market. why no one should really happening for the global economy with much stronger or an overage hard look at the global financial headlines. there's a report. tonight on our t.v. sixteen afghan civilians dead and so many more unanswered questions aside from the poor and how all of this tragedy americans want to know why why is the u.s. still in afghanistan after so many years and when will troops finally leave we'll speak to author michael o'brien about where this war is heading. and another question mark in america's eyes syria what to do and whether we should intervene and today's u.n. security council meeting didn't bring much more clarity about question of bring you the latest from new york. plus than the national defense authorization act is supposed to do what its title suggests but looks can be deceiving the bill could

actually take away more freedoms than it guarantees and now a team of authors activists and politicians are trying to stop the law in its tracks we'll tell you how. a good evening it's monday march twelfth eight pm in washington d.c. and christine for as you're watching our team. well there is worldwide shock and outrage today after a weekend massacre in afghanistan a shooting rampage led by an american soldier who left his base saturday night more than a mile and broke into several homes killing sixteen civilians including nine children three women this all happens in the bob village in the punjab we just heard of khandahar this area is actually considered to be the birthplace of the taliban were to say after the shootings the man gathered some of the bodies and then set them.

on fire before returning to his base and turning himself in that man is now in custody now according to u.s. officials a staff sergeant based at joint base lewis in the court in washington state he's married with two children he's already served three tours in iraq and has been in afghanistan since december now as you can imagine this incident has been a major setback in u.s. afghan relations already on extremely shaky ground after last month's incident in which u.s. soldiers burned several copies of the qur'an which muslims consider the holiest of books and the direct word of god the incident over the weekend has raised questions about the psychological impact of war on u.s. troops and the u.s. justice system and the war in afghanistan itself and we want to look a little deeper into this story and to help me do that i was joined a little earlier by michael o'brien after of america's failure in iraq now i asked him to give me his take on how this might affect relations and the future between the u.s. and afghanistan. will. this is

a terrible thing when you know the as you mentioned the qur'an burning big mistake i mean just who was it handled right put it happened and then there's some more will come out i'm sure you know i'm sure as the days go by what happened saturday night. it's about as bad as it gets though you can't get much worse the nurse in the phone use the. three day three deployments in iraq the staff sergeant three deployments in iraq this is his fourth deployment i don't know many of the details about how long he was in iraq and what you know he's been in afghanistan since afghanistan since december but the fact is the way these wars have been handled back and forth back and forth back and forth the soldiers it's arise i'm crazy when i was in iraq or there were i remember more than one soldier who had been deployed five times you know six might not all of them are going on syrian rampages

absolutely not but there's a very high high rate of suicide. god only knows what the divorce rate is i think i read somewhere eighty percent or something like that it's has to be bad how can it not the you know of course of course this is a excuse me zero zero zero or a one off incident. and you know it is it's not happening a lot but it is just it's an indicator which shows that. you know obviously the swords into snapped who knows what happened but i do i do think it it just it just is an example will be it is an extreme one of the constant rotation constant rotation combined with the years to we're going on and on over our involvement to interact in afghanistan is specifically afghanistan and you just said michael this is as bad as it gets let's talk about sort of the reaction from top officials here in the u.s. today we heard secretary clinton saying that this will accept absolutely be you

know investigated that the person responsible will be held responsible president obama called president hamid karzai as he did with it with a letter a few weeks ago after that grand burning incident on what do you think about the obama administration reaction because they said they have done anything different. and honestly i don't really you know it doesn't surprise me i would expect the reaction such as this to a. the thing about it is it's all words i believe these people are going to see action the afghan people it doesn't make sense to that barack obama and secretary clinton would make these statements but it's got to be it's got to be followed through the afghan people are going to expect that karzai is not of a fan of our being over there and you know we keep pumping money into afghanistan and into his government probably into his pocket but you know it can only go so far that any of our and i walking at

