wanted to gain political support for his clients in two thousand and six he was convicted of ripping off his clients jack abramoff served three and a half years in prison guilty of conspiracy fraud and tax evasion mr abrams thank you very much for coming since your release from jail you've been very vocal about corruption in washington i read your book and i got a sense of your frustration about the fact that while you were sent to jail people involved in the same corrupt practices are sitting pretty in their offices on capitol help them is frustrated that their people didn't go to jail or prison and prison is not fun and i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy but i guess what i'm frustrated about is that when they had my hearings and trials and when i was sent off there was a big exclamation and celebration here that they cleaned up washington but in fact they didn't clean up washington and so when i came out here after rethinking my

life and what i was involved in decided that they want to clean up washington that i would help them figure out exactly how to do it during that senate hearing when you were publicly bashed by the senate is what were you thinking what were your thoughts as you faced the distinguished panel well i probably was thinking they were a little less distinguished than others were thinking i was reminded can simulate by every word out of there mel they were among the many who participated in some of the corruption that they were accusing me of when one of the senators a senator campbell was accusing me of corruption and me wrecking the democratic system i was thinking back to the breakfast i had with him a couple years before where i handed him checks from my client's contributions and he said that they would never have a problem with his committee so i was thinking that basically about each of them i didn't know a lot of them personally because i had people working for me i had a staff of about forty lobbyists and. some of them knew the people who work for me

but i found the whole thing to be hypocritical it was a kangaroo court and it was a show people say you were a tory it seems your ability to buy members of congress how did you do that i don't think i was necessarily except on the margins much different than most of what goes on here but what happens here most on porch name which what i did in terms of pushing over the lines even of this activity is lobbyists and people want something from congress raise money for congressmen give money to congressmen in terms of political contributions by meals for them take them golfing take them on trips take them to sporting events and i probably did more of it than most did and i pushed over certain lines that are in the sand and broke the law but it's something that goes on far too often in washington you want to set and i found it very very interesting that that once you just a moment you offered a job to a congressional staffer you own them right there was no greater control that people

could have over congressional offices than to have the head of that office know that they're going to come in a few months to come work for a lobbying firm from that minute on those people are focused on that lobbying from their clients and it's not just me i saw it all over tell me it's not something i bet it it's something i noticed and something that i propose now to get rid of by banning people who work on capitol hill or are members of congress from ever joining the lobbying industry of the employments industry in america what did your clients want by investing in politics by investing in you well mostly my clients want to the federal government not to. get all over the back and tax them and their businesses most the lobbying is deep that's keeping the government from doing things to industries and to companies and likely going to help them avoid to behave when i've got presented in a bunch of indian tribes and the way i got into it the first representation to have . but the tribes was to stop the federal government from putting

a thirty percent tax over the gross revenues of their gambling industry and what was interesting about your case it was not just politicians who cheated but also you cheated your clients namely those indian tribes with gambling interests who paid humanely and so what i thought was what i did was where we're about to pled guilty to was some of the efforts that we did for the clients in their states worst to stop their competition from taking away their markets they would crash their competition yes we would attack their competition and we would do everything we could to keep them from invading the market of our client and that's normal in america fortunately for better or for worse that's not something we we made up we're going to have any regrets about doing that well at the end of the day i regret using the political process as a weapon against competitors because at the end of the day i don't think the government should be used like that i didn't have a problem with it then and i shouldn't even if we're talking about millions of dollars in contributions it's still peanuts for any big corporation it's

a tiny fraction of what they make did you get a sense of how powerless average americans are when the interest so big guys like that are at stake on capitol hill well americans have a very tough time competing with these special interests special interests come in with a lot of money and you're right it's miniscule amounts of money compared to what they could do and some of them do a lot of money but it's still a small amount of the problems the average citizen is not engaged politically and when they're able to bring in money and influence members of congress to vote on things that are not good for the country and not good for the general interest because somebody with a special interest is pushing on it that's where the problem starts so what i propose in my book and the effort that i've been engaged in since prison is a way to separate money out of politics here and basically to say that if you're a lobbyist or you're somebody who's trying to get something from the government here you may not give a dollar politically of any. and and that's one of the four things that i propose

