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tv   [untitled]    December 28, 2011 10:31pm-11:01pm EST

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more news today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are on the day .
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that. week. recently new gingrich toward americans that they will be in danger for the rest of their lives and one of the things that they have to worry about according to newt is a secular atheist country dominated by radical islamists so we're going to call him out. of time for tonight's two all time award and tonight's winner is the flip flopping muslim hating adulterous and repeat till dime winner newt gingrich that's right newt is our told time winner yet again and this time it's not for changing his positions so many times on libya that we can't even keep track or for claiming that
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he cheated on his wife because he just loved his country so much which i will say we didn't give him a few points or just for creativity because honestly i don't know where he comes up with that stuff you know this time new wins are too old to award for his comments about his fears for the future of the united states at the mega-church of reverend john hagi newt stopped by the mega church over the weekend but before we get into new what he said let's do a little bit of background or on the friend the reverend turns out the reverend how you kind of like hitler as in he was a fan of his work with the jews here's an excerpt from one of his sermons where he set god says in jeremiah sixteen behold i will bring them the jewish people again and to their land that i gave to their fathers behold i will send for many fishers and after i will send for many hunters and they then the hunters shall hunt them that would be the jews then god sent a hundred hunters someone who comes with a gun and he forces you hitler was a hunter so when these comments were brought to john mccain's attention during the
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last election cycle he immediately rejected the endorsement of the reverent but not mute hell newfield just fine speaking at this mega church down in texas and in fact when he spoke there over the weekend he had quite a few interesting comments about the america that his grandchildren will grow up in and i warn you it's very frightening he said. i have two grandchildren maggie is eleven robber's night i'm convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of america by the time they're my age they'll be in a secular atheist country potentially one dominated by radical islamist with no understanding of what it once meant to be an american so let's break this down because it all sounds very very scary for nukes grandchildren first of all america is going to turn into a secular atheist country ok i got that young americans are less religious than their elders these days but it's also going to be dominated by radical islamists now i'm just confused how can
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a country be run by evil anti religion atheist and also be dominated by radical islamists with the two groups really get along considering that one doesn't believe in religion and the other is radically religious so newt touché you manage somehow to combine all of your boogey men into one thread even though these two threads are completely contradictory to each other and make absolutely no sense together and that is why you went tonight's tool time award once again. he's famous for leaking the pentagon papers and exposing the horrors of the vietnam war to average americans much like bradley manning he was called a traitor by many at the time of the leak but now he's considered an american hero so here's an interview with the man himself daniel ellsberg now the administration continue to turn a blind eye the public began shining and they went to quantico to protest manning's treatment and keep in mind he still has not been convicted of any crime but it seems the president already has his mind made up on manning skilled.
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in the big. house move forward april twentieth of this year after facing scrutiny from the public over his treatment of quantico manning was transferred to a new facility in fort leavenworth kansas now while this. but he's also closed off to the public word is that manning is being detained in much better conditions so we wait for a trial to begin let's take a minute to see how weak how bradley manning have changed the world over the last year earlier i caught up with daniel ellsberg former u.s. military analyst who famously leaked the pentagon papers in one nine hundred seventy want he's also the author of the book secrets a memoir of vietnam and the pentagon papers and i first asked him if you think this has been a good year or a bad year for journalism on one hand we saw trove of documents that were reported on but only because wiki leaks was willing to release them and we know that our mainstream press might not have done the same. well that's true every time there's
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a major leak of any sort whether it's the pentagon papers forty years ago with thousands of pages or particularly claim to be and as a wiretap one of those wiretap that for which the new york times got a pulitzer prize after sitting on it for a year it's a request to the government in any such case it would be well for readers and journalists both to look back and say why didn't we have this before who misled us for we to go of all was it too easy to fool us and who did the full interview listening to those people with the same credibility as before very little of that seems to go on that retrospective look and i think it should be for example in the case of the iraq war logs of the fact that the pentagon had been saying for years we don't do body counts we don't know how many civilians were killed over there the logs show in fact that they were counting up very well and that there were fifteen
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thousand there had not been reported in the press earlier really an occasion to to look at what whether the president doing its job in asking those questions about was take the apache helicopter case that was revealed of the video of the people to shut up in iraq. and syria any investigation either by the press or the government as to why that had been refused under freedom of information and for several years even though reuters and been trying to find out why under what circumstances their people had been killed in that very attack and what did it show about the rules of engagement a lot of people should like that i'm afraid that there are there hasn't been very much curiosity in a way as to whether the process of informing the public by the press could be improved if they were more skeptical of if they were more probing in their investigations and why do you think you have to enlarge carry off any opera. the
