we wanted to present. something a. little in the briefing room industry should watch to keep those options open we don't want to leave. extra injured workers because it would prove it with. the past and present american presidents it is a matter of national security but according to the geneva convention it's torture so why is the us dropping ninety nine of one hundred one cases dealing with cia interrogation techniques all explore. and in the class for energy independence the us calling out all the stops to hunt for the next great energy source and i draw it fracturing may hold the key if only the e.p.a. approved will tell you about the latest tussle over fracking. and it is

one of the most prestigious awards of journalists in the land and honored of the people who bring us the daily news and now the pulitzer prize is making history awarding online media outlets for the first time and so is this yet another sign that newspapers are going the way of the dinosaurs. it's tuesday april seventeenth five pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz of all and you're watching artsy. well we begin today on the issue of using torture on terror suspects waterboarding and stress positions just two of the techniques used by the u.s. against those accused of having ties to terrorism now a secret memo has been leaked which brands them war crimes and shows that the bush administration was warned against their use it also sheds light on the birth of the

bush administration's torture policy and as artie's marina pour in i reports many feel president obama isn't doing enough to make up for america's past mistakes. america's so-called war on terror produced images and accounts that ignited a world of questions about torture and the u.s. treatment of suspects american people need to know we're using techniques within the law to protect two years after george w. bush left the white house let's talk about waterboarding the former commander in chief admitted his stamp of approval for the use of interrogation techniques like waterboarding inhumane and illegal under u.s. law and the geneva conventions flies waterboarding legal in your opinion as a lawyer said it was legal so we've got. to get at our torture. and. let's go first to judgment of people where you are and i do the bush administration also chose to disregard the judgment of

a top adviser who warned that the cia's interrogation of terror suspects equally weighted to felony war crimes according to a secret memo obtained by wired magazine in two thousand and six state department counselor philip zelikow warned the white house that controversial interrogation techniques such as werder boarding stress positions and cramped confinement are prohibited under u.s. law and under american law there is no precedent for excusing treatment that is intrinsically cruel even if the state asserts compelling need to use it i think there needs to be an accounting in the united states and what was done over the last eight years in the name of america there is arrest after the second world. united states actually executed japanese soldiers who had. used. against american prisons they took action against the japanese were made in the u.s. . as opposing watched by other countries so there is

a clear legal case to say that you know action must be taken we're still evaluating two weeks before taking office u.s. president barack obama steered. the year of saving america's historic commitments to international justice obviously we're going to be looking at past records. and i don't believe that anybody has a problem on the other hand i also have a belief that when you pull forward as rosy as possible looking back last june obama's u.s. justice department dropped ninety nine out of one hundred one cases against cia interrogators over the use of torture i mean the current administration wants to keep those options open they don't want to label these techniques just as crimes or torture because that would prohibit them from using them but we're doing that definition however. big we can still be option applying these techniques once again and that is what is frightening here scholars attorneys and human rights experts

around the world have called for the prosecution of senior bush administration officials who designed in order torture tactics however critics say the unspoken agreement within countries proclaiming to pioneer democracy is to never turn on your own to. the west we you know we make great. about our great democracies but there is a kind of stitch up between the elite parties that they will not press charges and they will not take legal action against crimes of or previous administrations through the use of torture rendition and secret prisons america's moral position all around the world has are undoubtedly shifted and while the u.s. will likely continue barking the beacons of freedom and democracy critics say the more important question to ask is who's even listening anymore. artsy new york. earlier i spoke to david swanson a campaigner perverts action about the case of john kerry aku he is

a former cia official accused of leaking classified information to the media i asked david if he thought the case was about politics or justice take a listen. certainly the former this is someone being charged the six person being charged under the obama administration under the espionage act but he is not being accused of having soil to endanger the nation having such an aide any so-called enemy he's been accused of blowing the whistle on the crime of torture and so he is being prosecuted for something which yes those resemble the original purpose of the espionage act one thousand nine hundred seventeen which was to prosecute anyone who was in a war or discouraging recruitment any time you told the truth about u.s. foreign policy. recruits from the u.s. military but that's not how they talk about it they talk about it as if he has endangered national security and yet this is someone who's gone in words since the

these events a senate foreign relations committee and there's no suggestion that there's been any danger there that he's a traitor to the nation it's all about finding a technicality on which to prosecute someone who has spoken out against a crime that they have and i want to play a part of an interview he did with journalist david leopold truthout here he is talking about the case of a detainee by the name of abu zubaida and what he discovered cia officials did it to this suspect this is what they say they needed to do to extract what they call actionable intelligence take a look my view now is now that we know it was eighty three times if you have to waterboard somebody eighty three times to collect the information even if the information is correct and it's actually before it was of the wrong thing to do. so this man he was water boarded as we decide eighty three times and we would never

