this is. the occupy wall street movement is rocking the boat this time trying to shut down ports up and down the west coast with one simple message for the us government shape up or ship them. they want people to be able to have freedom of speech but they don't want the freedom to interfere with them in any way and it looks like the freedom of assembly might not be so free here in the us thanks to over excessive police force so as raid after raid continues to happen at occupy protest r t asked whose interests are police really protecting and serving. and

while police forces play dirty president obama is trying to play nice with the iraqi prime minister al maliki today trying to coerce him away from the so-called dark side another country on america's long list of enemies iran but that could be easier said than done so eight years and billions of dollars later what did the u.s. actually achieve in the iraq war. good evening it's monday december twelfth eight pm here in washington d.c. i'm christine you're watching our team. well take a look at some new developments in the occupy wall street movement now over the last few days two camps in major metropolitan cities were shut down cleared out by police you see here these are police in boston very early saturday morning taking apart the occupy camp there protesters have been there about two and a half months and in this particular incident nearly fifty people were arrested it

was a similar scene in san francisco late last week although there seventy people were arrested witnesses say police in riot gear came to the camp gave protesters five minutes to clear the area then cleared rest of the camps there themselves police then apparently tore down the more than one hundred tents and threw the rest of protesters belongings into a garbage truck all right so clearly a ramped up effort by police and other authorities around the country to put a stop to the occupation aspect of this movement but those who are part of who are part of it say you know no worries they've got some other things in the works. like this morning a new york city protester stood outside goldman sachs headquarters you might see the person walking here with a giant squid and that's in reference to rolling stone journalist matt description of goldman sachs as a quote great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity with the sleeve jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money and quote but we really want to focus on what you're seeing here pictures of protesters from now on

the west coast part of a major chord unaided effort to cripple business in an industry many call wall street on the waterfront and the goal is to shut down ports from san diego to alaska here's a map of all the ports that occupy wall street protesters gathered at today the port of anchorage los angeles longview the port of maui port wine niemi the port of oakland portland san diego seattle tacoma and last but not least the port of vancouver and this was a major effort and we want to talk about what it means and how effective it's been so just a little bit earlier i spoke to our own ramona lindo in los angeles our team producer lucy caffein aman d.c. and the west coast occupy coordination committee member kristen snelling now with many blue collar workers being affected by today's port shutdown even sent home some of them as a conch as a consequence i gave kristen a chance to explain the reasons behind the cordon effort to those who might not understand its purpose take

a listen and today we decided to shut down for terminals one of which is the s.s.a. terminal which is owned by goldman sachs. and. we decided to stretch this call across the entire west coast in an effort to. really put. you know wall street on the waterfront is kind of our our tagline that we're using address the issues of. repression of labor and also in addition to that. the ichi struck longshoremen issues in long view washington against each he. is the most one of the most powerful unions in the country and each he is effectively trying to break apart that union and. if

they fall then all other organized labor throughout the country it will just be a domino effect so you see this more as a bigger picture of unions really needing to make sure the employees are treated well making sure these unions stay together and you're doing so at a place where the unions have been around for one hundred years it sounds like ramon i know you are in l.a. you were up early this morning did you see and did the people there you ran into did they see this as a success for failure. well the people that we spoke to definitely saw this as a success now this morning hundreds of people showed up here in long beach there's been hundreds of protesters in oakland in washington state and although they didn't have massive numbers like the port shutdown that we saw in oakland last month people saw this as a great success even though the shutdown of certain terminals was only temporary

you know this was a very big symbolic victory in their eyes now we saw a huge police presence which was brought in order to keep the protesters at bay and the protesters did. go out and accomplish what they said they were going to do which was to protest these terminals which are partially owned by goldman sachs so . you know even though we didn't see the huge numbers i was definitely surprised to see as large of a crowd as we saw today especially because it was so early in the day it was a poor weather day and from what we saw and from the people who we spoke to they were very encouraged about the turnout and the message that they keep sending to who they consider to be the one percent a really interesting i we showed just a little bit earlier the video from new york also sort of gathering around a different part of goldman sachs their headquarters in new york but to see this to

see so many people gathered along the west coast along the water it really is interesting and listen i want to talk to you about this because this is kind of a different chapter new chapter of this movement no longer camping out in parks across the country a lot of these encampments have been dismantled talk a little bit about what you're seeing here and sort of the broader scale but i think it's really significant i mean sure port shutdowns aren't a new thing for the west coast or for the oakland area in particular but i think it's been a critical development for the occupy wall street movement because they're starting to see out of necessity because they indeed they were rated upon they're starting to see. that they can have an impact they have built an infrastructure of supporters you know organizers people who come out when they issue a call to action and so that sort of gives them a sense of their strength their ability to effect the national debate effect dialogue and actually hit the so-called one percent where it actually hurts about this and i was asking christine about this earlier about what about this notion that people are complaining that you know this is