a tightrope here trying to get out of you know deal with the u.s. government who a lot of people say sort of is the reason that he's in power and also trying to deal with the people it can't be easy you know on one hand michael a lot of people across the world right now are shocked and appalled by what happened but there are a lot of people also especially those living in afghanistan who are not as socks they sort of group this together with all the other myriad atrocities that have already happened. talk to me about this versus you're talking about the qur'an burnings and how those actually resulted in immediate riots in the street why is it that you don't think recent riots quite yet with this incident good question i really don't know i think i think the afghan people are going to or. the qur'an burning night i don't know maybe it's even to them worse then than when these sixteen innocent civilians being killed because they're so used to death but burning the qur'an you know. that's another that's another whole story i'm just you

know kind of guessing at that. but you mentioned the you mentioned cars i walking a tight rope he's getting stuck between a rock and a hard place real quick here because we're supposed to be here for another two years and we've been there for you know over ten years now and the afghan people on the right after the korean burning well what else can they do there they're sick of it. they're sick of the whole thing but they're powerless they're powerless to do anything about the at the average afghan he person is cowardice the only ones who have any kind of power at all are the insurgents that are able to you know get guns and get arms and blow people up about regardless that i mean the u.s. and afghan people are trying to work on sort of an agreement for this transition that to take place in twenty fourteen handing over power and getting the right people trained how does that even possible only the smoke and mirrors yeah i mean it's not going to happen that's all that's all talk it's old diplomat is it not that going to hell and then why doesn't the u.s.

just get out now i mean even the most hard line conservative people who support this war people who even face such things as the afghan people should be happy that we've instilled democracy there here and they now have an example pointing in their face as to why the afghan people are in fact not happy that we're not we're not instilling democracy anywhere we're not and still you can't instilled a model that is united in a first use for this is the hardest course and it's a bogus organ because you can still democracy when it's of going to tribal system for thousands of years for three four five thousand years since the time of abraham before you can't all the sudden because the united states wants to say you know what we're going to be a democracy we're going to show you how here's the money and this is the. but your question hits goes right to the heart of the matter i was thinking about this before i came on your show if it comes down to one thing why are we still there

why are we still there and went there after the after nine eleven and i read so i read in one of the articles today you know somebody made reference to it to come out and secretary clinton somebody i should say that somebody made reference to we have been there fighting the fight since nine eleven. since nine eleven but you know my love into you know world love and years ago were seventy eight years ago. the person who said that you didn't realize that they were also highlighting the fact that we've been there for them to me a few years and when does it end and when you know things like this happen the korean burning happened and all that other kind of thing and i get to the back to the point what does this have to do directly to have to do with the safety and security of the united states of america i think it's very easy to argue that it's making the safety and security of the united states of america much worse because people from other countries see incident like this really good points and sadly we're out of time thanks so much michael o'brian author of america's failure in

iraq i'm sure you're seeing a lot of similarities to those failures that you witnessed in iraq with what we're seeing here in afghanistan thanks so much. relative to new york where russian foreign minister sergei lavrov met with secretary of state hillary clinton the special topic of their talks now as you do about the situation in syria russia along with china have already vetoed previous attempts by the u.s. and the u.n. security council to try to pave the way to bring down the government of bashar al assad in syria leaders from both russia and china say they're simply following international law and want to try to help the region come up with a diplomatic solution earlier i spoke with r.t. correspondent on a stasia churkin to and i asked her if today's meetings have brought us any closer to an agreement on syria here's her take. russian foreign minister sergei lavrov and his counterparts at the united nations got together for a security council meeting really a rare occasion when foreign ministers descend upon the united nations to hold talks because everybody acknowledges that the seriousness of the situation on the

ground in syria and fortunately from what we know as for the last several months the diplomatic community has not been able to reach a consensus and terms of what to do on the ground as we know of course the united states and the western countries have been calling for regime change on the ground they have been saying that it's important for assad to step down just to to for there to be a solution but russia of course has been saying that this is no way the international community's business and really what's important is for the rest of the world including the u.s. to acknowledge the fact that opposition groups are in fact armed forces and they include forces even like al qaida so certainly russia says regime change will not be a solution and what's important is avoiding the libyan scenario so to the talks continued as the russian foreign minister said it was an important juncture to keep talking but still no compromise and russia believes that unless there is one compromise found it's going to be very hard to move forward and i think one of the arguments

