it hurts. you to have to watch your back if you get pretty angry that you. had to shoot her first and have to go round up the people with the truth and also. to these farmers these pigs are their lives and a source of income but to the state of michigan they're a hazard that needs to be disposed of well take you to the town of marion where farmers are being forced to slaughter their swine. and just when you thought long lines and t.s.a. pat downs go way too far away just failed bomb plot has given f.b.i. officials reason to ask for more surveillance power in cyberspace.

it's thursday may tenth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz of all you're watching arts. well imagine being forced to open fire on your own animals some farmers in michigan say they had no choice but to do just that they say the pig carnage in the state was at the demand of the mit of the michigan department of natural resources it's all deal with due to a law that went into effect on april first a law aimed at getting rid of pigs michigan d.n.r. is now calling an invasive species the government agency says the pigs can become dangerous carry diseases and cause problems to the environment but farmers aren't are saying that this doesn't describe the pigs they've been raising for years to find out what's really going on i ventured out to western michigan my investigation took me here to a quaint town of a few hundred people called marion i also visited other farms and talked to folks that say their whole way of life is shaken by the new law that doesn't make very

much sense to them. in the heart of western michigan are picturesque world towns where some wild animals are free to roam. for many folks living here local farms are their livelihood. but serene fields are a backdrop to a raging battle between farmers and the government this is the way people have raised pigs for. forever. mark baker has been raising pigs for fifteen years he and his family live off their family farm. here a baker's green acres bigger takes pride in letting his pigs and piglets roam free on the farm. the department of natural resources here in michigan has deemed these pigs invasive species they have ordered farmers to slaughter every

last one of these pigs and piglets and farmers that haven't complied are now considered to be felons but baker refuses to mass slaughter his animals if the d.n.r. is going to make me do it they can do it they can pull the trigger themselves others say they had no choice but to pull the trigger on their own animals it's very sad all i see are tracks of animals that used to be here this plot of land on dave talks fairies farm was once thriving with hundreds of healthy pigs they're all playing around and and it is really. it's a fun way of of raising animals because you can sit out and watch them and you can tell that they're happy pig if there is such thing as a happy pig these were really happy pigs but today this pen is empty he says he and his fellow farmers were forced to exterminate their swine before the april first deadline he had to take the mom out first or do you have to watch your back because

you get pretty anger had to. had to shoot her first and then then you have to go round up the piglet and shoot them also they were small pay billets and they were there was enough meat on them to to doing what some we sold for just pennies on a dollar. a lot of the sols of course had young inside them ready to give birth so they just they of course just got buried some farmers are calling the government mandate pig genocide if you're found with any of these animals these type of animals on your property and you'd be fined you'd be jailed. and you have a felony as well as they would kill every animal and hear that they have found. so what's so bad about these pigs for the government to demand they be wiped off the face of the state michigan d.n.r.

did not answer repeated interview requests but their website argues feral swine pose a problem because they host parasites and diseases that they're and humans and animals and can cause extensive damage to the environment farmers say that's hogwash our hogs were the most healthiest ones in the state because we tested every single one that died but every pig that that we harvested i would take a vial of blood and i would send him into the studs send hundreds of these vials into the state of michigan get him tested every year michigan d.n.r. also asserts the pigs can get aggressive and attack humans when cornered or threatened but according to farmers that raised them and not these pigs when they're outside like this they're in their environment you see the tails going back and forth we could we could take a stroll in there and they would want to just come over and maybe sniff you a little bit so what's really behind the law farmers have their suspicions my gut feeling it's you've got lobbyists you have the white pork industry.

anti hunters anti gun. you name it they always seem to have more money than the good guy want to make a decent living around here i think what they're what they're getting. is they want pigs that are raised in confinement you know confinement operation or k. fall. i think that they think that that would be acceptable because they can control is in animals operations like this where pigs are mass raised in confinement the michigan pork producers association stands by the government invasive species order they say quote we must defend and up hold michigan's ban on these destructive disease carrying animals and close the door to all invasive species. pigs the big pork businesses consider a threat local farmers have counted on for years this was actually

a very very good income for us so i don't have an answer on how to how to survive after here i don't know if they've already shot my business stone or i cannot sell these animals live and this is half of what i do what my income is. it's a fight for their livelihood and a way of life baker is now battling to keep it in court in michigan liz wall r t. how to talk more about why the state wants to exterminate these pigs founder editor in chief and key writer of natural news dot com mike adams joins us now he's also known as a health ranger hi mike so being out there what really struck me was how sincerely these people in michigan are affected by this law and the horror i mean you saw there of having no choice but to open fire on their own animals so why would the stay enact

