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tv   [untitled]    June 21, 2012 11:00pm-11:30pm EDT

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well john are in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture wiki leaks founder julian assange is now spending his third night in the ecuadorian embassy in london waiting to see if they'll get political asylum from that south american nation so what's happening right now with what happens if he isn't granted asylum in ecuador also as part of their ongoing fast and furious conspiracy theory republicans and i was oversight committee voted yesterday to hold attorney general holder in contempt when will democrats wake up and fight back against republicans in all their political stunts and the department of justice is trying to stop the sexual assault
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and rape epidemic in our nation's prisons but conservatives aren't having it what the republicans would like about the rip the epidemic of rape and the epidemic of hiv and other diseases it's causing in our prisons. you need to know this week at least founder julian assange is now spending his third night dorian embassy in london out of the reach of british police who are trying to extradite him to sweden in sweden a son has been accused of sexual assault though he has not been formally charged with that crime and songe fears if he's extradited to sweden he'll then be handed over to authorities in the united states who are apparently building a case against him alleging that he's guilty of espionage and treason crimes punishable by death fearing for his life a son who's waiting a decision from ecuador as to whether or not they will. grant him political asylum
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and then give him safe passage out of the u.k. and into ecuador so far as far as we know no decision has been made yet by the ecuadorian government that julian assad were to leave the ecuadorian embassy he'd be arrested immediately by british authorities clearly the ongoing trials and tribulations of the wiki leaks founder have entered a new phase joining me now to discuss what exactly is going on in london and the role the united states plays in all of this is michael ratner a lawyer for joining us anjan president emeritus of the center for constitutional rights michael welcome. tom it's good to be with you and good to hear such a accurate summary of the case very unusual among any journalist i know well if thank you for that validation i'm glad we got our facts right if julian is songe is he's concerned that if he's actually dated to sweden the they're going to ship him off to the united states how valid or legitimate is that concern and what might he expect to happen if he is extradited from sweden to the united states. you know
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julian assange didn't have any really good choices after he lost the high court case in england that ordered his extradition to sweden has two choices were to basically be arrested and taken to sweden and by july seventh and then in sweden is he as you said he was facing allegations of sexual abuse and rape under under swedish law but that you know i don't think that was his worry at all i don't think that would have been sufficient for him to make what was a very difficult choice to go into the ecuadorian embassy see if they give him asylum and if they give him asylum then how does he get out of the embassy without a safe passage which is not guaranteed so his choices were difficult and the reason they were so difficult is because once he gets to sweden and of this i'm convinced that even if those charges go away or even if they don't it's not going to be a huge sentence in sweden if he's convicted if any and it's very likely as well that it could go away after they hear
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a story we just don't know but that certainly is nothing compared to the threat of the united states grabbing him when he's in sweden so let's say for example he was allowed to walk out of that court because the charges are dismissed or whatever he's finished doing whatever he need to do in sweden let me tell you the minute that happened he will not get out of the court house the u.s. will file an extradition warrant with the court in sweden julian assad will be back in prison and that's an important point you know when he goes to sweden if and when he would have if he had gone to sweden they have no bail in sweden for pretrial he would have been put in prison right away then the u.s. would have filed its extradition during the songe would never get out of prison and would wind up in the united states and we can talk about what would happen to him here and he wouldn't have had any chance to apply for political asylum which my view is that as a as a persecuted person because of his political actions. which is to say revealing.