from the other side what is the u.s. saying in terms of this need to be involved this need to see the assad regime fall . well the u.s. you know kind of traditionally believes that regime change is a way to find a solution to a crisis but unfortunately history has shown that that is not the case and sometimes regime change can bring even further violence and a situation that is even worse for the syrian people but the united states continues to say that. the world has to stand up for the syrian people and standing up for the syrian people means backing the position of the united states and its counterparts but that is something that the u.s. keep seeing and they're seeing really the bloodshed will be on the hands of russia and china because the world's conscience really this is the time when it's affected and this is the time to act so really there is a do a big misunderstanding there in some ways that the u.s.

thinks this is the appropriate thing to do we know that the words intervention have not been said out loud yet at least not openly but there have certainly been reports that this is something that's being considered and you know we're going to have to wait and see how this develops whether the diplomats find a joint solution or somebody will start acting unilaterally i think it's important that you ation take a look at this it wasn't too long ago that we saw the u.s. and russia working together on things like the start treaty. but as you say you know now there is some finger pointing going on and there is sort of this notion that the u.s. wants to blame russia for getting in the way for the violence continuing in syria did you sense that energy did you sense a sort of. weird mood between. clinton. well you know there's definitely been some tension in the official positions of course of the two countries and i'm sure that kind of energy continues to exist and so there's still no solution everybody came to new york in hopes to kind of move

forward but that has not happened importantly russia however said that you know it's the finger pointing and blaming people can continue for as long as other countries want but the fact of the matter is that one country and this particular case russia cannot find or you know be responsible for a specific solution and the russian foreign minister was very clear about this earlier today take a listen to what he said his notes or the statement people say that every suggestions of which i would love to see such situations where the russians or the regime in the world the fears and the like i would also like to know through to hold that the united states can magically resolve the newbie's crisis the arab israeli conflict or. stop drug trafficking from of going to what we all understand that these problems of the world cannot be resolved by the desire for us even than systems even action by one country alone.

and russia's position christine is very clear sergei lavrov was meeting with his arab league counterparts the day before coming to new york and they agreed on five key principles of what should come next those things include a halt of violence and a cease fire both sides of the conflict something that the west still refuses to recognize creating a strong monitoring mechanism providing full support to coffee and don's mission on the ground as well as humanitarian aid to all syrians involved in the conflict and really the unacceptability of outside intervention and this is something that's key because we're going to have to wait and see whether countries including the west in the west will be able to refrain from such an intervention all right archie correspondent. up to date with these meetings thanks so much. well this year two thousand and twelve started off with a brand new law the land this was after the signature of president barack obama on a piece of legislation called the national defense authorization act he signed that

on new year's eve and v.a. among other things gives the united states military the power to legally detain suspects indefinitely and without charge or trial and that also includes american citizens so basically the due process clause in the constitution that gets to be ignored thrown out with the garbage and the language in the bill targets not only terrorists but associated forces coalition partners and those who quote substantially support terrorists so kind of glory follow you language there and it offers no exemptions for journalists or any other people so we want to take a look at a lawsuit that is challenging the legality of this specifically the authorization for use of military force aspect of it one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is chris hedges a former middle east bureau chief for the new york times and now a columnist with truthdig kris's also the author of the book death on the liberal

class we had him on the show earlier and i asked him what do you hope to achieve with this lawsuit. well if nothing else to raise public awareness i think it's clearly unconstitutional certainly the lawyers for ancora mayor who are bringing the case believe it is unconstitutional whether we will get a hearing we will find out soon to be in court in a southern district court in new york on the twenty ninth if i am ruled as a credible plaintiff then we can go forward in the first in the lawyers do ten tend to do is to file an injunction because the law went into effect this month that is a decimation of the most basic civil liberties that americans have taken for granted it overturns two hundred years of domestic law which has prohibited the military from functioning as a police force and as you pointed out when you began it removes due process