a place where blue collar workers work you know gathering around the headquarters of goldman sachs in new york people who get that gathering and making so people that earn just very modest wages are sent home what do you think is the occupy message i think that's a valid concern but the same time for example the shutdown in oakland they send the union workers back and they have to pay so it's not some of them you know i think that's an argument that you sort of see more from wall street critics and it's not like it's a sustained shutdown for several months i mean it's one day and sort of gets the conversation going but it's also reflective of the much more radical nature of the occupations in the west coast whereas in new york they are a little bit sort of more intellectual and talk about these big issues in oakland they are and there is i'm sure they are not not ashamed to say that they want to bring down the system of capitalism and that divide sort of the sort of more radical side of occupy wall street and people who sort of want to work more within the system is one that the movement is going to have to grapple with and resolve

somehow before the spring and kristen you were mentioning earlier a little bit about the unions and about some of the things that the occupy demonstrators want to bring to light i guess i want to get your take i don't know how much you know about the international longshore and warehouse union i know that they wanted the support that you guys one of the support of them and it didn't happen talk a little bit about this relationship and what you're still hoping to achieve regarding unions we even without their full support. well in regard to support we do have overwhelming support from the rank and file workers what has been released to the media has been a lack of support from the international leadership and the international leadership has stakeholder and. the companies that these one can file workers are working for you know they have contracts that they have to . respect so their official nonsupport is

not necessarily indicative of nonsupport from brinkley file workers rank and file workers were not given a chance to vote on whether or not they said more to the action individual. local union i.o.w. huge union branches house. voted to support this in portland they voted to support it and here in oakland the local ten. b. voted to. to have their workers not cross picket lines and they sent out a check to all of their workers last night that they were not. escorted in by by police and so you know there is an overwhelming support of rank and file workers we have rank and file workers who are coming to our meetings we are going to file workers who have come out. to get are to receive help from us

for example down in l.a. there are a great number of port truckers who are not unionized and they came to occupy l.a. and and requested their help with their struggles and also in hawaii they have seventy percent of their goods and. products are imported and their local you voted to not cross picket lines there and that sends an extremely. immense statement to the rest of the country that this small island chain state is. is going to shut down effectively shut down their. food and out for an entire day because they have their own issues they want to be self sustainable state i think that's so interesting christine and a really good point to really think

a good thing to keep in mind is that even within and among these unions there's sort of a different kind of hierarchy and that you know sometimes the people at the top are not necessarily making the decisions for the rest of the people certainly an overarching message of occupy wall street but one that's sort of been twisted a little bit by the mainstream media a lot of these cable networks saying today oh well the unions these big international unions are actually rejecting occupy wall street talk about that lucy i know that you really looked into a lot of the different ways that this movement has been covered what's here is shed some light for me on what you're seeing today and you know the bigger picture here and what's next in your opinion well i mean i think that the mainstream media has sort of come into the coverage of occupy wall street a very reluctantly it was something that was dismissed in the beginning that was left out and as the movement grew i think beyond even the organizers expectations they were sort of forced to cover it and actions like this these ports shutdowns even if the they're not effective for stopping all commerce and really hurting you

know goldman sachs or whichever of companies that run them they still shift the national attention in the debate and sort of force outlets to cover it more but i think that a lot of the mainstream outlets have underestimated the true power of this movement i mean i think i would make the argument that what we've seen over the past three months now with the occupation has been almost a dry run a warm up i think that you know they'll continue to sort of try to struggle through the winter pull off these kinds of actions but the main the main focus is going to be on the spring when the whole world will be watching us for the obama reelection campaign and that is i think when they're going to get their strongest actions out should be interesting ramona i want to go to you now i know that the west coast particularly southern california is supposed to be aware. you know serious occupier's head for the winter a lot there was a lot of talk to see was talking about a lot of the movements around the country doing a lot of planning during the winter but i've also heard quite a bit of talk about people when they get too cold in new york or in d.c. they're going to head to l.a. why not right i'm wondering if you're hearing at any talk about sort of the next

