to the. way he recruited. her. back. let me speak to r.c. exclusively about spending more than half his life behind bars will bring you a message from his from this notorious prisoner and his own words. i know a little bit about. making sure that those folks get put such. promises promises it seems like president obama was full of them as a senator from guantanamo bay to the wars the protection of whistleblowers he can't seem to stick to his word will show you how the world war one era espionage act is

being used against truth seekers instead of spies. netflix is best known for its movie deals but where is all that money going lobby and congress of course our web scene has been covering the story and we'll bring you that puts his response to our t.v. coming up in just a bit. it's tuesday april tenth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz we're all here watching our team well the case has become known throughout the world. spent three decades on death row is now spending life behind bars without parole as he was accused of shooting a philadelphia police officer back in one nine hundred eighty one but questions still remain over how evidence in the case was handled and to this day he maintains

his innocence his supporters believe he was mistakenly convicted because he was black and he recently lost his latest appeal to the pennsylvania supreme court and arts he got an exclusive interview with him it's his first interview with a television station since being being taken off death row archies on stasia churkin as the story. loved ones and friends it was like from the convention in. the subject to monitoring and recording this call and more than half of his life monitored and controlled watched by the f.b.i. since the age of fourteen revolutionary activist and journalist neil abu jamal spent three decades of his life on death row i'd like to tell myself that i've actually spent a lot of the time. on the cars and in other countries you know. in other parts of the world because i did so mentally but can only take so far. the truth of

the matter most of my living here in my lifetime on death row in january mia had his sentence reduced to life without parole he calls in to speak exclusively with r.t. from prison the feeling of looming exits you ssion still hard for him to shield in many ways even. in my own mind. back. in one thousand nine hundred one the former black panther was accused of killing a police officer in philadelphia has always maintained his innocence and his analysis is a revolutionary announce that this is still is rotten to its core there it's race is class is sexist evil and that is the head the leader of an imperialist. domination of the world it is this me and his supporters say that led to his arrest this was a police frame up against a revolutionary journalist and activist very well known organizer in

philadelphia outspoken against police abuse while you must claims to not hold political prisoners media has become one of the most well known in the world an honorary a lot of holding citizen in over twenty cities with a street named after him in france. to me is books have been translated into nine languages and sold hundreds of thousands of copies its case is one of the most to beat it in modern legal history fifteen of the police officers involved in collecting evidence in munoz trial were later charged with corruption and tampering with evidence to obtain a conviction fifteen of the thirty three. were supporters a symbol of a flawed justice system mia says u.s. prisons are built for the growth and the homeless while mass incarceration in america has reached unthinkable levels a point you're. right. perhaps for.

right you know so it. would be a says the adoption of laws like the patriot act and the n.t. eight have given big brother tactics a legitimacy unimaginable when he was still a free man everything to. back up my claims it isn't like fifty seven years. they legalized legalized they legalized the very things that f.b.i. agents and administrators do was criminal back then so where is america headed selection season in the united states right now. who would you vote for. because most of the people that are out there the two major political parties they thought it all i knew was a kind of. reasonable. wish to return to base of your. or they talk about the perpetuation of the american

empire imperialist like i mean what is there to hope for as there are fifteen minute monitors phone calls from jail wraps up because i can join the news of the message for those who believe in him organize organize organize and i love you all and i thank you for fighting for me let's fight together to be free just as he churkin a party. to talk more about her interview are to correspond on a story on the h.r. can a joins us now live from new york ion of the tell soul a little bit more about your conversation with me oh please you mom. well you know liz because many of them all does do a weekly commentary on the radio where he shares his thoughts on social justice wealth inequality all things happening around the world he does watch very intently what happens in the world and the unit in the united states most people who follow him can obviously get a sense of his positions on many of these issues what was interesting here was that

we got a chance to get more of a really personal feel and talk to him about some of the more personal issues that people don't necessarily know about him and to me it was interesting one of the things i asked him was where he would be if he could be anywhere else in the world were he not behind bars and it was interesting to hear he told us he'd like to go visit africa countries in africa as well as visit that street in france and paris is named after him with his wife and his kids and his grandchildren we also talked a little bit about what he dreams about and he said that he can't really pick one thing because so many things are interconnected in modern society that if you were to pick better education for example better schools that would not necessarily work were not other things really organized and work better and changed as a system rather than different elements so a little bit of a personal touch there which our viewers can get in its entirety in the full

