tonight in our team freedom of the press for all except those who publish inconvenient truths in a pen or reporter is behind bars in yemen at the personal request of the u.s. president an exclusive look at this case and of law you've probably never heard of it until today. and from silencing critics abroad and what about those right here at home it will be us as the land of the free and apparently the home of zero transparency. plus the brits may have burned washington back nine hundred twelve but these days the two countries are burning with love for one another these

friends with benefits maybe sharing more than goodwill some nasty practices like secrecy torture spying all that in just a bit. of. good evening it is wednesday march fourteenth seven pm right here in washington d.c. i'm lucy coughing up and you're watching our t.v. well in honor of sunshine week we are dedicating today shows to the issues of government secrecy transparency justice and rule of law with a look at how transparency doesn't really seem to apply to a growing list of music seventy's whether it's secret prisons true or drone wars the white house approach seems to be to stay silent and to make sure that others do as well now as we'll discuss with jason leopold later in the program those that also pulled the whistle on the government seem to be doctors suffering and our consequences now of course there's always the fourth estate to fill in the gaps

right but even here it seems are often drowned out by laptops now for this journalist themselves are mostly to blame after all the u.s. record on press freedom maybe if it questionable but it's certainly not in dire crisis yet. i mean it's not like journalists are regularly rounded up and thrown behind bars for doing their jobs right and whether just a few weeks ago that jay carney reassured us about the president's commitment to aggressive journalism but i bring these questions up because they're at the core of the case of gold a law hide their shady he's an independent yemeni journalist whose name i probably just butchered who's been languishing behind bars at the personal request of president barack obama to live as the leader of the world's military superpower want a yemeni reporter in jail for the answer is the subject of a new piece in the nation magazine by jeremy scahill he is also the author of blackwater the rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army and journey joined

me earlier today take a look at that interview. well the united states has been waging a covert war in yemen for a number of years in fact president obama really escalated that covert war the first bombing of yemen that we know that president obama authorized was on december seventeenth two thousand and nine and the way it was reported in the press was that it was a yemeni strike and that thirty four al qaeda members were killed in that strike and because of this journalist out below hyder going to the scene taking photographs of missile parts and then sending them to media outlets and ultimately to amnesty international of the world learned that in fact it was that u.s. bombing because they were tomahawk cruise missiles and cluster bombs neither of which you have it has in its arsenal and of course after it revealed that we then were the wiki leaks cables that general david petraeus who at its high was the set

com commander had conspired with president ali abdullah saleh of yemen to cover up the u.s. role in those strikes in fact that a yemeni official said if saleh of self-help a terrorist will continue to lie and say the problems are ours and not yours so i think that was the first incident that really put this independent journalist washington's radar into their target sites ok but at the same time you know this isn't a case of some pentagon bureaucrats in reaching out there and trying to suppress information this is the president of the united states himself intervening in this case i mean for someone who's not familiar necessarily with the story that would it lead people to think that this guy with a done something really bad what evidence that has the u.s. has requiring that he remains behind bars so what there was famous for in yemen was doing interviews with people that were on the u.s. hit list the leaders of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula and also with a u.s.

citizen named don who are a lot the course was assassinated last september in a u.s. drone strike in yemen. interviewed anwar a lock in number of times. in fact he was the first journalist to interview him after the four hood shooting where major nidal hasan gunned down more than a dozen of his fellow soldiers in fort hood texas and in fact if you read the transcript or you watch the interview. more a lockie it's a very critical interview ahead and it's it reads like an interview of an objective journalist who was pressing got lucky with our questions in fact one of the pieces of evidence and you can't really call it back because it's a lot he was only convicted in the court of public opinion never encouraged but one of the things that was cited by the pro assassination under treat were comments that how lucky had made her praising that bal hassan's killing of these soldiers i bring that up because i will hide or well known in the international press corps he

had worked with the washington post he had been cited by the new york times and a.b.c. news as an al qaeda expert and so what i think the white house was concerned about is like a lockie they wanted to silence him i think that that they were concerned that this was a guy who was telling al qaeda side of the story and they wanted it shut down and what's what's most outrageous for me as a as an american journalist is the role of the u.s. because what happened lucy is that the higher was tried in a secret corps in yemen that international legal organizations have said it is illegal and doesn't ensure due process it was set up to go after journalists and criticize the regime he had fabricated evidence produced against him he did not present a defense because he did not recognize the legitimacy of the court and human rights watch and other organizations criticize that court he gets convicted he was by the way charged with some crimes that carry the death penalty because everyone in yemen knew the whole thing was a sham and a sound off he got

