nonstop cia drone strikes leaving the terror network in shambles officials caution that al qaeda could know when the threat of terrorism still persists especially with the growing trend of lone wolf attacks well all right because you had line that's it no questions asked let's move on we reported it was in wall to wall debt debate inside baseball political jabber that we've been running nonstop well go back to mainstream media isn't the u.s. still and the longest war ever in afghanistan in the name of fighting al qaeda and al qaida is reportedly now collapsing yet you have u.s. officials right and left saying at the same time that despite a two thousand and fourteen with drawl date for afghanistan the u.s. may be there for many more years to come if you don't take my word for it people like outgoing u.s. ambassador to afghanistan barry said that recently in an interview and at the same time the defense bill is working its way through congress which doesn't prescribe

an end game either and yet signs of the consequences for america of this war are everywhere just listen to this story reported today a u.s. special operations officer his name is army master sergeant benjamin stevenson he was killed in a remote area of eastern afghanistan now this was a highly decorated soldier from texas and he was on his ten to were of duty in the war zones of afghanistan and iraq his ten two were of duty we are deploying people for ten to worst of duty in this war they are dying and the mainstream media is not even questioning why not in our longest war not even when they report that this so-called enemy and now war is collapsing and the attack he died and was interestingly a fire fight against an al qaeda related group that's according to the u.s. official now maybe the mainstream media just didn't want this news to rain on the parade of this. story of the u.s.

officials reporting today the collapse of al qaeda but never mind that back to the fact of the people that are serving nevermind the joblessness and the suicide which are rampant problems within the military in two thousand and ten for the second year in a row more american soldiers both enlisted men and women and veterans together committed suicide then were killed in the wars in iraq and afghanistan meanwhile the national average unemployment rate for male veterans aged eighteen to twenty four who have served their country since september of two thousand and one is a staggering twenty eight percent according to recent department of labor statistics and some research and analysts tie those problems to repeat deployments the toll of america's longest war and questioning where that war is headed and what the costs are of the ten years hundreds of billions of dollars repeat deployments and law i would news breaks that the enemy is on the brink of collapse that is what

the mainstream media missed today. so less than a week from today the country may have began defaulting on its debts now some predict this could trigger a cole amatus chain of events including everything from higher interest rates for struggling americans a loss for international investors who hold truly ns of dollars and what's known as the risk free asset of u.s. bonds a loss in the u.s. as triple credit rating aaa credit rating seniors without social security checks to live on the list goes on and on and closer to home or closer to this studio in washington the fate of many of those factors is being decided but at the eleventh hour as we have seen the debate is continuing congress and the white house are still at a stalemate in this political game of chess there is no deal while house democratic leaders today have a message for the president they came out of the. the meeting saying that they want

him to use the constitution to get the debt ceiling job done himself and my next guest is a lawmaker who's advocating for this as a failsafe backup plan if congress and the president can't get it all together for a legislative deal joining me from capitol hill is representative john garamendi of california to explain thank you so much for being with us good to be with you you're quite correct this is not going well here the republicans have manufactured this crisis this didn't have to happen hadn't happened in the past for about the last thirty years however they wanted to have a crisis and now we have a crisis why a crisis because they want to use this debt limit as a way of leveraging into the american public policy and laws things that they could never get any other way so now we have a crisis what are we going to do my advice to the president read the constitution use the constitution solve this problem by yourself push congress aside you don't need us and you're not going to get a resolution out of this congress it's

a deadlock but the president has the power fourteenth amendment clause four we got it right there just get on with it executive order pay the bills bypass congress and get right now the president so far as being reported is that he's not going to do that on the advice of white house lawyers i want to get back to that but first i want to touch on what you said what you're blaming republicans and what the republican motivations are here i want to play a little of what house speaker house speaker john boehner said about what some members of his caucus are thinking a lot of them believe that if we get past august suspected we have enough chaos we could force the senate and the white house to accept a balanced budget amendment. i want to have i want to go one step further and i want to see what you think kind of playing off of something that actually donald trump said do you think the republicans want the country to default and an effort to hurt obama's reelection campaign well senator mcconnell has been very clear.