to clean up the system i think is very important because the end of the day political contributions if i give you something if you're a congressman and i give you a contribution and i want something from you that contribution may not be cold a bribe but it is a broad at the end of the day how many members of congress are involved in corruption like i think bribery like that well i mean ultimately every member of congress who's taking a check or a contribution from a lobbyist or from a company or from a union or anyone who needs or get something from washington whether it's conscious or not they're involved in it alternately you can't accept something from somebody without unless you're a they're all doing well yes absolutely they all do and what i'm saying is you can't as a human being if somebody gives you something you're going to feel gratitude and even if you don't do with that person once right there you say look you can't buy my vote for two thousand dollars and most of them say that of course but the issue

is if you do something nice for me in my heart i'm going to have to feel little bit better about you and what i'm saying is that is the moment of the problem if you're a public servant with all the crimes that you committed there's still a sense that you were used as a poster boy a kind of a scapegoat for the corrupt system that is very much alive and kicking i want to ask you about the supreme court decision from almost two years ago that allows on limited campaign contributions lobbyist must be really happy about that decision aren't they some are some are you i think the decision was for the most part very good the decision basically said that people shouldn't have the right to get money constricted i don't have a problem with that what i have a problem with his people who want something back giving money even a dollar that's the difference with with me now corporations the problem with corporations the reason why are contradicting yourself you were just talking about how any contribution can be seen as bribery and now you're saying no being able to funnel as much money as you want these. perfectly fine in today's politics no i

don't think so i think people should have the right to get think i've been fairly consistent i mean not to expect anything in return one on one why should you expect something in return there are a lot of people who give money in this country by the way because they like the ideology of the candidate they like the candidate themselves they're not going in there and asking for a grant or a tax break or a contract most people don't do that but it still contradicts what you were saying a few moments ago and that is with any form of contribution especially a big contribution and elected official finds themselves in a situation when they told their benefactors if somebody is worth a trillion dollars they live in some form in kansas and they never have any contact with any congressman ever and they see some congressman they love they want to give him a million dollars because they think they're fantastic and they never ask for a thing from that person i personally think that's all right they have been very hard to track down my you ask possibly i've talked i've talked to law enforcement about this about my ideas and once the laws are set in place i think that they are

capable of figuring it out that decision only created a further complication in my view in the sense that it brought corporations them as a possible donor to political efforts and again don't you think it effectively legalize this corruption and watched why i think corruption is illegal in washington right now thousands of people took to the streets across america to say no to jack paper amounts to saying no to corrupt politics in washington do you think there is a chance that action like that that awareness like that can change anything i think the occupy wall street movement had behind it some good in saying problem is that they didn't organize themselves like the tea party movement did which was politically tea party movement had a dramatic impact on the last election and probably will still in this election and i've spoken to the occupy people quite a lot and told them that until they get themselves organized politically they're not going to be meaningful because in america street protests don't really meaning that. people don't like street protests in america first of all the destructive

there's vandalising there's unsanitary things that go on and most americas the repelled by that what most americans will respect is political activism an organization on the left or on the right now i think that there is anger out there saying we don't have a money to hire a lot of. well that might not be a bad thing but you know american people don't need lobby is they need to organize themselves i think that in america getting into first of all class and b. i think is very dangerous we've seen that every great. tele tarion movement in certainly in the twentieth century started with class and instead of class and be able to focus themselves not on those who succeed but those who choose to succeed in the sense of using the government and using the state to make their lives easier to make more money and there are plenty of those that get it like like i did like i help my clients do and like every lobbyist helps their clients do importunately had it not being for the jail time which you've been just as we're painting as you are

now if i hadn't had the fall if i hadn't had been destroyed i would love to sit here and tell you i would have all my own come to how bad this was and you know i should have been doing it i should have been involved in that kind of lobbying but i'm not going to lie to you i would never thought that i thought i was doing the right thing that's the sad part of it all for me so as i look back i would have stopped i would have still been doing it instead of been sitting in here with you i'd be sitting on capitol hill negotiating something for one of my clients. took my getting killed for me to come that would realisation that i should have been there what do you plan to do. in the process of. possibly one amp of the t.v. show thank you. we have seen the damage it has done to our environment mark chemicals what the four

props we do not want anymore new deal molds. our core system is to say there was a dismal experience and i'm just just appalled but that's allowed to go on in america. eating this unfortunately because we don't know what's in it there's no labeling there for it being used like the board to experiment could be used as getting. old now we have more questions than we have had three guards. like. wealthy british style signs it's time to.

