traitors. and we're saying bye bye to american rights with indefinite detention and internet spying and that's just the tip of the iceberg oh look at the day americans freedoms died. i think it's gold but how about another war in the name of defense is the dangerous thing dangerous the danger is really over reacting to bomb or not to vom that is the question it's a war of words between michele bachmann and ron paul g.o.p. candidates bar over the issue of iran i'll give you my take on last night's debate . it is friday december sixteenth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for you watching our team well today is the day that private first class bradley manning began the first stage of his military trial manning is

accused of leaking thousands of secret military and diplomatic documents plus a video showing u.s. military pilots gunning down civilians and a reuters journalist in baghdad in two thousand and seven to the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks phase one of his trial comes out of five hundred and 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 to authorities. now if you 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 papers whistleblower is scheduled to speak now we will be talking a lot about the implications of his case tonight but i want you to get a quick look at the ins and outs of the case what's both been revealed about him and about the u.s. government leading up to his appearance today in the courtroom. but. it

was this video really clean of it all of us 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 at bradley manning has been behind bars becoming somewhat of a symbol to his supporters he represents the extreme secrecy and lack of transparency within the last 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 in diplomatic reporting and in our

military the real disregard for lives of of torture of assassinations of as executions have become more of the norm bread. 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 in the wake of leaks stuff that are coming out that's when i kind of get that more than that wall and basically i decide i was i going to 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 ponies. was going to be 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 his world and he deserves you know a medal if the truth is actually undermining our national security but 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 happened behind closed doors and how the government values secrecy and will stop at nothing to punish those who reveal secrets you may remember for me our former army lieutenant dan choi he was basically the face of the movement to overturn don't ask don't tell in this country he's a gay soldier himself while he was at he was outside of fort meade today he spoke

to r.t. and i think this is important here's his take on all of this on the question of fairness for bradley manning and also the larger implications of this case on the country the question is not about fair anymore the question is about whether america is going to be america when we help all of the people in the world we proport to export democracy we report to share our values with all these other countries while we invade them 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 what must always be questioned by good and well informed citizenry. so this case with bradley manning is tough on one hand leaking secrets might reveal things that make people in other countries hate the us more on the

other hand does it also affect our national security when our military guys are indiscriminately shooting civilians that's a question i posed to kevin zeese a member of the bradley manning support network. exactly that's exactly what the documents and videotapes that bradley manning's accused of leaking show us foreign policy needs a major re-evaluation we move away from militarism and empire foreign policy and move toward a policy of diplomacy and that's what needs to come out of this the manning trial is important for bradley manning and for the country but what's even more important is a discussion of our foreign policy it's way off track it's been all cracked for a long time and need to get reconsidered and reevaluate and change dramatically and i hope that the documents that were released where the bribe meaning or anybody else whatever weeklies put out there was a show we need to really reconsider what 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 web site 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 is 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 it 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 of americans and others is a result of foreign policy that makes sense not one that's just done for making profit for a train. national corporations one thing that the wiki leaks documents showed was that the state department and the military work hand in glove with transnational corporations for their profit and not for a national security what's under my our national security is not bradley manning if you do what he's accused of well there are 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 and creating more fast 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 obama himself have already sort of made up their mind about amending skills i want to play something the president said recently the you know individually the you know the the. 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 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 all are under obama's command he says they broke the law or they're going to find against their commander in chief now they put in place a judge judge on monta 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 coombs manning's lawyer today asad that judge recuse himself because of conflicts of interest he refused who's asked to appeal that the judges ruled against manning on a critical point allowing the witnesses who classified these documents to explain why they were classified these documents that were released should not of human classify these are low level documents that were that 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 is not a lesson as in why those documents are classified and other those who we cross examine court already this is off to a kangaroo court type of experience was the first day that was kevin zeese a member of the bradley manning support network. all right folks there is a lot going on right now decisions being made that are unprecedented and will have