interview that we're running today now this is a guy that spent three decades death row obviously has been through a lot he still maintains his innocence so would you say he has any hope left and the justice system or what was the feeling you got from him. well you know i did ask him that if he has any any sort of faith left that the justice system in the u.s. can be free and fair and he said that it's that whole preserve very drained old obviously because of his personal case but really because of the mass incarceration rates taking place in the united states you know he he talked to me about the hundreds of thousands of people that are in jail in the united states millions really the united states does have the highest incarceration rate than anywhere else in the world so personally doesn't have that much faith left in the justice system but he is also supporters don't really have any other choice but to keep fighting to have

him released and really fight to have the system change now. recently he lost his latest appeal what's next any other alternatives well unless he is continuing fighting his case is still ongoing of course his lawyers and his team are continuing fighting and will likely continue appealing because his goal is to be released and walk a free man from jail and even though obviously he's serving a life sentence without parole his legal support is definitely not planning on giving up we're just going to have to wait and see what shape and form that takes and whether something could happen that could shift and continue shifting this case like we saw from death row to a life sentence needs something will what will happen next that's what's mia and his family his supporters are certainly hoping for and lastly. throughout all of this he's become somewhat of a symbol around the world can talk about what he has come to stand for.

well look he has so many names liz you know he's called the voice of the voiceless he's called the symbol of flawed justice in america he's really something who has become really in a person nation largely not just for the people incarcerated for the people who are looking for social equality in this country for people who are looking for the poor in the wealthy to be treated equally he talks about all of this in his work in his six books that he's published that are translated into many languages he talks about this in his weekly commentary he certainly talks about that in our interview with him so he's become really a face for those who believe that the one of the reasons he has endorsed the occupy wall street movement for example is that he believes also that the ninety nine percent of the people are really being left to men for themselves and that's something that he doesn't want and that's why exactly he has become so popular and has received so much support from around the world around

a saucy i thank you very much for sharing a little bit more with this exclusive interview that you had with jim i went. to jamal and that was our to correspond. to see the entire interview with him all just go to our website our teacher com slash usa it's on the top stories on the front page just look pretty exclusive bug and it will take you to the full interview. well a war on whistleblowers in america another government official has allegedly blown the whistle and facing the consequences for doing so if former cia officer by the name of john career cow was indicted on thursday on charges of leaking secrets to journalists but it's not the first time he's been in hot water for blowing the whistle he is the man that exposed the cia's use of waterboarding on terrorist suspects well it's another example of the obama administration going after

whistleblowers. so is there an effort to silence whistleblowers today for some answers someone who knows a lot about this subject just radek has blown the whistle before and now fights for whistleblower rights has learned as the director of the national security and human rights for the government accountability project she's also the author of the book traitor they whistle blower and the american taliban and she joins us now live in our studio nice to have you here so i understand that you yourself you were a whistleblower in the past can you tell us a little bit about your personal experience sure basically i have been department ethics supervisor in the case of the so-called american taliban john walker lindh he was a first person captured in afghanistan after nine eleven and he was an american and so he was seen as the worst of the bad when in fact he really hadn't done that

much he ended up pleading guilty to two relatively minor charges but i have advised not to interrogate him without a lawyer and parent that equate not to torture him and when i realized that that advice was not only because this appeared from the pile in the office that was not turned over to the court i blew the whistle on that and for that i experienced a lot of retaliation including being put under a criminal investigation and referred to the state barzan which had licensed as an attorney and put on the no fly list so that's kind of how i got into this line of work i decided after that experience to dedicate my life to representing was blowers and what was the outcome of that investigation the criminal case closed with no charges ever being brought in maryland bar dismissed at the charges in two thousand and five but the d.c. charges are still pending in two thousand and twelve just to show you how. sized