market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds a report. now round up of the week's top stories and headlines the arab league extends its observer mission in syria by months as saudi arabia withdrawals its monitors critical of the lack of progress in ending almost a year of violence and early results show croatia has voted in favor of joining the european union this comes as yet another member of the financially stricken union romania rises up against its governments and measures. another all stories that shaped this week's tension over iran's nuclear program reaches a new highs as the e.u. debates an oil embargo and the u.s. ups its military presence in the region. and the power of the internet inaction the

massive online backlash over u.s. plans to expand the web censorship elite's of a suspension of pending anti-piracy blogs. sports news is next with kate. hello welcome to the sports and here's what's coming up. easy does it rafael nadal and roger federer coast into the quarter finals of the australian open. while different strokes kim clijsters comes back from the brink while carline both nancy defies a second set fight back to reach the last eight. and showtime east meets west once again in the annual all star extravaganza in front of a sellout arena in the latvian capital rica. but first

a tennis and second seed rough on the doll has beaten fellow spaniard philip the our life path in straight sets to book a place in the quarterfinals of the australian open the two thousand and nine champion was broken only ones as he eased to a six four six four six two victory against his misfiring davis cup team mate thank you thank you thank you to unforced errors walnut all felt a little remorse after knocking out his friend. for a number of very is one of my best friends and. that's the game that's a sport and you understand that's all leo gave. there were about who wants to win there would be the ones to have. the ones who finish the match with the was a better result. with the motions are similar you know it's happens very often. and up next when a doll is big serving commercial burger king produced twenty eight aces in his

brewing and ill tempered for settling the space nicholas home library check was booed off of the match as the seventy refused to shake hands with his opponent that it apparently took offense after a micro returned a ball and of his head during the fourth set and wouldn't accept and we apologise. who is afraid to danny's knows the record is pretty big and you always have a some space to do to put the ball in snow even if you if you stand each other like to your four meters close to the guy just try to headed straight straight to your face you know i was just able to do something or someone from down just hit me in the arm and i'm there to do you know i actually did you know the way i would do any of these well elsewhere there was a bit of heartbreak for the local crowd as home favorite in our climate was fairly beaten by mortified us a trademark backhand winner clinched the second set for the swiss drew the applause of white america. sounds better than swiftly served out the third as the wild

number three to thirty first consecutive quarter final to slam events. and waiting for federer in the last eighty one martine del potro after the argentinian rolled past it called shriver the germany. while women's defending champion kim clijsters played to an ankle injury and saved for much points to stun the french open champion li na the belgian contemplated retiring after landing more quickly at three zero that was to take six to meet in the second set tie break but jubilant prices for back to take the thirty six ball. last moment some point you can use i could just try to do another to mitigation. sink in or you know if i could get through those first twenty minutes half an hour. you know i think the pain would go away a little bit and then maybe with your journal and i could just through it and. have

this that i didn't then give up. the belgian will next face top seed caroline wozniacki who held up a second set fight back by serbia's yelena yankovic's the former while number one committing her fiftieth unforced error to hand wozniacki six love seven five victory the dane went out in the semifinals last year just a step away from defending her ranking points of number one spot. in form by the russian victoria azarenka hit a forehand when i brushed aside yvetot and ensure that the czech republic sixty six to three seed enjoyed it so well that the string victory. and waiting in the quarter finals is number eight seed agnieszka advantage the pole needed less than an hour to overpower germany's you six one six one twenty two year old going in confidence after injuring his three set battle in her opening match. basketball now

and despite resting from what i could olenka and men i've kissed each test gusto trounced a massive underdogs minsk by an impressive fifty point margin here in moscow to maintain the group the lead in the international d.t.b. tournament while the home side got off to a rather slow start as dwayne hawkins poured into travels all the bats to get the better machine visitors and early eight four lead the americans would eventually top score with nineteen points but put themselves into the driver's seat by the end of the opening for test and never looked back sasha can lead to that charge with a team high eighteen points and some spectacular slam dunks six more players and toppled to get to scott who eventually won it one hundred ten to sixty moscow club chalking up their ninth when intent games since the start of the regular season time later admitted it's more a training session than a match for this summit. the world is a good little world and well our opponents on squad at the same level as the other