an overreaching impact on what it means to live in the united states of america just down the street from our studios in the u.s. capitol your elected officials both the senate and the house of representatives have just overwhelmingly passed the national defense authorization act squeezed into this military funding bill are some things we need to talk about two provisions that give the military not just an awful lot of money but lots and lots of power as well through two very controversial provisions one expand the use of military force in afghanistan to include indefinite detention of basically anyone suspected of being a member of al qaeda or quote associated forces so anyone here's the big one it gives the military the power to indefinitely detain american citizens even those captured here in the united states suspected just suspected not convicted of some sort of involvement or affiliation with terrorism in a recent article with the question that can broaden counterterrorism roles open the

door to indefinitely detaining peaceful protesters jay myers and writes that quote the problem is the fourth amendment is the precondition for the first amendment if a person can be detained without a charge leveled than a person can be detained without a crime even alleged to have been committed including a confrontational peaceable assembly it seems to me the fourth amendment has in some ways been thrown out the window and earlier i spoke with jay meyerson a contributor to the online publication truthout for his take on this. yeah well that's incredibly troubling i mean it's not good enough to me to have a president who probably wouldn't detain peaceful protesters because he's focused on capturing terrorists i want the bill of rights which ensures that no president ever can do that let's talk about the bill itself the national defense authorization act this is passed every year this provides funding to the military this is something that a lot of people think is a good think is important. this year very little coverage was done of these two

provisions i know a couple people tried to stop or sort of overturn them i know dianne feinstein wrote a provision that sort of makes part of part of it makes sense she would imagine that it makes part of it no one void and then mark udall the udall amendment went on the floor and this was overturned why is this not as big of a deal i mean i'm i just overreacting are you just overreacting. i know it's a huge deal the reason the media don't want to cover it is because there is broad bipartisan consent to this proposal i mean it really gives the lie to this whole myth about partisan bickering and you know congressional gridlock and all this kind of stuff eighty six senators voted for this thing so when there are issues about you know solving human crises the sovereign debt crisis in europe or the health care crisis in the united states then there is all sorts of gridlock in the

factionalism and other kind of stuff but when it comes to furnishing an executive branch with huge powers which let's say president bush and president obama both already claim but this gives congress's augusto imprimatur to them when it's to do with that well then all the sort of partisan bickering stops and you get overwhelming bipartisan support for the measure and as long as there is overwhelming bipartisan support then there is no political horse race to cover and everybody turns a blind eye to it it's really really shameful i think it's a really interesting point let's talk about president obama up until a couple days ago president obama had vowed to veto this bill he vowed to veto it for reasons that are a little different from what you or i might say in some way that didn't give the president enough power he thought the bill undermined his power because that too much of the military the president has changed his mind and will most likely sign it and a moment now so what do you think happened here. well it's the

number of bills that he's threatened to veto has done is sort of piling up but i think it's a mistake to think of this is caving because his objection to it wasn't on civil libertarian grounds like anybody who has any interest in upholding the bill of rights his interest as you say was in furnishing the executive branch with even more power with taking power from civilian prosecutors and the f.b.i. and all sorts of other law enforcement agencies and just reserving it for himself and for the military. so in essence the objection was on the opposite grounds from the actual humane ones that one could level at the thing and once congress congress really is the one who gave once congress caved on that point the president was happy to sign it into effect you know as i say he's already been claiming these powers this is a really important thing for people to understand president obama has been claiming these powers as we've seen he's claimed the power to assassinate american civilians abroad with no due process at all this is just codified into law by congress in

a way that's really disgusting and actually there are provisions in it that i don't fully understand as i'm not a legal scholar that i gather based on the reporting of jonathan turley glenn greenwald and others makes it really difficult to legally overturn these provisions as well so it's really a shoring up of the kind of. civil libertarian and civil liberties abuses that president bush started with after nine eleven and it makes it really difficult to see a way out of this horrible quandary that america finds itself in and say i too am not a legal scholar but when you say that from what you read from what you understand that this will be hard to legally overturn that's a surprising to me because it seems that the most basic constitutional. you know provisions in there at length as we're talking about before the fourth amendment those are being ignored how how is it that this is so difficult to legally overturn . yeah well the thing is the law the sort of legal

