thank. you. down but not defeated the occupy wall street movement continues to gain even more momentum today but the louder they scream the more they seem to be dismissed by some so as corporate media calls the protest madness blood jank you go to get to the reality the mainstream media is missing. and as protesters rally against wasteful government spending where has all the money gone we had overseas first of answers as the us marks ten years in afghanistan plus this new number

do you believe. in jesus. right. but as soldiers search for their home away from home is the u.s. getting too comfortable in a country it promised to leave perhaps as it goes for a multimillion dollar expansion at bob graham air base. good afternoon it's friday october seventh it's four pm here in washington d.c. i'm lauren lyster and you're watching r.t. well occupy wall street is still going on still going strong in new york city friday of the third week that we've seen protesters ranging from hundreds camping out to thousands on the streets speaking out against inequality and over grievances

towards the financial system and of course wall street now this movement continues to grow we've seen demonstrations in cities including st louis dallas san francisco los angeles and philadelphia you're sanam behind me in boston to all over we've seen a sympathetic movement protesting in washington d.c. . this week as well and our viewers have been sending us stuff chad settle meyer i hope i pronounced his name right but we do appreciate him even i slaughtered it he sent us these photos of occupy portland you can see right there you have the g.o.p. has a coke addiction i guess talking about the koch brothers what else did he see out there i know we have some other shots. obviously some criticism of the rich right there and more criticism towards the right so this is the sentiment we're seeing from wall street to portland oregon obviously east to west coast all over we appreciate him for sending us those pictures on the ground and we definitely want

you to send us your stuff if you have videos or pictures you can post on our facebook page it facebook dot com slash r t america you could also tweet us at r t underscore america and also you can reply with videos as a you to comment on any of our youtube videos and we'll check out your stuff and hopefully get some of that on air on our web site so all of this is still going on and protesters are still in lower manhattan and the corporate media today is not paying too much attention i mean maybe they've shown some shots here or there but in passing not focusing on it a lot of other stories are getting a lot more attention isn't getting top billing so our t.v. interview hip hop artist told equally about occupy wall street to see what he had to say about the media. our job in the media and people will persist for you know media experts were unhappy because i was with this about the pharmacist in the story why was that why would these you know why would he do this gotta be

a reason there's got to be a reason and earlier i asked thank you grr of the young turks what it may be i asked his opinion because he's been critical of mainstream media coverage of occupy wall street i ask it asked if he thinks that the corporate media could or would ever be able to cover this in what we call properly with the comprehensive resources time and attention a story like this deserves. well there's two different aspects to that one is whether they want to cover it properly and of course fox news and i want to do that at all when the tea party you know gets up in colonial outfits and goes and you know and sometimes you remember people were showing up with guns outside president obama speeches fox news extatic about that but when somebody actually protests the banks they despise it because their job is to protect the rich so of course fox news is what do the rest of the corporate media is just you know part of this album anonymously and so they view any threat from the soundless room which is certainly

occupy wall street's a real threat they leave you with some degree of the state first they didn't want to cover and then they covered it with disdain so i'm not sure they want to know if they wanted to do they have the resources for it well that's a good question they have a lot of resources but do they directed towards a lot of. you know investigative reporting or any kind of reporting usually not i mean what's the last story that c.n.n. broke right well i don't remember it well i don't know but i even to the point it would be so simple for them right i mean when you look at the emmy awards last year for example for news a lot of them like that miracle on the hudson story which was that emergency landing on the plane on the hudson river it was right in the backyard of all the networks they all rushed out to cover it occupy wall street obviously is to it's going on continuously as lots of interesting characters so when do we see this sit down with katie couric or the organizers on the today show. well i know that adam

soon i don't know why the today show wouldn't look at unless they had issues with a you know what this makes people in powerful places uncomfortable now and this should be within their wheel house we're not asking them to do a lot i mean think about it the news coverage goes to events we're all you know do show with a camera because c.n.n. has basically become a camera news network right then i can actually do any investigative reporting again that might upset people what they do is they show up with cameras ok great we were god why was throughout our trial a chicago and cetera what can you do the very least which is show up with cameras right i mean there are so many opportunities in a huge show with cameras to be fair it's just i think a comprehensive nature of the coverage which is kind of what you're talking about in the way that it covered the distain but nonetheless it continues and many people have come out in support you've come out in support said that the protesters are awesome i think are your words and people like reverend jesse jackson today is saying this is the cause of our time but then there's