learn about it had it not bad for whistleblowers like john kerry. and this case does the ends justify the means. well of course not sir we're talking about torture and the new york times calls it a suffocation tactic because if that excuses it waterboarding is torture the united states is prosecuted into mystically and at the end of past wars and this is something there we were first told about five mr heriot knew and then we later learned and even more firmly documents that it was eighty three times that there is no evidence that any useful information was gained from torturing data who still remains locked up in a huge u.s. prison with no rights there is no evidence that there's a tradeoff here that they torture gains us information not being without the torture and so we have to maybe about relations you know if this is all negative it puts the united states outside of the rule of law there's always our reference your

reputation around the world and it encourages torture might hurt countries which are probably in the u.s. examples when enormous it's not now others they've had it with say that when you work for the n.s.a. or you work for the cia you're dealing with a very classified and permission and where when you become when you become employed by these agency if you take head in l.a. not to disclose government secrets and the guest apartment says that he broke his promise what do you say to that. i say there is a higher oath to uphold the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic there is an obligation to report on crimes when you are aware of villainies you are legally required to make that information known there is an understanding in military law that you must use it we believe orders and they are not what we're after people who leak information in

a consistent manner they are going after people who blow the whistle on crimes he says this is number six then there is a resemblance here is a bradley manning a resemblance to thomas straight they are going after whistleblowers which is exactly what he ended the eight or obama promise not to do now the man that blew the whistle and also or he is the man that expose these torture and practices that happen under the bush administration these practices he calls them illegal the man by the name of philip that like out of the state department made this are made this argument and i want to pull the crow from wired magazine that was published in the story and says quote zelic our argued that the geneva conventions applied to al qaeda opposition either than just a guest list apartment nor the white house shared at the time and so this is kind of something that is central to this whole argument is there a distinction between treatment of prisoners and terrorist suspects. well there

shouldn't be philip zelikow is down here at the university of virginia and i feel a little bit better. since there's no modest home how it's a little bit at least without coming up whistleblower at least he said he knew internally i guess that's something but this was the maneuver by the bush administration there was an attempt to get outside of us rock to get outside of the laws of war and his intention was that a lot of law or why there was no middle ground there was no third category of people whom you could locked up in certain ensemble outside of either the geneva conventions or are in place for it your stance you. are he went so far as to go back to the constitution and say that the amendment on who an unusual punishment was central here and even. then it's very much to his credit you want to go one step further like mr kiriakou and blown the whistle. and they've got it there is

still a lot of americans that support a use of torture here is a sound bite from dick cheney on this very subject take a lesson. in your view we should still be using enhanced interrogation yes should we still be waterboarding terror suspects i would strongly support using it again if circumstances of rows where we had a high value detainee in a similar way would get him and talk to people call it torture when you think it should still be a tool to us. now. to ask a question that he would ask a lot of people like minded people what ask if torturing a prisoner could prevent the next nine eleven would you be in support of at it would lead to enter may shed in that we could prevent something like that from

happening would you then support it. but it's a bizarre question because there is no scenario for the his hospital there's no instance where you can reasonably preview if there is any chance that torture will prevent such a thing there is no way of knowing that someone will give you accurate information hundred torture and dick cheney is not a news analyst here dick cheney is one of the top torturer since i asked you know rape is that if you think rape should be legal or not cheney and the rest of which top torturers are not being brought here on forms that are on trial and it asked them what they think matter is to disprove the journalism profession they need to take seriously their intention that they are use this fictional scenario in which torture is going to save us after these years and years of evidence that functionary is not religious they've had pleasure to have you on the show as

a way that was gave its once and campaigner for its action well a battle on capitol hill today over energy the environmental protection agency is set to finish up rules to cut down on pollution from oil and gas drilling under scrutiny as a controversial practice i'd garlic fracturing are commonly known as fracking environmentalist say the product practice leads to toxic waste but the oil and gas industry say regulators are going overboard and joining us today to talk more about the future of fracking as chewed out reporter mike leavitt wig welcome like so how hopeful are you that you pears regulations to come out today well as all the problems associated with fracking. well we've been waiting for some kind of federal regulation of fracking for a long time and what they're coming out with today is only regulations era missions they're going to be putting forth new rules to ask the industry to contain and

dispose of gases like methane and organic compounds that are released with fracking rigs when the chemicals in the water that they used to drill for gas actually come back so environmentalist been pushing for federal regulations for a while a lot of people hear a lot about water and water problems caused by fracking parking temptation you also hear a lot about earthquakes but air contamination is also a problem that u.p.a. is moving forward on that now so you think there. needs to be a. create allows for the. all very relevant. price. like what. about fracking. but what has it is it has been regulated on a federal level it's been regulated kind of state to state and the e.p.a.