a law mandating that farmers do this. well you're to be commended by the way for going there and for covering this story this is a very important story and it is an outrage it's a war on america's farmers these livestock these pigs that the state calls calls feral pigs are not feral pigs feral pigs are ones in the wild that have been out in the wild outside the fences but they forced these farmers to shoot their own pigs inside the fences they were under control that were not a problem by the same logic the state of michigan could say there's a wild dog problem and then demand all pet owners in the state shoot their own dogs it is a complete outrage it's illogical and i believe it's unconstitutional and illegal as well but i'm glad that you're covering this story and it's understanding that you made interesting that you make that distinction feral because these pigs once they're living inside the fence they're no longer a feral and this law applies to feral pigs who go to the website and it's

a lot to exterminate feral pigs. and the definition doesn't seem to add up there and i did many times try to contact the michigan department of natural resources and i never got a response but their website states many reasons it says these these pigs carry diseases they attack humans they can cause damage to the environment but none of these characteristics seem to describe the pigs that i saw on the farm in fact i ventured as for the fans and snapped this photo this little piggy is named friendly because he likes to be around people like he kind of comes up to you a little bit but he won't attack you none of the pigs dead so that argument doesn't make sense to the michigan d.n.r. partly for upping that the d.n.r. has been caught in multiple lies about this in our investigation we caught them lying many times and the head of the michigan d.n.r. rodney stokes needs to resign immediately he is in danger in the livelihoods of farmers and farm families he is in fact putting the states. you cannot make

abundance at risk by that he's taking away the rights of these people these you know these farms are huge this is what america was built on fundamental farming having livestock where does this end that's the real question here if they can criminalize hogs that farmers are raising they could criminalize cows chickens other kinds of livestock and then arrest farmers as felons if they don't destroy that livestock as well so you've got to get back to a point where you respect the fundamental rights of farmers and food producers in your state otherwise you end up with nothing but corporate run hog factories that really abuse those pigs and treat them inhumanely in the first place now in terms of the pigs carrying disease is another argument that the department of natural resources making people that bought the meat from these farmers bought them because they're fed organically here is one of the farmers had to say about this like the

taste of them when they are grass fed and when you can roll men and eat off the land a little bit they like that the taste of that hog better so a lot of our customers were naturalists that. that would come here for that reason now i know you're the health ranger an advocate g.m.o. free and hormone free and that's what these pigs are but the government wants them gone that's what's off the bat. well this could be very much the action of the monopolistic traditional pork producers association i think there's a tie in here i don't have proof of it yet but that seems to be part of it because their lobbyist want to have a monopoly for that industry and the way they do that is to eliminate competition it's just like any other corporation they want to eliminate the competition and in this case the competition was the backyard pigs that were being raised in better conditions with better diets and that honestly produced better meat and it's interesting because as you mentioned on the health ranger i don't personally

consume pork i don't consume beef that's just my decision but i support the right of others who wish to consume those meats to be able to access them in the healthiest way possible and that's what these farmers were providing so by attacking these farmers the michigan d.n.r. the state government has not only violated the rights of those farmers they have also denied the people of michigan a source of healthy food that i believe can help prevent disease and reduce their exposure to the pesticides hormones and antibiotics that are in other ports and talking to the farmers there that is a suspicion that they had i mean the desiccation that the government provided it really didn't make any sense to them so this is what they were thinking that that the corporations the corporations the the poor corporations that is in the lobby is are behind that now while bees kinds of pigs are out live here is what is allowed to happen on industrialized farms and the country take a lot. of

. a very strong contrast there too that the pigs are allowed to roam free and at least live somewhat of a happy life before they're sent to be by chaired this doesn't i mean where there's kind of a disconnect there i mean what we just size is perfectly legal in these industrialized farms yet these other farmers can be charged as a felon for harboring those other kinds of pigs yeah you're breaking my heart with that video but i'm glad you showed it because people do need to see the reality of what goes on so what you're pointing out there is a great contradiction by the state of michigan that says hey it's ok to have pork if it has been abused if it has been injected with hormones if it has been fed g.m.o. those and g.m.o. themselves are what's called a self replicating genetic pollution for the state so just feeding pigs g.m.o.