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really on his publisher's website hundreds of thousands of documents on the iraq war on the afghan war the collateral murder video and all the statement state department cables that he would have been he would have he he would have faced really incredible incredible repression in the united states which we can talk about well and let's talk about that but first the just the step from the embassy out of the u.k. china had a famous dissident a few weeks ago they they let him get you know he sought asylum in the u.s. embassy and he said ok fine you can go to the airport and get on a plane and go to america is is the u.k. that much more repressive than china. tom it's really an important example you're raising really important because here you have someone who much of the world particularly the ninety nine percent or certainly a lot of people in countries where the u.s. has exploited them or gone to war in afghanistan or iraq the state you know yemen
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would say that julian assange is a hero and should have a right to political asylum and there should be officials going over there and telling the british not only when he gets political asylum he should get it but that he should then be out of the country much like chen was in china but of course we don't see that we see the world reversed but this is a problem let's assume which we don't know yet that ecuador gives little asylum how does he then get from the sacrosanct embassy property where the british cannot touch him to an airplane to fly him to ecuador and you mentioned in your introduction he needs a safe passage will britain give him a safe passage are they too much. in thrall to what the united states i don't know the answer to that let's hope they would because he is someone who will then have political asylum and they should so that is a problem and the example that comes to mind of course
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a bad example is cardinal macian ski or whatever people thought of him took took refuge in the budapest embassy during the cold war and hungry stayed there not for one but for fourteen or fifteen years before he got a safe passage out so i would hope that doesn't happen i would hope join us on and get the asylum get the safe passage and get to ecuador where he as he's always wanted to to continue his work of transparency and making this world a place that is less secret more public and more democratic and if joe and his son successfully. or let's say is unsuccessful you suggest we continue that conversation this week. snatches him or he gets caught in the u.k. or so and somehow he gets here to the united states what would he expect in a bradley manning seems like the template for this is you know. he you know you took the words out and i'm out of time i was going to say i know you covered bradley manning and of course bradley manning is the template for your listeners
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bradley or your viewers bradley manning was the army private who allegedly took the ad security clearance and went into a various computer computer supposedly and got a hold of these hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and legibly uploaded them to wiki leaks he is in fort meade now in a court martial but he was kept for nine months in conditions that even the un report tourer torture juan mendez said constituted cruel and inhuman treatment and would may well have constituted torture except that one man does the u.n. reporter never got to visit him stripped to the bone made to have no clothes inside stand up and you know attention nude in a bad situation very bad and now facing the court martial treated terribly you can expect that if he comes into this country if he snatched if he's gotten into this country by whatever means that he will be in
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a solitary confinement unit with no visitors except his lawyers no ability to communicate with the outside world at all i if i go visit him will not be able to say anything to the outside world about what he said he will be in that quote pretrial without bail for years until the trial starts and then the trial will be a trial presumably on conspiracy to commit espionage a count that certainly can number of consequently to a life sentence and of course one of those provisions has a death penalty sentence as well so it will be higher if julian assange is here it will be a fundamental human rights violations about the way he's held as well as the. i mean the idea that this australian man who owes no particular allegiance to the united states is tried for taking what they classified as documents which are documents that reveal war crimes that he is tried for that while. thousands of
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hours ago. thousands of other people including obama reveals drone strikes and and secret worms that go into your ram computers and he isn't facing what julian us on just facing so it's an outrage if he is ever charged here or brought here my hope is that he gets asylum and gets himself to ecuador absolutely the people who wrote the constitution in particular the bill of rights must be rolling in their graves michael ratner thank you so much for being with us tonight. tom it's always great to be with you thank you thank you this this isn't about the sexual assault charges in sweden you know we should just be very clear about that julian son has not even been charged trial and certainly not try to convicted of any crimes and under swedish law he's innocent till proven guilty this is about the united states getting a hold of inside of a songe and holding him as a political prisoner as glenn greenwald points out in the guardian the primary fear
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is being turned over to the u.s. that is the crucial context for understanding julian songes sixteen month fight to avoid extradition to sweden a fight to lead him to seek asylum tuesday in the london embassy of ecuador. obama's department of justice has convened a grand jury to investigate a songe there are accusations that the son violated the espionage act of one nine hundred seventeen which is punishable by death the signs highlighted that point in his letter to ecuador's president seeking asylum both democrats and republicans in congress have called for prosecution of his songe in the mainstream media has been piling on the signage too with some commentators calling for his death so we know has a long history of doing the bidding of the united states for less than noble reasons in two thousand and six for example the un ruled that sweden violated the global torture ban by helping the cia extradite two suspected terrorist to egypt where they were tortured those suspects were in sweden seeking asylum but songes afraid the same thing will happen to him if he winds up in sweden and it's
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a reasonable fear particular considering what happened to bradley manning the man suspected of handing over the documents to songe in the first place manning has been in custody since may of two thousand and ten and spent eleven months in solitary confinement at the u.n. called cruel and degrading the u.s. has lost its way from drones to indefinite detention to an attack on whistleblowers to a corrupted criminal justice system that shields powerful people like karl rove by going after those who speak truth to power you know as americans when we think of political prisoners we typically think of china or iran or syria that police political prisoners have become a reality in the united states don siegelman karl rove's sworn enemy has already won and julian a son could be the next. after the break republicans on the house government oversight committee voted yesterday to hold attorney general holder in contempt of congress over the bizarre fast and furious controversy and the best reaction to the
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vote came from nancy pelosi who said she could have had karl rove arrested at any time in two thousand and eight so why didn't she. there hasn't been anything yet on t.v. . it is to get the maximum political impact. before the source material is what helps keep journalism on this we. we want to present. something else.
