on the more can the u.s. and its allies put a stop to big downward diplomatic spiral with iran and seek ways out of the current deadlock more talks are. pulled this evening on our t.v. another day at war another scandal a new photos of u.s. troops posing with afghan troops this this is an isolated incident or part of the consequence of a prolonged war. and all the most private personal info is just a click away on the internet the n.s.a. could soon get unfettered access to activists are gearing up for a nother battle for cyber freedom but do they stand a chance and what if we could produce more you wouldn't see what we saw in the water sequel raindrop conserve natural resources caring for the environment that sounds pretty good to me but maybe the question shouldn't be what g.m.o. companies are trying to do but how they're trying to do it bowling farmers buying

off politicians and genetically modifying what we eat are just some of the accusations and we're going to explain why this may be the food fight for your life . anything it's wednesday april eighteenth eight pm here in washington d.c. and lucy coughing up on my last broadcast here on our t.v. . now a sad sad story and an unfortunate one that we begin with a p.m.u. scam news cast with yet another military scandal that again stand involving u.s. soldiers back and corpses and photos but these images may be disturbing but today's revelations come from the l.a. times which published grisly photos of troops from the eighty second airborne division posing sometimes even green next to the remains of afghan insurgents now the photos are from twenty ten but it seems like almost every single month there is some new scandal emerging that involves our soldiers doing something wrong in the

field of war whether it's marines urinating on corpses accidental burnings of the koran a soldier going on a shooting spree i mean the list goes on now in this latest specific scandal the military seems appropriate let's pardon me place the blame on the press the pentagon me the usual noises about how this doesn't represent the conduct of the u.s. military as a whole and that issue the usual of warnings about how the release of such images by the media jeopardizes american lives by leaving a bad impression in the quote minds of local afghans you know because local afghans have such a wonderful view of america after a decade of war nitrates torture and civilian killings and these ads part despicable yes and i'm not excusing them but the discussion in the media and the pentagon seems to miss the point america is at war for more than a decade our soldiers have been sent over and over again to foreign lands for you exactly what they're trying to do trained to do to fight and to kill generation of

american men and women have fought died last limbs watch friends die on the name of war and those who do come back come home with scars often seen and unseen now let me run through some of the statistics that we're talking about here an american soldier dies every single day and a half on average in iraq and afghanistan veterans kill themselves at a rate of one every eighty minutes and. in six thousand five hundred u.s. veteran suicides are logged every year that's more than the total number of soldiers killed in iraq and afghanistan combined now we can debate about the role of the media or the effect these pictures have on local afghans until we're blue in the face but we need to stop treating them as isolated incidents and admit this is part of the war does. well earlier i was going by matheson wrote he's a former army sergeant afghanistan war veteran and they were sister of the war in iraq has his reaction. well i was in afghanistan in two thousand and

five not for a really long long enough to get it could be. the fact that this war is being fought in urban environments it's being fought by young men who are being trained with with cameras in hand and they deployed with cameras in hand and what we're seeing now is the result of that and furthermore it's only a small small piece as you said prior of a much much greater picture a phenomenon that that is how actively i think most most prominently known in the military is working on. and i just want to ask your intro was incredible i have never heard another anchor i'm not sure if you're just reading your own opinions or what you guys just nailed it right on the head when you said

this is this conversation he needs to change and it needs to stop revolving around a few that apples or whatever it needs to start being be getting real about the fact that these aren't isolated incidents and furthermore it's only a matter of time until they all find out. sorry to interrupt it and to be fair i was just really outraged when i read this i mean i'm not excusing the behavior of these soldiers this says despicable behavior i'm sure it doesn't help necessarily our war effort by any means whatsoever but it seems to hold up in the special never looks at the fact of a decade of war on soldiers and their mentality and it was the worst soldiers i in my personal life lost somebody to a suicide and that has really really personally if i could report for years i can't imagine fighting side side by. i got my friends and colleagues and a logical cold i couldn't amount of the psychological effect about how many and these guys are coming home after fighting these wars i mean it seems like this is