this whole thing and then i am able to fly again so that's good news so but ever since then i know that you have that ikeda your life and your work to protecting the rights of whistleblowers it's not about this latest case the former cia officer charged with violating the espionage act and i know that you say that this is an outdated law dating back all the way to the world war one era but now this law you say is being used to target whistleblowers absolutely this law was the one nine hundred seventeen law meant to go after spy is not whistleblowers however our government around one thousand nine hundred ninety used it to go after the pentagon papers whistleblower daniel ellsberg a very famous man and a very famous case and it's only only had been used two times since then to go after people who allegedly had mishandled classified information and in one of

those cases the person got a pardon and in the other the case was aborted during the middle of the case but the obama administration unfortunately has brought six prosecutions or file charges against six different people under this act and these people are not robert hanssen or aldrich ames they are not spies they're in fact people who blow the whistle on fraud waste abuse and sometimes l.a. galaxy and work rhymes and it's interesting you brought up president obama because years ago he was he seemed to be in support of whistleblowing and i believe we have a sound bite of him speaking on this subject. i wrote the brief for the federal. for the federal law the federal reserve board lowers law to make sure that it applies. more situations when all the way to

the supreme court and we won so i know a little bit about. making sure that those folks get put such. now hearing back in two thousand and eight talking about protecting whistleblowers but and reality the way it's played out is that he's actually actually been quite aggressive and going after whistleblowers much more so than the bush administration why is that that's a great question and people like myself who campaigned for obama and contributed to him and voted for him are asking the same thing and i think initially it was to appease the intelligence establishment which saw him as weak coming into office. and since all of these cases involve so-called leaking or making disclosures to journalists i think it's really a backdoor way to create bad preston for going after people in the media and i also

think it's sort of this way to create an official secrets act which we don't have in this country and have been had for more than two hundred years so i know you also say that this war on whistleblowers is also a war. on journalists absolutely absolutely and i think it's become more and more apparent i think in the one of the initial indictments going against thomas streak they tried very hard not to bring the reporter in it was sean goldman then with the baltimore sun and now with the wall street journal but if you look at the case of jeffrey sterling they have subpoenaed jim rise and bush subpoenaed him new york times columnist jim rise and twice then obama super unit him once the judge. brinkema ruled that he did have a reporter's privilege not to disclose his source. who people widely believed to

be jeffrey sterling and now that's up on appeal and kiriakou scase there are journalists all over the charges have journalists aid generalist be journalists be and in the indictment journalist a journalist be journalist and be. again a high profile new york times journalist jim rise and but scott shane incurious so we're seeing a lot of examples here here at r.t. we cover this whole issue of whistle blowing a lot particularly with bradley manning you know the army private accused of blowing the whistle and sending hundreds of thousands of documents to wiki leaks and which has made his public document public meetings on his public excuse me which one do you think is the most shocking. of the cases that were of what of the cases wow i think i mean i'm most familiar with thomas drake and with john

kiriakou and i find both have been to have been brought in bad faith and overzealous use and very flimsy cases. in which multiple i mean upwards of between five and ten plea bargain offers you know were made early on in the case. which showed how weak the case turned out to be. traits was especially egregious because it turned out that nothing that the government claimed had been classified was indeed classified in fact it ticked off the former classifications are under george w. bush so much that he sued his former agency to make them in force. then misclassification over the punishment for misclassifying stuff because the b. agree just way that information having classified in the common street case and

lastly doesn't we don't have too much time left but you know we're seeing all these all these cases against whistleblowers so where do you think this is heading in the future of whistle blowing in america. i think people are going to keep doing it i hope because they have a conscience in america you know what i think to the extent that the obama administration is ticked off about wiki leaks they need answers to enact meaningful and effective protection reform and not to be prosecuting whistleblowers so i hope that people will keep coming forward and standing for very interesting gentlemen thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your personal experience with us not was just an erratic author of the book traitor the whistleblower and the americans how the ban and the national security director at the government accountability projects. i mean while the streaming giant netflix could be playing a role in your future online freedoms the company has reportedly created its own

