as are the press the same mainstream press that apparently shedding a lot of tears at the idea that now she'll be free she'll be out and she's going to be keeping the hell away from them and the way they've been covering the story i don't blame her if she literally find some underground dungeon to spend the rest of her days in or maybe should have stayed in prison until august second when the debt ceiling deadline hits and the mainstream media is going to be distracted but then again you know they can't control themselves even an economic freefall can keep them away from a pretty young girl who nancy grace made out to be the devil but even if that deadline isn't for another couple weeks it's not like there hasn't been other big news out there. you've got a report by jeremy scahill from the nation on the cia's secret sites in somalia the ones where the cia is running a counterterrorism training program paying somalis two hundred dollars a month to run prisons where prisoners are held have been rendered from kenya is that one story that sheds light on the obama administration for continuing all of

those actions they criticize the bush administration for but we interviewed jeremy on this program last week but for some reason none of the big networks and i literally made it not a single one of them decided to give the story any play but then suddenly suddenly today the l a times came out with some groundbreaking information that new american intelligence raises concerns about a widening alliance of islamic terrorist groups plotting to target the u.s. and you know where that alliance is yemen and somalia and you know how they found out some of that information well according to the l a times it was learned when somali all thora these allow the cia to interview shabaab militants imprisoned in mogadishu now this is all according to anonymous u.s. officials of course but it's not odd that first the story is completely ignored and now the l a times is reporting on it from anonymous u.s. officials and they don't bother to ask why somalia authorities would be so kind as to let the cia interview their prisoners they don't bother to connect the dots ask

of maybe that's because scales report was correct these are people at the cia works very closely with who they pay so they can treat them as proxies and not have to get their own hands dirty and isn't it odd that suddenly after scales rather damning report for the obama administration officials are now so eager to talk about how dangerous somali and al shabaab have become and how they pose a serious threat to our national security you know the government is feeding this story for a reason and the l a times has been more than happy to eat it up no questions asked it's an incredible testament to the very subservient nature of the press these days this is why our war on terror expand throughout the world and an unstoppable pays. and americans continue to sit scared and let it happen because it's in the government's interest to do so to continue to spread that fear in the mainstream media rather than asking any questions is happy to let it happen and miss the real story.

what happening scandal surrounding group or murdoch's media empire continues to grow each day last friday les hinton publisher of the wall street journal and the c.e.o. of dow jones resigned over the weekend former news of the world at the rebecca brooks was arrested scotland yard chief paul stephenson stepped down on sunday night and by today john yates the assistant commissioner was also on his way now at the request of certain members of congress eric holder and the justice department have now launched an investigation into whether or not victims of nine eleven had also been hacked and bloomberg reported today that news corp's independent directors have begun it questioning the company's response to the crisis and whether a leadership change is needed they cited unnamed sources there so is it time to start questioning if murdoch's time as a media moguls coming to an end and is this the scandal of the left has been waiting for joining me to discuss it is katrina vanden you will editor and publisher of the nation magazine katrina thanks so much for joining us tonight it's

been a while since we've had you on the program now what do you think is murdoch is he going to step down is he going to be forced to is there any way they continue on can continue on his head here. well what we do know all you want to me just say this is not just a scandal that the left sabers this is a scandal that should worry any citizen of any country who cares in public interest media that actually is about democracy this is a metastasized scandal we don't know where it will end i mean just look at what's happened in the last hours the whistleblower first whistleblower who blew the lid on. the he's now been found dead that the key thing is ten people arrested close to murder the head of scotland yard as you said his deputy what we are seen is the criminal mediocre political nexus corroding in the u.k. and as you pointed out your important questions now need to be raised about murdoch

about his empire and their activities in this country the u.k. will have a hearing tomorrow coaling group and his son james murdoch it will be watched but once you have the police involved as we've seen not just hacking but the bribery of police or secret insider information i think all it's roth but do you think that let's say is rupert murdoch is he smart enough to say that hey this is the brits this is the way that they do it yes of course he is the head of this massive british media empire they're british journalism tabloid journalism specifically has always been known to go a couple of steps farther than the u.s. press has so if his hands aren't exactly dirty do you think they will still come down to him that he himself as a key figure with all suffer well what murdoch and his p.r. firms are trying to do is keep this is narrow it's possible to talk about how this is a rogue operation rogue apple a few outlets