a possible that's only going to be growing and worsening. and like i said the evidence of this pastor exists and this war and one which i believe is all over the place i know i've seen a lot of it definitely them and they're already seen as not to the media and from other soldiers showing expose and things like that they write down range and while i don't die didn't personally take any of the photos and i was focused on taking happy pictures when i was in them because we were trying to make it look like an occupation. you know there's an enormous amount of this material that exists and actually i'm i'm i'm writing a piece right now for the huffington post in which i'm calling for us that aren't in u.s. soldiers to go ahead and release their war porn because in fact there are probably

thousands of terabytes in existence and soldiers and veterans are to actually look at this and understand how much power they have i possess in the documentation they can release these things to the media and seriously impact the national discussion right now at a moment when it's needed so credit well based on our previous discussion be careful about not profess but passes perhaps be deemed a terrorist but i'm being sarcastic of course but i do want to ask you i mean you know. who would you place the blame in this whole scandal i mean is it just about these individual soldiers or is about creating a system where we train people to fight and kill but don't necessarily train them how to readjust to normal life. i think human beings as human being right certainly i understand what you're asking this is symptomatic of. a long

history of war and the types of wars that the u.s. tends to buy. and he writes this this kind of. aggravated behavior on behalf of the soldiers and so you know in vietnam we saw a lot more of my physical war trophies being taken like fingers and ears and tongues and things like that. in this war it's photographs instead of taking perhaps things with them and they still do i know the example and so does the media but you know more so than taking body parts they're taking pictures and you know these pictures when released and eventually they will be released either by soldiers and better and now or at some point i'm sure they'll be tax free but i think i'm afraid to talk about it when these guys come home and say they've as they've you know they've seen so much horror they they've you know their pricing has been fundamentally altered by years and years of war when these guys

come home should we be afraid to be nervous about what could potentially happen if they're not getting support from the pentagon. i understand i understand i'll personally never be afraid of another soldier or a veteran but that's just a personal thing and i don't think anybody's beyond being reached but part of what i think he may shout out at the end part of what for us writes understanding what's actually happened and the kinds of trauma that's carrying that these guys and gals carry with them is contained within this ward porton and it continues to go under the surface and when this stuff starts coming out maybe then we can talk seriously i don't national level about funding the d.a. in a way that's not deficient you know maybe when this stuff starts coming out we can start the conversation about better and suicides and how are actually going to fix it you know what i stuffed and out people are going to continue assuming that it's

you know g.i. joe and it's not that's why ords and i really want to thank you for your time it's not an isolated incident as a prank that was natural up let us know better and i'm a contributor to the post. well first there was after them so now sis are having a hard time keeping tabs on the latest cyber acronyms and to simplify the issue at hand these are all legislative efforts either in the name of cyber security or copyright infringements that have the potential to do one very scary thing to destroy the internet freedom and privacy as we know it's now the latest iteration of your worst privacy nightmare is the cyber intelligence sharing and protection act of twenty eleven says for short the bill would effectively let u.s. companies spy on your e-mail social networking posts and online browsing then passed in fall along to the u.s. government's the n.s.a. specifically that is if something the rage google or post online is deemed to be

quote psycho security threat information so it is what is cyber security threat information is that an online plots take down the pentagon as a downloading brianna's the latest album from iraq they come out encrypted your e-mails are using a service that lets you browse anonymously or even posting your political points of view on facebook but the answer and the problem is that we don't know the bill is written so broadly that almost any online activity could be deemed as this threat and it has the potential to hurt whistleblowers destroyed journalism silence free speech not to mention eroding the basic premises of democracy now the bill is coming up for a vote in the house next monday but at the same time there's also no shortage of frightening terrifying sounding bills on the hill that stand very little chance of becoming law so should we worry about cispa let's the question i posed to dave seaman he's been covering the issue at length and here is his take. well for one reason you should care because it stands