a question of turning protests and actual power what do you think these protests can actually accomplish. look i think the number one goal wallace is to make sure that we get the influence of book corporate money out of politics because you know fox is a setter are doing their damnedest to try to smear all these people by saying that they're just generally against all business or against capitalism or against america which is absurd they're trying to regain our democracy here but all that we're saying is that we need to get that corporate money out of politics so they don't hire politicians so that we can get our democracy back doesn't mean that you should shut down the banks it just means you should let the banks buy the senators i think it's a very simple request and i think that's what all this should be eventually driving to and you do see that being one of the main rallying cries of these protesters at the same time you see other groups joining in you have unions that have joined the protests and joined in support of the transit workers union as the are you new york

city workers union opera part of the teamsters and of course when unions turn out they bring their numbers and that can be good do you think that this is really what this movement needs to gain steam. well i think the more allies you bring to it the better and i think the reason that the union was actually fairly quick to join and a lot of other groups are excited by this is because finally someone is taking the fight and taking real action. to wall street i mean the tea party came out and so they were against the bailouts and they never did a damn thing about it if they were you know earnest and honest with what their stated goals were i actually think the tea party movement could have been great and i don't mind conservatives coming at this issue from the right i welcome it i think would be fantastic but they mediately got mr right could so when someone finally goes to take on wall street and say stop corrupting our politics and stop getting all the advantages because you bought all the politicians well then that's why people get excited that's what the unions go hey yeah that's what we were saying

we're on board as well as progressive groups go hey that's what we were saying and that's why they're on board we're just waiting for the conservative side because they should be on board with those two well at the same time and you were just talking about the tea party and you've said that they've been co-opted by large republican donors that maybe that's why you don't hear about wall street from that anymore about bailouts any more with progressives really latching on to occupy wall street and with unions joining on do you worry that occupy wall street will be co-opted by democrats and a thousand that unions as democrats criticize and argue. you're right i'm not worried too much about the unions because the unions are you know so crushed by corporate power at this point i mean they're just looking for allies i don't think they're i mean even if they look to cooperate i don't think that they'd be able to pull that off the democrats are more concerned about because they're going to come in with their feet populism as they always do when the president is you know started to shift to the left now that the election is rolling around when he had

you know three years to govern he you know was incredibly dismissive and disdainful of the left but now that he needs votes all of a sudden he's a big populist you know so i'm worried about governor kratz coming to coopt this thing why if he actually meant what they said i would love it but oftentimes they talk the talk but they never walk the walk so of all they do is oh yeah give me your give me your board so that i'm going to sit on my ass and do nothing then that would be horrible and i hope that doesn't happen then from what i understand from a lot of reporters that i've been covering this is that this group is really diverse it's not just progressive they're just lucky i mean it's anti-establishment it's people that are disillusioned by republicans and democrats and the political system it is progressive that socialist it's ron paul supporters that some republicans so where do you channel that because you're saying not democrats and you know i don't think that this group is saying that republicans are the answer either. yeah no no look my estimation is that ninety nine percent of republican party is bought and at least eighty percent of the democratic party's bought so i'm

certainly not going to go the republican side as worse but it's not like the democratic side is the answer no no we need to take it to a state level we'd take it to the local level and in demand that all those different states get on board in my opinion for a cost to show amendment to say that that is it corporations are not human beings they do not have speech rights they cannot buy our politicians if we can all unite around that idea which i think is both a conservative and liberal and libertarian idea that's the one thing we should all agree on stop cronyism capitalism right where they create these monopolies etc if we can rally around that we could actually get an amendment passed that a lot of these problems start to get solved so i hope that the right the center everyone joins this movement and that we can do it together so what are you exactly sido of being at how that happened what kind of an amendment you say every individual station pass when our eye has acted as a work. well the logistics of it is certainly not easy right