a relatively light sentence five years ali abdullah saleh the president of yemen is then approached by very important figures and in yemen among them tribal leaders who really run the show there and they said you've got to release this guy. so solaces ok i'm going to partner he has the card prepared ready to sign it it leaks out to the yemeni press and ali abdullah saleh gets a phone call not from john branded or whatever obama's advisers but from president obama himself and president obama said we're very concerned about the release of this guy we don't know the full extent of what happened in that phone call with the white house and state department back to interview the state department admit that obama perhaps said the u.s. wants him to stay in jail and so the pardon was rescinded and he continues to rot away in a prison after having been convicted in a kangaroo court and it's he's in prison because barack obama wants in prison i mean it sounds outrageous jeremy and the question comes to mind as to why we haven't heard about this earlier i mean we remember what happened when every man in a primary concern strikes an aside very wasn't present to iran it was

a huge media outcry and laura ling and euna lee and north korea huge media outcry why are we not hearing about this here in the us especially in light of the fact that the committee to protect journalists and amnesty international major groups have spoken out about this why isn't the media covering it here i think part of it has to do with the sort of institutional racism that has really come to the fore if his name was you know william smith kennedy and he was a white bag and he had been arrested these charges instead of being out though either share. so i think part of it is just the fact of the unfortunate nature of his national identity that you have any and he's a muslim but more to the point i think it's that a lot of journalists are afraid to speak out in behalf of someone that has been accused of being profiled or being at al qaeda sports person you know i've talked with numerous people journalists former state department officials people who knew her and they said this is complete nonsense that his journalism if anything was

that was the number one reason why we go anything at all about al qaeda in the arabian peninsula and so i think it's a combination of racism and the fact that people are to. right now. speaking out of defense of anyone accused of these kinds of terrorism related charges look at look at how long it took for the guantanamo prisoners to get any kind of representation from human rights groups only the center for constitutional rights and the u.k. group reprieve who dared to fed guantanamo prisoners early on everyone else was terrified it's a part of the climate of fear that we're in and it's particularly shameful of media outlets that used. to get their scoops to be completely silent about his imprisonment they have a they have an obligation to this madness speak out on his behalf and demand answers from the white house well we'll see i guess if the car crash takes up at all after today and after the release of your piece but you know another thing i have to ask is do you think it is this an isolated incident or is this something

that could be the beginning perhaps of a crackdown on more than just brown guy any and journalists like yourself like myself like other and then reporters be affected by this is this a trend you know i mean i think that his case is an extreme one where you have a journalist actually being railroaded and then locked away in prison what i'm more concerned about for american journalists or british journalist particularly american journalists is that in this culture where this administration is going after whistleblowers in an unprecedented way we all have an obligation to protect our sources i have to say that i myself am really nervous about the safety of some of the people that i talk to about saying that they're going to offer something their safety legally because this administration seems intent on going after little blowers and so you know as a journalist the congress national security i'm talking all the time with people that work in the intelligence and the military community has sent shock waves through the community and so we as journalists have to really sort of vigilant in

protecting our sources jim rising from the your hands for instance they're going after him right now because of this case involving thomas drake you know alleged has a weaker other journalists are. threats of subpoenas people's twitter accounts are being subpoenaed so i think there's a general climate of fear that exists now in the world of national security journalism it's more i'm more concerned about sources than i am journalist and prosecuted right now i'm concerned about the fate of whistleblowers talking to analysts and the effect that that's going to have about a democratic society when people can speak out on wrongdoings you know involving the government without fear of very very serious punishment seems really ironic because very you know this is a case of the u.s. going after this guy essentially because their argument is he's somehow boosting terrorism against the united states whereas as you've covered in yemen our drone strikes our policy is there specific actions that the u.s. is conducting right now that is in fact fueling terrorist sentiment against us

but i mean that's that's a great point but what you're saying here period i think we have a sort of captures the whole have caught the big cock receive this all is that you have people like. the former bush counterterrorism advisor ed red bell the former governor of new tom ridge the former governor of pennsylvania for how to provide security howard dean the former government governor of vermont and a very prominent democrat these guys are all being advocates right now for the any k. department care or the state department designated terrorist group and they're all working for them to try to get them lifted off of this terrorism list so they're allowed to walk around advocating for a group that the state department has identified as terrorist but i belong this journalist in yemen he committed the crime of exposing the u.s. bombing that killed civilians and interviewing someone one of someone who happens to be a u.s. citizen that the u.s.

