welcome to the lone show where the real headlines with none of the mersey are from live in washington d.c. now tonight we're going to speak with marcy wheeler about the birth death penalty trial coming up a get no media organizations want into the discussions of elena sherry's torture can be made public that is everybody talks about the new agreement on night race between the u.s. and afghanistan we're going to break down the real details and highlight all the loopholes which make you wonder how much is really going to change and there are a lot of headlines out there asking of system is the new sopa so we're going to

take a detailed look at this bill show you how it is and isn't likely defeated copyright legislation all that and more including this of happy hour but first let's take a look at what the mainstream media has decided. to. pounce them kind of a big day politically right rick santorum officially dropped out of the presidential race and even though both rich and ron paul are still in the race most republicans have resigned to admitting if they think of a candidate in the general election is going to be mitt romney not because they want to me just because that's the way it's probably going to have to be but anyway one of the things we've consistently heard the media go crazy about and which you know will only get worse as the election nears is mitt romney's record of being a serial flip flopper. you think romney is a flip flopper right now mitt romney's stated position is that he would absolutely

support a constitutional amendment to make birth control illegal when confronted with opposition to that he said he does not want to make birth control illegal romney went the other direction in other words he went from taking bolder positions more progressive mainstream positions earlier on and now switching to more extreme conservative positions to please the republican base mitt romney has once again contradicted mitt romney do you bob i am right about mitt romney saying you have a flip flop or you know the two men caught in one body i think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign everything changes it's almost like an etch a sketch you can kind of shake it up and we start all over again is it fair to say that there's a gun so much pick up because it feeds into an existing narrative of criticism about governor romney that bill changes positions it's a little more than an hour for him to commit his latest flip flop and consistency matters i mean that romney has the challenge of not being consistent and it really

matters in politics. but here's the thing if you're going to be running to be the president of the united states and you have a serious consistency problem on the issue it's totally fair game as an attack line . there's something about the way the media approaches this whole thing that really bothers me see when it comes to president obama's flip flops and perhaps some of the worst of his flip flops the mainstream media is essentially silent and this isn't a right versus left thing either i mean sure imus and the scene take a lot easier on the president and fox news dedicates literally every minute of their newscast every day to blaming everything on obama but even fox is usually focusing on fabricated issues fake gas prices right even though they defended president bush when he was in office and they rose and he they said that he had no control over gas prices going up on those prices are going up under obama that it's clearly directly his fault but the thing is there are issues of civil liberties there's the rule of law there's transparency all of which this former

constitutional law professor has flip flopped on and all of which are regularly ignored by the mainstream media now we constantly talk about the obama administration's war on whistleblowers on this show about the fact that under his administration already six people have been charged under the espionage act that's in three years and that's more times than it ever before in our history and yet when the say on president obama's campaign website as his issues before he was elected well take a look at this says protect whistleblowers often the best source of information about waste fraud and abuse in government as an existing government and be committed to public integrity and willing to speak out such acts of courage and patriotism which can sometimes save lives often save taxpayer dollars those should be encouraged rather than stifled we need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoings and partners in performance and barack obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers expose that waste fraud and abuse of

authority in the government obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process so he had to listen to say it and get a look at the graphic but all of that. quite an earful quite a mouthful about the obama campaign's dedication to whistleblowers and yet look at what he's done now as president i would call that quite a flip flop but thing is that it's not just the president himself that suffered from this right it's those around him as well those working in his administration some of those used to be the loudest critics of the bush administration along with obama when it came to the war on terror and how we conducted ourselves and that includes waging war based on lies secret prisons rendition torture guantanamo bay all things in violation of international laws understanding of human rights and all things the greatly damaged our reputation so for a minute here let's point out harold koh he's the state department's legal adviser under the obama administration also former dean of yale law school and he was

really vocal in talking about the damage that had been done under george w. bush six years of defining ocean. voyage the war on terror has damaged our human rights reputation giving cover to abuses committed by her knowledge it blunted our ability to criticize and to leaders elsewhere in the world . the next administration whether democrat or republican will have the burden of repairing this reputation to build but i've got the sources of war schloss tower. now cut all so refer to president bush as the courts are in chief just you know and so a new profile go by tarmac alvey tries to ask though how it is that he's now become one of the most vocal supporters and pushers of the obama administration's drone war which points out that code told the new york times reporter in two thousand and two that the policy of targeted killings seemed to violate the government's

longstanding bed on assassination and yet you want to know what he told her when she asked why he changed his mind he said quote i have never changed my mind not from before i was in the government or after considering the code given a number of public talks was actually the first administration official the public who talked about the cia's drone program and the assassination list all of that doesn't seem to quite line up it's a flip flop plain and simple but these are the kinds of flipflops that are the most dangerous this has to do with the constitution the rule of law the fundamental limits that are put on executive power so if even one of the most influential international law experts changes his mind on drones and targeted killing execution without due process that's when we know we're in trouble but a former constitutional law professor no longer thinks the prosecuting whistleblowers under espionage act steps away from values of free speech well things aren't good and you have these flip flops the mainstream media never really seems to care much about these are the flip flops that they choose to miss.