food which is common in the industry is in fact promoting it type of contamination of the natural environment but one of the people you interviewed the farmer mark baker his pigs were fed on a natural diet they were free range pigs they lead the healthiest happiest life that they could experience before being slaughtered for meat and that that is legitimate way to raise farm animals for meat and that's what's under attack by the state of michigan that is what's under attack but there are some farmers that fought back we saw there are some it's too late they already shot all the animals that they had but mark baker is one of them he's taking this battle to court but if the pork lobby is involved do these small farmers small town farmers stand a chance. well i think it comes down to getting back to the essential is of what what does it mean to be an american and one of the liberties that are supposed to be guaranteed us these actions by the michigan d.n.r.

raiding these farms at gunpoint which they deny but again we've caught them in that law and reading a farm at gun point in order to destroy the livestock you know i'm i'm i'm in texas right now and i can tell you if that happened in texas the texas culture the farming culture longstanding history they would not put up with that i can't believe that there aren't michigan farmers marching. on the capitol they're demanding the resignation of rodney stokes from the michigan d.n.r. demanding immediate investigations from the michigan governor snyder this is something that is a crime against the people of the state of michigan it's got to stop or where does it end again they could come after our dogs our cats our horses our chickens our pet birds they could demand we slaughter all of our animals because remember this d.n.r. action was not a law they simply invented it out of thin air they made it up it's an order that they made up and then forced at gunpoint that is american that's right mike thank

you lot of an unanswered questions in this case and hopefully there is some our investigation as to what is really going on there mike thanks for coming on the show that was mike adams health ranger and founder of natural news dot com. thank you. well still ahead in our t.v. from airspace to cyberspace the f.b.i. wants permission to see it all it's the latest measure government officials call imperative to our national security efforts well tell you what this means for your privacy next. it's part of american power continue. things that are so bad. might actually be time revolution. and it turns out that a killer drink at starbucks has a surprising him really here. at

first for a judge's burn gerard's right right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially. this is much stronger than anything you buy absolutely thousands of times stronger than any kind of you know butchering the. more surveillance flees that's what the f.b.i. is asking for yesterday the f.b.i. director urged congress to give the agency extensive surveillance powers the justification the latest foiled terrorism plot here is f.b.i. director robert mueller pleading before congress meanwhile al qaeda affiliates especially al qaeda in the arabian peninsula represent the top counter terrorism

threat to the nation. a.q. a.p. has attempted several attacks on the united states including the failed christmas day airline bombing in two thousand and nine and the attempted bombing of u.s. bound cargo planes in two thousand and ten and of course we are currently we in the bureau are currently exploiting an i.e.d. improvised explosive device used overseas which is similar to the devices used by a.q. a.p. in the past now the f.b.i. says this is a good reason to expand their ability to snoop on people online they want to be able to wiretap the internet and are asking companies like google and facebook to alter their code to enable them to do so and they hope to do this by amending a law that allows the wiretapping of phones and expand that power to internet sites that people often use to communicate these days so is this infringing on your on line privacy or a necessary tool to ensure public safety that clinical is the chief political

correspondent for c news and has been following this story since the very beginning and he joins us now for more welcome back len so you were one of the people to break this story what do you bake the f.b.i. asking for more surveillance powers. well it depends on who you talk to the f.b.i. is going to say this is something that lets us keep up with technology and privacy advocates are going to be alarmed by this because i mean if you think about it if facebook or microsoft or google or apple a guess or to order a lawful order order there are already going to have to comply with they can't very well say oh sorry just i just don't really feel like doing it today so the f.b.i. ready for this power this is creating what amounts to back doors and these internet companies networks and systems and servers and out like to know a lot more about this bill and no problem let's go ahead and do that now the f.b.i.

is saying that this is essential for public safety and it's a very timely argument because of this latest foiled al qaeda bomb plot that's being used as justification is it fear of auguring or is it truly necessary to obtain the intelligence to prevent these kinds of attacks. well this is a problem we've had we meaning anyone especially journalists on the outside trying to evaluate the surveillance demands that the f.b.i. has been making not even since two thousand and one september eleventh those numbers even before back in the mid one nine hundred ninety s. during the encryption wars so you have secret briefings and we don't come in from the outside you can't judge what's that what's in them the f.b.i. also says well do this or bad things will happen even terrorist attacks but you know what how do we know whether this is true or not we were operating in a lack of useful information almost a vacuum so it's very difficult to evaluate these demands and so at the very least