wanted to be silence about it was sesame that he gets locked away in prison so the message there is that there are good terrorists and bad terrorists and if your former official at the. credit to republican party you're allowed to advocate for people that are state department does a good terrorist but if you're a journalist you're not allowed that's chilling that it has shill is seen in yemen among journalists journalists are terrified right now to interview these people and the ultimately it hurts the u.s. counterterrorism effort because you need to understand the mentality of the people that you claim to be fighting or you're never going to be able to address the problem so you're fighting so it's all right so and i think even from a conventional even if you accept the framework of this global so-called war on terror and you're of a supporter of these drone strikes you have just taken away one of your best opportunities to gather intelligence on the ground by putting in jail up will either say well it's an outrageous case chairmen are not the only one who's been covering it but we'll see how this story plays out and hopefully get some much

needed attention right here in the u.s. thank you so much for your time is off i'll always have a journalist for the nation and the author of blackwater from silencing critics abroad silencing those right here at home president obama has promised transparency when he came into office today his administration isn't cleek increasingly regarded as the worst on issues related to freedom of information so is that actually the case well that's the question i posed to jason leopold he is the lead investigative reporter of truth out dot org here to take. sure well you know first of all when obama came into office he made these these promises you sign an executive order. promising to usher in a new error of open government transparency eric holder the attorney general. issued some new guidelines in march of two thousand and nine however look people seem to forget or may not even be aware may not be even aware of this that

immediately after the administration released these memos these memos on the cia and the justice department's office of legal counsel prepared and used for interrogation and torture the so-called torture memos and that was it the administration had clamped down on releasing anything else from that point on and that was back in april of two thousand and nine what the administration has done is anything that has to do with national security the so-called war on terror past administration abuses such as you know issues revolving around the patriot act this administration has contra corps has asserted state secrets to block the release of information in shortly after these memos were released this administration had promised to release photographs photographs of that would pick

the treatment of us or rather prisoners in custody of the united states government military in iraq and afghanistan there was a huge outcry. dick cheney and his daughter liz cheney had had attacked the administration for even considering to release those photos so what this administration has done is that they were preparing to go to the supreme court to basically block the release of the photos because a lot of a lower court had ruled that they must be. released to the a.c.l.u. who had sought them and then they went and ended up working with congress and congress changed the law to basically change the freedom of information act that would allow anyone who sought such photographs or videos under the freedom of information act it allowed the secretary of defense to basically say no just this week ok just this week i mean this it's on wednesday so i believe it was on monday

the administration the director of the justice department's office of information policy had got have again gone to congress and basically. congress has assistance in changing the law or or adding to a cybersecurity bill that would more or less block information that people seek out under the freedom of information act again this was you know this is due to the fact that the supreme court ruled that such information should be released but there is this fear that if anything comes out it could damage and security so it is they're going to great lengths to block any information that would reveal government activity but here's my question in your view. why come into office and make this that top priority of the administration make this you know

a key issue that you talk about as soon as you literally enter the white house only to go back at that i mean what changed from obama's intention is to present a. i think that a largely this has to do with with politics in the end truly it's nothing more than embarrassment and the revelations that would be exposed that would be highlighted exposed from these documents that people would obtain under the freedom of information act would be truly embarrassing for this government it would probably lead to calls for investigation it would show in my opinion some extreme abuses of the will of the law that the you know that the law was being abused i mean look if you recall when these justice department memos office of legal counsel memos were released i mean the blowback was. truly

reached a. you know a heated point where republicans attacked the administration they were accused of. basically providing the enemy al qaeda with you know or are sources and methods and i think the administration learned its lesson at that point and it learned its lesson by stating we are not going to release any information on certainly our national security. you know or the war on terror that would. reveal the way the you know the policies that were put into place to you know to to prosecute certain individuals to interrogate certain individuals. you know they're there this is ministration i think it they believe that it could make some changes . if it learned its lesson and i think that moment in time when

those memos were released that's when everything changed and we saw it happen with the photograph. and i was jason leopold the lead investigative reporter for truthout because org. right now the the special relationship right the so-called special relationship between the u.k. and the u.s. has come under increased scrutiny in light of a number of issues issues like seeker see extraditions torture and so on and so forth now they are the focus of my interview with journalist andy worthington which i'm about to play for you but there's an update in that story so let's watch that interview and then i'll fill you in on what's new. seven nine eleven and the war on terror began so we have a labor prime minister because being the republican president we've got a democratic president cozying up with a conservative prime minister. much different may be able to demonstrate interchangeable these people because they're pretty terrible reasons for a bomb or

a cameron to be close buddies you know they're both deeply involved in this horrible war that has gone on longer than any anyone can remember. that should have ended long ago. you know they were the country least. hand in hand shoulder to shoulder with each other in countering terrorism and their development in torture and rendition in the darkest days of the war on terror and i think you are hearing from my colleague jason just a full of course the obama administration does not want to open up about what took place in louisiana and the cameron administration here having initially appeared to favor transparency and i climbed back. and i want to talk sort of about how folks in the u.k. seem to they see their own complicity in sort of this growing affiliation and secrecy clamp down. or do they see this as evidence of the u.k.

