on the. video. mission street now in the palm of your. private first class bradley manning is being tried as a criminal charge with handing national secrets over to wiki leaks we'll introduce you to bradley manning the person take a look at the hurdles he faces in his upcoming trial. and as protesters gather to show solidarity for the alleged wiki leaks whistleblower others are quick to criticize his actions so while so many other whistleblowers are praise for coming forward what makes some people heroes and other traitors. and we're singing bye bye to american rights with indefinite detention and internet spying and that's just the tip of the iceberg today we're going to take

a look at the day americans freedoms died. good afternoon it is friday december sixteenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine you're watching our team well today is the day that private first class bradley manning begins the first stage of his military trial manning is accused of leaking thousands of secret military and diplomatic documents plus a video showing military pilots gunning down civilians and a reuters journalist in baghdad back in two thousand and seven he leaked those or is accused of leaking those to the whistle blowing website wiki leaks phase one of his trial comes five hundred sixty nine days that's one year six months and three weeks after he was first taken into custody after reportedly admitting to a former hacker who then exposed manning to authorities. now

a few dozen people showed up to protest outside the pretrial hearing for its first day now the hearing is expected to last about five days and tomorrow hundreds are expected including bus loads from the occupy wall street protests that's also when daniel ellsberg the pentagon papal papers whistleblower is scheduled to speak and we're going to talking a lot about the implications of his case today but also want to give you a quick look at the ins and outs of the case what has been both revealed about him and about the u.s. government leading up to his appearance today in the courtroom. it was this video. of u.s. army pilots in iraq eagerly firing shots at innocent people on the ground and hundreds of thousands of secret military documents and cables leaked to wiki leaks there have been some criminal acts committed by u.s. government employees and those employees have never been held accountable for them all this made public over a year and a half ago by bradley manning

a twenty two year old army private turned whistleblower for the past eighteen months that bradley manning has been behind bars has become somewhat of a symbol to his supporters he represents the extreme secrecy and lack of transparency within the u.s. government and the documents that make up like reveal that the u.s. has a dark secret that shows that in my opinion in the last decade there's been no real . lessening of the standards of diplomatic reporting and in our military the the real disregard for life of torture of assassinations of as executions have become more of the norm really. and for bringing all this to light he's regarded by many as a hero he has impacted governments around the world he's lifted the veil of the us empire to show us what we really are basically i got

a military because of bradley manning michael patterson is an iraq war veteran he says seeing this video changed his life from the wiki leaks stuff start coming out and that's when i kind of hit that wall that wall. basically i decide i was i could do something more but today manning is paying the price he's been locked up behind bars as a maximum custody detainee subject to solitary confinement and forced nudity which some argue are forms of torture he was being treated as if he had already been convicted and the punished. it was going to be a very brutal punishment he's now charged with aiding the enemy his critics say he put american lives in jeopardy just because you don't like the country's foreign policy doesn't mean you can out it to the planet that doesn't make you a truth teller that makes you a tree a traitor and as manning finally gets his day in court his supporters say the only thing he's guilty of is telling the truth he awoke a lot of people up to the actual realities of this world right now and he deserves

you know a medal if the truth is actually undermining our national security there's something wrong with the truth. in washington liz wall r.t. bradley manning story is multi-layered and has brought about some ugly truths about the u.s. government both about what has happened behind closed doors and about how the government value secrecy and will stop at almost nothing to punish those who reveal government secrets now you may remember former army lieutenant dan choi basically the face of the movement to overturn don't ask don't tell in this country a gay soldier himself well he spoke to our team just a little earlier today outside of fort meade and this is important here's his take on all of this the question of fairness and also the larger implications for this country the question is not about fair anymore the question is about whether america is going to be america when we all of the people in the world we purport to export democracy we report to share our values with all these other countries while

we invade them we say we say we're helping but the question is always what do you do to your own people who bradley manning is not on trial or very system of government is on trial our moral ascendancy is on trial and the referee actions a reprobate government would most always be questioned by a good and well informed citizenry. some really important points there and i want to talk about all of this and i've got kevin zeese here a member of the bradley manning support network to talk to me about this and you we just saw you kevin in liz's report i want to talk about something that you said the kind of stuck out you said if truth is undermining our national security then there's something wrong with the truth i mean i think it's interesting that on one hand there's these people who say you know leaking secrets might reveal things that people in other countries hate and they'll hate us more for it but does it also affect our national security when our guys our military guys are indiscriminately