for anybody who is deemed not not just a terrorist to have contact with these associated forces that's not a term that's defined it's nevertheless it's quite a frightening piece of legislation i know and someone like you who's worked. over many years working as a middle east correspondent i know you've met with some of these terrorist groups you spoken to members of hamas and the californian liberation organization. are you can third it all that you could be you know charged for guilt by association. well yes precisely we went through the state department list of terrorist organizations and i have had direct and personal contact with leaders or members of seventeen of those groups as you pointed out hamas jihad i covered for the new york times based in paris after nine eleven and was in mosques interviewing clerics and figures some of whom are now in prison. who were have been

charged as being members or leaders of al qaida yes when the state department or the government the white house dislikes reporting that we do this happened to me when i covered the civil war in el salvador under the reagan administration or even in the balkans or the middle east they tend to shoot the messenger or attempt to shoot the messenger and i have been you know in eat dinner at the homes of a doctor and he see a new user on two of the leaders of hamas who were later killed by the israelis in targeted assassinations and as you know again as you said there is no exemption for journalists because of the amorphous nature of the language it is a very short step for those of us who do have direct contact with these individuals and with these groups to be branded as accomplices and we are seeing now with

the use of the espionage act on the part of the obama administration six cases and since the espionage act was passed in one thousand seven hundred by woodrow wilson between then and the obama administration only three cases there were only three uses of it none of those cases went to the supreme court certainly one of the cases maybe bradley manning maybe sterling maybe another will reach the supreme court i think it's widely assumed that the court will uphold the use of the process. people who have spoken to the press and given what is considered secret classified information to the press and at that point we have a de de facto official secret act we shut down any anything but the official narrative the official version of events so when you put what's happening within the court system and the espionage act with the end of the national defense authorization act towards this latest incarnation of the n.b.a.

it really. you know is a giant step towards. kind of corporate fascism and it will put more than a chill because anybody who leaks essentially can be sent to prison for life and part of the you know one of the biggest criticisms of course is that it can impact american citizens which is new but the president president obama issued a signing statement that said it would not be used on american citizens why isn't it good enough. well because it has no legal standing and dianne feinstein had proposed when she discovered that u.s. citizens indeed could be caught up in this dragnet essentially extraordinary rendition on the streets of american cities and not only sent to kill or terry facilities but sent to these offshore penal colonies abroad like one time tomorrow that they insert into the language that u.s. citizens would not be subject to this kind of treatment and that was rejected by

both the obama white house and the democratic party so we know from leaks out of carl levin's office he was the democratic senator and co-sponsored the bill with john mccain that all of the disputes of the white house were never over whether or not u.s. citizens would be deprived of due process but over who would decide which citizens were going to be subject to that treatment and which citizens would be exempt the white house wanted that authority they got it once they got it they signed a bill and you know something i find really interesting is as i'm president today as this law is a lot of people have never even heard of that and you know that's you know for the nonpartisan don't support it i think i read between two and nine percent think it's a good law how did this come friday and how did it how is it that so many people still have no idea that this is a law. well this is just part of the failure of the corporate media. you know at

this point because it has bipartisan support because the acceptable range of political discussion in this country runs as dorothy parker once said of. katharine hepburn's emotional range as an actress from a to b. you know anybody who raises these kinds of issues is automatically pushed outside of the mainstream and let's remember that obama signed this on new years eve i mean he signed it at a moment when most americans attention were focused elsewhere and there has been official spin by both the white house and the democratic party including this signing statement that mask what this kind of legislation what this bill can actually do and it's not a long bill i mean most if you're interested you should go read it it's it's pretty clear cut and pretty frightening it's not that difficult to pull up and kind of get through chris while i have you here i want to switch gears for just for a second and talk about what happened over the weekend in afghanistan sixteen