for example holding perhaps. well you know in terms of accountability people in this country are aware that we have demonstrably examples in an independent judiciary that actually exposed the complicity into. the previous labor government and people will see that the attempts by the cameron led government to impose greater secrecy across the board in british courts is a dangerous obstacle to. and the carriage ability british people a sufficiently aware of the informs of keeping a check on our elected leaders will be combusting. certainly you know enough of an independent media probing these issues for it to be something that i think people will be concerned about well you may be trying to talk you may

have independent media but there is one case of torture case by any means a copyright case but richard wire was young kid you say citizen who file ation of the us copyright laws and is now being extradited to the us why do you k. for violating copyright laws when looking at right now i mean it would seem a based on your independent press over in the u.k. that this kind of thing is an outrage. well i think people are very concerned about various issues to do with the actual vission treaty and i'm very glad that you asked me about that because you know we believe that to some extent this may take part in some kind of discussions between the two leaders although i you know i i can't see that it will be given much precedence by them but the actual decision treaty that the u.k. had with the u.s. . you know this terrible one sided affair whereby nothing really needs to be

put forward in the way of evidence for the british to have to hand people out of prosecution in the united states and what keeps happening over and over again and the fundamental problem is that if these are people who have committed some kind of crime in the country where they are then those things should be dealt with there and the extradition treaty just seems over and over. actually removing people unnecessarily and dangerously i think from the place where they actually should be dealt with i mean it's not just a case of this young man that you're talking about of course that's very very relevant but we have other issues like the like for example with the young man who will spend a year in a british jail without charge or trial pending his intended extradition to the united states you know this is a terrible issue but as i say i'm not convinced they're going to be discussed much the same as i'm not convinced that the david cameron will raise the issue of shock

was the last british resident in guantanamo who neither the u.s. government. and the british government wanted back he's been five years this has been going on the u.s. doesn't want him the british wants him back why is he still out but apparently when these guys need they never discussed it so i wouldn't imagine that. rather terrible instances of people's lives being ruined necessarily going to be the kind of things that are on the agenda while they're busy watching sporting matches. well unfortunately we're out of time but even if they were on the agenda looks like we probably won't know about it because of those wonderful secrecy about us here in the u.s. thank you so much andy worthington the author of kuantan immobile table on the issue of extraditions it looks like david cameron is standing up to the us now after i spoke to andy it emerged that cameron raised the extradition treaty with obama he's insisting that

a greater number of british citizens facing charges in america are tried at home in britain british and u.s. officials are supposedly putting together a team to reexamine the the way that this treaty is implemented it was introduced in the aftermath of nine eleven and of course the criticisms here that it is weighed against british citizens. now big brother on steroids how would you feel if all of your phone calls and internet activity and so forth was monitored twenty four seven that includes call texts and e-mail we don't have to imagine that scenario anymore because the e.u. is pushing for such a plan or to use ivor bennett reports. soon you could be watched everywhere you go in the u.k. even where the cameras can't see you all your e-mails texts and phone calls will be monitored under a new anti terrorist spy plan they government will know which websites you visit it will even snoop on your private facebook messages no matter who you are all your

personal data will be stored for a year in a massive surveillance operation privacy campaign is condemn this is the first step towards the government taking control of the incidents you know the only place in the world has got that kind of regulation is china i'm sorry but britain is not child of britain's already one of the most watched societies in the world the number of c.c.t.v. cameras is estimated at nearly two million now the government wants to monitor all electronic communication as well including social media taking surveillance to a level never seen before just what you say in calls and messages won't be kept but the government will know exactly who you speak to when you do it and where you are it will be stored by broadband and mobile companies but security services will have real time access at the click of a button secretly living your life with the digital rights groups say it will leave

people living in fear of big brother the problem here is really that it is intrusive and the sort of places where you can see that might be useful could be it or it could be anything could be tax it could be to force it could be copyright infringement. terrorism and serious crime or a tiny subset of the possibilities that you could use this information for it's the ones being watched who are paying for it too so obvious security experts predict it will cost taxpayers over a billion dollars to be spied on even then there's no guarantee they'll be safe from other prying eyes any person who guarantees absolute security is an idiot and if you're dealing with information which might be required. by law enforcement then that means that quite a lot of people need to be involved or i suspect most of the time is going to quote unquote secure. they're all thorough it's highly likely it will be as well if

you're typing into eatings private and now the legislation still has to go through parliament the previous government's wish for a surveillance where it was fought off in two thousand and eight over fears of data safety the greater fear this time we're told is a threat to national security events like the olympics the government's justification so may not be long before what you thought was personal reaches a much wider audience i've been it's artsy london parallel thanks for tuning in and or watching on the sunshine a week this wednesday unlike the us government we do like to keep our information up there and easily accessible for you it's all very transparent so you can just head to our website for example to see some of the stories and others he tells that address is r.t. dot com slash usa so you can watch all of the segments you start today or.