it will already or this or that it's actually creating a platform to have this debate without it being when the new wave of. the powers that be. but that platform might not last for long at least the police have anything to say about it their rating this global revolution stream of thought will explain. it's thursday january eighth seven eight pm in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching r t well we're coming up on the four month anniversary since the occupy wall street movement sparked and took the country by storm and today science police are trying to silence the movement by shutting down a media outlet up until now viewers could turn into global revolution t.v. it's a web site for around the clock live streaming video of what's going on there but the group has reportedly been a victim had from their studio in brooklyn new york police officers also arrested

some of the project's key volunteers this week including co-founder glad tike berg well when global revolution t.v. first started out r.t. reported on how they became a driving force in breaking the information blockade artie's marina port and i reports. from the mass demonstrations of support. to the disturbing images of police force day after day the world has been able to watch occupy wall street in action through global revolution t.v. this is a live web stream document in the ongoing corporate resistance and civil unrest growing and growing in the big apple it's not about one political party or that it's actually creating a platform to have this debate without the being manipulated by the powers that be five years ago blood type was a derivative straighter on wall street today the thirty nine year old is among

those camped out in zuccotti park protesting against the financial institutions he once worked for i saw. combined with the call just the combined with the stool the biggest bomb in the waters of us in the saga world economy co-founded i launched global t.v. weeks ago we're going to bring people into explain what's going on when the occupation movement began in new york will set the steeple how to shoot video of the aether that they just uploaded and how to make it go viral and the whole idea is that you creating its opinions record on the witness now that the movement has exploded worldwide the web channel will be broadcasting live streams for more than seventy countries and six hundred cities we're going to see more people that's going to be like. that with all the other square. in figuring out what's happening there and picking best dreams of putting them on the body with each other so this

sort of a model for a replacement for c.n.n. says mainstream media outlets will be able to marginalize or spin the peaceful uprising as people from all over the world take to the streets demanding elected leaders begin working for the majority. instead of the financial elites it's a worldwide movement and if. these principles of equality are going to be defined everything because the base of creating the united nations it's at the united nations you've got a people. well to dig deeper into this i want to bring in occupy wall street activist goldie he joins us from our new york studio hi goldie oh is no last name ha just goldie just goldie. things are changing in new york city it's turning into damascus here. just have to protect ourselves damascus that is pretty extreme you're saying you're equating what's going on in new york city with what's going on in syria how do you make that comparison well you know it's not quite there yet

but twenty twelve should prove to be an interesting year with the elections and it's just getting. you know with the n.d.a. being passed and. they're starting to target specific people i mean the global red case is a perfect example of it and it's it's a little unsettling now what exactly happened with the global revolution t.v. why was it taken down i mean this is the first time this kind of stuff has happened there's starting to gets i'm not going to say smarter but there's starting to target people and it's not they're not arresting people randomly global rev is broadcasting what we're doing unedited in usually live so it's it's just inconceivable that they would just blatantly attack their offices like this i think it's completely unacceptable it's supposed to the land of the free but this is why they're trying to shut down our information source because the

media doesn't really cover it except for you guys thank you very much but the media doesn't doesn't really give us justice or proper coverage so you think that the police targeted a global revolution t.v. and they wanted to take it down. yes they're targeting certain activists by their name not by their actions i mean we're getting arrested in ways that. are not based on our actual actions at the time they're based on our names so it's it's it's it's getting a little a little crazy what justification that they give you for an acting for infecting you. i mean it's sounds like i'm not a part of the global rev team a part of some other working groups the direct action and others but but they the n.y.p.d. and mayor bloomberg office makes up whatever they want apparently it was unsafe to be to inhabit this space they put up

a notice whatever they want to put up they put up i'm sure we're going to have lawyers working on this but right now there's still a victim it's the same things that go on during our rest they make up the laws and then we find out later that it was illegal. and that's how the n.y.p.d. has been operating and if you ask an officer why are you arresting me they may not know the reason why they're not legal experts they just do a bloomberg tells him to do. so you're not buying whatever justification they are giving you free iraq for for these events as a rasta here. no of course not since day one they've been bending the laws to get on the sidewalk you can't be in the streets get off the sidewalk you can't be you can't be on the sidewalk it's just you know bill they'll arrest you for absolutely anything they feel like arresting you for now do you think they make much sense do you think that the police are this is an attempt for police to silence the movement and would you go as far to say i mean if they're trying to

take down a media site that this is this could be called censorship at. yes i mean you know when we got a victim on november seventeenth i mean in november fifteenth it was there was a media blackout area there was no media allowed and no people in the trains were running i mean it was like it turned into baghdad down there it is the same things we do overseas we're slowly starting to move those those actions those policies that the way they work overseas are they're going to start doing that here and that's why we're seeing these sort of targeting and targets. you know targeting people you know it's definitely turned from a protest into more of a ward seems like the tactics they're using at least and gold i want to talk to us specifically about this media outlet global revolution t.v. and where they fit into the media world what we're viewers getting when they were turning in to global to this media outlet versus what they were getting in the

