welcome to the lower show we'll get the real headlines with none of the mercy we're going live to washington d.c. now today will speak to that and a colonel anthony shaffer who thinks that obama needs to give back the award that he was given on transparency i say maybe we should give the nobel peace prize back as well then we'll speak with him carney about how isolationism is becoming the new dirty word then any one of the g.o.p. who might be questioning our words abroad but first let's take a moment to check out what the mainstream media has decided

a waste of time with all missing these bigger stories. oh it wiener gate finally coming to a close what's the media to do what garbage can they dig up to keep billing their screen so they don't dare have to report on something that actually matters you know that would really suck for the 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 there 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 aside grow this morning outside the t.c. anthony trial in orlando florida. punches were thrown as some people tried to cut in the lines already been a tense morning outside the casey anthony murder trial n.b.c.'s jerry sanders yeah

the cord with the jail story good morning. well good morning it was an ugly morning here outside the courthouse as folks jockeying for position in line to get eventually the courtroom is over sixty two seats where the seats writable more and started punching and shoving. that's right a fight broke out over a seat at the casey anthony trial a sure sign of the decrepitude of our society what in the midst of economic crisis the never ending wars that's of brings a true passion now where the news networks bother with any real stories when you've got a viral video motions are running high outside the court room to fight broke out this morning among educators waiting in line for a chance to get inside. signed a few promotions outside the casey anthony murder trial a 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 making up with a new idea they're going to hand out the tickets at four pm the day before. really i think you 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 marts in the macy's in the country but it's a little early to start getting that lazy i mean what's next fight over american idol tickets i will send chuck todd to the scene i've got an idea for what should be making the headlines and he can look at this 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 get a war going on way out there in afghanistan we got one hundred thousand troops home the place where we spend one million dollars per soldier per year the water that's

become the longest in u.s. history next month a drawdown of our forces is 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 crushes the. 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 docs 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 that 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 in fact so troops can in some way maintain a permanent presence there that's all of the time when the majority of americans don't think of the war has been worth buying and when cuts are being made to social services while defense glides on through untouched this is a big freaking deal over some reason the mainstream media is just so much more entertained by a video of fight over tickets to casey anthony's trial you want good pictures try actually covering a war where there's death destruction bombs guns a plenty but last year the media only devoted four percent of all of their coverage for the war in afghanistan and i've got a feeling the figures this time only will be similar despite the fact that it's a war that takes more casualties with every passing year and i guess if that 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

all the wars 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 five. open government organizations l.m.b. watch the national security archive the project on government oversight the reporters committee for freedom of the press and open the government 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 well now a number of prominent whistleblowers including daniel ellsberg and tony shaffer are asking for those organizations to take it back to me to discuss this is lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer 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

transparency award 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 a sign of it here he's 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've using the state secrets privilege about extraordinary rendition about torture about warrantless wiretapping he has a secret assassination list why don't you go on from there well i think obviously one of the things i'm most directly understand and know is the fact that it went in my book which we talked about a number of times where the public has not been really good intentions here because

of other scandals related to. these two lawsuits that are currently ongoing right now. over their right to publish my first edition which. copies of an edition of another was an organization or transfers your. lucian others judicial watch actually sued beauty 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 obama white house aides helping to try to result as anyone anywhere and i think you know even some of the easiest things they could have done like releasing those white house laws 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 burn go by the ten thousand copies of the book once it

was printed if that ever happened before now as her facts and 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 it never done it so this was never done before and the bottom line here is that we still can't figure out why they did it i mean it was almost an emotional response is something you should been 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 talked to members of the whistleblowers this was done to send a message this was not something they did this 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're speaking up against any issues what do you think that any of it has really been you know in the defense of national security of course that's the reasoning that they use 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 is the. executive branch is now trying to establish the president's 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. car blow and a blank check to do all the wrongdoing it wants because we can make it classified any time we don't want somebody to see it and frankly that is what's happened especially over the last two years if they don't want to talk about something 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 i had of course the firing is ations decide to give me 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 ferrand. well i think you get the prize for because he wants to insinuate pieces any message 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 in print preview 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 see it then there's something wrong with it was one process so i think it's all the only 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 so it's like

a circle around live skit and then the thing is i think everybody is just fed up everybody not just the whistleblowers was this whole idea that there's total transparency here you know petroleum of the white house yesterday was not a public of a meeting why everybody knows afghanistan is being discussed why would you not disclose it this is part of the problem well that's actually go on to some of the revelations that we learned about afghanistan this week we learned of course that their secret negotiations going on for a firm basis 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 not like we're planning on winding down any of our operations in the middle east. and that's correct in his work one of the things i'm not sure of 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 next tipping points is like you know it's

this kind of like what's going on here the problem is this no one has 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 that afghanistan it is not afghanistan it's the indian pakistani conflict president obama said this the real issues and we're seeing this play out from the press right now with the problems with the guys i mean pakistani army pakistan is the issue to 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 in the other nations around afghanistan ok finally i just ask you one last question and a switch back over to gavin even though afghanistan and the region here you have this talk before about the legality of doing certain things and now we find out they're expanding the cia's role in launching strikes because i guess it takes away some of the attention or because they think that it's legally not a thinking as you know of the military might be carrying them out do you really