a few reporters but rupert murdoch is a fox but the sky has fallen on him and he now doesn't have much control a man who has tried to control has bought his way to media empire. yes on three continents he does not have as much control as he has had in the past so i do think we could see as you alluded to at the beginning the end of the burdock empire as we know what new leadership new governance however as you know i'm going to because you cover the us media murdoch ization of our media is with us the degradation of political debate discourse titillation scandal instead of news that is what i think needs to be investigated and repaired as well as u.s. investigations into whether nine eleven families phones were hacked and also now we're learning that we need to look into the foreign corrupt practices act because you are murdoch is a u.s. citizen having fought hard to become one news corps in the united states if it's

subsidiaries news international bribing police officials i think we need to look at how that law should be applied and as you pointed out the department of justice has opened a limited investigation the f.b.i. is reviewing nine eleven hacking allegations the f.c.c. should be looking into this and our congress a few independent minded senators who have cared about media reform are now asking for investigation do you think it's going to be hard to find some of those independent minded center there is as john nichols wrote in the nation today if you look at the way that murdoch has been able to convince lawmakers to. to get rid of many of the regulations here in the u.s. over the years that is media empire can keep expanding there's a lot of money involved a lot of money that's been thrown at political campaigns mr murdoch and his minions have lubricated our political process and they have fought their way to rewriting the beer ownership rules in this country imperiling democracy and i think you know

have a media landscape that has consolidated conglomerate ties and murdoch ised. and he has a lot a lot b.s. on the other hand never say never what we are looking at now is in the u.k. i scandal that was known and all power to the guardian which stayed on it who's extraordinary reporter nick davis is like the word of bernstein of watergate in one he stayed on it even when the head of scotland yard who resigned just the other day came in and spoke to alan rusbridger the head of the guardian and said your reporter full of inaccuracy is never say never would public revulsion erupts it can change even moving a man and a mole who has no scruples reckless irresponsible journalist rupert murdoch can be pushed aside and i think that is where citizen power people power can overtake. the ugliest the most corrosive of those who are deformed or here in democracy what do you think because the last three journal wrote an unsigned this weekend that's been

gaining a lot of heat where they attack a number of other media organizations including the new york times and pro publica and the guardian but they say this scandal and those who have jumped on it and been so happy to jump on it are acting as if every single journalist that works for news corp has now been tainted do you think that that's a fair assessment should we start questioning anybody that works for the company or only those on the higher levels well i would err on the so questioning more than sitting back and defending and i don't think the wall street journal team was is really on the side or they didn't get the p.r. message out of the u.k. about i'm sorry but as i said earlier this is a desperate attempt to limit it to limit it when in fact you have a media culture and organization and news corps that is tainted rotten but it is true that the tabloid culture in the u.k. is you know there's a lot of stuff going on the danger of going to have to say in the u.k. as you know there you go why below is you got secrets x.

we don't need more press restrictions on the me we need a freer media and the attempt for camera the u.k.'s prime minister to use this to impose more press restrictions is the wrong one what we need are through rigorous investigations into the illegality the criminal law breaking of news corp of news international that's where our attention must be and that's where the wall street journal i think is just desperate to kind of find a way out of this but then again the wall street journal has found a way to let bankers scot free as they supported regulations and lubricated their way to easy pass do you think that americans should start questioning at fox news or the wall street journal though let's say that it does come out and it is true that nine eleven victims that their phones were hacked that something that would strike a chord with a lot of americans but has the damage already been done are they already so in

meshed with fox news in the ratings that it has a considering that it beats out every other cable network on television here. the i'd like to take this out of an ideological spectrum because you know i think fox news well first of all i don't think fox news is a news organization in many ways it's an adjunct to republican party that has become extraordinarily extremist but i care deeply about the public standards the ethics of journalism in this country and independence and i do think murdoch and his empire have tried to wipe away all of that and fox becomes the embodiment but as you know one on a fox has been at the forefront at the forefront of misinformation to use a kind word about climate change it has been at the forefront of race baiting of some he filled vitriol and i think has played a role in an atmosphere in this country where you could argue we live in a post truth environment and that's very dangerous for democracy for any country so i do think americans i hope is part of this and i hope fox and wall street journal