shooting gunning down people on the streets of baghdad exactly that's that's exactly what the documents and videotapes that bradley manning is accused of leaking show us foreign policy needs a major reevaluation for militarism and empire foreign policy to move toward a policy of diplomacy and that's what music come out of. the manning for a while is important for bradley manning and for the country but what's even more important is a discussion of our foreign policy and it's way off track it's been all cracked for a long time and he's a good reconsidered and revaluate and changed dramatically and i hope that the documents that were released with a broad grin meaning or anybody else whatever we put out there are dark and so so we need to really we consider we're doing i think also the documents there are hundreds of thousands of them but the video as well a lot of people i know we have it on our website more than a million hits if you watch this video in full it's not just that these apache pilots are gunning down these people it's that you hear them laughing you hear them

almost treating war you know like a video game you see the video here what ends up happening is they think that somebody is carrying a k forty seven and it's actually a reuters photographer carrying a camera. you know and then they're killed and then they just kind of go on and you hear their voices you hear the discussion while they're in the helicopter. and certainly when you hear that it makes people mad. makes people realize what kinds of things are are being said by our own military by the military that our taxpayer dollars funds so talk about this in terms of you know the argument that playing this and showing this and making this public what it does to our reputation the point that he was there understand is that secrecy is killing more people than troops. getting the truth out will result in a better foreign policy the result less deaths of americans and others result in a foreign policy that makes sense not one that's just done for making profit for

transnational corporations one thing that the documents showed was that the state department and the military work hand in glove with transnational corporations for their profit and not for our national security what's under my our national security is not bradley manning if you do what he's accused of with our national security is our own foreign policy numerous repeated intelligence assessments by all of our intelligence agencies say these wars in iraq and afghanistan no doubt in other countries that were involved as well are resulting in more terrorists than we can capture or kill creating more faster we can capture or kill them so it's really a foreign policy has way on track and undermine our national security now of course a phase one of bradley manning's trial it just started today but many people including it seems president obama himself have already sort of made up their mind about amending skills i want to play something the president said recently. we

don't. know about. all right so there you see president obama being questioned sort of on the side. he broke the law you know that you would think with that tape that the united states going to at least try to make this look like a real trial and not a kangaroo court they pointed to on top of that problem which is a new command influence resulting in everyone involved in this case from the prosecutor the judge the jury or under obama's command he says they broke the law or they find against their commander in chief now they put in place a judge judge on monday who works for the department of justice which is investigating wiki leaks and he's going to be the judge of this kangaroo court david manning's lawyer today as a dead judge recused herself because of conflicts of interest he refused who was

asked to appeal that the judges ruled against manning on a critical point allowing the witnesses who classified these doctors to explain why they were classified these documents that were released should not of human classify these are low level documents that were didn't show any troop movements or is going to undermine national security what they showed was embarrassment they showed the truth about u.s. foreign policy and now they put a judge in who's not a lesson as in why those doctors are classified not those who be cross-examining court or reading this is off to a kangaroo court type of experience was the first day let's talk about the other side ok and i mean critics of this have an argument or a legal argument that is at the very least somewhat strong manning is accused of being a traitor people say that what he's done is the equivalent of somebody spying on the u.s. government among the twenty two charges twenty two or so charges that he faces one of them is aiding the enemy. to talk about that i mean don't critics don't people

the prosecutors don't people have a right to be angry and to feel that that is manning in the leak these documents that that is a threat to our national security the enemy charges of tickly the most serious ones that carry the death penalty in ensures that manning is now fail. for disclosing war crimes for getting information out of work we should mention though no nobody has said of it at least to my knowledge that they plan to that will be what we have to the presiding authority not of the prosecutors but they have the charge carries a death going offense i can tell you that david coup has been preparing to defend a death penalty case because it is a possibility and if manning was a traitor he would be given the documents to china or iran or the taleban or some enemy of the united states. if he was someone who is going to proffer these are he was sold these documents to the highest bidder and become a millionaire that's now he's accused of he's accused of leaking documents to the media so the american public can know the truth about what our foreign policy is