civilians killed most of them women and children and what was apparently a u.s. soldier acting alone as a former middle east correspondent as somebody with a lot of experience here i just want to get your reaction when you first found out about this. well that's what happens in war you know the thing is when you're fighting the kind of war they're fighting in afghanistan you are centrally have an elusive enemy an enemy you rarely see attacks are carried out by improvised explosive devices or ambushes where people then melt the assailants melt back into the landscape and this creates what the psychiatrist robert jay lifton calls atrocity producing situations so when you have casualties taken within a unit and you have an inability of no target to strike back against it becomes a very short step to just branding everybody even women and children as the enemy and taking out acts of vengeance against them this is something that we saw

repeatedly in vietnam and i think that this is an incident that illustrates the frustrations that u.s. military personnel face and let's not mince words the fact that we are losing the war in afghanistan and one wishes that the pentagon and the political leaders of the united states had sat down and read the ten year history of the red army's attempt to occupy afghanistan we might have learned something yeah certainly interesting we do appreciate your perspective on this and the national and authorization act if you keep us posted i think you said you'll be in court at the end of the month will definitely keep our eyes out for what happens there billeted prize winning author and columnist for truthdig chris hedges in our new york studio . well let's take a look now at the end tract of us staring measures in greece we've told you for months now about high unemployment rates there and multiple cutbacks we showed you pictures of violent protests in response and that is our c correspondent tom barton reports there are other very dark side effects as well. curriculum

brucey threatens to throw herself from her office window in downtown athens she and her husband have had their salaries cut have debts and a mortgage they can't pay and now they've just learned their jobs are under threat she was eventually told down after many hours on the ledge. this is where geraldo and prosy worked at this organization trying to provide housing support the people on low incomes or they did until two weeks ago when the government announced this place was closing all over seven hundred staff here because their jobs because there's a frantic meetings in corridors and offices distressed workers trying to find out what will happen to them or today based organisation has been going strong for sixty years and it's not fair to send the money to other departments they want to take our money to cover other holes they want to take money for other necessities put all our families will be unemployed if we could save greece ok but there's no

way that money will fill the gap you know with the old so stacked against them some desperate greeks even contemplate ending it all. and this is the only phone line in the country for steady catered to stopping them line ten eighteen is greece's single volunteer run charity suicide prevention line in two thousand and eleven calls here doubled calls like one the telenor picked up from another standing on the fifth floor of a building threatening to jump said a family member a child with it was handicapped and their receive the benefit and this benefit benefit was about the cuts and she was about to lose we're told and said there's nothing they can do what can i do to help my child what can i do to help myself it's an adult i don't want to suffer anymore the charity to is short of money it's volunteers unsure of their future although many greeks grudgingly accept the need for austerity they're adamant that m.p.'s should combine compassion with the cuts

the main program thousand funding is strategy because this was the one thing it's like three people like this side of the column of the market in the house or everyone agrees that greece's road to recovery will be long and painful but greater and greater numbers of greeks worry that the debt the country is in. could cost there from least much me to just money. i'm not going to do it for the news tonight but be sure to stick around for the big picture it's coming up at the top of the hour and host tom hartman will tell you all about the american legislative exchange council and why it's the most powerful corporate front groups you've never heard of in fact the group is so powerful it actually is writing legislation and passing it along to lawmakers around the country to propose and pass want proof while you can look no further than wisconsin and a very special assembly bill want to build one ten tonight tom hartman will speak

to one of the men fighting that bill representative mark from wisconsin seventy eighth district they'll talk about how this piece of legislation came to be and what it means for american freedoms and of course for more on the stories that we covered in go to our team dot com slash usa and if you missed any part of this part or this show or any others don't worry because all of our interviews online in full so just go to our youtube page youtube dot com slash r t america and we want to hear what you think leave us your comments and stories suggestions and to find out what i'm doing when i'm not sitting here at this desk you can follow me on twitter at christine for as our i hope you have a great night. r g is the state run english speaking russian channel it's kind of like.