the protesters have gathered in moscow and lashing out against prime minister vladimir putin that's funny i didn't know there were palm trees in russia certainly isn't the first time the mainstream media has been dead wrong and it probably won't be the last so why is it that the people americans turn to for news won't do a little bit of fact checking before going on air. but. really. the. people and apparently the mainstream media isn't the only one telling little white lies these days president obama is pushing for international internet freedom

and yet another case of do as i say not as i do. and speaking of ordering people around police forces across the us have ramped up their raids on the occupy wall street movement suppressing the public's right to assemble one city at a time but with military grade pepper spray and high tech weapons whose interests are they really serving and protecting. it's thursday december eighth four pm in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching artsy. well as parliamentary elections play out in russia it seems the u.s. government leaders and the mainstream media are pushing their own agenda in covering it harsh criticism over the electoral process attacking moscow for failing to conduct fair and free elections here's a look at some of the coverage. prime minister vladimir putin's party barely

hanging on to their majority in the parliament while most polling station is showing to have voting booths with ink that can be raised which votes against the ruling party its alleged. it appears that a lot of people in russia are fed up with not having a choice. but in covering the events it's the mass media that failed to report the facts even showing wrong video all in an effort to shape the story are to correspondent marina pour in takes a look at the media coverage of the elections in russia and sets the facts straight . america has its fair share of protests and political dissent to be dealing with instead of keeping an eye on the ball the country's mass media machine has turned to protests in russia and dropped the ball on reporting the facts. thousands of protesters have gathered in moscow lashing out against prime minister vladimir putin and his really united russia party the only problem is that this video is not

from russia fox news channel aired a video of fires and chaos in athens convincing viewers that this mayhem is playing out in moscow the fair and balanced network paid no mind to the greek lettering in the background in case you're wondering it says greek national bank what matters is that this is what moscow protests have looked like it's not surprising whatsoever that at the moment that there would be any kind of protest no matter how small it be in russia against the russian government that it would be greatly exaggerated in media and used by the u.s. government as well as a way to try to somehow push for a change in russia that would be more favorable to u.s. interests journalist and author eva golinger believes mass media is washington's most valuable weapon in encouraging revolt elsewhere under the mantle of spreading democracy such as the so-called orange revolution in ukraine. or ruse revolution in georgia. perception is created that something is happening in

a country that's not right and that the government is somehow responsible and so therefore if that government ends up being removed it somehow is justified that you know the media has played a key role in creating a justification for regime change similar anti-government demonstrators have been reported and other city in russia u.s. leaders have leveled harsh criticism against russia in the aftermath of sunday's parliamentary election and critics say it's free press has were. to reinforce the narrative the media tends to march in lock step with the government it tends to take its cues from the government it tends to you know mobilize its resources to showcase what the government says is true even when later it turns out not to be true as was the case in this a really is c.n.n. report well in eastern russia more than three thousand people protested against proposed changes to the country's time zones the video shown by c.n.n.

is not of protesters but rather of soccer fans writing in moscow all over the killing of a fellow supporter the problem is that we showed the wrong pictures only after the error was repeatedly noticed c.n.n. owned up to its mistake we do apologize for the era and are grateful to the many russian viewers who've pointed out to us the sloppiness of it or it is reflecting you know the lack of awareness of the journalists themselves many of them are completely uninformed about the world they have opinions that have no factual basis to him but it doesn't stop them because it's what looks good that matters more than what really is true the truth is that america has its own social economic and political challenges to be dealing with and while washington works on getting its own house in order powerful mass media outlets can work on getting their facts straight marina point nine or r.t. new york and it's not just mass media waging

a war against moscow political leaders are condemning the country to take a listen to secretary of state hillary clinton's remarks. concerning russia you know we're watching the election results with great interest clearly the duma is going to have a different makeup than it did before this election. and we do have serious concerns about the conduct of the election but russian prime minister vladimir putin is accusing the u.s. of stirring up the protests he says the u.s. and other countries millions and millions of dollars and to influencing russian alexion is poor and points his finger right back at clinton straightaway the secretary of state assessed the election this is dishonest and unfair even though she hadn't even received the observers material she set the tone for some of our personalities inside the country and gave them a signal our partners shake us from time to time so that we don't forget who this planet so that we know they have methods of pressure and influence on our country