and to represent democracy where we vote to represent us we know the truth kevin isn't there a time when the truth is too sensitive i mean when do you think it is ok for the us government to mandate secrecy and i think what you're doing is only troop movements at that present moment that's a high risk to you know to the troops and i think that even though it's even though it's a illegal war and justified war i can see an argument there for you know keeping those kinds of movements secret but when it's stuff that's you know years old describing you know daily activity of the troops and of diplomats it doesn't undermine secure that we in fact robert gates the second force or sense that said no was harmed by this let's talk about whistle blowing in general in our society there have been amazing movies sixty minute shows about top whistleblowers daniel ellsberg he's scheduled to speak tomorrow he's been one of the most outspoken critics of how the bradley manning case has been handled he himself was a whistleblower for the pentagon papers case back during the vietnam war he's

praised to this day now as a hero so was whistleblowing ok and when isn't it no doubt that if you look back at the bradley manning case you know how it turns out they will historians will go through these documents and they will review them carefully. comparing what we know and what the military said about our impose who was secretary of state and the met save our foreign policy compare them to the the real record of the wiki leaks documents it will be the most incredible history of u.s. foreign policy probably in the era when the empire foreign policy is still on you'll be critically important historical documents and the case turns out with him facing life in prison or a death sentence it will be a great black eye to the american history it will show that we were afraid at this time of lies to see crimes on other behavior even war crimes we were so afraid of the truth that we put somebody to death or threaten or put them away for life for telling the truth finally today it was announced that the united kingdom supreme

court will hear arguments in the julian assange case julian assange one of the founders of wiki leaks charged with sexual assault in sweden he faces extradition he's won his appeal to fight extradition what do you see in terms of that aspect of this as sort of a in direct incident in the case overall well the department of justice which is where the judge in the manning case comes from has been trying very hard to find a way to prosecute julius and i suspect that the one year torture of bradley manning in solitary confinement with forced nudity despite the record regulations the psychologist in quantico despite that they said don't do that to me is needed. that torture was because they want to maintain locate julia songe or the one manning to plead guilty they wanted to look that's what they want to meaning they did they were not able to break in with torture and they didn't get what they wanted so it's a real shame but i think that is also an example in this case the u.n.

torture investigators still not allowed to meet with manning in the fischel capacity as another black eye view knows that i spoke to him very recently one man does the un special rapporteur on torture that's all he says he wants to meet with bradley manning kevin zeese a member of the bradley manning support network and always a priest. your insight thanks so much for me. for i will so ahead on r t taking the country by force the u.s. congress might not be able to agree on how to fix the economy they sure do agree when it comes to signing away american rights like indefinite detention of u.s. citizens and you know that's fine looks like big brother getting even bigger well explain coming up next. the uk with the other there's always the option of with what it was nobody seems to know. but never

a pepper sprayed the face but more of the argument that they're being overly dramatic. look at the capitol and now because i'm floored list for. all right folks there is a lot going on right now decisions being made that are on precedented and will have an overreaching impact on what it means to live in the united states of america

a few things the case of bradley manning his treatment and his the precedent his case will set for future whistleblowers and for transparency but you know we just talked about that this is just scratching the surface also congress your elected officials both the senate and the house of representatives have just overwhelmingly passed the national defense authorization act now this is not just funding for the pentagon that's included in this bill this legislation also has two provisions that give more power to the military and to the government and so massively alter the constitution that it's almost laughable or at least it was laughable when president obama said he would veto the bill now it turns out he won't so here's what squeezed into this military fund not just money but lots and lots of power first a provision that expands the use of military force in afghanistan to include indefinite detention of anyone suspected of being a member of al qaeda or quote associated forces so anyone but here's the big one

folks it gives the military the power to indefinitely detain american citizens even those captured here in the united states suspected just a suspected not convicted of some sort of involvement or affiliation with terrorism so no trial prison of based soley on suspicion the fourth amendment out the window as you may be able to tell i think this is kind of a big deal but i'm not the only one jason leopold is the deputy managing editor of truth out dot org he is in our los angeles studio jason i know you wrote an article titled obama's twisted version of american exceptionalism dealing detailing some of the ironies here you're pretty outraged but a lot of americans are not so shocked about this don't really realize what's going on what do you think are some of the biggest things that are being ignored right now. well the biggest thing that's being ignored is exactly how this bill

would apply to u.s. citizens now we've heard from various members of congress carl levin who is the chair of the senate armed services committee who worked on this bill with senator john mccain we've received assurances from various lawmakers that u.s. citizens would not be. affected by this that it would not apply to this however immediately after the bill was passed senator dianne feinstein introduced the legislation referred to it the due process act of two thousand and eleven and what that would do is ensure that this particular bill more or less would not apply to u.s. citizens basically that indefinite detention of u.s. citizens would not happen unless there was an expressive act of congress and that's what her or her legislation says it's very short and it's

