welcome to the lower show where you get the real headlines with none of the mercy or come alive out of washington d.c. now tonight we're going to get on the ground reports on the massive occupy actions happening on the west coast today with attempts to shut down ports from portland to southern california then president obama hosted iraqi prime minister nuri al maliki at the white house today and preparation for the last u.s. troops to leave at the end of this year but there will be contractors and guess what the firm formerly known as blackwater wants back in scott horton is going to help us hash all out and then as congress engages in yet another battle over taxes

we're going to speak to one venture capitalist that says that taxes on the rich should be raised and then the real job creators can be rewarded so it's not the rich that create the jobs then who is it we're going to have all that and more food and i could in a dose of happy hour but first let's take a look at what the mainstream media has decided to miss. all right so today president obama hosted the iraqi prime minister at the white house and it was a big event with a joint press conference at an air of celebration or at the least the president one of that to be seen as a historic event. coming days the last american soldiers will cross the border out of iraq after nearly nine years our war in iraq and this month we're here to mark the end of this war we discussed how the united states could help iraq train and equip its forces not by stationing american troops there or with u.s.

bases in iraq those days are over so there's a stork moment a war's ending a new day is upon us. now let's not forget that president obama is relishing in this moment because he gets a pretend like he's fulfilling a campaign promise to bring the war in iraq to an end a war that he opposed to send the recall done while he was campaigning and all of that work to his advantage thanks to a bitter public mood after eight years of the bush administration and its policies however we all know this isn't really the way that he planned it let's not forget that all spring and summer of this year we heard one official after another including both the former and the current secretary of defense saying that if iraq wants it the troops will stay and in fact it was the u.s. that wanted war was doing all the pressuring behind the scenes but ultimately it broke down over negotiations over legal immunity for the u.s. troops so they kind of told us to get out rather than what the president would like to now claim as

a fulfillment of his promises but anyway that's only one element that could easily be picked apart by anybody that pays attention let's see what critique our mainstream media decided to provide. december thirty first that's going to mark a b. and of this nine year period the war itself or the two nations will cooperate in a new era without u.s. troops almost nine years after the start of the iraq war president obama's meeting with iraq's prime minister to mark the end of this war right now only six thousand troops remain in iraq in the next couple of weeks they'll all be out u.s. troops prepare to leave iraq by the last day of the year the last remaining u.s. troops in iraq are preparing to come home how has that relationship been over the years and are we you know ending this in the right way. so really guys here celebrating to playing along with the game that it's all over or ending in the right way well how about talking about the fact that despite leave the all the

troops leaving at the end of this year there will still be a massive american presence in iraq you know the seven hundred or so diplomats law enforcement officers and various other experts and professionals in the fields of agriculture and economics that are going to be there and of course they will be there alone just because the troops are gone doesn't mean that they will dare get by without security and it's quite a security detail and the state department going to have five thousand contractors for protection of its diplomats on top of that there's going to be another forty five thousand contractors serving other roles locally so that's already almost twelve thousand people that are still going to be there not exactly what i would call a full withdrawal then we know the president is still saying that there might be a possibility that troops might go back at some point in two thousand and twelve to train the iraqi troops so why can't anybody out there in the media just cut through the b.s. and say that outright it's ridiculous but then again carol assam all that surprised the member on the combat mission in iraq formally ended in august of two thousand and ten done yet there was still fifty thousand u.s.

troops that were going to stay in the country will be this is how the mainstream media treated that fake and that by going all out. but all the soldiers leave iraq operation iraqi freedom the combat mission in iraq will be over. for in the morning . we hear. there are. combat soldier. it's a quake yes the gates are closing right now seeing what we just saw right here live with that gate closing down the last u.s. combat you are totally covered in grease ball. that's honestly is becoming pathetic the way the mainstream media decides to toe the line regurgitate everything that our officials say despite the fact that it's just blatantly not true ok fine you want to go on technicalities you can say that all u.s. troops will be leaving iraq at the end of the year but it's really so convoluted because of the thousands of people that will stay there you have to get into it so it's not so cut and dry it's not so black and white do you really think that people

forget that quickly they've played this entire it's over again before and let's talk about the iraq we've now left behind not only trillions of our own money spent thousands of troops who lost their lives who knows how many contractors have lost their lives and hundreds of thousands of iraqi civilians that are possibly day as many as two million iraqis that are now displaced and if the president said today that we leave with our heads held high and because he said it the matzinger media thinks that it must be so some real analysis and questions about that nine year long war well that's what they choose to miss. well today the occupy movement waged a massive day of action on the west coast with a plan of shutting down ports and these targeted ports include san diego and los angeles and oakland in california portland oregon seattle and tacoma washington vancouver british columbia and anchorage in alaska and the protesters said they