from within you choose to do so when it comes to humanitarian or health issues and that's one thing when foreign money is being invested into internal political affairs that should make us think it's a little much what's especially on acceptable given it's a flow of foreign money into the electoral process and it's absolutely unacceptable so just how our western powers aiming to shape political change and russia asia times correspondent pepe escobar joins us now to talk more about this welcome pepe what do you make first want to ask you what you make of this blatantly wrong reporting of the russian election. look you can not think folks news seriously that's a major mistake but i am merican says by people all across the world this basically is a p.r. operation of the republican party the real a real winged nut faction which is most of them of course c.n.n. basically is a mouse piece of the state department but i don't and as cia they will now have

a reason to sing it was not pre-approved we've instances of american government so don't take these people seriously what we should take seriously it's what's really happening inside russia and then you have to pay attention to russian media to radio novosti to call their sense don't you know that they're all of able on the net you can that even use google translate and see what they're talking russian analysts talking ok there were some irregularities in the election just like barry riddle there it is in many elections in african countries in egypt there were irregularities in european countries in the us in two thousand and florida in the u.s. in two thousand and four in ohio what's more important in my opinion is what's united russia should do to address grievances from parts of the russian population this is the real issue and you know we just heard is calling out western powers for using mass media to encourage revolt elsewhere in this case within his own country and we

see organizations such as freedom house they are tasked with what they call spreading democracy now i want to ask you what if we were to turn the tables and russia or china were to pump money and time and effort into influencing the elections here look everybody knows that and he d. freedom house all these american n.g.o.s they influence elect date they influence most of the colorful revolutions in central asia in effect the americas are now trying to promote the idea that gene sharp effect. and to that here square the egyptian revolution this is in it's a self reflection and it's a mix of ignore and send an arrogance that has been unmasked all over the world like you know given example all over south america people don't trust anything they know that the americans that tried

a military coup in is on its doesn't do that they tried a military coup in believe in two thousand and five that they tried the military coping ecuador last year that they in fact. conducted and were successful with the military coping the enduros so all across south american latin america people have seen through it and of course they have been used to the american tactics since the sixty's when the us supported all those military dictatorships in the specially in south america including chile which was the original nine eleven and nobody talks about that in the us anymore and that you know while the media and the government government leaders alike. they're praising the protestors and russia for demonstrating against the government and exercising their freedom of speech but we have protests happening right here in the u.s. you know we've seen is violent crackdowns of the protests occupy wall street protests and the police trying to silence them in the media their response in many

cases has been to be a little the protesters so why do we say that the that is praise of protest abroad but when they're happening here they're condemning. it so it's a double standard look. i would say the response in moscow and st petersburg especially it's reducible was heavy handed i'm not sure united russia knew how to react effect they should give a platform for those who are there express themselves include a day internet but in us your queue by movement has been militarily criminalized in effect if you if you will watch fox news i have to for professional reasons the fact most of those wackos they are old fox news all the time they say that your cue buyers are terrorists plain and simple like you know in russia look of course it was a heavy handed repression i would suggest in either russia to be born measure effect but you know even in europe yochi by movement in european speak there also

being more or less criminalized as well effect all across the world. but one point that i would like to make which i think is very important this is just a detail in a much bigger picture the much bigger picture it's the reset between us and russia is over like you know as we speak they are in brussels discuss the missile defense the american ambassador to nato evil daalder said we're going to build it whatever the russians think about it and dimitri rubs off the russian ambassador nato said ok if they proceed like this we're going to have a we're going to establish our response which is deploy radar stations and missile missile defense russian way in cleaning right for instance near the borders of poland to lead to a new so the reset is over plus the americas that it raises absolutely she me because russia and china vetoed a u.n. security resolution against syria and the fact that russia has

a naval base with also docking rights for your own your ships and they used to make it their own at the port of tartus in syria when you put this all together explains steve reaction especially from juba to stress especially from hillary clinton hillary don't forget hillary clinton last months the money fast forward to this century an american century as a pacific century and when obama went to southeast asia goes straight in southeast asia and his latest trip here now is the fact that the u.s. is going to basically they owned a spot china but also russia and central asia is the same say so the russians as these days you know what they're going to do they got cut off the supply of nato u.s. troops in afghanistan by closing the north and distribution network and the americans depend on does that work which is also rise by russia to supply their war in afghanistan because they back east enders they had enough with the americans as