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general american public a lot of people have credited. with some of the information that they put out as to spring of the revolutions in tunisia and egypt but the majority of the information that you that was released if we're talking about the apache helicopter if we're talking about the iraq war logs or the afghanistan war logs that's damning information about the u.s. government and how it conducts its business health conducts wars on behalf of the american public so why haven't we seen more of an outrage from the american people . i actually the to reflect on that is rather dismayed it does confirm what some people have told me for forty years now that the it doesn't prove it but it's in the direction of saying that the american people don't care that much about who would kill him over there i've hated to accept that diagnosis but there's a lot of evidence for that there isn't that much interest in how many people are being killed collaterally supposedly of the thousands of people millions of
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altogether in the middle east that sounds excessive but it could easily be over a million in iraq and yet there's been no pressure from the public to pin that down or to get more information out of the torture information came and went or of us the photographs of upgrade were before the election in two thousand and four and yet that wasn't the factor in the electoral debates the campaign debates of that year. the public didn't show much concern or for that matter about the n.s.a. warrantless wire taps i think that should have been the basis for very great public concern who is being tapped what journalists what congresspeople are being tapped and what is being done with that information and how many people congress itself doesn't know the answer to those in the public i have to say hasn't demanded in a way that there's not a great public concern for maintaining democracy i'm sorry to say that as an
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american but that. i still have hope it will recover it. well in that case let's segue over to bradley manning the young military and analyst who is accused of leaking these documents to wiki leaks so we have been following his story here closely on the a lot of show about the treatment and the conditions that he was in while he was held at quantico and now he's of course at fort leavenworth but once he does go to trial do you think that there's a possibility for this man to get a fair trial we've already seen videos of the president himself saying that he thinks he's guilty saying he broke the law figure by a military standards it's not the same as fair because the regents evans' even by military standards we do have a case here where the commander in chief has pronounced him guilty saying broke the law even before he's on trial now if president nixon had done that during my trial we certainly would have pressed for a mistrial whether we got better as it was or the charges were dismissed at the end
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because of governmental misconduct of different sorts and i would say that in this case there's been very clear cut governmental misconduct as the former former state department spokesperson p.j. crowley said the treatment of him in history or conditions is in his words been pretty stupid ridiculous counterproductive he could well have said. illegal and even the money to torture and abuse and i think that is the case i think that actually the charges whatever their merit other was a chance for bradley manning could will and should will be dropped at this point in a military court martial because of those abusive conditions now of course people like yourself think that bradley manning if he did indeed these documents is a hero is a patriot you say that you were bradley manning but then of course we have a lot of politicians pundits americans to you that think that bradley manning is
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a traitor and you also were given at that label at one point but now i think that it's fair to say that you are nationally seen as a hero that you did something for this country and putting the pentagon papers out there helping and the war in vietnam do you think that it's just going to take a little bit of time and then maybe perceptions about manning will change i'm not sure how many people have changed their opinion of the e.u. or of the war no a lot of people of course did change their opinion on the war over time and that led them to change their opinion of me but i think people who regard bradley manning is a traitor without any basis that all of the terms of the constitutional bifurcation of creature that hearing to our enemies to say that in time of war giving them aid and comfort to see that bradley manning it appears to the taliban or to ok that is absurd he's no more a traitor than i was already and i've got and that's absurd sue that the you know sure that he's aiding the enemy actually played on that without any question of
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intent that george could almost that without any question of return to be agreed directed to president bush or cheney or rumsfeld people i would say who were indispensable to be recruited for ok this and that's still true of our occupation of iraq in that our escalation of get is then certainly not charging. the president or any of these people with intending to aid the enemy. but if you're going to ignore the question it is this charge does that and it as i say i say it applies to them better than it does to that and so that's an absurd shot on the question of changing their opinion people who think that he was wrong simply to disobey regulations whatever is intent and whatever the impact those people probably could not change their opinion to meet just his negative opinion and i live with that. i think there are they're mistaken but that's their entitle to that opinion the fact is though that in the middle east i'm sure that he. it is not bradley manning but
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the source of the wiki leaks documents whatever that is is very much appreciated in tunisia and egypt the revelation that the american government was well aware of the corruption that they suspect in their own governments were was critical in the nonviolent protests that emerged and that led to their losing dictators that the u.s. government had supported for years it occurred to me that one sometimes there whistleblower is somebody who showed fire in a crowded theater that's on fire and the fact is the middle east is on fire and we've been piling up here looking for the players porter dictatorships for generations and it's time i would say for us to stop that to reverse course that that i said thirty of bradley manning i believe will be seen if he is indeed the source and we could be stuck and as somebody who really contributed to democratic
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change in the middle east. all right mr al very day i want to thank you very much for joining us tonight and of course we'll continue to follow the case of bradley manning here he may have a trial perhaps by the end of this year and we'll have to wait and see but if the chap logs that allegedly bradley manning broke between himself and adrian lamo are correct then those he said that he doesn't care if he perhaps is executed or if he is put away for life for this information he felt it was important enough to get that out there and it is out there and it's making an impact thank you so much for joining us tonight. it's time for one more break the return and interview with dispels that the myths of success about the war in afghanistan.