were meaning the actions to be in solidarity with poor workers but cracks might be showing as the unions including the international longshore and workers' union refused to take part another target today conveniently happen to be goldman sachs which owns a number of transportation and shipping companies so in solidarity protesters in new york today marched on goldman's offices where once again we saw heavy police presence and once again a negative relationship with the press. he really did that so now let's find out how some of the actions on the west coast have gone down today joining me from our studio in los angeles is our two producer among the window and from oakland is journalist and cartoonist susie cagle thank you both for joining me tonight and suzy i'm going to start with you i want to know

what it was that went down in oakland i know they got a really early start this morning and you know had that panned out and we also see arrested we see any violence. i had started with the march at five thirty in the morning it was very early and they arrive protesters went down there and clog successfully blocked many of the berths at the court until about ten am which is when the union arbitrator declared the court unsafe for work and about twenty minutes after that people marched back victoriously about forty five minutes after that i some of the brits were reopened because there was no more picket line and. people when i went back to work on a lot of charm and went back to work and i wasn't there at the time but i heard that there were scuffles and there were there were two arrests made this morning i at those reopened berths are over mon and what is the scene look like there in los

angeles. that's right things are very early here in long beach at the ports one of the busiest ports. in america and now a lot of the protesters there went specifically to protest the terminal which is partially owned by goldman sachs now they faced off with riot police numbered in the dozens perhaps even more than one hundred there was four different law enforcement agencies which showed up to keep the protesters in check now two people were arrested we did film a very small scuffle it was a very rainy and cold day now we were surprised to see so many people because of the weather and the early call to bring the protests what we saw today were some resilient protesters and a police force which was very determined to not let the poor be shut down now there were some minor disruptions in the morning the demonstrators took over an

intersection which was blocking one of the terminals they were blocking it for a couple of hours of eventually dispersed scene but from what we're hearing from the protesters they did see this as a small success now i just showed that video of what was happening in new york today where once again we saw a police man that was you know starting to put his hands on a member of the press that was just jumping around trying to block his shot was there anything like that going on in either. long beach or oakland today ramona. well here in long beach there was definitely plenty of pushing and shoving between police and protesters nothing. extremely excessive now there were baton is displayed there was no pepper spray or anything like that like i said they were under arrest of a couple of people there and but the thing is that the long beach police and i think other police forces around the country are starting to gather strategies in

order to deal with these protests now we saw a strategy today using riot police now we were encircled by the police and in some instances it seemed like the police vastly outnumbered the protesters so cities were keeping an eye on this protest ready to see the large large numbers and they definitely responded with a very strong force of riot police things did remain peaceful for the most part though in southern california now susie do you know. if there is any attempt to actually block a press like we seen times before. i don't have that experience the spreading it actually looks like oakland i saw a very different show force and then los angeles at no time did i see riot police outnumbering protestors at all it seemed like a pretty small show for some reason the county sheriff and the local local police department were who were there which is just not that many bodies. you know at one

point they were i had been times out shutting people and saying move move in a line coming right at me but i just kind of slipped past and they were fine with that and that's certainly not something that would have been ok by alameda sheriffs a month ago and i was arrested as journalists covering occupy so i feel like i'm well acquainted with how that might have gotten wise yeah and you know definitely a different scene than what we saw the last time that the port of oakland was shut down you know just about a month ago too so susie i think there are a lot of people out there that are wondering today they have been just at least observing the occupy movement and are wondering why it is they decided to stage this massive action and focus it specifically on the ports you get some good answers for many of the protesters i think that this was very much seen as targeting goldman sachs as you mentioned and as well as. poor wages for unionized

workers many of the truckers are considered pretty much legally considered independent contractors and and they're paid very poorly but you know not all of the truckers down there really agreed with with the blockade it was interesting to see that there wasn't really. a seeming united front amongst the workers who were there. and you know as i mentioned the unions weren't in support this time around so we're known what did you see did you see. a lot of disagreements between some of the workers there at the poor and the protestors and you asked the protesters why it is that they want to target the ports. right well i mean there was disagreement but i think that in many ways it's played up a little bit more. longshoremen's union said that they were not in support of this but that was the upper leadership of the union there were letters written from rank