mainstream media. well they were getting. in the very beginning of day one they were getting the only news out that we had we weren't being covered for seven days we had zero coverage no matter how much we yelled and screamed that they were occupying a part it's very unique in america to come see this and no one came to see us except vlad was running around with his laptop in and streaming that stuff live and it got more people involved in the movement when they found out it was happening so that was our only voice in the beginning and now it's our only true voice still because we have to deal with stuff like you know the new york post a new york daily news a new york times it's always there always printing whatever they want to print which is usually propaganda in america i mean we we think we have great news outlets but we don't so it's never a very clear picture but i'm sure a lot of stream that's live there's no commentary you're just seeing what's happening live. and that's the beautiful thing about it it's basically the truth of

what we're up to and what we're doing ok lastly very quickly just want to ask you you know when we're seeing crackdowns like this targeting specific people as you say specific media outlets on how it affects the movement and at this point where it is heading i mean you know it's going to make us a little bit more angry and it's going to make us adapt it's not going to it's not we're going to grow. the movement exists because of the n.y.p.d. the every every time they try to do something they think it's smart we end up growing stronger so i'm sure it will just grow stronger from this global revel figure out how to do stuff without any laptops or any headquarters i mean well just to death in that we're not going anywhere call the great talking to you thank you for coming on the show that was occupy wall street activists goldie. well so how do you are an r t the first cut is the best and president obama is cutting where it counts and promising a new u.s. defense strategy so why won't the u.s.

give up some of their most expensive military told toys that story next. to the capital account. put a picture of me when i was like nine years old and just you know with true. confession i am a total get a friend that i love driving hip hop music and. i do

this kind of yesterday. i'm very proud of the wall that has played. into it all their military mechanisms to do the work to bring justice or accountability. i have every right to know what my government should do if you want to know why i pay taxes. i would characterize obama as a charismatic version of american exceptionalism. scaling down the military budget that's what president obama is announcing today. as we

look beyond the wars in iraq and afghanistan and the end of long term nation building with a large military footprint we'll be able to ensure our security with smaller conventional ground forces will continue to get rid of dated cold war era systems so that we can invest in the capabilities that we need for the future the obama administration now realizing the u.s. can't fight two wars at the same time because it just costs too much now the department of defense is trying to figure out how to cut some four hundred billion dollars in spending and they say they can do this by ending the wars and cutting back elsewhere while the pentagon certainly has a lot to work with with such a massive budget to put into perspective let's take a look at the u.s. military budget compared to other countries and two thousand and eleven the u.s. pumped five five hundred forty billion dollars into the military compare that to ninety one billion in china russia spent sixty three billion in iran the country

where the u.s. military is keeping close tabs on today spend about nine billion and india spends thirty six billion all these countries combined don't come close to touching the u.s. but now that the u.s. is going broke it says it needs to be more frugal in their military spending this as they involve plans for the most expensive piece of military equipment ever take a look you are looking at the u.s. as gerald r. ford the biggest price tag for any single weapon in history it costs a whopping eleven and a half billion dollars that carrier carrier is worth more than the g.d.p. is of both nicaragua and haiti so is that what you call cutting back look deeper into this earlier i spoke with the retired u.s. army colonel douglas macgregor i asked him if this is money well spent. no i don't think so. the real question for the american taxpayer is are you getting something better a dramatic leap ahead in capability than what you normally would get with

a traditional carrier and the answer is really no it's very expensive we've invested in some new technologies such as the electromagnetic air left aircraft lift system which is designed replace the catapult it's troubled we've got problems with it's not working properly they'll eventually work through that but the question is do we really need it what does it do for us that we don't already get from an existing carrier and they can the question is not much when you're spending billions and billions of dollars in addition to what you'd normally spend you expect a dramatic leap ahead we don't get that with the f. thirty five either which is designed to be launched from these carriers and most of the things that people point to any of thirty five have to do with the intelligence reconnaissance surveillance suite the radars all of those things could be refitted to fifteen's that have sixteenths so the bottom line is if what you really need if you're a cop on the beat in new york what you need is a thirty eight and someone is trying to give the cop

a laser pistol does the cop need a laser pistol only as he probably doesn't so do we need to spend the money for these things i'm not sure that we do they are saying that this is bigger but not necessarily better not dramatically better bet it not good enough to justify the additional billions of dollars that we're investing in it how about why then spend billions and billions of dollars i mean it's meant cost more than the g.d.p. is an entire country and why that pump so much money well there are other questions about the wisdom of this sort of thing first of all when you spend this much money on one platform one ship are you really going to put it at risk what do you really plan to do with it if you go back to the first world war the battle of jutland when the royal navy fought the german navy the royal navy commanders were very reluctant to commit all of their battleships because they were very. incentives to build and they were afraid to lose them we were reaching that point where we're building something that we were afraid to lose and there's nothing we can do to prevent that