has really stepped in to propose any regulations for a while i mean hydraulic fracturing fracturing has exploded across the country as a way to get natural gas the you'd have to use also very controversial you see earthquakes receding water contamination events be the street and i did for years we now know that it is a fact it's so times have happened that u.p.a. has been working towards regulating a fuel problem ministration wants to regulate it but they haven't been able to get a long process to roll that out now the obama administration is very supportive of expanding natural gas fracking even on our public lands where they're working also working towards regulating it however as are doing this to working very closely with industry groups that are working very closely with the actual companies that are doing this to roll up these regulations so if they're going to be strong enough to actually make a difference that remains to be seen. so the answer would you agree that the answer that it would be more regulation at that. and also holding how do you think. i

was losing i mean you know we have to ask ourselves we want this cancer it is an important national resource and it does create jobs not always going to she would like to say it does but it does create jobs and it does boost our economy and helps their energy security at the same time without any oversight or regulation especially on the federal level these companies have been allowed to do pretty much whatever they want and the results have been in some cases disastrous just blow outs as part of quixotism people who have had to have water delivered to their homes because their actual wells they drink out of a contaminated with nothing so it's time for federal regulators to step in and if you want to use exploit this resource we're going to need that but it's unfortunately a very slow process and environmentalist push it's a long time to get it i like but i can fracking. safely. i think it depends on. the science is something i think. extraction is going to have some kind of impact that's just

a fact of life and it comes natural and if you didn't ask how much to get the energy and how much to be clean and safe. all right mike i want to pull up a map really quickly to give you an idea of exactly where fracking takes place for a lot we found twenty one states are currently using this method and i should stress the point that exact information on each state is hard to get a we do know that two states have a temporary ban on the map that new york and new jersey they banned it to review environmental rules and here is a map of a few for accidents so to speak where reports of service to over poison drinking water polluted air mysterious and well deaths industrial disasters or exposure or explosions so clearly looking at this now we can see that this industry has seen its fair share of trouble so like if not tracking what is the alternative because

we see other problems in terms of drilling environmental concerns in relation to that nuclear energy especially in the wake of fukushima what that would be an alternative. well alternative you know if you're looking at stars and she goes it could be solar could be wind that we have to remember that the also fuel industry is a trench in this country it has complete control almost over entire energy systems so we're going to keep pushing to exploit fuels like national gas and coal and other things that no matter how you extract them from the ground of matter how much are you ation there is going to be some mishaps and with fracking because there hasn't been any federal regulation in many cases weak state regulation we've seen all these mishaps you see in the earthquakes you see the water contamination how it's dropping dead the fuel it's scary which is why there's been all this backlash and now we have to wonder you know what is going to come out of washington obviously this ratios of this should be done safely to regulate it it's taking a lot of time meanwhile there's

a gas rush so you know the other thing we have to remember is that fact has been around for forty years the difference now is they're using a different technique they used to go straight down and speak earth at least the gas now they're going straight down and horizontally through the earth which is one of the reasons why scientists say we've been seeing something more temptation. now you mentioned earlier mike where the energy solar energy. all touted as. forms of energy. that really is viable and. that maybe just part of the solution and therefore. other kinds of energy are necessary. you know it's going to be charged to a lot of environmentalist are pushing for economy to shift towards those renewable energy energy sources completely they want that they want these alternatives to replace fossil fuels because of the environmental impact of extracting them also because concerns about global warming. you know do you see the picture differently create jobs but you know because our industries are entrenched fossil fuels don't

want to budge right my pleasure to have you on the. right way thank you so much live. well it looks like journalism as we know it is changing and online journalism is increasingly becoming the medium of choice the proof is in the pulitzer prize winners let's take a look at a few that the prize the huffington post won in the category of national reporting politico took the prize for editorial cartooning cheers to matt worker for coming up with the economic super bowl cartoon one of the many that allowed him to win this prize and for the best in feature reporting that went to allie sanders of the online outlet the stranger. well of course it was a proud moment for the online journalists and here they are at the huffington post celebrating.