and file members who said that they do support but obviously they couldn't walk off the job for you know fears of you know being punished for that within the crowd we saw teachers we saw there were other workers who were part of the union so definitely the fact that unions said that they did support it. helped encourage some people to come out but they obviously did not show their numbers the numbers would have likely been much larger had those union members come out now now that we saw that they were able to do a partial shutdown we'll see what the unions do in reaction to that but the main message was that for these protests is that they are looking out for the ninety nine percent which includes some of these longshoreman who belong to the unions now this is what some of the protesters told us this morning. 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 this nation was founded on not only protest but revolution what the police have done is a clear breach of our first amendment rights. that shows that they're not they're not working for as 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. real quick to you could you just tell us if there are any plans for the evening you know is this going to continue in dollars a day don and in los angeles well here in southern california there are some actions right now as we speak there was a march scheduled for downtown this afternoon we're hearing of other rallies up and down the west coast in oakland and in seattle so as far as later today perhaps not at the port itself but definitely showing solidarity with the poor workers and showing that they are still enthused that it was

a partial shutdown they say that it was a small victory for them and they plan to keep on continuing mass mobilization as in the weeks. and susie what about oakland is that all over for the day absolutely not in my opinion it's just getting started i think. occupy right now traveling down it and there will be marches at four pm and five pm back to the port to shut down the next shift at work which is the same shift a shutdown general strike again over second and so i think this is just beginning our guys will definitely keep watching thank you to both of you for filling us in anger. all right still to come on the show tonight even though all u.s. troops will be leaving iraq by the end of the year thousands of defense contractors will be entering the country around the same time and then one infamous contractor is doing everything possible to get back on iraq's good side because that's all that written that. i.

was going to leave the rest in. but what a protest nobody seems to know. that never a pepper sprayed the face but part of the argument that they're being overly dramatic. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then something else you hear sees some other part of it and realize that everything is ok. i'm charging welcome to the big picture.

mr. on top of all day one of the most expensive prisons in the world just a short while back we told you about an in-depth report from carol rosenberg of the miami herald where she detail the expenses required for giving to operate on a only does the department of defense drop one hundred fifty million dollars per year on this facility but the price tag to keep just one prisoner there for one year is eight hundred thousand dollars the average cost to keep a prisoner in a federal prison for a year about twenty five thousand still not cheap but i think you get the point now here on the show we have consistently reminded our viewers about obama's promise to shut down get mo and his failure to do so. i've said repeatedly that i intend to close guantanamo and i will follow through on that i've said repeatedly that america doesn't torture and i'm going to make sure that we don't torture those are

. those are part and parcel of an effort to regain america's moral stature in the world. so much for regaining that moral stature that he spoke about if anything under the obama administration given has been expanding and improving their facility pretty sure if there were any plans on closing it down they wouldn't be upgrading but perhaps a recent article from the new york times could encourage the president to take a second look at this base in cuba scott shane sheds light on the federal prisons right here in the u.s. that are holding those convicted of tears crimes planning funding aiding and whatnot and despite the arguments that we hear against bringing terrorists from guantanamo bay to u.s. soil these facilities show that things will be just fine if you do bring detainees ever starters get those decrease the number of prisoners that it holds and as of today there are one hundred and seventy one people still detained there meanwhile the federal bureau of prisons report of the it's currently housing three hundred and sixty two people convicted in terrorism related cases while those who attempted

to kill americans are likely to receive a life prison sentence others who are convicted of less serious activities serve a shorter sentence with emphasis put on preventive strategies to deter radical radical approaches before they happen and speaking of those who serve shorter sentences they've also had quite a number of releases over three hundred prisoners have done jail time and have since been released since two thousand and one about fifty percent of those who are foreign were deported after the release and the americans have worked very hard not to draw attention to themselves through the media let's take a closer look at the success rate in the federal prisons who house convicted terrorists while shane doesn't exactly give the exact numbers he does explain that inmates with past terrorist ties very rarely attempt to plot violence after they've been released from u.s. detention facilities as do intelligence and probation officers who keep a close watch on those individuals after they've been released meanwhile twenty five percent of those who were detained it give mo are likely to join militant groups after the release according to the d.o.t. it's very strong data supporting the call to keep terrorism suspects imprisoned right here in the u.s. despite all the outcry from people who felt uncomfortable with detaining those

people here in the country so now that we have more evidence i'm going to ask again what's the point in keeping guantanamo bay open other than fear and an attempt to hide our wrongs. it was mentioned at the top of the show tonight despite the ceremonial approach of president obama hosting the iraqi prime minister at the white house and calling the withdrawal of u.s. troops a historic end to a war u.s. presence in iraq is far from over thousands of contractors will still be there and guess who's trying to get back in an interview the wall street journal ted wright the president and chief executive of what used to be known as blackwater then turn to the services had a big announcement the firm is changing their name yet again this time to academy with the intent of staying out of the headlines and being more boring and writes on words blackwater was stripped of its operating license in iraq after a number of controversial events could in two thousand and seven shoot out and as for square the right hopes that with this new name and the demand for contractors in iraq surging that they will get they've hired an outside company to help them