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download the official auntie application to go on the phone or i pod touch from the top story. which all teach life on the go. video on demand on t.v.'s my old costs and already says feeds now in the palm of your. question on the ati dot com. folks. get are sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.
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generals keep telling the public and the media they were making progress in the war
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in afghanistan but most people have actually spent time on the ground will tell you that that's simply not the case and that includes tim lynch founder of free range international the new secretary of defense leon panetta has been making his rounds warning of imminent doom if the supercommittee fails to trigger mechanism would kick in to slash defense spending now it's not that bringing spending back to two thousand and seven levels of by any means put our country in more danger it just might limit the role the u.s. could play around the world and so we have to ask what is that role that we want to play let's look specifically at afghanistan where this week president hamid karzai has called a lawyer jirga together made up of two thousand afghan leaders to discuss the future of relations with the u.s. as well as to go she actions with the taliban karzai is trying to get the u.s. to keep troops and military trainers in the country for ten years past the two thousand and fourteen deadline as well as getting help financing the afghan security forces of course all this in exchange for full respect of afghan sovereignty and an end to night raids and house searches by foreign troops but it's
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ten years in america's war effort in afghanistan is still failing but what could ten years more really achieve let's talk to somebody who's been there and knows what the u.s. and coalition troops are doing wrong joining me to discuss this is tim lynch founder of free range international tim thanks so much for being on tonight a long time no talk we're happy to have you back on the program. i'm a big thank you all right so let's first start with what's going on in afghanistan right now with this loya jirga that karzai has decided to call it's kind of an old tradition and yet at the same time he's getting a lot of critique for it because well they've been trying to build democracy in afghanistan and now they have elected representatives so what do you make of this weird mix of old and new. i don't like it it's it's it's seems to me that most a lawyer jurga is comprised of ashton's. his chief competitor if you would if you can call it that in a country that has a single book principle it is not there i don't believe many of the pinschers are
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there any of the other ten and so. i don't know what to make of it and i find his dominions to be a little bit unreasonable even though i have to agree and then i've been on record as saying i don't think the night raids are smart move i've now he has demands but he also has desires for troops to stay for another ten years past twenty four. more funding to help train afghan forces can you think of any reason why after twenty fourteen we would still need troops to be there for ten years. no i can't i can't think of any good reason why we would other than the national reputation international prestige and loss of face. but that's that would be a hard reason to sacrifice a son or daughter in a fall and hope if you will and so no i don't i don't see exactly a good reason for staying there. i will i want to get i want to get more into that in terms of saving face and i want to bring up a blog posting about
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a couple of months ago you know where you centrally detailed certain ways in which you think the counterinsurgency campaign there is failing even said that it was all based on a lie so i want to break out of a doubt now you rather the ability of modern western armies to train a mentor afghan security forces is almost zero tell us why. because when we used to be able to do this kind of thing it was when we could nine sent people back and forth in a day back when you had to have a regiment in china you sent the force marines and they stayed there and stay stay there until they were the mission was done in the case of the fourth marines i think was like ten years or so because we have so much money in our expectations of of what we give our troops in a field or so high and so expensive we can't mentor or anybody because to mentor him would require you to live with them and to basically wear what they wearing travel like they travel and do what they do and we don't do that i mean with with very few exceptions some special forces units that do that. you see good mentoring
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done in certain areas of the south but it depends on which battalions they're in which regiment is there as to as to how effective it is not everybody's uniform and and how they do this and so it doesn't matter in the end because they're gone in seven months and so every year the afghan officials are dealing with a different person who is full of good intentions and and knows that right now the big thing is we're not going to kill civilians well ok ok so they go out of their way not but that's not how you win these things you win these things by committing and being there and forcing change and you don't have a legitimate partner to begin with in the in the closet ministration anytime you turn anything over to the afghan government it immediately reverts back to chaos and so i see us actually setting up for another massive civil war there to be perfectly honest but so. at the same time you know right now you have so many veterans that are struggling because they're going on their third fourth fifth