stage is for places like l.a. and san diego when it comes to the occupy movement. mobilizations are expected to continue for the next several weeks as we speak there's rallies happening in seattle there is another march here in downtown los angeles right now and today interestingly enough at the attempted court showdown in long beach we saw people who came from as far as las vegas and some even farther who really wanted to be part of this movement so it's still we still have to see whether they're going to make the migration all the way from the east coast over here to the west coast but we're definitely seeing a very strong show of solidarity from people in other parts of the country that was artie's ramon the window to see caffeine and and kristen snelling a west coast occupy coordination committee member and as we mentioned our team has crews on the ground in many of the cities that these movements we spoke to

a few protesters today at a gathering in long beach california the effort to shut down the port there here's what they had to say. it would betray my love for this country to not be willing to put my body against the gears and enjoy the freedoms of young americans who did so in the civil rights movement american revolution and you know there are countless examples of this nation was founded on not only a protest but revolution that what the police have done is a clear breach of our first amendment rights and that shows that they're not they're not working for us they're not protecting us they're there protecting the people who own these ports they're protecting goldman sachs and that's not ok well speaking of the role of police in the occupy wall street movement it has been front and center in so many ways not only a bill police been the ones to send in to dismantle dismantle the occupy camps around the country they've also been caught on camera using weapons on protesters from pepper spray to tear gas to rubber bullets and their endeavors have been quite

expensive according to a new survey by the associated press which shows that just over two months thirteen million dollars was spent on this movement in this eight hundred cities were surveyed and most of that money was spent on overtime and other municipal services so i want to give you an idea on just how that was divvied up here's a look at some of those cities and the breakdown new york spent more than half of the total with seven million dollars followed by oakland denver and portland but it's not just the money as much as the treatment of protesters protesters who call themselves the ninety nine percent that has brought about so much attention and it's also highlighted a larger issue police brutality in america it's raise the question of who police are actually working for now as our day correspond a marine important i discovered police may not be the one percent but when it comes to protecting and serving it's often the one percent who reaps the benefits. when the very people employed to protect americans. lead thousands the series body.

burned i. locked behind bars. tasting their own blood. the land of the free adopt an entirely new image. what was. going to work. in recent months u.s. police officers have made an enemy. of those to this is using their freedom of speech to protest against corporate greed and corrupt politics today's breed of american law enforcement is dressed in riot gear and armed with heavy weaponry body armor washday tear gas and lethal projectiles. at

tens of thousands of americans assembled cops have been accused of creating confrontation not just using it here to make. a level of police brutality so bad a former marine sergeant couldn't stay silent in the campaign. a woman shattering who survived two tours in iraq with seriously injured by local police officers using flash grenades canisters against occupy protesters but you know what you have a twenty four year old scott olsen the cost but a life with serious head injuries. in seattle the oldest victim of the police turned paramilitary with an eighty four activist temporarily blinded by pepper spray the united states which bills itself as the pillar of international law and for democratic. has consistently released itself on the world stage as the

self-appointed beacon of moral authority we call on the iranian government to abide by the international obligations. to respect the rights of its own people. the rights of his own people. chose the path of brutal suppression. innocent civilians were imprisoned in some cases meanwhile at home as dissent in america grows louder many say washington's glasshouse of hypocrisy has shown beautiful symmetry they want people to be able to have freedom of speech but they don't want the freedom to interfere with them in any way to be in any way disruptive to or challenging is to them the line that conditionally separated us soldiers from civilian law enforcement has arguably been overeats placed by what's being dubbed the american militarization of police tock tick tock tick for

a major crack in the foundation of american principles such as democracy and human rights is that only the same principles to ask you all other countries about. or not artsy in new york. so add on our phase one invade iraq force regime change and spend billions of american tax dollars in the meantime phase two new prime ministers ring. us over iran what could possibly go wrong that story coming up in. just burned your eyes right right i mean it's like a derivative of pepper it's a food product essentially. it's much stronger than anything you see by. thousands of times we're stronger than any kind of ever put.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't like tarp was a big. it was a celebration of sorts at the white house today president obama met with iraqi prime minister nouri al maliki to discuss the end of the war in iraq and what's next for the two countries in terms of diplomacy security and trade we're here to mark the end of this war to honor the sacrifices of all those who made this day possible. to

turn the page begin a new chapter in the history between our countries so this is a little bit of what the camera saw what was discussed on the surface but we also want to take a look at some of the deeper issues here associated with u.s. troops leaving iraq and in particular how this new chapter affects the future nearly all the troops will be gone but there's already talk of trainers coming back to teach iraqis there's also a handful of troops that will remain and they'll do so at the embassy which is actually expanding also more than sixteen thousand contractors and government officials will stay in iraq so yes the troops are leaving the u.s. is a long way from being totally gone from iraq and as far as today's meeting between the two leaders it was met with a protest of several hundred people outside the white house who gathered to shed light on plans to close a refugee camp in iraq camp ashraf camp ashraf is home to more than three thousand people who call themselves iranian resistance fighters you may have seen this ad running during the last few weeks. we promised to protect them but now thirty four