apply for a new operating license so how's iraq going to handle a new surge of contractors and will or will a real conversation arise as to whether or not this entire war was worth it joining me to discuss to scott horton contributing editor on legal and national security matters for harper's magazine scott i want to thank you for joining us tonight and i first just want to get your opinion on what you think of well you know they're making a really big deal this week the president is going to be making a number of trips a number of speeches he hosted the iraq prime minister at the white house today it's very ceremonial. well it's another of. those is the american war in iraq and you know i think that was. starting to work obama it's filled with pledges . but it's also it's definitely an effort with the best possible. and you know he also said today that america can leave with its head held high what do you think about the iraq that we're going to be or that the troops are going to be leaving behind as i mentioned there's going to be

a strong contractor presence there but if you look at the internal politics if you look at the relationship between iraq and the u.s. now you can say that it's a government that is that is friendly to iran that is friendly to syria was it worth it for us but i think i mean obviously you can say that the american military forces accomplished the mission they were sent there to accomplish but there's a lot of question about that mission and the bottom line here is the question of iran and iran's position in the middle east and in fact the ram was the principal national security threat to the united states in the region then the net result of this war for tremendous cost maybe two trillion dollars four thousand four hundred seventy eight american lives tens of thousands wounded resulted in the elimination of one of iran's major enemies and a street in the red with or with a rat potentially becoming an iranian satellite certainly

a nation which is ill disposed to contradict iran on anything that's important to ram so in that sense can we say it was a vague fail it was a humongous pretty tricky error. scott i'm also curious to you in terms of the way this relationship is developing as far as you know you know you go she broke down over immunity legal immunity for u.s. troops and that's why they had to go then kind of looks like maybe they would allow a couple u.s. troops in calling them nato troops but today it looks like those negotiations in broken down over the exact same thing so that a big rebuff. yesterday is another fight i think and in fact i think most observers in the us haven't focused as much on this is they sure that i think there's no doubt about it that the iraqis really were focused on the question of accountability or where the contractors but also for soldiers and i think they were also told on i don't by people were aware of the process that the iraqis told

united states will agree to the same sort of status of forces agreement you've signed with japan or with korea or with germany but we're not going to agree to assess the forces agreement that gives complete immunity to contractors and i think that same issue was the breakup of the special training mission that was proposed for nato which now also will lose it to the into the ear and i think given the experience of what happened at mr square and back then the position the iraqis have taken is a very reasonable one frankly and it's not going to go away i mean you mentioned the state department's effort to beef up its own security forces in baghdad will force nature square was all about the part of the state security forces and i think we are likely to see more friction between united states and iraqi government on this exact issue but what do you think of this new yet another name change for the

firm formerly known as blackwater mean that the name basically at this point they are unable to shake do you think of they're going to see a really they're going to have a really hard time convincing anybody in iraq to let them back in or you think they're hiring some kind of a third party having a new name saying they want to be boring is going to. anything but standard thinking that in the commercial world if your brand has been soiled or damaged if you change it and i think you can get a more damage brand in the entire world today them blackwater and the problem we see is that everyone knew that that was simply another word for iraq war that in fact if you look at it's occurrences on the other that every time it's the crime of the former blackwater so i think they're trying to put some distance between themselves and their reputation but is this change in the is going to mean anything and iraq i doubt that i mean i've talked to some of the licensing officials about this issue and there may be room for them to issue licenses they will issue

licenses i'd be shocked if they gave one to a black rather successor no matter how many times changed its name and blackwater wants back in bad right also mention that basically this is about a third of their profits beforehand rock is been big business for the contractors while the war has been going on there any think that that's going to extend not only because of the heavy state department presence but also now that you have more energy companies moving in for oil for natural gas that will definitely i mean there's no doubt about it that the single biggest contract that was rather have was its diplomatic protection contracts for the state department and once it's established is a strong base in country working for the u.s. government then the limbs are support to other commercial services like the usa id contractors they could be commercial presences but it went back so and that really wants the special protected status that goes with it and i just don't think they're

going to get their foot in the door in iraq. lastly today the president spoke on this the downed drone that is now in iran's possession and basically said that we've asked and we've asked iran to give it back which i just sounds kind of funny to me where we say pretty please yeah i'm not going to happen i don't think i mean of course what we have to worry about is the iranians sharing it with another nation as a great deal more sophistication in this area like russia or china will be able to will depart and arrive you know direct advances in their own use of technology and pressure something with the iranians but the iranians seem to have commandeered this aircraft and moved it so give them some credit for that but show the tremendous amount of technological sophistication now while i'm with you in that i think that it's wishful thinking that we can just ask for it back and that will be done scott i want to thank you so much for joining us tonight great to be with you .