everybody thinks it's impossible and i'm positive that it is not impossible i think it's entirely possible if we directed energy in the right direction so one way that it could happen is that the different states would call for a constitutional convention but it's a way of getting around congress because congress is so gawd if you ask them for an amendment that would take away some of their power the latitude of the law is an exxon mobil tells me that's not a good idea and they sign my paychecks so the only way around congress is calling for a constitutional convention which then calls for the amendment and then which then gets ratified by the states so that's purely at the state level so we can avoid the portal and other corruption in washington d.c. it's that old saying all politics is local it sounds like you think everything needs can move back to that i think time i want to talk a little bit more about what critics are saying because we've heard a lot of them come out on the right people like herman cain people like bill o'reilly on fox news saying that these protesters if they don't have jobs they can

just blame themselves because if you try to get a job in this country you know you can if you want to get rich you can but then today new jobs numbers came out the jobless rate is the same it's nine point one percent per september and the broader you think which i think is more interesting because this is the broader measure of unemployment which has people who have stopped looking for work or can't find full time job but want this process sixteen point five percent the highest rate this year that we've seen it all how can people make this argument that people who want jobs can all get them. well first of all incredibly callous i mean as i saw the bill o'reilly segment i thought why doesn't he just take like crumpets of throat of the people. here out of. what if you just want to be rich to go people come and hand you money yet bill if you suck up to exxon mobil and goldman sachs etc there's a lot of money in it for you right but if you don't do that on television it's hard

to earn a living and so here's a perfect way of thinking about it so unemployment used to be around four or five percent then he shot up to nine to ten percent so about a five percent difference right so and that was started in the two thousand and eight crash now do we think in this bill reilly thing that i think percent of the population all the sudden got really lazy is not an economic crash they're like oh you know what well let's all take a load off and just sit on the couch you know they lost their jobs because of the crash that your buddies on wall street started right and they're desperate lucrative jobs we know because there are facts behind it for every one job opening there is four point three applicants that is there or all applying and there's not enough jobs and that's because of the pocket of the banks because that fox news is so desperately trying to cover up for them all i thinking of fox news i we do have a special occasion for the network it is their fifteenth anniversary and they put together some videos document what they call quote the evolution and celebrating

many many more years of bringing fair and balanced news coverage you know i guess the viewers do you have a birthday wish for fox news jank. oh yes i'm not a business. but now look to be to be fair they have done an amazing job in getting viewers you got a good call like it is and that's definitely the case and they've got a strong ratings and they've got strong revenue and i think ailes is as much as i can agree with them almost on any issue and as much as i think he's a propagandist he is a very good propagandist and and he's done an amazing. why would that not work but you know if the all you have to do in my opinion is. that they're not actually doing it because of fox opinion i would even have any problem with it should or should be a conservative point of view on television saying the wrong with that just label would have some truth in advertising about it so there you go have a birthday fox that was jank euchre of the young turks now still ahead right here on r t occupy a country for over a decade and half

a trillion dollars an occupation that achieved arguably very little in the process pak so as the afghanistan war reaches its tenth anniversary are we any closer to an . airbase had anything to do with it the answer may be no we have the story now. that's. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions conclude. that it made who can you trust no one who is you with the

global machinery to see where are we heading state controlled capitalism is called nationals when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more. well it is the tenth anniversary of the u.s. invasion of afghanistan otherwise known as operation enduring freedom and president obama promised to bring home the surge that he sent back this summer but the combat mission started a decade ago has seemingly turned into an open ended campaign and the u.s. is expanding its largest base and afghanistan bhangra right now building among other things up to one hundred million dollar prison they began soliciting bids for that last month but correspondent jason not like has the whole story from afghanistan and what's going on a bog room. if united states is drawing its troops from afghanistan why is its

largest base getting bigger u.s. led forces over at the telepathically two thousand one plug in their fields little more than a flight to correct runway since then a former soviet base in the plains north of the afghan capital has grown into a small city but still do over twenty five thousand full time personal fleets of military hardware for the theaters to cause traffic jams and the expansion is no way aided by scores of contractors u.s. military engineers are constructing new housing and storage facilities to make room for even more bit of work after sending an extra thirty thousand troops to afghanistan last year president obama started bringing them home this summer but with afghan forces struggling to stand alone slightly less will leave in plant and bases like this one are going to shrink anytime soon. at least there are plenty of home comforts for soldiers staying on for tough in the long deployments we can shop for everything from flat screen t.v.'s to fine jewelry enjoy