about this he said this a year ago that is number one goal over the next two years was to make sure that obama was defeated and the best way to do that make sure the american economy isn't working that there is unemployment that there's jobs that there's chaos and that's precisely what boehner just said in that interview is to create chaos to force in place their vision of america they basically want to terminate the american dream if you take a look at all the things they're talking about here the balanced budget amendment would take us back to the pre one thousand nine hundred sixty five establishment of medicare so medicare is gone they had their way there do away with social security or seriously modify social security cut the benefits and they clearly clearly and this was what mitch mcconnell this isn't me this is the leader of the minority party in the senate the republican leader saying his number one goal is to defeat obama you know that is not good for america that's not good for the world but

that's what they're trying to do and president obama has said time and time again that default would be disaster so why do you think he wouldn't use the constitution to just get this done if both default and his reelection are threatened well i think he doesn't want to do it it would be the first time ever that it had been done obviously it takes the hand it takes the ball out of the court of congress and gives the president that that ball to carry and it's a hot potato or hot ball and you know who wants that well i'm afraid mr president you may not have any choice but to pick this one up and carry it and i think frankly would be good for the nation and it be good for him and for us in congress who are looking at this understanding what the republicans want to do and that is to destroy the obama presidency we're saying don't count on congress getting this done the republicans in the house are determined to either use this point as a. labor to get terrible policies in place that would destroy medicare destroy

medicaid and all of the programs that try to lift up americans so that they can achieve the american dream of climbing the economic ladder the republicans at least some of them are determined to do that so where are we going to go well if you can't do it here mr president don't count on don't count on the republicans are not going to allow this to be done be prepared and get the executive order written and on monday night or sunday night simply sign it and say america is not going to default i have taken the authority given to me in the fourteenth amendment and i'm using that authority we are paying our bills this instructs the treasury department pay the bills ok i want to ask you do you think that would really help longer term and what we've seen which has been a political stalemate a political debate that has gone on and on and to the eleventh hour with default hanging in the balance and some believe that you know say this get settled say the

president does this it just pushes the can down the road to september when federal funding expires they have to revisit that issue are we just going to see another huge debate more political brinksmanship that takes the focus away from other issues for example jobs. well nobody wants more than i to get back to the jobs agenda and we're going to do that we're promoting the make it in america jan an agenda that does have the potential if we can pass the various pieces of legislation to really rebuild the american manufacturing sector for example creating an infrastructure bank where we can pool the assets of various pension funds across the nation both public and private and some federal money to rebuild our infrastructure to build our streets roads transportation systems sanitation systems water systems those are putting people back to work and also make it in america janet says use our tax money to buy american made equipment why

in the world we would give a tax subsidy our tax money to a manufacturer of solar cells in china i don't understand if we're going to put up solar cells if we're going to put up when turbans and use american taxpayer money to to buy those literally buy those then that must be american made equipment and so there are things that we can do and we're going to push that agenda but you're also correct that we should look forward to every. critical moment in the next eighteen months that the republicans will use that moment you mentioned the september thirty first deadline for the new appropriation for the fiscal year two thousand and twelve yes they're going to use that moment to try to put in place their radical agenda to take america back to the one nine hundred fifty s. and sixty's they're going to do it we need to be prepared for that we also need on our side to have a very strong correct deficit reduction program so let me end it you about that i want to touch on that because i don't want to get too into entitlements but you