but yesterday we spoke about the upcoming trial of khalid sheikh mohammed and the four alleged coconspirators of the nine eleven thought now in the trial happens it will take place in a military commission and is wired changeroom reported yesterday. the government is trying to get around having to talk about his ends torture thanks to a plea deal struck with another detainee khan who's going to testify but this week they're proceedings at guantanamo bay in the case of. on the shiri he's alleged to have orchestrated the bombing of the u.s.s. cole in october of two thousand and so this is going to be the first death penalty trial at how the government is already trying to fill it in secrecy which is why a first amendment attorney is currently on his way to guantanamo to speak on behalf of a number of media organizations to have the first ever testimony by captive about cia

interrogations be made open to the press so is there hope yet that torture will be publicly addressed will join me to discuss it as marcy wheeler blogger and we'll marcy thanks so much for joining us tonight and i guess before we get into what's going on in kuantan about bay right now or coming up you wrote about harold koh and his foot plopping as well and so i can see just real quick give me your take on that situation the fact that he claims he never changed his mind. what was interesting to me about it was the profound it very clear that he was always sure he was right so when he first came into the obama administration was this thing everybody else because he kept saying oh you stupid military people don't know what you're talking about and that's as much what i concerned about as his flip flop because people believe they're always right and are also the ones who are reviewing . these targeted killings without any review by a judge chances are good they're not really reviewing evidence with any distance

with any humility with any. you know they know they're right and so i think it's really troubling to see that he kind of is older than everybody else and then denies that he's flip flopped in a is that he's changed his mind on these issues but it's a pity because you know he used to be a great outspoken person on this he also by the way used to criticize his former student john yoo which is another curious interesting detail. unfortunately i guess you could say to say the least in that case but let's move on to a bay and the case of ana sherry to i know that they haven't said that they will let him testify yet on the stand but how big of a deal with this if they actually allowed him to testify if he was able to talk about you know his interrogation and the cia ad of the press was allowed to be

there publicly here and reported on it. well it's not even i mean at issue is whether he's going to be able to testify publicly about why he doesn't want to be shackled when he meets with his lawyers so it's not like he's saying i want to be able to testify about the time one of your interrogators threaten me with a gun i want to be able to testify about. the two times you water boarded me what he wants to be able what his lawyers want to be able to testify about and what journalists want should be public is may well be a fairly circumscribed part of his treatment just that he was shackled at all times and now being shackled makes it very difficult for him to cooperate and help his lawyers defend him but it's you know you talked about obama's administration trying to say how they've improved all of these things the current regime. has a website and they like to say the transparency to get them but you know this.

cheery all of his treatment has already ben evidence of it has been released in the c.i. a report in memos in reporting on the investigation into his treatment actually spent quite a bit of time in investigating basically the death threats used against him and so we know about his treatment already and yet the government is really trying to prevent. him from being able to voice it. and we actually have read i think that that's a good that's a good cry right that's of the most i think one of us important points to bring out here is the fact that we've already seen as a lot of these documents have been declassified what has actually happened to him and so you know the government is going to try to say that this is a matter of national security that we can't discuss about it started out there you know then. they thought be able to convince the judge. you know who knows with

eat it should be it should be a no brainer i suspect there's there are even more worried about the precedent this would set because of course as you said college of muhammad is next up and his treatment you know he sure is the one that got us into legal problems and shiri is the one where we issued a death threat which even john you said was not legal so you know there are reasons why they're embarrassed machineries treatment another thing about a shoestring we actually don't know is why his waterboarding was not effective even when dick cheney says oh yeah waterboarding was a fact that he's only ever talked about college and mohammed and abu zubaida nobody's ever claimed the shearers waterboarding was active so you know there are details that they might be afraid to come out but i also suspect that they're very worried that if machinery is allowed to testify about these things publicly then it sets the precedent and college mohammad would be able to well let's say that they

actually get to have their way right that missionary doesn't satisfy about any of this that in the case of khalid shaikh mohammad that they'll get this guy with the crew deal and that'll be enough is testimony about of enough evidence for the judge then are there any other cases that you know whether still might be a chance or does it just become a closed book does the issue of torture it has got to go by completely on address at these military commissions that are you know the where the death penalty is the issue of guantanamo bay well certainly with the military commissions i think that would you know if if if the trials of machinery and khalid sheikh muhammad go forward without any mention of the brutal torture that they that they survived then i don't expect that you would hear it i mean you've heard about the rape threats will mark potter earlier she would find you know you would hear details like that but i but i suspect that the that the the the detainees they're really worried about the legality of the torture i suspect that we would never hear that and then