superstructure of the united states has been very subservient to politicians and especially to intelligence agencies in the military in terms of the fight against terrorism which is how this whole thing is framed it's useful to remember that this is all you know according to the politicians about terrorism but the fact of the matter is that it leaves everybody vulnerable to the thing it might be that no president will ever use these powers to target anybody other than people that they legitimately suspect to be involved in terrorism but the reason that we have these provisions is to take away that that sort of arbitrary handing out of justice and to make this a nation of laws the fact is that occupy the london stock exchange the metropolitan police put out a memo equating the occupiers there with. fark and other terrorist factions there's been a lot of insinuation there were counterterror cops that i've seen with my own two eyes down in zuccotti park surveilling and harassing the protestors down there

there's a deep insinuation that dissent is somehow connected to or accessory to terrorism and that's a really horrifying prospect because once we have provisions in place that give unfettered authority to detain indefinitely without trial anyone even just suspected of being a terrorist well that opens up the field to peaceable assembly as well the more that this terrorist as protestor or protestors terrorist miss is transmitted through the channels of the media it's really really scary and people have every right to be very concerned about this i think you're right and i think under the guise of being at war whether you know the war in afghanistan or the war quote on terrorism i think that's when things get really murky and that's what these new provisions signed into law really added it's sort of a stamp of approval on allowing the marking us i want to talk about one other thing i want to have you here and this is the. piracy act it's just sort of an extension

of another way in which congress is interested in expanding rights to the powerful and i know that it looks like debate will pick up after the holiday break congress decided to give this one a rest for now but what this does is this gives us law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking and copyrighted intellectual property. it's just really really interesting to me when you look at what congress is trying to do maybe they're using the time being so close to the holidays to do this but really trying to just expand the power of what lawmakers have the authority to do what do you see happening here with sopa. i mean i see civil libertarians losing another big fight it's because that's all the tappan since nine eleven the patriot act an extension of it and all of the all of these laws have just been put in place to. prop up and expand vastly the powers of law enforcement that may be up to no good

we have no checks on them and to diminish the power of individuals this is exactly i mean it's there's a lot of hemming and hawing about how occupy wall street is sort of unfocused or people will only talk about the financial crisis or whatever but actually what this is about is reclaiming not reclaiming because it's not obvious that we ever had it but claiming power for ordinary citizens and everything that that you know of bridges that power from environmental abuses to war abuses to legal abuses like these will will you know fire up the protests even more and i think that we'll see a big protest backlash against this kind of thing. and a contributor to truthout interesting discussion there thanks so much. now let's talk about last night's republican presidential debate the final debate finally before iowa the iowa caucuses on january third i'm going to say it was a little less fun and exciting without herman cain but one exchange from last night is worth noting at the back and forth between michele bachmann and ron paul on the

issue of iran. about a shadow of a doubt that with iran will take a nuclear weapon they will use it to wipe our ally israel off the face of the map and they have stated they will use it against the united states of america look no further than the iranian constitution which states on equivocally that their admission their mission is to extend shahade across the world and eventually to set up a worldwide caliphate we would be fools and needs to ignore their purpose and their plan. obviously i would like to see a lot less nuclear weapons i don't want iran to have a nuclear weapon i would like to reduce them because there would be less chance of war but to declare war on one point two billion muslims and say all muslims are the same this is dangerous talk yeah there are some radicals but they don't come here

to kill us because we're free and prosperous or they go to switzerland sweden i mean that's absurd if you think that is the reason we have no chance of winning this they come here and they explicitly explain it to it as the cia has explained it to as is said they come here and they want to do us harm because we're bombing them what is the whole world about the drone being in iran and we're begging and pleading and how are we going to start a war to get this drone back why were we fly in the drone over iran why do we have to bomb so many countries why are we and. have nine hundred bases one hundred thirty countries and we're totally bankrupt how are you going to rebuild the military when we have no money if we have an avowed madman who uses that nuclear weapon to wipe nations off the face of the earth and we have an i.e.e.e. a report that just recently came out that said literally iran is within just months of being able to obtain that weapon and nothing could be more dangerous than the