well and that he was of course the drone war in pakistan certainly a lot. going on here i want to get back to the elections in russia. and secretary of state hillary clinton in such a public outlash coming from her and regard to the elections you have to be curious as to why she's making such a public debacle over this do you think this is the obama administration putting on a tough face for the next election cycle possibly i mean today alone president obama said he killed twenty two terrace he said he killed and he's telling his critics to ask osama bin ladin if he engages in appeasement definitely playing that up so what's going on with this tough act. look do you have to like it because of some of the reasons that we all learned a few minutes earlier district. don't forget that one of the key top picks for in terms of foreign policy in the republican campaign in two

thousand and twelve is going to be how soft obama is in terms of our strategic competitor russia and china so russia bashing already started china bashing has been going on for the past few months in fact and iran bashi is not even bashing in fact there's a shadow war against iran going on for at least one year now and this is all interlinked because iran russia and china they have to close commercial ties no single be done i guess to run that little drill volk very very harsh response from those russia and china and the american establishment the pentagon generals they know that so they resort to you know fox news stuff hillary clinton saying that you know protest is the most corrupt fighting a dictatorship but this is just the details the stakes are much much bigger than that and. i want to bring your attention to something else and ask you if you think

this is another case of a double standard. and leaders both secretary of state hillary clinton and obama they are now urging governments abroad to embrace internet freedom let's take a listen to what president obama has to say about this the more freely information flows the stronger the society becomes because then citizens of countries around the world. their own governments accountable. now sounds like a good thing advocating this internet freedom but at the same time the u.s. is making moves to tighten internet security here at home the u.s. now trying to make it much easier to wiretap criminal and terrorist suspects. via the internet their facebook twitter all these things making it easier to access

these things so i mean how can the u.s. pro internet freedom and other countries yet restrict those same freedoms here at home at the same time absolutely and you know another example. remember when visa and market in mastercard they curtail all language nations to leaky leaks i spoke to weekend leaks a spokesman last month and he said look this was devastating for us and even was of clear case of internet violation as well you can buy poorer in the next anywhere in the world especially the united states the largest market but you can make a donation for an organism daddies. basically say what's going on any terms of hidden games in diplomacy jill politics so it is it is always a double standard that the internet is going to be criminalized sooner or later even inside the united states as well do you know what this also american countries

that got together a few days ago with the central americans as well you know what they're going to do they're going to build their old internet and may have to work in south america because most of the communications is so so america goes through b u y s eighty percent of them so they are subjected to u.s. censorship and interference as well so this also america's got together and they going to have this i would say three or four years let's be realistic they're only internet system that is not depending on cables that go to florida or to california and patty thank you so much pleasure as always that was asia times correspondent pepe escobar. now we're going to take a look at the law enforcement in the u.s. and how their role may be changing and their power expanding we've shown you image after image of police using pepper spray on seemingly peaceful protesters south pepper spray has seems to have become the weapon of choice but that's just the

beginning of a police have in their arsenal these days thanks to a program out of the pentagon one that not very many people know about local police are getting their hands on weapons and equipment from the military the two thousand and eleven aparna defense forked over five hundred million dollars worth of military machinery to local police departments so is the government gearing up for main street to rise up from our new york studio writing fellow for the national institute max blumenthal joins us now welcome max so pepper spray as we've seen is is the weapon of choice for police these days based on the video coming out of these occupy wall street protests and what else is law enforcement getting their hands on these days. well first of all i'm from the nation institute to say that from my funders but speaking of police funding police have as you said just this year in two thousand and eleven received half a billion dollars in surplus military weaponry from the pentagon which is

authorized through the pentagon's ten thirty three program during the late seventy's congress passed legislation called posse comitatus barring the military from operating on american soil and in the early eighty's there was an effort to circumvent that in congress by arming police with military grade weaponry and now we're seeing that play out in the streets people in the inner city in the u.s. have been experiencing this since the eighty's and now middle class americans in the occupy movement are facing not only pepper spray but things like the el rad sound cannon the long range acoustic device which can blast your cranium with one hundred forty decibels shaking your skull so hard even earplugs won't stop it and as i reported for bar english this weapon has been tested on palestinians in the occupied west bank by the israeli army so civilians in the us are now up against basically military style policing so as you sound like you are calling

that a military as ation of the police force why is it happening and what is behind it. well it's been happening since the war on drugs and what's behind it is a mentality among our police forces or local police that views common civilians protesters and common criminals or as common criminals and as i reported for allah akbar english in my piece the israel if occasion of american domestic security the former head of the israeli shin bet intelligence services avi dichter who is accused of war crimes against the palestinians. spoke beside f.b.i. director robert mueller at a police convention at a convention before eleven thousand top law enforcement officers and after mueller called victor his mentor in counterterrorism dichter urged american police to see the the to view their opponents those they seek to arrest as crim