from happening if we actually put it in harm's way so the question is do we want to build things that cost less that are more that we can afford to lose if you will in combat or do we want to continue to put our money into these very large expensive capital ships which frankly at sea are becoming more and more vulnerable than they've ever been in our history affect you go back to the one nine hundred fifty s. the sixty's admiral rickover the father of nuclear navy or maybe was asked when he testified before the senate in one nine hundred seventy s. how long would our carriers last against the soviet navy at sea and his answer was two or three days before their sunk maybe a week if they stay in port well that's because the submarine and submersibles unmanned submersibles today these kinds of things are so powerful and so difficult to track that they will put down capital ships like these aircraft carriers in a serious conflict so again what's the rationale strategically for doing this

perhaps it's jobs because clearly you know this creates a lot of employment in norfolk virginia. almost like a really nice car you don't want to. say it's for a show that you don't want to really put in harm's way because of how much money i mean do you think that the money spent on something like this can be better spent elsewhere yes i do but it but again the navy admiral are stuck with the structure that they've had now since the end of the second world war they are doing the same thing that is being done in the army and the air force to a lesser extent and certainly in the marine corps and that is refit the old structures the old ways of war the single service we're fighting establish was left over from one thousand nine hundred five we're refitting those we're not building anything new we're building a better version of what already exists but it is so outrageously expensive is so much more vulnerable today. the question is does it make sense monetarily i don't think it does the other problem with expenses that we've done a very poor job of containing expense the acquisition system is flawed we don't

hold people accountable when's the last time that we conducted an audit of the department of defense we haven't we haven't audited the federal reserve we hear about that a great deal we haven't audited the department of defense and the recent announcement by the president about his new defense plans and strategies doesn't include any mention whatsoever of an audit of financial accountability and we desperately need that so money could be spent recklessly and the public wouldn't even know about it absolutely there aren't these audits and that's that's happening as well as you just that president obama today announced this plan. to draw down troops to decrease military spending but at the same time we have something like this in the works that this is military aircraft the aircraft carrier out there seems to be a disconnect there well look there is no existential military threat to the united states there is no power out there today that it is organizing itself to take on

and destroy the united states we know that we enjoy a considerable lead in many key categories of military power that's not likely to change in the near term. the point is this creates jobs this is a big ticket item that's important to the defense industry it's important committees of the united states the people to manufacture aircraft. we don't have we're not going to occupy anymore muslim countries that's been a disaster in iraq and afghanistan our strategic disaster self-defeating enterprise's that's over that was the signal so what do you do you reduce those ground forces we've started with the army the marine corps will not escape this either there will be more reductions after the next election this is just the beginning but there is no coherent strategy here that doesn't exist it's well we need to cut defense spending so where do we cut first we cut where it's easiest and you go to the large united states on. me which was increased in size for the occupations in iraq and afghanistan you make cuts there and you don't cut these big ticket items because jobs depend on it income depends on but while we are drawing

troops out from iraq from afghanistan there is this mounting tension with iran and i mean do you think that the u.s. is ready to go to war with iran well going to war with iran is very challenging to be perfectly blunt i mean if the united states is twelve feet tall iran in comparative terms is maybe six inches high it's a nonentity militarily it can project military power beyond its borders the fear of iran closing the straits of hormuz is much exaggerated the iranians would suffer terribly from that remember that about eighty three percent of china's oil comes from the middle east it has to pass through the strait of hormuz and so the strait of malacca reach china the japanese the koreans are equally depended upon it no one no one profits from the closure iran has revenues would tank it's already going to suffer as a result of sanctions nothing would improve we would not benefit. frankly speaking this tension is artificial it doesn't have to happen it doesn't need to exist the

iranians would do themselves an enormous favor by saying less. and we would do ourselves a favor by ignoring most of it because quite frankly it's not important they're not going to do it we don't need to engage them there's no nothing to be gained mutually all of this i sadly i think is connected to israel and the israeli fear of iran for rhetorical reasons more than military ones that was retired u.s. army colonel douglas macgregor. and it's not just enormous military gadgets that the military a spending money on as obama announces this a drawdown of troops a massive build up as in the works thousands of u.s. troops now gearing up to go to israel the military is calling it an x. or size not a deployment but this is one serious exercise this is israel says they're ready to go to war with iran so what's really going on here i spoke to jamal of the earlier