comments that you just say all right. no you in report you said that is totally. wrong on what you what you just said i was knowing that that is not true they produced information that led you to believe that they have no evidence there is no it would be no enrichment and i believe i always say if we agree with the united states people take me every chin are going to i'd like a lot of like to finish if she thinks we live in a dangerous world shots think back when i was drafted in one thousand nine hundred sixty two with a nuclear whistles in cuba and kennedy call screw chef and talks to him and possible out of this and we don't have a nuclear exchange and you're trying to dramatize this that we have to go and they treat the wrong like we've treated iraq they kill a million iraqis and eight thousand some americans have died since we've gone to war you cannot solve these problems with or you could solve the problems if we for a constitution go to war only when we declare the war going with them and get them

over with instead of this endless fighting and there's a messiah too that we have all around the world that is presently ready to thank you. i'm sorry what to michele bachmann just say what i think she said and we hear that again but i'm ready to write a thank you. so essentially let's start a war with iran p.s. i love peace there are a lot of things this makes me think of but let me just make a light comparison with two cartoon characters from my favorites charlie brown's little sister sally and linus. at the playground. well i did. not raise them i'm taking the advice if you know i was down. in my mind menstruation children will be children and adults will be just like me even stupid elections

like st q. so. everything is quiet. again this school like you all right so on one hand you have the crazy irrational girl flying off the handle once again and then there's the guy everyone discounts who actually is making perfect sense but i want to go back to this comment by michele bachmann let's hear it one more time but i want to. thank you. there are so many things to say about this first of all bachmann cites a report by the international atomic energy agency that basically says iran might have possibly been working on developing nuclear weapons before two thousand and three and may be doing so now it does not cite any direct evidence of this because well so far there isn't any so michele bachmann is drawing a conclusion based on a hypothesis that's based on premonition fear mongering and perhaps the desires of

the defense community that iran is an urgent direct threat to the u.s. not to be ignored ron paul says you know let's just tell it like it is and be honest about the facts that it's the war mongering that beefs up any threat against the u.s. so what you will about iran but if you want to believe they have nuclear weapons capabilities despite very little evidence fine but don't say you're in favor of peace in the same breath as you say a war with iran just might be imminent let's do a better job here and calling it like it is not how the mainstream media tells us too. and be sure to tune into our next week for a whole new lineup they will not be moved three months into the occupy wall street protests the movement is only gaining momentum occupiers from new york to denver to oakland are battling on two fronts the cold weather and an unyielding political climate thousands have taken to the streets hundreds have been arrested all in the

pursuit of tangible change in the u.s. the mainstream media has ridiculed them politicians have ignored them and yet the occupy movement is still getting louder so on the three month anniversary of the protests we'll take a look at where the movement started and where it's headed. plaza the u.s. military sure loves its high tech toys but lately those so-called military advantages have been failing over and over again whether it's a mysterious downed drone in iran or the leak of thousands of classified documents maybe the u.s. isn't so tech savvy after all and while the u.s. spends exorbitant amounts of money on high tech toys millions of families across the u.s. are barely scraping by living on food stamps some canceling or postponing christmas because they simply don't have the money sixteen percent of america's population live in poverty meanwhile every single day the u.s. that wastes enough food to fill the rose bowl a ninety thousand seat football stadium in california so as so many families go to

bed with empty stomachs this holiday season we'll show you how this country has become the land of the wasteful just some food for thought on this friday night those are a few of the stories we're covering next week along with more news and in-depth interviews interviews so be sure to keep it right here on our t.v. but for now that will do it but for more on the stories we covered go to our team dot com slash usa check out our you tube page youtube dot com slash r t america you can also follow me on twitter i'm at christine for zero the big picture is coming up in just a half hour tonight tom will explain the myth of the greedy founders and explain why the fathers of the u.s. were not part of the one percent but that's going to do it have a great night. you

know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for like you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harkin welcome to the big picture. on. the news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china corporations are all today.