nuance is entering the debate again the discussion is it sincere because i feel like if people were really concerned about you know some of our endeavors abroad that we would hear more about our shadow wars that we're waging in pakistan or in ghana and the use of drones right now they're just talking out about libya but i feel like that's just an easy republican talking point because it's easy to. criticize the president on this one because he launched a war illegally i actually think the conservative viewpoint that natural conservative viewpoint is one that looks at the united states' role in international policy especially in the poll post cold war era as being one that george bush used to describe as a humble foreign policy and that for the free market limited government people there's also a natural tendency against those invasions and that having a democrat in power sort of allows that that natural conservative tendency to rise up so i do think you're seeing it and sure maybe it was part of the support of the

republican war and oppose a democratic war but i do think it is natural on the right to believe in a more humble foreign i find it a little hard to believe you tell me really having almost or actually we don't really know because there is no documentation of the true number of the amount of bases that we have worldwide but figure is all said we probably have more than a thousand bases around the world i wouldn't call that a humble policy and that's something that's been built up for decades now and you're right before even before nine eleven there were a quarter million u.s. troops positioned overseas during the cold war there was a threat to the united states there was a view that there is bipolar world and you had to defend it and then after the fall of the soviet union there was a part of what we've got this big military going to do we're going to need a new enemy because you know the machine needs to be and so that's i think part of what happened is. the military industrial complex was made permanent but still there or there is pressure on both the left and the right to. focus our military on

protecting vital american interests i just don't see enough of that pressure because like i said i mean let's go back to the g.o.p. debate for a moment right if everybody's talking about the economy other times my job they're talking about the need to cut social security or medicare or the social services that people depend on not once did anybody mention defense cuts they didn't even toyed with might you might not have come up in the last debate but you know that is john paul two as you say you see jon huntsman has said if you can't find anything to cut in defense and you're not working hard enough ron paul's talking that way herman cain you know we sure tim pawlenty and mitt romney might not be talking that way but at least the republican party i think is divided i don't know i think i think a lot of it is is more rhetoric than actual you see that you feel your house of representatives vote specific military spending item not most of the republicans were some of the republicans together with most of the democrats so there is some action going on now i think the democrats are just as bad as the republicans on this one it's you know something i constantly repeat on the show which is that we get a solution that there are so divided and so polarized but when it comes to expanding

the security state of the surveillance state that no problem and thanks so much for being here thank you. all right still ahead tonight a stressful life for a celebrity a popular web site is trying to help celebrities who blog with the new start it will give you more of that old time award and then we'll talk about sex and politics why did some men in powerful positions always feel invincible when it comes to their sex scandals and i think that just. into a little we're. ready to go with my government they want to know what i. would characterize obama as the charismatic. of american exceptionalism.