we're really looking at the international community and things like the polish investigation. all right well thanks so much for joining us tonight and i guess we're going to have to wait and see but you know i think there's a lot of hope on one hand you have media organizations sending first from the lawyers down there and people are talking about it but you know it will be unfortunate i think if all this goes by and it all gets to be completely so at the end of the ride thanks so much. are just ahead of the show so intel and the deals and u.s. led night raise in afghanistan being held up as a milestone of the transition but the deal isn't as black allies it seems we're going to talk about a loop holes after the break. the. story. is if you understand it. here's the part of it and realize there. is

a big. list . but in the lower so you'll get the real headline not. the problem with the mainstream media today is that they're completely disconnected from the viewers and what actually matters to

those viewers and so that's why young people just don't watch t.v. anymore if they want news they go online and read it and we're trying to take those stories that people actually care about and transfer them back to. english speaking russian channel it's kind of like. russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us. all right side for show and tell on tonight's program last week we spoke with michelle alexander author of the new jim crow about the millions of americans who

we no longer vote due to felony convictions often for years after their release so we asked if you think the balance should lose their right to vote while they're in prison or after their release it's got a pretty special reason to send to find out what you have to say. all of the streets of d.c. to tell people the nation's capital what our viewers have to say on twitter facebook and you tube and see what comments we should keep or delete. do you think that palin should have the right to vote while in prison and then after their release i'm going to read your response from chris on facebook he said depending on the crime there should be a period after release when the person can't vote but ultimately if you're going to be allowed to live in a society as a free person you should have the right to vote if you can't vote you might as well stay in prison do you want to keep it or delete or. keep. your part of society should be able to voice your opinions because i don't think that's

a life lifelong punishment but i do want to keep it or delete it i think we should keep that we might have you know people who are in jail who are innocent right i think you know our prisoners need to be treated in a humane way they're still citizens of the country my room sign on twitter said felon should lose the right to vote while incarcerated and should have the right reinstated after time is served do you want to keep it or delete it. or they should be allowed to vote you know once you've served your time you should suffer in the voting booth. or read your response from jeff you think that felons should be allowed to vote however could you imagine how politicians would try and distance themselves from the polls if they were the most popular candidate among felons right. delete it when you know that's it i mean you give up your i mean to me you're right they should we can keep it why do you think because there are still people a lot of people that we talk to him who wrote him think that felons while in prison

should not have the right but then after prison they should be granted that right to go. all right thanks for your responses and here's our next question for you earlier in the show we spoke about the obama administration's flip flops when it comes to the war on terror so why do you think that from obama himself to harold koh so many administration officials change their views once they get into power let us know you think on facebook twitter and you tube and who knows the response just might make it on air. i was past sunday u.s. and afghanistan finally reached a deal on night raids a very contentious part of the war effort that's led to civilian casualties anti-american sentiment public attacks president hamid karzai who's long called for control these rates now to give you some perspective on just how often they're conducted according to a military spokesman just since last december there have been more than three hundred and fifty so it's about three raids every single night so in this new deal

afghan forces are given the lead role in operations and a warrant from an afghan court is required within seventy two hours of the rate and americans will not have the right to question detainees so this is being sold as a massive transition but the thing is that there are still a lot of loopholes and exceptions in this scale so how much do we really expect to change joining me to discuss is retired lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer senior fellow for the center for advanced studies and impact america also author of the book operation dark heart tony thanks for joining us tonight and so like i said we got some of the details there they have to get a warrant right they have to be led by afghan forces although they can still call upon the u.s. forces for any kind of help that they might need but what are some of the loopholes here. well one of the things we've done for a long time was essentially a special operations guys out about working in remote villages and one of the points you just kind of made just by the way you presented it using these things

excessively three hundred i think it's not a good idea and so we will continue to have special operations guys doing things and remote areas doing what i guess they would not be called raids technically but obviously going to be checking people out doing things makes perience innocent people read my book operation dark heart was two chapters about it to us doing. an interrogation of a u.s. citizen which he was rolled up during a night raid and one of these that sort of things and an area near to the pakistani border so i think. there's an agreement even though i think there's a process going forward will be certain elements of the u.s. military special operations who will continue to do things as they need to and i'd like to believe with a great deal more care and focus than what you've seen with conventional forces yeah i mean some of the other things too as they say that you know you but you still will need this warrants however unless they feel like there is an immediate threat baghdad need to why i don't know how often they're going to feel like there