i know that. maybe the next time they lead their pulitzer prize will be able to for its campaign . be are there. any right here to talk about the changing face of journalism and i'm joined now by it's a pretty name birth to spare they have you on the show as our way to thank you so we have all night outlets there they're being dealt with now is this another the changing face of journalism. yes and no i'll take the weasely way out and take both sides put it seriously yes or no i mean basically what you saw was them winning in very traditional categories because you know a pulitzer is you know it was joseph pulitzer didn't envision the internet back then but storytelling and you know in getting these types of stories and packaging

them you know that's nothing new but basically they won for serial feature writing huffington post a something which is they are not known to do they are known for their business model which is an aggregation aggregation aggregation aggregation this was original reporting you know basically trying something new but you know it in a sense but going back to old school the stranger is basically the online presence of a you know of an alternative newspaper like the ones we have here in the you know washing city paper village voice in new york and they were doing with an old fashioned human interest feature story politico it was doing old fashioned political cartooning so we're seeing a different different media but the same story so you know it's nothing to say that things have been revolutionized but it's interesting to see this this this occur i guess what is revolutionizing at the fact that people they don't have just you know their go to paper is that right they can log on line and chew. is the news that

they. are issues that the news that they want to read. as far a viewer or a reader i guess what does this mean it mean for for the public well certain things for a change i mean huffington post business model mean store it off as the as you think drudge report and then it became the business model basically the liberal angle of aggregation of basically news as a social event you know what i'm not going to demean things and say gossip but i mean that's what it basically becomes you know in our everyday sort of language news and sunlight here you just see that report hey did you see that thing that's what you know that's what fox doesn't you know it's in a sense but coming out from a right wing perspective i mean that kind of stuff is not changing and that's the kind of stuff that you know the columbia. journal of. journalism review did

a very great article on you know the six degrees of aggregation which is you know the basically the bible on huffington post and that business model has eaten just about everything that's not going to change what has to change or producer traditional newspapers that are winning the war at least for original reporting are winning these awards but it really doesn't seem to mean anything you know they're going to have to change their model to that kind of you know disruptive and stickiness kind of through the columbia journalism review talked about with perfect and you know taking a strong point of view on some things put that will allow them to be able to peel off resources to do that original reporting so it's not just circular gossip it's going out finding the stories reporting on them and then have everybody talk about them and well this is the first time that line sites have won this prize do you think that this is a sign of things oh well it has to be because there are over here traditional news

print newspapers are. here and there you know when one's bigger one's big you know when one's one's a big mammal one's a dying dinosaur but they're still biting their way towards the middle and one will eat the other but will see a whole new creature we're not going to see just how thing to and i mean we're seeing that that evolution right now i mean from what they were blogs essentially they're come they're biting their way into the middle of dinosaurs are here and we're going to see a whole new creature it's not going to be a meteor hits nine a source die and they take over and this is true i mean aggregation in the real evolutionary sense and i think that this is the first step let them celebrate i mean i think we're going to see better storytelling you know as a result now in related news a press report came out that they had kind of an overview of jobs that are i tracked and they have ranked them on a scale and journalists are newspaper reporter was on the bottom. like way way

way down there and you're a journalist. so what then do you tell your students well i mean that's nothing new i mean that in the nineteenth century wasn't all that before you know post world war two so like the sixty's that it was the sexy cool thing to do and it you know and probably the heyday in the sixty's and seventy's especially when you have the you know the hunter s. thompson johndroe but you know it's always been you know just one niche above you know band prostitute for the last five hundred years but i what i don't tell him is what roger ailes at fox is said to find another job because he was very dismissive you know because that's the world he lives and people always are going to need journalists they might not need newspapers they might not need traditional t.v. stations but they're always going to need journalist people who will go out find the stories examine them analyze the facts find sources package it and give it to you so you can then repeat it out in social media and you know with a little boost from the reporter his or her or herself that they're always going to

need that so everybody has that. we're going to go away there's always always the new luxury where you get your news in the way that the new that's the word that's what will change the way you get all right well being in the journalism field and sure the way i would fare yes. if you're on the show that was christopher chambers journalism professor at georgetown university well the alona show is coming up in just a half hour let's check in with a loaded to see what's on city's agenda alona what can we look forward to. stop cyber spying week so basically we are going to continue our coverage looking at this and the protests that's going on to try to put this piece of legislation away to try to get rid of it already i guess you could say they've scored one small victory in the sense that they've gotten some revisions or new provisions made to the bill but we'll see if those actually go far enough we'll see what it is that it might take to get this to become as big as the protests that we saw are anti sopa

and pipa not sense. well that is coming up in just a half hour but that's going to do it for the news for more of the stories we covered can have an already youtube dot com slash artsy america or you can also check out our web site that is r t dot com slash usa and also a. twitter list of all the alone shows coming up in just a half an hour will be right back here at seven. o'clock in the alone and still look at the real headline with none the less 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 don't people just don't watch t.v. anymore if they want news they go online and read it but we're trying to take the stories that people actually care about and transfer them back to t.v. .