super pac and while the agenda of this pac is still a little hazy many claim the company is pumping money towards supporting anti-piracy legislation similar to the stock island piracy act or the protect ip act better known as sopa and pipa and this has many online advocates worried that internet freedoms are under attack and so far anti-piracy bills have been extremely controversial in fact the backlash against legislation like so the halt of the bills from going anywhere in congress and it's actually a server error but seem has been following for quite some time as well as the claims that this super pac could be used to support piracy measures in washington and so like laws they've written several articles on our website on the issue now articles have generated quite a response from readers and netflix itself the company has even gone as far as to reach out to our t regarding the way in which they were covered in response which

our web team was quick to put up on line which you can check out on our website but now congress has new bills in the works that critics say to control internet freedoms even longer what you're doing online so with a company like net like netflix possibly pushing for anti-piracy bills to pass what could it mean for your online freedom to talk more about this i was going earlier by. shelly he is the chief of digital operations for to america take a listen. well the super pac has a fancy name for fleet and it's allowed to pay up to five thousand dollars per election to federal candidates but this is not the first time when netflix is engaged in lobbying if you take if you take a look at congressional norwood's in two thousand and nine they paid about twenty thousand dollars to lobbyists and by two thousand and eleven these some

increased twenty five fold to five hundred thousand dollars and as you remember two thousand and eleven was the year when congress was discussing deals like. people deals that were eventually defeated by the internet and the interesting thing not flukes initially was supportive tools so after these enormous alteration long internet users they had to backtrack and just like go daddy dot com we've drawn their support through arts. and declare that they're neutral on this issue so that like those have a history of supporting controversial rebels like sopa and pipa and with that in mind you know netflix is a huge company it's become somewhat of a household name here so obviously. a lot of influence by just how much influence

they have over lawmakers and potential legislation will the numbers speak speak for themselves like i was in the why don't they spend five hundred thousand dollars and creation of these super pacs they potentially can spend even more because they are clearly interested in keeping their business growing and what's the day what's the best way to keep your business growing get three or four competitors and let's be honest those people who illegally stream online movies. and. grounds. the are not police competitors and cracking down on them i'd be one way to get rid of competition and you wrote about this story on the grab what kind of response have you gotten from this story well we are very thankful because we fishel response from netflix director of corporate communications mr joris evers and i

think we have a huge response when we do let's bring it up here the response from the flex here is this is their statement political action committees are common place for companies that lead a big growing market and netflix is no exception our act as a way for our employees to support candidates that understand our business and technology and was set up for the purpose of supporting it was not excuse me not set out for the purpose of supporting so. and sad that fox has engaged on other issues including network neutrality bandwidth caps usage base billing and performing the privacy protection act so a pretty standard response from them but still raises a lot of questions your reaction to the response it does indeed first of all like you said we're very often full to mr ebbers for those who spend and i personally think that every single word in the statement is to use to evers is

a very good professional army inclined to believe the statement at least because people are dead by now they were killed by congress and they became so notorious that there is no way they could be reinstated in congress these names and in these forums what bothers me though ease the fact that big companies or industry associations. push for other bills like we have some sport for example in congress right now it's being discussed in the bills that could be sometimes even worse. and pin pro and do we know whether or not that police will support those bills you know because unfortunately mr evers declined our invitation to come to our network and

have an opportunity to answer all those questions that we still have. and that's exactly it says here in the same meant it was not set up for the purpose of supporting so far but it's still not clear exactly what purpose it was set out for well they say they will continue a law being for things that are good for the business obviously and like i said before words bad for business good for ease of competition and my concern is that eventually veces work might happen and like i said would loft who have me. on our network and give him an opportunity to answer all these questions and if he states. cracking down on internet freedoms is northward to netflix has in mind with creation of a super proud we have no problem doing the article on our website we've big fat headline for excuse for internet freedoms. and that was many got

a chief of operations for our team america that's going to do it for this hour for more on the stories we cover you can hand over to youtube dot com slash r t america and also follow me on twitter outlets evolve we'll see you right back here at five . well three british scientists signed. on to the title. market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cause or there are no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our feet. and emission free critic ation free

comes for charges free maintenance free risk free stews free. zone free bronchos plug in video for your media projects and free media john to our tetons tom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for life you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture. download the official antti happily cation q i phone oh i pod touch from the choose ops to. lie.