a cappuccino to grab some take at the new pizza hut for insurance industry tired of working on a gym they're free to go to the salon for a haircut and such although some officials have tried to limit such manatees calling them a distraction from the more troops are happy to have and these are extremely serious always leave you feel this way and have a case that the right. local afghan merchants are also glad to have you extra business both inside and outside the wire without agreement a soldier's night business would be nothing we like having them here but not everyone agrees deadly taliban rocket attacks are on the rise and as the base becomes more and more crowded and threat to those living inside multiplies no matter how high it smells because everyone it's a close call when you this can just get this much equipment personnel it's all in the one tight spot get close it's going to destroy something or someone easy as it

may be to forget the times this is still a war zone jason locklear in part for our team. now in addition one in three u.s. veterans of the post nine eleven military believes the wars in iraq and afghanistan were not worth fighting and a majority think after ten years of combat america should be focusing less on foreign affairs and war on its own problems those are both according to a survey by pew research center and here in studio to talk about why all of this is iraq a bet michael prysner thanks for being here we usually see you in l.a. nice to have you in d.c. but here are occupying the capitol with many other racket afghanistan war veterans and of thousands of people from all over the country actually will sense that's why you're here and since that's what's going on this week in d.c. and it is the tenth anniversary of the war in afghanistan with arguably no end in sight do you think that this kind of protest will be heard by top brass and by the president but i think it will i think they're very much hearing us especially the

occupation going on at wall street and they're hearing us here and you know not only is this something that you know will have an effect on ending the war but really it's the only thing that will bring an end to the war i mean washington has signaled quite clearly and we've learned from the experience of your president obama being elected in two thousand and eight if washington is left to its own devices it will continue the occupations in iraq and afghanistan and just merely has said this very plainly robert gates general petraeus had said that we're in this fight for the rest of our lives the rest of our children's lives which is quite a long time and it's only through mass action of the people at the grassroots that can force this government to do what is in the interest of the people and that's an immediate end to both of these wars what makes you think that that will be successful because we've seen protests we've also seen public opinion be a very high numbers against a war but you don't really see any change and pace it doesn't seem right absolutely know that two thirds of the american public are opposed to the war in afghanistan and the statistics also show that majority in the military no longer want to fight

and die in afghanistan and in iraq but history tells us that you know the only progressive change the only time changes made in the. interests of that ninety nine percent in the interests of working families and of soldiers and others has been through a struggle i mean we've seen from the worker's rights movements of the civil rights movement to the end to the vietnam war it's always pressure from below making it impossible for the politicians to continue business as usual when there's any actual change made me ask a question because you've obviously experienced in iraq that a lot of people in this country haven't you know we don't have a draft and a lot of the costs of this war haven't been felt by average americans do you think it's possible for there to be that kind of movement that would affect washington when so few actual lives in the u.s. have been affected by u.s. policies of progress or is right well i would say that every one's life every person who works for a living every person is trying to have a fair are supportive family or go to the doctor and not go bankrupt because of it

or want to and i could if they could from their home they're all affected by this war because whether or not you're one who experiences firsthand or has family members that go these wars you know in iraq and afghanistan alone the cost is over eight hundred million dollars a day of taxpayer dollars and that's a vast squandering of resources at a time when we are in the deepest recession since the great depression or worse than the worst recession ever in u.s. history and so i think while there is growing discontent over the economy a middle people more and more realizing that you know we need money for things that people actually need and deserve like money for jobs and education and health care and a home while so much that being squandered on the war is i think that's a connection that's very easy for people to make especially since you know the majority oppose the wars already they're seeing as the their conditions of living are going down as there's continuing unemployment and joblessness or social services continue to be slashed tuition continues to go up all the while all of this money that could be spent on things that actually meet our needs are being

squandered on wars that are completely and popular i think that is a connection that you are seeing be made more you can you see not in the rises of course her rump. all he's made that connection very publicly as part of his campaign and it seems to have resonated with a growing audience that he's gotten that certainly a large part of it and i'm curious that's better in this number that one in three of post nine eleven military members think that the wars in iraq and afghanistan were not worth fighting and fighting what do you think accounts for that well you know we even see the politicians kind of stumble over themselves explaining why we have to continue to fight in iraq why we have to continue to fight in afghanistan i'm just really because the wars are based on lies and they really if they were to say plainly these are wars for empire these are words for resources these are all words for you know wall street's domination over the region and for u.s. military expansion you know people would not want to fight them and so they have to mask it with these lies and deceptions and so i would say the vast majority of people in the military today those fighting in iraq and afghanistan wouldn't be able to explain you know the reason that we have to do it and then of course you