is an immediate threat and this doesn't apply to the special ops forces but you know how many other things are going on other operations that might be. you know cia trained or some something else but that's a good point and obviously there's other elements out there which i'm sure our government has made sure will be not so tied to this and there's reasons for that i don't say we grew them all but you know this is a war and for what it's worth they're going after primarily al qaeda even though i think all cut is pretty much left the state so to speak it's all in pakistan but that's what they're primarily looking for and of course leadership regarding. the taliban in amounts primarily at this point so i think you're going to see practical measures taken by our military to matter what. especially when you put it in terms of what is military necessity and if you see an enemy run into a house you're not going to wait for a warrant and i guess you know one of the things we'll have to see is how this is

applied at the operational level and i think you know wells know within two months if it's working or not i don't think it's going to work very well practically. well you know you mentioned of course the fact that there's not really a whole lot of al qaeda left in afghanistan anymore i think when i heard secretary defense leon panetta say maybe a couple dozen at most and so you know then you really have to start talking about the fact that this is still the aftermath region and the operations are drone strikes going on within pakistan and so just last week actually back in defense minister said in an interview that you know after twenty fourteen afghan soil is not going to be used to conduct operations happening in other countries and basically saying that you can't launch friends from afghanistan. you know some things are said all the time how serious do you think about threat is well i think is not practical basically we know their issue is really pakistan you're not talking about this well it's only an author any al qaeda left in pakistan we know

that most of the issues relating to why the taliban has been combat effective for the past eight years because the leadership of the taliban your economy don't work leadership. you know more they're all being protected in some form in pakistan so as long as that exists we're not going to make permanent sustainable progress in afghanistan and the idea that if we know the issues that stand we're going to leave afghanistan is the only place we can ration correctly for so i think again this is a an issue which i think people are trying to talk about and put a face on for that by the fact this is of election year i think personal moment is to want these issues to be minimized but frankly operationally it's not going to matter frankly i think she is doing in afghanistan as some form and definitely one of the things they're trying to agree upon right now is the strategic agreement and of course coming to a deal on the night raids was a key element of that and now they want to get this entire agreement on before the

nato summit coming up this may here in the u.s. but so you know what what do we know so far about this for changing agreement to from what i've seen. basically it commits the u.s. and many respects not fruit flies but you know it's helping afghanistan right for ten years and they have to get all of their other nato allies to also commit to continuing to fund afghans that security forces you think that's going to work the latter first nato continuing to fund the can you use have already backed way out i think i see it more and more nato moving after action regarding us there are elements of the pentagon. this center for new emerging security in particular who is continues to press the idea of having an indefinite presence and that we ought to stay there and slug it out we've seen this was the hamlet in the press talk about all this nonsense and so you still have a very strong group of leaders in the pentagon pushing for socially a conventional force where print indefinitely is not practical i think it's silly

we know from our experience here that trying to make the afghans more like us just doesn't work and what you're seeing is the karzai government and with fissures in the government trying to get a state because they know since we leave so those are billions of dollars not coming they're going to be in trouble so i think they're going to try to preserve their control of the afghan government for what it's worth as long as they can to do that they have to have us there us going to nato if they can in some form i don't they just practical i just don't see our staying past twenty fourteen a day and you want beyond special operations and i wonder what the public would say about that too considering that really at his news of shifted so much but before we go before we go on i want to switch topics really quick so a lot of people out there you know are angered were shocked when it turned out that there was a u.s. drone that was shot down over iranian airspace that they now have in their position then you get us apart from the washington post yesterday that in fact since the bush administration there have been drones flying in from iranian airspace all the

time some have gone six hundred miles in you know i guess that within the national . security circles how well known is that well we don't for a while the drones especially those types of stealth drone spin used in the region frankly there are you think any country in the middle east you care to talk about look they've been using is the pakistanis regarding some of their sites pakistanis know what they don't like it so it's a practical measure that we have employed to look at what's actually there some of these places not easy to get to a human intelligence officer it's hard to get you know basically spies on the ground to go to some of these places so you've got to use whatever you can the iranian thing is something that clearly iraq they watched what was going on and i'm one of those my source told me they're pretty sure that the iranians brought that that one down and learn how to penetrate the data stream if you program told to land so i think you know there's been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth about the fact at least forty eight radians

figured it out so we've got to be careful about how we do it but is going to go on and i think that's probably one of the only ways with some of the things actually ongoing in the interior of iran are tony thanks for joining us tonight thank you. so to contact blackness to throw into jail for breaking the law preparations as either i was going to compare to christopher a sentence before creation guilty of the same crime. sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you did something else here sees some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry is a big issue.