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sixth seventh tours and this is a war that has lasted ten years and so are you saying that it needs that ten years it might need ten more years of because you need to put the time in or they just haven't been putting the time in properly at all because they're so separated because they're on massive bases that have burger kings and pizza shops and whatnot . that's exactly them saying they don't need ten years. i can't think of a legitimate reason why we spent ten years to begin with already there and i believe the afghan people who really really enjoyed my time in afghanistan i've got a lot of friends there it's. in that respect it's cool but but you constant you're spending other people's money in your in your in your in your so in a way the lives of other people short and i know it's just that this is true because what is the point be that. i have no idea to try to prop up the karzai regime that's not a very good plan now when it comes to spending other people's money to you know we
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often hear about massive amounts of waste to the tune of millions if not billions of dollars and then you've written about how through your relationships that you've made over the rear of the years over how knowing how to interact with these people you get stuff cheaper so what can i learn from you. then maybe the most frustrating thing about my entire experience over there they're not going to learn anything from me because they don't want to hear it. being able to successfully operate on on the cheap and live off the phone and live inside the afghan they don't want to hear that because they're not going to do it so it really doesn't matter the fact that i can do that i will in a base. get picked up by. a guy in his in his bed or oldish u.v. that they don't have any air condition this is miller summer sun hundred twenty degrees out and he's ok only got this car for a few minutes to learn how many cars and i'm like oh where did you get this car we rent the car how much you paid two thousand a month i could've bought that car for
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a thousand dollars in who i could have bought early but this is the kind of ridiculous nonsense that goes along with a big army big thought mentality. and to me it's just you know as a guy who spent his entire adult life as a in the marine corps it's most disappointing to see because that is not the way to we talked about doing this back in the ninety's when we were talking about doing exactly this kind of operation so he blamed that on the blame that on kids here in congress and big defense contractors have a lot of lobbyists more more more or is there just a general lack of you know the ability to use use the word fail and ever put it into the rhetoric so that you can actually realistically look at what you're achieving and what you're not. yeah i guess i don't i don't know where to start the but i think there's enough blame to go around. to a whole host of people starting with the general colin powell and his if we break it we've got to fix it i don't think we can break it and i fixed it we're going to do i mean i mean we could have done what we did in two thousand and one had
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a little drug or said hey boys just keep yourselves under control and please if you get rowdy in school over the borders again we're going to come back and it's going to be even worse i think that might have been a good play but at the time i didn't think that. even you know it took me seven years of being in afghanistan before that to finally realize just exactly how how how how and we are at this kind of thing you know how much money we waste wantonly flying in five pound bags of ice from saudi arabia. who are who do this kind of thing only us apparently apparently we do well tim thank you so much for catching back up with us now it's my pleasure thanks for having me on. why that's it for tonight phil thanks for tuning in and make sure they come back tomorrow i can show you one of our favorite episodes in this here our trip as a comedy part to cover occupy wall street protests after saturday and i mean time to forget some fan of a lot of show on facebook and follow us on twitter if you ever miss anything you
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can always catch all the you tube dot com a flash deal on a show you will find the interviews as well as the shell in its entirety coming up next as the rules. lol.
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if. me believe he gave me if he. believes. it's.
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hello i'm tom foreman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture newt gingrich isn't the only prominent republican who failed to make it to the primary ballot in virginia rick perry's name will be absent too but unlike new rick perry is suing i'll break down the irony of young the republican voting fiasco in the commonwealth state and republicans a little problem on their hands in iowa we'll dig into that with our panel tonight .

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