a very good chance of becoming law has more than one hundred co-sponsors in congress and unlike sopa which had a huge online outrage from the public and tech companies alike this one actually has the support of key tech companies with sopo which failed there was a petition that was linked from the home page of google and major web properties including read it and we can pedia went dark to protest that they're probably not going to do that this time around assist pose a very real threat and at this point it very well could become law within a matter of it with a very short period of time and the white house has expressed concerns but don't want that reassure you too much because they also expressed concerns about n.d.a. and then obama signed into law on new year's eve and expressed concerns about other bills that have been become law yeah i'm glad you mentioned the the white house because you know there's been a lot of article three of saying well the white house has come out against this but i mean if and if a flak is there are equivalent of the big guns to to oppose legislation i don't

really think that we can think found me but. you know let's focus on this issue of sort of activists gathering behind or against or in favor of cispa why is it that facebook for example google why have these companies not to come out against us what's in it for them in this legislation. well i think whatever you're gathering data that's a potential business model i think it's a sleazy business model but you can sell i mean you can sell that to the government and make money off of it so it's a revenue stream and furthermore i think these big tech companies love the litigation immunity that the government or other agencies or even companies you know a private security company can seize your information under cispa and we're talking about very private information the websites you visit the searches you make if you're doing research on a personal medical condition if you're sending private e-mails to your spouse your girlfriend or anybody else these are emails that could be seen by a number of people and that litigation unity protects these companies from being

sued so i think they like that aspect also i think internet users individuals hate this for the same reason there is really no recourse if your information is abused i mean i don't you this is a bill that is designed for abuse that litigation immunity is completely absurd so congress you're saying that congress is intentionally trying to screw over american freedoms of speech privacy information. it's been a legislative twilight zone really sense it was signs that was signed into law we saw that and then we saw a bill that literally criminalizes certain forms of peaceful protests that was signed into law and then we saw sopa which was breathtaking in its scope and in its audacity and in the extent that it goes against everything america stands for and that only failed not really because of public opposition i think it failed because big tech companies were against it this time around we the tech companies don't

have our backs so it's up to the american people to speak out and for people that i've spoken to online it really sounds like when you contact your member of congress and you say you know i don't want to start this is not something we asked for this is not something that's good for the internet it's not good for the economy it's not good for our privacy obviously when you contact these members of congress their response to something that approaches a detached amusement they don't really care what you think at this point so it's definitely i mean it freaks a lot of people out and with good reason well you know they might not care what the average joe thinks but i guess money talks then we do also have the addition of this horrid essentially defense contractor a lobbyist on the hill pushing for this legislation talk a little bit about that. that's exactly right this is not a bill that the american people asked for they didn't say hey government we need more regulation over the internet the internet works pretty well this is something that was pushed by for profit spying companies and it was pushed by

a handful of tech companies and it's totally counter to what would be in the best interests of the american people in nearly every possible way and we've seen this time and time again where congress our supposedly elected officials are no longer representing our needs they could be focusing on a number of issues that would help the average person far more what about increasing you know transparency and liquidity in financial markets what about bringing people back to work any of these things would be a better use of their time then these crazy spine bills that make us look like a joke on the world stage other words hacking the internet one of the areas where america excels and innovate so why are we trying to destroy this it makes zero sense to essentially shooting ourselves in a fight i think that's a good point there but really briefly for those who aren't necessarily tech savvy you know the average american would say well you know i'm not going to send out terrorist sounding e-mails i'm not going to google for you know terror threats information i'm not planning cyber attacks could average americans who don't do bad

things cannot spell. you really have to ask yourself even if you know terrorists or whatever and by the way sopa they used you know we're stopping online piracy is the red herring this time around they've pretty much doubled down they're saying now we're using this to stop cyber terrorists whatever the hell that is. so for the average person you have to ask yourself do you want strangers that you know nothing about people in local police departments people privately run security companies do you want them to be poring through years of your e-mails every single google search you make late at night and that is going to go there if you want to all of these private things being in the hands of strangers and then having absolutely no accountability no to turn around and use that information in the worst way possible you can then you can even get a lawyer and sue them because they have litigation immunity it is certainly scary and if you do want to figure out a way to get in touch with your congressman and the electronic freedom foundation a.c.l.u.