mention that you're very concerned about cuts to them and you're also very concerned about the deficit and you're concerned about the full faith and credit of the united states as insured by the credit rating and raising the debt ceiling all of that so my question to you is how do you achieve having that full faith and credit of the united states for the united states if you don't rein in entitlements because i mean they are and they amount to sixty one trillion dollars by estimates that are on the low side that are unfunded so how can you ever share the things you want without raising those then. put a four letter word t.-i m.-e. into that equation when this has become a problem social security social security is the federal government's cash cow social security is running a surplus we're using social security to finance the federal government have been for a long time and will continue to do so for at least a decade and probably fifteen to sixteen years out before social security has to be changed now probably five or ten years out we ought to begin that process of change

so what can we do take a look at the fact that social security tax is a very very regressive tax. the first dollar you earn in america you pay six percent six and a half percent and you also add on to that the medicare which is now the percent to have social almost eight percent of the very first dollar you use but after you get past one hundred seven. thousand dollars you don't pay anything all right you want to deal with social security tax that tax so that when you go to one hundred fifty two hundred three hundred thousand dollars you continue to pay the seven or eight percent so it's actually a little scared i wasn't going at the benefit is so essentially there is a longer debate to be had but you say that this will be something that can be pushed further down the road in favor of settling this today i want to thank you for weighing in on those things that we didn't get to the war which is something that you've named as a problem and it's also a big ticket item that the u.s. government spends

a lot on it's one of the piece you want to solve this budget you've got to deal with the military expenditures and the war and the base budget of the military and we want to thank you so much for being on the show that's a whole other subject but one that has a lot of reason to talk about it thank you. now we have more on the debate over raising the debt ceiling next we just covered the political angle but what would happen if washington doesn't act will there be a global depression we're going to cover the issue with michael tend to the senior economist at euro pacific capital investment. wealthy british style it's time to.

market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with my stronger no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser reports. now this afternoon reports were flying out of the u.k. when scotland yard announced they'd captured the spokesman for the hacking group now according to the associated press a nineteen year old who goes by the nickname topiary was arrested in scotland shetland islands and a press release from metro police it states the man arrested is believed to be linked to an ongoing international investigation into the criminal activity of the so-called hacktivist groups anonymous and now we should note that topiary was the

spokesperson for anonymous and eventually moved on to represent the offshoot organization which is of course and in fact topiary has been featured on this program back in december alone interviewed him when he represented anonymous and he explained to us why anonymous made a target out of companies like pay pal visa and master card. these companies. for example are stopped funding we could be to took the phones from wiki leaks and they refused to give them they have given them. but we believe this was not really an act that they wanted to do they were forced to do it and we're not a malicious group we've got we're doing this for a reason we're doing the movement for a reason for the freedom of information and speech. well speaking of pay pal the hacktivist anon and security are going old school with a new campaign against the site and rather than trying to get people to crash it with a d.d. o. s. style attack they're calling on others to boycott the online money service in

a statement the hacktivist say the first step to being truly free is not putting one's trust into a company that freezes accounts when it feels like it or when it's pressured by the u.s. government now like topiary mentioned in our interview months ago pay pal has suspended funding for wiki leaks so the groups launched operation pay pal back then in response so has the boycott now worked well reporting that e-bay stock which owns pay pal of course went down. a billion dollars in a matter of hours and if you look at the stock today compared to yesterday the price was down more than three percent at the close shot down today look at that so could boycotts become the new preferable ambo for anonymous and lulz sec perhaps this could be the best way to keep hackers out of jail we've seen the government crackdown on anonymous and let the people do the protesting on their own without gaining access to servers or systems like they've done in the past with their d.d. o. s. attacks it does point to the power of the people we have to point out and the power

of hacktivist to continue to inspire the people even with a more hands off approach all the hacktivists have done is promoted and encouraged to movement know what tax no hacking just asking people to do what they can to stand up for free and open information after all the police can't rightfully arrest anyone for boycotting for now we hope. now though the debt debate the debt over the debate the debate over the debt so many days doesn't debates right now over default is being decided in washington a con a mistake the effects will be felt worldwide now that the mainstream media may be focused on the political posturing and the back and forth much more than the reelection campaigns of some of those politicians are on the line here in the u.s. dollar is the global reserve currency china owns more than a trillion dollars and u.s. debt they've asked for reassurance over these last weeks and months and this debate extends far beyond the beltway as those examples show so what is really at stake here the full faith and credit of the united states or has the world really