know the conditions getting out or when you come home you know this epidemic of suicides that we're seeing in the military where more active duty soldiers are killing themselves than are being killed in combat soldiers who get out of the military come home to a thirty percent unemployment rate firaaq and afghanistan vets that's more than double the national average and more than eleven thousand iraq and afghanistan vets are homeless are sleeping on the streets and there's a dropout rate from college of nearly seventy percent for reckon afghanistan veterans and i thought i think that the reality that soldiers are living with these constant repeated deployments to wars that are unpopular wars that they can explain and then coming home to really dismal conditions really shows them that you know the u.s. government cares absolutely nothing about their lives is reckless in throwing them away and cares nothing about caring for these soldiers when they get home and so i would say that there is a growing movement of iraq and afghanistan veterans of active duty soldiers who are realizing very clearly that they have no reason to fight these wars and my

experience of seeing something increasingly happen where soldiers are actually resisting and refusing to fight what about the flip side though. military pensions are pretty good it's one of the best pensions for public workers and these are tough economic times more people and arguably realistic to this day the military do have a job and to have those kind of benefits isn't that argument that you made that it's actually better and if the economy you know many stay in the military because the prospects for jobs are so dismal when they get out the philippine have no other option but to stay and even pensions for u.s. soldiers are under attack right now they're considering changing their pensions to a four zero one k. and so those benefits are under attack as well and even those who retire you can serve twenty years in the u.s. military you can you can go through the range to become a sergeant first class or a sas aren't retired and your pension is so small that you still have to get another job when you get out of the military and so i would say and not only that but what you endure while you are in the military the fact that the reality now for

soldiers is not one deployment not two deployments not even three but multiple combat tours that really if you get out of them alive if you've got of them without being horribly maimed or losing limbs there is a severe psychological trauma that's attached to that but makes you incapable of really living a normal life afterwards and that's why we're seeing such a crisis in mental health in such a massive epidemic of suicides it because how you come back from these tours you know with the complete lack of care when you get back and so on those who try to argue that there's some economic benefit to serving in the military all you have to do is look at the suicide numbers and see what really happens to your life when you serve how is it been for you. i'm doing. and i think that you know what i you know tell people. you know like i was were angry about the war was angry about what we were a part of you know feeling that we were lied to and betrayed by the u.s. government and were were simply used as pawns in this imperial chess game are used

as a muscle for banks and corporations but many come back with you know having a hard time do. doing with what we had been a part of and i would say that the the best remedy for that is is fighting against the government that sends us there and made it a part of of what we are a part of and it quickly because you said that you got duped and felt like you were there under false pretenses obviously that was iraq which widely people share that sentiment do your friends that have served in afghanistan feel the same way about afghanistan and i just need a real short answer because i'm i'm you know it's very obvious that as they say we're fighting to defend ourselves against terrorist attacks the united states i mean it's absolutely because most people have never even heard of the nine eleven attacks people understand they're fighting just ordinary afghans but just want to expel a foreign occupier which is something that we would do if the same thing happened in our country the point we're going to leave it at that thank you for coming on the show that was michael prysner he's an iraq war vet and he's here to come back

in thirty minutes we will continue to discuss the u.s. occupation in afghanistan all new what resource will run out first the seemingly endless money supply or the public's patience our two lives while will bring us that report she's been out covering a protest right here in d.c. plus we'll also speak with the outspoken lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer he wrote a book got a lot to say also coming up from coast to coast the occupy wall street movement is gaining momentum and gaining ground and while the corporate media mocks protesters and questions their motives are tea is giving them a platform to make their intentions known we are there in the big apple and we'll show you how the movement is getting organized despite what critics and the mainstream media may day and is getting their message out we will have all those stories new in just thirty minutes of come back right here at five pm but that is going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered go to archie dot com slash usa check out our you tube page at youtube dot com.