a terrorist in other words to blur the line between common criminals and terrorists so what we're seeing is not only a legal blurring of the lines between criminals terrorists and protesters but something in the mindset of american policing and in their training in which the civilian population is viewed as a hostile and menacing force that can be acted against with military grade weaponry above why are we seeing this attempt to crack down on everyday civilians why is this over why are we think it's overwhelming police response to peaceful protesters almost i mean you're calling it like this military action it's almost as if we're in a war zone and they're responding to terrorist threats why treat civilians like they are terrorists. there is definitely a fear among. michael bloomberg the mayor of new york has said that he feared that the occupy movement would gain too much of

a foothold and would continue to expand and i was there at the raid on zuccotti park in downtown new york and what i saw from the n.y.p.d. reminded me of demolitions i witnessed by the israeli army and the israeli border police inside israel and in the occupied west bank and as i reported there has been since nine eleven since the war on drugs transferred into the war on terror nine thousand american police officers have been trained by israeli security and intelligence officials hundreds of top law enforcement officers have gone to israel to train and what they're learning there is counter terror training by a country that is spent sixty three years dispossessing in controlling an indigenous population now they're bringing that back into the streets in the united states against the civilian population so you see you're seeing a process since the war on terror of israel if occasion and this is extremely dangerous in terms of what it means for the relationship between civilians and

their protection under stablished civil liberty codes now max who benefits from from this no military as a nation of the police for a sino occupy wall street and they would say not the ninety nine percent. certainly not the ninety nine percent certainly not the police because police have to do community work and what we've seen is a counterterror creep in our local police forces through a program called for the joint terrorism task force where the f.b.i. and even the cia are able to come in and dictate to local police forces what how they can treat monitor and spy on local populations the n.y.p.d. as i reported and as the associated press reported has set up what it calls a demographics unit this is following police commissioner ray kelly s several trips to israel where they monitor they've monitored virtually all areas of muslim life in the united states so clearly they've gone beyond protecting civilians it's

not it's not clear exactly who they're guarding what with respect to the occupy wall street if you go down there and if you went down there when the encampment was intact at zuccotti park they were protecting the financial institutions that wall street but at the same time there's there's simply there's simply an effort by federal law enforcement to take the reins of local law enforcement to corrupt local law enforcement destroy the relationship between civilians and the police and to treat civilians as criminals if not terrorists or as avi dichter f.b.i. director robert mueller his so-called mentor said terrorists i want to ask you because in some ways and it doesn't really make sense we point out on our team before that these police officers that are part of the ninety nine percent so it's why are they engage in these hostility is against their neighbors their friends their in their community. you know that that goes to the mentality of just

following orders. i've seen chants during occupy wall street demonstrations at the police asking them to to join the protesters and that's simply impossible and disregards the position that police are put in there basically working people so what this what this really goes to and what i'm trying to show through my reporting is the mentality of federal law enforcement leaders like f.b.i. director robert mueller and ray kelly who has bragged that he has a weapon that can shoot down a combat shit. of militarizing their police forces and putting police officers who are working people who are members of local communities in impossible positions where they have to treat their neighbors as criminals and terrorists or crim a terrorist and this ng and this demographics unit that i mentioned that the n.y.p.d. has set up and by the way the n.y.p.d. refuses to disclose the cia refuses to disclose the name of the former cia middle

east asian chief who is in the senior ranks of the demographics unit this is the level of coordination they depend on muslims in muslim communities to spy on americans and pakistani americans thank you so much we are out of time unfortunately but thank you so much for weighing in that was writing fellow for the nation and said to enact blumenthal well capital account is on next on our team let's check in with lauren lester to see what's on the agenda today lauren a lens we have a very exciting show because i don't know if you saw this spectacle that was john corazon on the hill today or maybe not the spectacle he didn't plead the fifth and he may as well have he kept saying that he didn't have the records to really answer a lot of the questions about how one point two billion dollars of his customers money could possibly be missing from when he was head of the firm this is a guy who was a governor this is a guy who was the c.e.o. of goldman sachs and he may have stolen. asked him or money we're going to get to the bottom of this about his case about war broadly if we're going to see anybody

on wall street pay with a regulator who oversaw more than ten thousand criminal referrals during the savings and loan crisis so you will know that it still is thank you lauren that is coming up in just moments that's going to do it for the news for more of the stories we covered go to r.t. dot com slash usa we're going to see you right back here at five o'clock.

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