accepted that a downgrade to u.s. credit and the rating the aaa rating and the bigger threat to the u.s. credit is the growing heap of debt which many say is impossible to pay back well michael pinto he's a senior economist at euro pacific capital he said help us figure it out thank you for being here. do you love me or you do i thought you said you love me oh you're trying to help me ok that's doesn't get better i don't know you will. a lot of you and my wife would be very upset ok well let's talk about that then the day is now less than a week away default congress the white house still can't agree on the deal so what happens next week if the country defaults who feels that pain ok so you know what i think unfortunately to me geithner has been promulgating this route is that the u.s. will default on her dead come august second this is a bunch of malarkey there is plenty of revenue coming into the government coffers

to pay the interest on our debt that's the only thing creditors should be concerned up the things they also should be concerned maybe also is that the u.s. will finally get its fiscal house in order. reducing the debt ceiling ceiling as we did ten times in the last decade back up if the u.s. pays the end on the debt who doesn't get paid if the debt ceiling isn't raised as organza would to me greater wants to do we could not pay defense you could cut social security medicare but these programs are insolvent and need to be cut that's the whole point you know i don't know why did too much if we had a deal done like the gang of six or perhaps. we cut maybe six trillion in spending and we finally got the entitlements under control with a slight increase in taxes and i'm really not for that but you cannot get that done

i said for months i was the only person on planet earth to admit this to anybody in public that the u.s. was incapable of tackling its entitle minutes in the scope and duration between then and august second so now hoping maybe there's a thirty percent chance of some stopgap measure but that will bring it down from s. and p. moody's and fitch the united states for now you're saying that doesn't really matter are the people going to live is interesting you. bonds are interest rates going to go up. listen there's no reason why anybody would listen to reason or fish with they care about i'll tell you what the chinese care about the chinese care most about the u.k.'s capping our were dead. ceiling we have fourteen point three trillion right now total debt outstanding. we need to cap that if we raise our debt ceiling by one or naturally in dollars per annum because we have

been doing this in the radial ravings that will come from china japan and europe and then you have a mess that no one can get either and then you have just ben bernanke he and his printing press ok show the treasury auctions which is why more generally which is our home team which is bosnia which is georgia we can't afford the united states so this might not be the prettiest way to go about it but we are finally forcing the united states to deal with her debt and that is good news in the long term ok let me ask you this i want to touch on the long term thing but you are in finance i'm assuming you have a pretty comfortable life i'm assuming that if there is a partial default and the united states began to only paying the interest on the people that owes on its bonds that those payments its creditors stop sending out social security checks or setting out veterans' benefits that you won't factor is

that correct laura laura is that correct is that that's correct so let me put this in for you to argue isn't it laura i have a father and i'm not you know i am a libertarian but i'm a libertarian at the very very big for you to show you that the question is see you're you're changing the sign on so you're taking the side put you but you're saying how can i ask how could you possibly cut payments is not the obvious you're going to cut one hundred percent of medicare medicaid social security you still have. some of that they can. supply with their funds but here's the point we have no choice you're assuming perhaps that we have the money to pay these people anyway these programs are insolvent the unfunded liabilities amount to one hundred and fifteen trillion dollars you're going to have to tell me if you really believe or anybody believes either democrat or republican that we have the money to pay for these entitlement programs they must be cut or not we can either now to try to

raise the debt ceiling and to continue to to pay social security and continue to pay these things right now ok but how can i reckon lauren can you assure me that what happened in greece is going to happen to america in two thousand and twelve two thousand and thirteen now i get it very i can assure you that i'm curious why now and that's very safe make out fine in a partial default but american people should be hurt. chris lawrence greece was humming along nicely one hundred percent that's g.d.p. and they're paying about three percent and they're not there in their currency they're very well there are things as a reference say ok but lord what you're saying is that you're going to your regular order men back in maybe three hundred fifty a.d. going around rome saying we are the only civilized country on the planet so how could we possibly for that's the that's you i'm not saying that i'm not saying that at all i'm asking you a question you're comparing to greece i'm pointing out