to answer just that. what is happening on its face is that the u.s. is working to reassure israel. reassure saudi arabia and the you know gulf states that. we have their backs that we have the security blanket in the region and that they don't have to worry about iran as a threat. but you know as we can see we're getting closer and closer to war with iran. anybody who argues that this kind of extraordinary confluence of events. planned exercises by the u.s. and israel the exercises that iran was doing in the in the persian gulf they would argue that those aren't sort of part of a lead up to eventual military confrontation i think is is probably running out of arguments at this point and the reason that this is happening is that this is the logical conclusion of our current strategy against iran we have sanctions in place with no diplomacy the only way that that is through confrontation they are calling

this particular build up a point an exercise and not a deployment but is there more to it. well this is something that has been planned for quite a while now it's not the first time that this sort of exercise has been done with israel but what is being planned is actually you know back in september the u.s. actually provided israel with an advanced radar and for the first time actually deployed. permanently deployed u.s. troops to israel that was a small contingent of couple hundred troops what we see now though is this much larger exercise not unprecedented but definitely something that is going to have an impact right now as we see this sort of tit for tat in confrontation between the u.s. and iran so we are seeing a lot in that region as you just mentioned this permanent presence and now with this massive military exercise. and this is i mean this is to set up this is

a contingency plan but i would argue that this is a contingency plan that we're going to see in acted if we don't find a way to change course the idea is that we're there to be a massive war in the middle east presumably with iran that we would be ready to have a set of command within israel and actually have israel set up a command center in europe at the u.s. european command and israel at this point seems that both ready and willing to go to war with iran so if they do i mean will the u.s. automatically join them. well it's a funny thing some have said that the obama administration believes that it could distance itself from an israeli strike on iran and there have been these sort of public leaks in which u.s. officials have said israel wouldn't notify us until jets were scrambled in the air before they struck iran but that being said given that we're doing this massive

military exercise doing that the u.s. is actually under obama in two thousand and nine actually provided israel with these bunker busters that presumably would be used against iranian nuclear facilities things me very difficult to not be implicated for the u.s. not to be implicated in an israeli strike on iran and so i don't see a scenario in which this happens and we are not forced into some sort of all out war so you're saying that likelihood is that if israel does the u.s. will go absolutely and that's that's i mean iran iran if it will have said this they're going to consider any strike by israel a strike by the united states now this huge buildup is happening as president obama just today announce that there's supposed to be this big reduction in military spending and in order to do that because he's bringing the troops home from iraq from the afghanistan but now we're seeing this possible military conflict with iraq so is it possible that this isn't really much of a draw down or

a shrinking of military about just a redirecting of resources well you'll recall that under bush we didn't consider the iraq or afghanistan wars as military spending they were a separate budget item and i would argue that you can't actually reduce military spending unless we actually have a strategic realignment that puts more of a focus on diplomacy we can't continue the policies of the bush administration and the previous administrations when it comes to iran policies that can only end in military confrontation if we don't change those we're going to. end up spending the money that prison ministrations would have spent on a war we're locked into this trajectory and one method that the u.s. is using are these sanctions but some argue that these sanctions are in themselves an act of war well iran has said that they would consider sanctions on their oil exports and sanctions on their central bank an act of war. i think it could be

reasonably argued that the covert. covert attacks within iran and frankly some of the things that iran does could all be considered acts of war in that there is a cold war going on there's also an economic war going on against iran so i think that we do have a low scale war right now in the question is does that actually escalate out of control into a full scale war and i'll say that you know what's happening now with iran people are calling it desperation they're saying that what's happening is actually a sign that the sanctions are working but he begs the question what are the same intended to do if they're working to bring us closer to war than absolutely they are working but i don't think that that's the policy or the objective that the american people want to see with this. we've said that the sanctions are supposed to prevent us from going to war but it seems like that's not really what they are accomplishing in the wake of all these events of all the turmoil in the region is

iran is war with iran at this point unavoidable. it is avoidable the question is will we avoid it it was announced today you know turkey is working to broker these talks between the p five plus one and iran if there's a serious investment diplomacy we may be able to get ourselves out of this game of chicken that we've locked ourselves in with in which we're either going to go to war or somebody backs off but you know given the political situation given elections coming up in iran in the united states it's going to take real political courage to figure out how do we do diplomacy how do we take that off ramp and until that happens i think that it will be inevitable jamal thank you for weighing in on this that was a d.b.f. policy director for the national iranian american council. well that does it for now for more on the stories we covered you can head over to argue dot com slash r t slash usa and then you can also check out our you would see a page it's youtube dot com slash r t america you can also follow me on twitter at

liz well the big picture with thom hartmann is coming up in just a half hour tonight tom and his gas well question whether governor rick snyder has declared financial martial law in michigan but that is going to do for the news have a great night. wealthy british. market why and. why not what's really happening to the global economy with my next concert no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser reports on our. down.