won't try to murk it up birddog it up and try to make this about rogue polls or about politics but i think we need to stand up for stronger ethics better journalists and quality journalism at a time when we need it one hell of a lot less scandal to do until ation and i think we're going to see an opportunity a door open for that conversation and not seize it now we'll see how it actually turns out and where investigation void but i'm with you that katrina thank you so much for joining us tonight. just ahead our team correspondent christine looks into what happens in one of the most secretive retreats for politicians when she tells us about bohemian grove and general david petraeus handed over command of the afghan war today but will a new leader actually bring a different strategy look at some insight from lawrence wilkerson retired u.s. army colonel and former chief of staff to colin powell.

wealthy british soil. from time to. market. why don't was really happening to the global economy with mike stronger no holds barred look at the global financial headlines. as you report. well after a year in charge general david petraeus has now officially handed over control of the afghan war to daniel john allen but could the rampant violence in just the last few days be a bad sign after the assassination of amin karzai as half brother last week on sunday night john muhammad got another karzai ally and former governor from the

south of the country was killed in his home two afghans out of a group of thirty three who had been kidnapped last week or beheaded in western afghanistan allegedly for supporting the afghan government the police chief in kandahar and three other officers were killed by a roadside bomb in the south and today three nato soldiers were killed by a bomb in eastern afghanistan as well as one in the south and yet on his way out general david petraeus continue to cite progress in the country so when is reality going to sink in we're here to discuss this with me is lawrence wilkerson retired u.s. army colonel and former chief of staff to. lawrence thanks so much for being here tonight. this is not necessarily something new course of violence death political assassinations in afghanistan but do you think that the timing should tell us anything here considering that betray us is leaving now that recently the withdrawal timeline has been announced now that we're seeing so many of these political moves i think that's probably true in defense of general petraeus when he was central command commander he said it would get immediately following the

increase in troops he said to get worse before it got better it is as a as you illustrated i think it is getting worse i think it's going to get even worse the central issue still though you know my central issue is pakistan and if we don't stop this squabbling over whether we're going to give certain monies to pakistan or not and give them and further demoralize the size of the military the civilians and so forth we're going to have a problem there even though this administrator wants desperately to get out of afghanistan at least major tree formations that we can't we simply can't leave because pakistan is going to be in such bad shape that to leave will simply be to baghdad we introduction of major forces to restabilize or try to restabilize progress so then tell me about general john allen who's about to take over and petraeus is former all after just a year do you think that he's someone who is capable of this job how is he going to

handle it well i taught at the marine corps war college for four years and frankly . person per person not prefer marine general star me joe it's not really what i like because they're more candid they're more straightforward and generally speaking you know they're willing to speak truth to power a little more than somebody army generals i don't know if he's that particular character it becomes extremely difficult when you put in that four star or whether you're wearing green or brown but someone has to begin to tell the president from a military perspective how on tunable our situation is in afghanistan and quit this business of it's going to get better tomorrow it's going to get better next week it'll be tough for the next six months but it will get better in a year because it is not going to get better is he somebody you think that holds the same popularity here on capitol hill the way that general dave petraeus does when it comes to lawmakers congress really being blind to anything that he might be saying that isn't true because he's just such

a popular guy and everybody listens on the congressman love generals they can hide behind they love a general that will come up there and do what they want them to do in the perspective that they want to they love to hide behind successful generals has been that sort of a general for them whether or not general allen or anyone for that matter in afghanistan can become that kind of general in the wake of betray us and with what's happening now is really questionable so i'm wondering guy would come to mind and you know you're saying that congressman often like to hide behind these generals when they can but do you think that we're starting to see a little bit of a shift in a sense where some lawmakers are being more vocal about opposing the war you know it's about wanting to bring troops home took ten years from our war in vietnam or if you believe thirteen years if you want to go back all the way to the beginning the real beginning of southeast asian conflicts but yes i think you're right i think the physical status alone the money the true humans of dollars that were