a difference that i can assure you this that sixty three percent of foreign currency reserves are in dollars foreigners own fifty four percent of our publicly traded that is we have the worship a different name up on the wall but on the market investors that the u.s. dollar can no longer be trusted as the your currency and the u.s. can no longer be trusted to pay back her debt you're going to have such as. massive rush to get to the grid and you're paid to worry about the reserve currency and we're going to tell you what are you going to say to me that the chinese are going to watch their holdings go down that you and watched your huge rise in prices plummet and you're sitting on your hands you can assure me that i can assure you that i've got a story that you're right but we don't know we don't know just like we don't know what will happen if the u.s. partially defaults are totally defaults but i want to ask you about jobs because that obviously is

a huge issue in the united states unemployment is more than one percent the average duration of unemployment is nine months many people can't get work and you mentioned long term what needs to happen cutting the debt and a lot of people believe in your camp that people that say have argument similar to yours is that what's needed is to cut the debt in order to provide for that long term job growth is my question to you is what happens now how do people now get jobs. we have nine point two percent. are you saying that the reason why you know nine point two percent unemployment is because we have got to reach the debt ceiling no i'm out we need a short term what happens to joblessness if we do. stop spending and brain s. and impose austerity. in the short term dirt is very painful i am not denying that i am saying take your medicine now if you have to take a very. much larger pill down the road this is economics this is not the maddux this is very very simple if you do the numbers you read over and run or run or if

you do your history of eight hundred years of diesel on the sovereign debt level you know this is going to happen i don't care for anyone to tell me the us is different because the little mathematics and the rules of physics and the rest of economics are universal are right and they are universally painful it sounds like according to your theory i want to thank you for giving it to me i hope you still love me after that enter me oh i'm only kidding but thanks so much for being on the show thank you for. still to come right here corey may his story he spent years in prison after shooting a police officer during a no knock warrant case but he was recently free then tonight we're going to report on the case and look at the practice of no knock warrants will be back in testimony .

seven thirty am in moscow these are your are two you have lines billing and not killing lands you were a security contractor blackwater and core two former employees accuse the company now rebranded as z. of invoicing the state department for more. and a hundred million dollars in phony expenses many are criticizing u.s. authorities for pursuing this case instead of following up accusations that contractor committed atrocities against civilians in iraq and afghanistan. the region intelligence denies claims by the suspect of two deadly terror attacks in

the country last friday that he's part of a wider group a lot of stories in europe are on their guard after his anti immigration message is echoed by extremist groups across the continent anders breivik is accused of killing at least seventy six people at a bomb attack in oslo and a shooting rampage at. the u.k. steps up pressure on libyan leader colonel gadhafi as london exparel has diplomats and invites the rebel council to replace the blood and also giving the rebels access to around one hundred fifty million dollars of previously frozen libyan oil well the move follows friends and the u.s. who have already recognized the rebels as the country's legitimate government. part two of the alone a show coming up stay with us here on r.t. . now we've talked about america's war on drugs in the past but today let's get a different perspective on this battle from the deep south where race is an issue

just under the surface which always seems quick to emerge as a factor when it comes to justice and the law corie may he found himself on the wrong side of the law after a deadly outcome and a no knock raid and after spending almost a decade behind bars wrongfully sentenced to death row he's finally seeing justice and returning home to his family are to scale and forward takes us down to mississippi where it all happened. it's a day corey made his we did nearly a decade. the day you can wrap his arms around his kid. i waited a long time just to hear. we don't have to see joe about her and it was like saying we're going to tell you. the room. that there should be. and it is mother's cookie.