think it 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 a finding or something it's proof to the president he has to get congressional approval so whatever is doing going on congress is going on with that said i'm not for the expansion of the drone program 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 you are you can you can get by killing these people shooting things were so strong it's not worth the ultimate review good and frankly i am for capturing. interrogating him and finding out what they know a dead man does not talk so right now whatever is happening it's going to grow up in the congressional approval. but it's something along that line i think the obama administration's and love with the drone programs and for all the wrong reasons i

want to thank you very much for joining us tonight as always and you know we'll see if that transparency award actually gets taken out of his hands but also a whole thing about i think you are doing. i don't go anywhere there's still a lot more to come tonight a little security is that having fun with government websites a fair expense announcement from the n.s.a. makes many people question if their counter techniques can be crossing the line and is isolationism a dirty word for the g.o.p. presidential candidates are siding with atypical republican policies but does not make them outcasts within our own party and find out when we come back. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you do something else here see some other part of it and realize everything you say. i'm sorry because if it.

were your really good and yet known. fuck fuck fuck fuck. let's not forget that we live in apartheid break your leg i think

rockledge. whenever the governor says they're going to keep him safe get ready because freedom . politics the economy hollywood those are the typical topics you often hear on the news but recently there's been a new topic that pages can't help but pay attention to hackers and the cyber world . security have proven that their 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 announced of they'll be taking part in a pilot program but they're going to 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 i as like eight hundred eighty 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 that a good sense of these firms in a terminal any of that information seems suspicious or unusual it's like a little question here and they would also fear this it really is just i don't know a segue for the government to start keeping tabs on all of us critics are already calling for some sort of regulation a discussion before this pilot program becomes the norm you know they say that this could become a backdoor form of surveillance for all people so 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 at 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 how 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 they 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. well a form of terrorism but 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 talk of the cia doc up there was that information take it from those pages that was trucked are bringing in the russians and the chinese into the rip discussion revolving around first of all nobody 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 before we start labeling people terrorists and this n.s.a. pilot program i easily argue that this is definitely not the first time the government e-mails hello they're 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 now frankly i'd bet money that that's already happened so cooper's pilot program announcement is the a p.r. move to make it pretend like they have already invaded his privacy i'm just predicting it right now and 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 and the 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 mitt romney joined in i want those troops to come home based upon not politics not based upon economics but instead based upon the conditions on the ground determined by the generals but i also think we've learned. that our troops shouldn't go off and try and fight a war of independence for other nation only the afghanis can win afghanistan's independence from the tell about. and that's a state with a staff quickly had to start walking back by the way it's still 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 in a globalized world we depend not only on investment in our bonds and lots of it but trade with other countries as well so why has isolationist become the dirty word of throw around and that's true isolationism even exist anymore here discuss this with me is tim carney senior political columnist for the washington examiner ted thanks

so much for being having me you seem especially irked by this term isolation is being thrown around some of the g.o.p. candidates or even you know politicians out there live 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 he clung to that 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 utterly absurd considering this is the fore. ambassador to china into singapore deputy secretary of commerce and deputy u.s. trade representative who has a degree in international relations with the world isolationist was use simply to refer to somebody who opposes some foreign interventions or opposes nation building this rice nation 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 endeavors around the world that means you're closed off the world completely no trade agreements you're not involved at the height of treaties and even if even if you were to take a looser definition of 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. are insinuating then you think 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 lit all the people who oppose their wars as being somehow narrow minded and i think you know that's the problem here is that everyone sees things in black and of light there's just no nuance there's no in between because

the way the isolationist. republican candidates out there you know being someone who isn't conservative minded myself if i don't support going to war or occupying a country that apparently i'm unpatriotic if i don't support torturing people that apparently that makes me a terrorist sympathizer and yet isolationist i guess is mostly used against conservatives right liberal if if they're going to be slaughtered for opposing the war they're called the 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 say in iraq that 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 reader you know or who are paying for something completely black and white but i'm

curious that 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 are waged 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 easier public and talking point because hey it's easy to. criticize the president on this one because he launched the 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 cold war era as being one 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 having a democrat in power sort of allow those 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 in oppose a democratic war but i do think it is natural on the right to believe in a more humble form i have a little hard to believe many of you tell me really having almost or 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 figures will say we probably have more than a thousand places 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 this bipolar world and you had to defend it and then after the fall of the soviet union. there was a lot of well we've got this big military interview we're going to need a new enemy because you know the show you need 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 right all 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 and i talk to my job they're talking about the need to cut social security or medicare or the social services that people depend on now once did anybody mention defense cuts they didn't even toyed with 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 said if you can't find anything to cut in defense and you're not working hard enough polls herman cain is soft you know we sure can poland and mitt romney might be talking that way but at least the republican party i think is divided i don't know i think i think that a lot of it is is more rhetoric than actual you see that you feel that house of representatives vote to cut specific military spending item most of the republicans were some of the republicans together with most of the democrats so there is some action going on i think the democrats are just as bad as the republicans on this one it's you know something i constantly repeat on this show which is that we get a solution that they're so divided and so polarized but when it comes to expanding

the security state of the surveillance state. no problem and thanks so much for being here thank you. i thought i had tonight stressful life for celebrity a popular web site is trying to help celebrities who blogs at the new service but you can more on that all time record and then we'll talk about sex and politics lives in powerful positions always feel invincible when it comes to their sex scandals all that and that just. you know so good to see the story and the siege so . you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here's the part of it and realize that everything you saw. i'm trying hard because a big. part .