pouring down the call first up nothing. is beginning to serve people in well he should begin to disturb some people well there's one person that's to serve right now in this isn't specifically tied to the war in afghanistan although i guess you could say that anything post nine eleven war on terror is tied together and of course the obama administration asked for f.b.i. director robert mueller is term to be extended for two years to robert mueller also somebody popular with congress to which everyone said yes let's do it but let's make sure that this is a one time one time scenario and so we'll have to vote on it and now senator rand paul has actually blocked that and said that he has a couple questions for robert mueller first what you think about when i'm dead why did read a portion of at least the commentary on it all british letter was available to. armed it why did that someone is finally as one historian said about the populist party of the late. hundreds however ignorant and even.

restoring some democracy to this republic because that's essential what he's trying to do and i'm not insinuating that he's any of those adjectives is going to ask most of the tea party i would quickly put it in that category in many instances but nonetheless they are going after what is the heart of this democracy and that's our freedom our civil liberties and so forth which have been much abused since nine eleven particularly by the bush administration but alarmingly in many respects continued by the obama administration yeah i'm here specifically as a writer he's a letter he's referring to certain provisions of the patriot act and roving wiretaps and the abuse of national security letters those are many things that he was trying to get answer to before when he was trying to block the patriot act from being extended for another four years so it's good to see him going after and now last question as a little bit off topic but that's what i was telling the audience we interviewed jeremy scahill from the nation last week about his piece on the cia's secret sites in somalia what do you make of that is that we're using we're you are using. the

people as a proxy now to continue to get more another place well i'm not been some are you so i can't comment directly on it but i can tell you that i saw what was going on when we were doing this and other countries like thailand and so forth and i suspect that what we're doing in somalia with maybe some gradations of difference given that it's president obama not president bush or it's a president cheney. is much to say that we are using the somalis by turning our faces when things we don't like occur but nonetheless condoning them by that turn face we're using the somalis to do it we don't want to do that now what we've been restricted from doing now whether it includes torture and i don't know but i'd be very surprised if it does but something that they haven't ministration is trying to keep their hands clean from something that they criticize the bush administration for so again just having someone else to learn thanks so much for joining us throughout thanks right. now do you know that many

a well connected and high ranking people in our government participate in an annual retreat in the woods of california it's called bohemian grove and it's a gathering place for some of the most powerful men in this country and yes it is men only now leisure way there is a lot of heavy drinking some sex that goes on during the secretive retrieve but even more importantly what about all the political deals that are made that could affect you and i as here christine fires out went to california to try to find out for herself what goes on in bahamian grow. it is nestled among the redwoods twenty seven hundred acres of pristine land broken down into dozens of camps and for two weeks every july since the eight hundred eighty s. they've been filled with some of the most wealthy and powerful men in the world. many of them arrive on their corporate jets at the nearby sonoma county airport. others arrive in fancy cars which will fill the onsite parking lot at its height.

there is said to be more than two thousand men who attend and as you can imagine they are well protected by a trove of police right from the i know with the we're all covering the protests and we just wanted to see if there was i would like a virus to get off the property because there's no way we know it is not in our store at all and i have the police come and arrest you if you don't leave ok access is by invitation only and most pay more than fifteen thousand dollars to attend. and for more than thirty five years protestors have stood at the entrance gates our concern is not what's going on inside of the grove but what's happening outside of the grove with the people that are in here according to several reports and this is where the idea for the manhattan project was conceived back in one thousand nine hundred two it's also where every republican president since the sixty's has spent time before actually becoming the nominee we know for sure that richard nixon and

ronald reagan sat down and had a conversation about who was going to run for president when and i mean and they made a deal peter phillips wrote his dissertation on the bohemian club in one thousand nine hundred four and was invited to attend for four days he witnessed firsthand the opening of vent the cremation of care where the power elite leave their cares behind in a symbolic ceremony moloch the scene in this photo judge says he was a paid employee of the grove and drove the horse and buggy that carried the casket in the ceremony the casket represented their careers and they would actually. burnet and there is a long lake with music this is a place filled with secrets that only those who go inside and perhaps the trees will never really know but i was able to get my hands on some photographs that i want to show you just to give you a sense on what it looks like on the inside this is a photograph of people who attend as we mentioned it is all men and this is