proposed at this point but it seems to be a protection that was introduced because there's so much murkiness and with the national defense authorization act so there are many people right now that are defending the bill and what they're truly defending is president obama that's what this comes down to they're defending him they're defending the fact that he had caved in on the promise to veto it simply because congress made minor changes to the legislation and so the outrage is somewhat being you know limited to just people who feel that the bill would actually just affect u.s. citizens but again there's a bigger picture here and that's the indefinite detention of people. all in general without. giving them the opportunity to hear what the charge is and

a couple things that you said here jason i mean first of all president obama originally did say that he would veto this it was sort of because it didn't give the white house and his administration and enough power. i think there's a little bit of politics involved here too because if you look this bill passed in the senate i think it was ninety three to seven and in the house two hundred something to one hundred something i don't know i haven't done the math totally but it seems to me that even if the president said he would veto this that this could get overturned by two thirds majority not not sure about that you have this could be politics as well so let's talk about obama's role i know a number of people have pointed this out i know you did as well. something that is clear as day this was articulated by president obama in a proclamation commemorating the sixty third anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights the president said quote all people should live free

from the threat of extrajudicial killing torture oppression and discrimination regardless of gender race religion nationality sexual orientation physical or mental disability all right so jason give me some examples some ways in which the president and his administration have blatantly gone against this. well you know this was the basis of the report i put together yesterday prior to the passage by the senate of the bill and of the national defense authorization act and what i really want to point out here and articulate to people is that indefinite detention is a human rights issue that has not been it has not been spoken about in those terms it's not just a civil liberties issue and this is not just about whether this bill applies to u.s. citizens ok this is a human rights issue as early as wednesday as i pointed out in this report the state department issued a press release noting that they had implemented sanctions against two iranian

officials for. acts that took place during the disputed presidential election in two thousand and nine x. that included the indefinite detention of iranian citizens and the torture of those citizens if if you take the time to go and look on the state department's website every single allegation that is included in that press release is exactly what we have done the united states has done to war on terror detainees during the bush administration and what it continues to do under the obama administration particularly indefinite detention so indefinite detention is defined as a human rights abuse when other countries do it that's the exceptionalism that. that is an example as that took place as early as wednesday through the past three

years i believe i've included you know quite a number of the examples that shows that the obama administration says one thing and does another. particularly as it relates to this you know this this war on terror this global war on terror there are people jason who are saying that. that this back to back to the national defense authorization act these two provisions in it particularly this is taking this country and anyone detained suspected this could be a one way ticket to guantanamo bay for them i mean is that overreacting a little bit. i think that's a bit of an overreaction i don't see that actually happening you know i also want to point out an irony here that this was passed on the two hundred twentieth anniversary of the bill of rights another bizarre sort of twist but i don't believe that it would people would end up in guantanamo i think that the

bill actually ensures that one ton of the won't close down that's that's some of the other disturbing you know provisions in this bill that it does not allow for the trial of any suspected against suspected terrorists that remain incarcerated in that prison prison facility in the united states and basically bans funding for any civilian trial here in the u.s. . but again it's it's unclear exactly how this bill and how these measures would be applied if if someone was picked up i imagine that it will eventually end up you know in front i think green court however i also want to point out that white house spokesperson jay carney said yesterday during a press briefing that it would not end up in front of the courts if in fact any anything came up it's at the you know days and we are rushing to interpret it and

he would simply go back to the authors of the specific provision all right we're out of time we're out of time isn't changes some really really important point that you make there i think you used a perfect word to describe this when you say there's a lot in here that so murky might be too late before we realize what actually the consequences are jason leopold deputy managing editor of truth out dot org. thank you and that is going to do it for us by capital account is up next on our t.v. let's check in with more in lister to see what's on the agenda today hey there lauren what do you got cooking for us on this friday hey christine happy friday you know i heard you talking about the defense authorization bill that is headed for the president's desk you talked about a couple of the aspects of that that are certainly worth delving into we're going to delve into one of the economic ok this has a green light for sanctions against iran targeted at their central bank guess what that means oil prices could go up that means it could hurt u.s. consumers and be a benefit to iran so we're going to how does happens all right lauren thanks so

much that's going to do it for now i want to thank you so much for watching we're going to be right back here at five o'clock i'm christine for. more news today. these are the images the world has been seeing

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