hundred iranian dissidents at camp ashraf in great danger last april iraqi soldiers. killing thirty six unarmed people now prime minister maliki of iraq doing iran spitting plans to close and slaughter people working for a democratic nuclear free iran now inside the white house president obama who campaigned against the war in iraq today called the country a quote model for others who are aspiring to build democracy so what exactly does that mean well i spoke to a blogger an iraqi american political activist right to answer just that here's his take. i don't think president obama himself believes that iraq is the way to say it but i think the u.s. is trying to spin what's going on put some happy ending there's nothing happy about what's happened in iraq iraq is not a model for anything it's

a destroyed nation one million iraqis were killed in the last eighty years and five million were displaced you know i was born in baghdad spent most of my trying to drive to it it's from the university the last time i went to baghdad i did not know a single person in the entire city every single person who i know it was either killed or moved out of the city it's a disaster iraq continues to be a disaster it wasted. billions of dollars from the u.s. side and from iraq so it destroyed the u.s. image around the world. to put spin today to make this seem as a success i don't think anyone believes that and despite all these points that you've brought i prayed there are some believe that what we saw in iraq you know going into this war under false pretenses building a democracy quote unquote that this is

a model that will carry on for the future i mean do you think this do you think that not just in the arab world but in the arab world in particular but just for the rest of the world do you think that this is sort of a model that the u.s. will follow in the future. i think it was a very hard lesson that the u.s. and other countries to think about it learned the hard way especially that this is happening this year the year of the springs many people argued for decades i argued for the last ten years that the u.s. should not have invaded iraq and that iraqis would have had the capacity to change their political regime by themselves and that was not to try to get any more now we see that this is practical this is what tony jones did this is what. egyptians that this is what human is and this is what many others would be doing in that region getting rid of their dictators without for another invading and occupying their country is i don't think iraq is a model of anything unfortunately that is

a political process going on but that's a proper broken political process and although many people including myself voted in this political process we understand its shortcomings we understand the fact that the iraqi people's voices are not being represented in a transparent matter so iraq has a long way to go until it has a functioning democracy and you call this a hard lesson that the u.s. had to learn other countries as well. a hard lesson but looking back right i mean didn't they know it didn't the bush administration state department officials cia all the military officials military intelligence on the ground i mean when you talk about democracy and going to another country to build a democracy it seems to me there are some basic lessons there lessons about culture and our geography about history of this place of iraq that either were not taken into account or that were ignored when it came time to actually get those goals

those stated goals accomplished what do they know when you see we can assume that there was a good intention to bring real democracy to iraq not everything that the u.s. government says i mean. for four decades it changed the reason for the u.s. intervention in iraq that we shouldn't forget that the military intervention started more than twenty years ago in one thousand men to one. give so many reasons democracy was one of them i don't think there was a sincere effort to bring in democracy there are so many solid examples on the ground the choice that the u.s. either circumvent circumvented or blocked the iraqi democratic system when iraq is . try to fight against u.s. interests when the iraqis wanted the us to leave the us tried its best to circumvent the system and state when iraqis wanted to elect their representatives the us tried its best to select their friends and keep them important so it wasn't

a sincere process to start with and it was a failure because as you mentioned the majority of iraqis including myself did not believe that democracy will come when you a sense i want to i want to expand this from just the us iraq relationship to the broader picture the sort of global chessboard here and let's talk about iran and syria certainly president obama has called for syrian president bashar al assad to step down more than four thousand people apparently have been killed in those in those protests and then there's the matter of iran and the relationship between the u.s. and iran i want to get your take i mean if there is a war and it involves it involves the u.s. and iran whose side does iraq take and why have they not been more supportive of the u.s. . sort of thoughts about syria this is another symptom i think it's another sign and proves that the u.s. policy in iraq feel miserably because now the u.s. is leaving. or do we have in iraq we have seen

a state that is drawn by political parties loyal to iran mostly. the current iraqi political regime is not very friendly with the u.s. but it's very friendly with iran so it's a war theoretically up between the u.s. and iran the current iraqi regime will most definitely take your aunt side that we saw in al with the events in syria there are key government took the syrian government so it was the only government in the border actually. other than lebanon for today against sanctions on syria and they continue to supply syria with embargoed materials like hardware and software to use the sense of. internet censorship but is being brought from the u.s. and sold to syria by the iraqi government so it's another example of this t.j. thalia of the you know.