teams in the league you know what about let's do it any team can beat another team at any given time but if you don't give your all so i'm happy with the way i played . and over in the n.b.a. the grizzlies won their sixth great game with a one hundred twenty eight to ninety five home way of the struggling kings late in the first quarter mike conley signed his seventh basket from seven shots at memphis thirty four twenty one out of sacramento climbed back to within eight points in the second after the deaths jumper took just seconds to go but then the home side pulled away after the break marc gasol and rudy gay for a stylish dunk packed with repeated the feat a perfect hour you memphis seventy eight sixty ahead and the final quarter was all about gasol as that was his one by thirty eight points all of their players collecting twenty almost points. finally to ice hockey and thousands of fans flooded to the latvian capital of riga on saturday to watch the east remain

unbeaten against the west in the fourth k h l all star strive against a brother to further knee and reports. lead in the hokey burns region note for the stores. it was their turn to meet the biggest jones your strongest league has stored for the all star game twenty two world. with one of the greatest russian players of all time sergei further of living the peak of the eastern conference and the pride of latin hockey send this as a lynch captaining the best from the west that is why for the first time in the history of the event the arena that with thousand spectators was passionately behind one side the west. and also mention two promptly to believe in the so-called super skills show which is a traditional warm up ahead of the all star games with another local idol number rigorous miccolis where leagues winning the fastest skater competition. after three

more contests the western conference team were still on bitten although their opponents from the east managed to still show and win. with truckers like somebody results of producing a record breaking one hundred eighty three kilometer no heat in the current shot contest and sergei further up edging out sunday is also ranged in the captain's deal which saw some extra hockey skills on display from the two legends i think will like it. having. sun just like that but i like that it was it was sort of very technical material so it was different it was new how the words were like it and it was it was good innovation meanwhile the most i guess in contest shootouts left many doubts if it's really possible in this world what's blooding after us into the euro sankoh is the reason i don't know how does it look like the park was going our way in the wrong side mccain back this way so i don't know if

you know he's a magician. a secret was that i just made a tiny hole in the park and pollution one through to you. my father told me the street has to be a video on no three previous occasions take a chill star game so the team from these. claimed victory over the peak of the west so this time around greece hope we were about to witness something more than just a friendly showcase love but the real deal not a the action started with no goals in the first ten minutes of the match proving the teams were not just having fun on ice just as they promised before the game we had a winning streak on so. i think. it might be up for grabs today as a book to players on both sides i think they're going to try a lot harder to do one of the sides they get a win under their belts. it was the west open the scoring and guns galore while again to all the teams to turn schooling and taking the lead but if there are

periods under way on level terms all the off to the further fifteen scored through in a row to make it will eight the outcome was inevitable the team from the east remains unbidden at the cage all star games fifteen eleven the final school i think it begins as a friendly. and they game and in the eyes of these and then and soon as the somebody gets ahead it will but more the others name starts to. wear you again get muddy get away like that that there is just standing gradually becomes a little bit. more more competitive than it was in the beginning but still of long game nobody wants to get hurt of course and. have a good time and enjoy themselves this time around was different from any i appear i think it was. twenty interesting combinations i think guys basically try boy often so it's very. as zero which is. for any all-star games but

like i said we have a streak of for awful goals one line do a really good job but. we got lucky and we got. quite advantage there next year the case all stars to make it to the full of the usual mountains of the eastern russian city of chile evans. a bit further known artsy lucky. and also. by hand. well for. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered.

roundup of the week's top stories in today's headlines the arab league calls on syrian president bashar al assad to surrender some of his powers to his vice president and form a national unity government with the opposition this comes as the league extends its observer mission despite the lack of progress in ending almost a year of violence. early results show croatia has voted in favor of joining the european union this comes as get another member of the financially stricken union remaining rises up against its government's anti austerity measures. and in other stories that shape this week tension over iran's nuclear program reaches new highs

as the new debates an oil embargo and the u.s. ups its military presence in the region. and the power of internet action our massive on line backlash over u.s. plans to expand web censorship leads to the suspension of pending anti-piracy moments. thanks for being with us three o'clock here in moscow their arab league is demanding a series of reforms in syria to stabilize the country in the wake of almost a year of violent uprising and has called on president assad to cede some of his powers to the vice president as well as work towards a formation of a national unity government arab league officials say their monitors will continue to implement a peace plan in the country despite saudi arabia withdrawing in its contingency and as r.t. sara first.