do you have ways to go and do that thank you so much for clarifying us on the issue david seaman journalist and the host of the d l show well in many european countries even the idea of genetically modified food is as important as a euthanasia now india's farmer suicide crisis has been blamed on the in the fuse of g.m. crops and more and more recently a massive protests broke out in nepal after a month and has g.m.o. seeds were forced on that country's farmers we're going to bring you that story in just a minute but the bigger question here is are genetically modified modified products really bad and if so where is the outrage right here at home in the u.s. do we even know what's in our food and what was done to it before it hit store shelves now on that topic i spoke to chris a pretty quick he's the author of the book diet for a dead planet and here's his thoughts on the u.s. stance on g.m. knows. well i think actually the movement against jim mose in general and also for

label and in the u.s. is actually quite i'm active in vibrant and you'll see comments posted u.s.d.a. to the government. in the millions there's actually very widespread concern across the u.s. about the spread of genetically modified foods for instance but eighty different cities across the country have tried or towns have tried to ban g.m.o. is within their locality and the state of vermont had a ban on g.m.o. . you know they continue to corporations continue to fill that older even court but you know that the reality is that what people are up against the large but equal system in congress and the presidency with either party is very closely tied to the agribusiness complex which includes months and so and other big companies like i assume gent and cons and other big corporations that control most of our

seats and so it's very difficult to get. people in the federal level in the national level to pay attention but there's actually very way expressed concern across the u.s. about this issue you know there may be a growing concern about the issue but the problem with the u.s. is that this is something that's already in place that we're fighting to overturn so i'm curious about the divide how is it that this country sort of saw such a need for reform and fanfare and similar type companies to sort of spread and operate the way they do whereas other countrysides and able to block. yeah i mean unfortunately since g.m.o. products ph began to roll out in about one thousand nine hundred six they really just took over like wildfire and the government the united states part of the agriculture would routinely just ok a month and telling other corporations applications to expand use of these seeds and so for instance we now see ninety four percent of the soy crops and america

are g.m.o. and it's somewhere between sixty and seventy five percent pending on the crop for cotton and corn last year the obama administration a to expand this and beat sugar beets and alfalfa. they have you know g.m.o. wheat in the pipeline so there's a lot of you know part of the reason is if it's a nominal level of corporate power over government policy noted state which stems from the fact that these companies have such control over the market so that for instance a month and two. you know along with two other companies control house of the world's seed supply so you know and then we see it especially powerful new us with those crops it just mentioned non-fan to more powerful than the u.s. government i'm just curious. i don't think we should pretend that they are i don't think i don't think that we need to overly demonize them just to see that what they

what they're doing is whether the any other company would do and i think we have to be clear about that this is not just an evil company the food industry with the agro business and industry frankly do. they try to turn a profit niche become as big as possible and control as much of the market as they can and once they do their pocket it's a very great heat for control politics and we'll regulatory process doesn't seem to matter which political party we have both president bush and president obama have been roughly equally friendly to the channel industry you know and the danger is not just you know. we don't know what's in our food and the fact that there are allergens that have been introduced into our food system it's also as you mentioned earlier the control over farmers ability to survive and produce the crops they want to produce and so even the farmers may start of laking you know

a month into product and they link in with it. they're suddenly completely unable to control their fate and so money started to talk to him it sounds like a drug pusher essentially you know you've been eligible for where you know from donald started putting crack and in their burgers and hooking customers on their specific burgers and then also happened to sue anyone owing to you know burger king for alternative i mean that would be gang the drug warfare. so yeah i mean in the first decade g.m.'s in the u.s. a month and two sued over twenty three hundred farmers claiming that they had stolen their c. when in actuality many farmers have found their organic crops were non g.m.o. crops to be polluted by the seeds flowing through the wind and yet months and so will turn around and sue them anyway even though the farmers don't want those crops and you know again that the very exact knowledge of g.m. owes it's very troubling because the whole point of it it's been on replicating non