a photograph of them of them this year was taken back in one thousand nine hundred nine colin powell the back of donald rumsfeld's head and this is thomas kean two years later he would become head of the nine eleven commission here's a picture newt gingrich henry kissinger and because their son and another side of thomas kean here's a much younger dick cheney at the grove and henry kissinger having a little fun i was also able to get my hands on several programs from previous years outlining the schedule of talks and their topics and what we have here on july twenty second two thousand and eight is the lakeside talk big given by c.f.r. member and trilateral commission member fred starr. he gave a talk called afghanistan the unexpected there are other connections to be made as well between the lake sign talks and public policy that followed this was a man that was involved in the. oil business george link with the persian gulf

crisis this is one nine hundred eighty caspar weinberger who was the secretary of defense in the reagan administration on rearming america and that's easily documented the arms build up came in late eighty one eighty two. there are rumors of extreme drunkenness of prostitutes and of homosexual activities by members but for the most part it is the secret backroom agreements critics say should be brought to light that agreement can be you know occupying the middle east fighting terrorism. and circling china politically and militarily for mary moore who's been researching bohemian grove for more than three decades what happens inside is symptomatic of a much larger problem we've all grown up taking civics trying to understand how the world works and we're all told that we elect representatives they go to washington

we have total influence over them and they make decisions that are in the best interests of us then we start growing up and if we pay any kind of attention we find out that none of that is true in monterrey california christine for south r.t. . well still ahead i'll respond to your comments that you left on line and i think you said it i read it segment and a judge stops the federal government in their tracks over their handling of the whistleblower case and then we'll talk about tracking your cell phone tonight there's a story that everybody should hear regarding a very powerful and very secretive tracking to all the governments around the world are using i can say with. in india proceeds are made to believe the move to join the hotels. the gateway hotel the grand imperial truly told us to.

sit don't need to go and. read this and the colonel was toto retreat. and broadcasting a live direct from the heart of moscow this is our team where it is seven thirty in the morning. headlines. and x. news of the world a journalist who was the first to name names in the phone hacking scandal is found dead at a london the latest twist in what's spiraled into a political crisis going as far as the prime minister david cameron. and. russian security forces are for oil a major terror attack on the transportation system near moscow which could have resulted in future loss of life. and. violence continues in afghanistan with three more nato soldiers killed after the assassination of an. brother of president

karzai last week just as the alliance begins handing over control to local forces. coming up in about thirty minutes my colleague carrie johnson will be here with a full look at your news right now we'll bring you more about the u.s. strategy in afghanistan and the alyona show that's coming up next. are it's time for you said it i read it right take time to respond to my brilliant and engaging viewer comments on facebook twitter and you tube because when you've got something to say i do listen now first i want to respond to some positive feedback from a kind viewer on twitter doing walton tweeted the alone to show you are doing excellent work alone or the jeremy scahill interview last week was one of your best and i want to say thank you for the kind words i too really enjoyed the interview with jeremy last week and i think that it represents what our show aims to do at

its best telling the stories that others can't or will not tell not surprisingly the cia scrambled to discredit scahill story throughout right through excuse me through outright denials and press releases and all of that was to be expected but that's why you're supposed to have the media to call them out when news organizations like a.b.c. they simply reprinted cia statements without an else of skepticism jeremy scahill was nowhere to be found on c.n.n. fox or even m.s.m. d.c. where he has beard numerous times in the past so we're more than happy to him to be one of the few organizations that actually bring you those stories and i want to respond to a comment from a viewer on a tool time segment from last friday dark dennis one thousand nine hundred sixty one said i hate came because he's stupid alone our founding fathers founding fathers i thought you were russian someone correct me if i am wrong i know dennis you're not wrong i was born in russia i moved here when i was four and i am an american citizen so yes i'm an.