it makes sense to ask the f.b.i. for specifics and what they've been doing for about five years is polling their field offices to say what kind of investigations have been imperiled by your lack of access and so far they have not come up with a bunch of good examples now. what this law would do. what it would expand the power would because traditionally they've been able to wiretap fault but people these days are communicating more so on the internet by e-mail by or by text messaging or by skype so that doesn't make sense then that if they've been able to wiretap phone that now with and people are communicating by other ways that they would be able to wiretap these means of communication. well the debate circles around the one thousand nine hundred four law called the communications assistance for law enforcement act also known as kaliya and that established what's going to weird principle and that is if you have a new technology that lets americans communicate you have to build in back doors to

make it the wiretap of all why the federal government and so there's almost gives the federal government to veto over new communications technologies sorry americans you can't have them unless we can wiretap them and this is not something that i think the framers of the constitution and vision it's not something that i i can see any provision in the constitution obviously permitting it and so you're right it is an extension of that one thousand nine hundred four law and it's a pretty direct six extension of it but maybe that nice ninety four law was not all that wonderful in the first place that's a good point that you bring up so and it does this sound like you are worried that if we do grant this extended power that there is a potential there for it to be abused. well we've seen examples over the last the most eleven years now since the patriot act was enacted in late two thousand two thousand and one in including the department of justice justice inspector

general reports that have said this is a power the f.b.i. was granted by congress and this is what they've actually done with it with they've gone beyond what we expected we've also seen in the last year or so warnings by u.s. senators who have been to some of these secret briefings on the intelligence committee saying that americans would be alarmed if they knew what the f. there was actually doing with the power they've been given so you know i mean that the history of the last ten eleven years is not great whether that at the very least if we're going to grant government these new powers we should do a lot of oversight a lot of reporting a lot of citizens kind of privacy commission involved in other words do it with our eyes open and the proposals that have been expended to not do that now that when this is just one law in the works that is aimed at expanding the god government cyber powers congress is set to amend the n.d.a.

if you can recall and national defense authorization act very controversial but now they're looking to amend that law and bring in defense authorization by congress when it comes to the cyber space here it is it's described as authority to carry out a clandestine operation and cyberspace in support of a military operation pursuant to the authorization for use of military force our plan to die and what is clear what does that mean anyway as well what is a clandestine operation. well. unfortunately it will take a pass and when i did see the language in enough in the legislation i think the committee approved it a congressional committee approved it a day or two ago but i'm actually on vacation this weekend so i haven't looked into it in detail but my guess is that what happened is that someone from the n.s.a. in d.o.d. because n.s.a. is a national security agency is part of the department of defense came to congress and

said hey we want to explicit authorization before we can do certain things and what these certain things are i don't know it would just be speculation all right well so we've seen many many forms of legislation we see right now with this but with so pippa before now we're seeing this effort by the f.b.i. so definitely there is this effort to expand this government control or are monitoring at some level at least of the internet so we do the live in this the age of hackers and there is this potential for a cyber war according to the government and it does seem to be a legitimate worry so how do you balance the need to protect people and citizens privacies and at the same time and share that that power is not abused. well the mean this is an ongoing question i don't think will ever reach an answer in the next fix these icons or something like that but to what one way is the

oversight and transparency if you're going to give government more surveillance powers let's have a lot of accountability about how we're going to use them why not monthly updates as opposed to what we might make up a couple years and more detail things like that and another another one is actually i say why do you why do you need to say and do this in an open environment as opposed to a secret environment i mean we can go on and on but these are some of the useful forms of oversight we've been seeing with the inspector general report from the department of justice and elsewhere there is and also sometimes more surveillance power does not necessarily make things safer i mean we had this debate in the one nine hundred ninety s. with encryption and turned out the privacy. made us safer overall then putting back doors in a christian device in products was that the right back one thank you very much for coming on the show and playing on top of this story that was declan mccullagh t. t.

political correspondent at the net. well coming up next on our t. is the capital account with lauren lister let's check in with lauren to see what's on today's agenda lauren what you have going on there hi there live will anyone that has been watching our show knows and probably cares about m.f. global because they've been affected or because they care about what it signifies in terms of the financial system the legal system in this country crony capitalism and the kind of questions that arise when you have a highly politically connected c.e.o. at the top of a firm that collapses and takes customer money we have a man here who has been calling for an independent counsel and lobbying for that he'll tell us how those efforts are growing liz right that's coming up next on the capital account with lauren lister but that's going to do it now for the news for more of the stories we covered you can head on over to youtube dot com slash r t america you can also check out our web site that is r t dot com slash usa can also

follow me on twitter outlets wall capital account is coming up next will be right back here at five. there hasn't been anything yet on t.v. . it is to get the maximum political impact. before source material is what helps keep journalism on the real world.

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