reproduce so you have to go to the company to get their c.v. and you have to go to the same company for the test so that it will be used to eradicate the rest of the pests on the other in the weeds and rest and for these crops are not just they're not good for the environment they are there they enable the use of more pesticides in many cases and they're also a real threat to both farmers and biodiversity by wiping out taking over other crops and chris before we run out of time i'm sorry to say that you know. it sounds kind of bad right but what what is the actual effect of g.m.o. food and human people i mean there's. i think was an alternate article that said that monsanto doesn't even serve its own products in its capital i don't know how true that is but it should the average american be concerned about health that's from g.m. almost well absolutely i mean the studies are still being done but there are a number of studies showing again that they introduce by crossing different

introduce our genes into the food. and some people are very allergic to certain things and when you don't label. it enough to. know what what was the case alert it is to this food that never had that before so that's just one example you know the rest you know again there's a lot of scientific study being. on the road versus very much so. a structure that is certainly labeling very least but even that's not enough because we still don't know what's in there well it seems like a battle of american people versus goliath but i don't really know if that's the political system or the companies are or who is really the goliath in this case but i do appreciate you taking the time to speak with us that's pretty pretty quiet the author of the popular diet for a dead planet now in the interest of the previous segment we mentioned how in the past farmers are up in arms over one sound so essentially forcing them to use their

seats or to be more accurate the country forcing them to use monsanto g.m.c. it's artie's prius readers started to explore that story and brings us a. like many in nepal. relies on agriculture to survive and life is tough. we have to get. used to the markets are we not have a market price for a vegetable and we have to sell them it's also a price. think of crows maids one of nepal's biggest crops but only about half of what it needs is being produced and forty percent of the population is malnourished it's united states agency for international development or usa i want to lend a helping hand we have been trying to help in the. increase in stalking production production of the food crops. can also increase productivities by making him

a little bit more competitive. by bringing his costs down so that health could come in the form of months and agricultural giant which shows as much controversy as it does the usa id has announced it wants to create a partnership with monsanto and then a police government to boost maize production here almost agree that nepal needs to address its food insecurity problems critics say that maybe the solution to nepal's agricultural issues should come from within the country and not abroad hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the u.s. embassy in kabul and you can speak out against monsanto as are those of primers up for bait on how much to begin with then they'll have to completely rely on. monsanto usa id believes months antos hybrid seeds will get higher yields but it could also be a noose around farmers now you submit your soul into this program to and then you

start going seeds from them so you're one of my producers. you do your true you just starts going down and then it means that you have the increase in because you have years to. buy seeds from this company because seed for kids going down to corporations history is not exactly covered in chlorine it's been sued by hundreds of thousands of farmers around the world convicted of dumping toxic waste in british landfill sites and allegations of monopolization follow it everywhere farmers like romper start nothing to her. enough to deal with it. right sometimes when the reason. and those are the difficult times because i do have another job where i could get some extra money from. but it's a tough decision whether to slow the cost to you to be sure preassure you there are t. cap in june impossible well that does it for now both for this newscast as well as my time here at the r.t.e.

america as anchor desk it's been an incredible journey for me on r.t. america from working behind the scenes as we launched our very first newscast bring you the stories are trying to bring you the stories that other networks probably should have been covering to transitioning to on camera working on them right here by interviewing guests from the streets of oakland and new york covering the occupy wall street movement it's been an absolutely incredible experience but the as with all the things it's time for me to say goodbye to washington and make the plunge abroad and i'm not leaving the network on not leaving archie but i am moving out of the country in order to try to bring you more details and some of the very stories that we talk about right here whether it's on fianna stand yemen the middle east or europe from the ground from the places where they actually happen i want to see what the truth is firsthand in order to help you question more and this is why you won't see me.