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more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images cold world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule today. so.
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in the best of the rest of the news as we reported yesterday darrell lies that it the republican chairman of the house government oversight committee convened a vote wednesday to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt of congress over holder's refusal to turn over documents related to the department of justice is fast and furious program those documents could compromise active criminal investigations and thus have been withheld by the president using executive privilege but i say move forward anyway getting all twenty three republicans on his committee to support the contempt vote every single democrat on the committee voted no but the best reaction to wednesday's vote came from former speaker of the house nancy pelosi who slammed it as strictly political and reminded reporters that when
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democrats controlled the house they could have arrested karl rove for contempt of congress as the huffington post reported on wednesday pelosi said i could have arrested karl rove on any given day i'm not kidding there's a prison there in the air in the capital if we had spotted him in the capitol we could have arrested him so republicans hold attorney general in contempt over a bizarre conspiracy theory yet war criminals and operatives who leak names of cia agents for political retaliation get to walk. but here's the bigger picture nancy pelosi says she could have arrested karl rove any time and there's a long list of crimes that rove was implicated in from helping set up secret overseas prisons to torture to outing a cia agent to of two to lying to lead the united states into an unnecessary war to secretly illegally wiretapping american citizens but the speaker of the house palosi said she wasn't going to arrest rove he successfully called her bluff
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because not arresting him she said was quote the best thing for the country and quote in july of two thousand and eight when he was under a subpoena to testify before congress about his crimes rove didn't even bother to show up instead he left the country to go to yalta eric holder at least shows up eight times so far answers former small time criminal dare i says questions here's the problem palosi should have arrested rove i mean that that is the problem the democrats keep doing what they think is best for the country while republicans keep doing what they think is going to be best for the republican party and to hell with the country and tragically playing nice with bullies may seem like it's best to over the short term let's not have a fight but in the long run it's really not the best thing for the party or the country karl rove was prepared to resign in disgrace over his role in outing a cia agent to cover up is his and bush's lies about iraq all this kind of stuff
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the white house was making plans for his rip his resignation assuming that the democrats would push the issue but when rove decided to play hardball and call their bluff democrats wimped out and now they're reversing roles only instead of backing off. republicans are going in for the kill if republican house speaker john boehner schedules and holds a successful vote and house of representatives to hold eric cantor in the earth holder in contempt of congress it'll be the first time in the history of the republic that a cabinet officer has been so charge just like when republicans in congress went after bill clinton for lying about getting a little into the table with monica was the first time a president had been attacked for having extramarital sex in the history the republic is republicans are thought is and the democrats need to recognize that they held unemployed people hostage last year and scared and succeeded in extorting from democrats a cut in unemployment benefits ninety nine weeks down to seventy four weeks so that
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those benefits are expiring this month instead of after the election just in time to upset a lot of people who will blame it on obama and now the republicans are holding a hostage almost two million road repair jobs while they continue to fire and lay off teachers firefighters and cops nationwide all in an effort to make the economy as bad as possible so they can blame it on obama if democrats have held karl rove accountable for his crimes he might not right now be wielding a four hundred million dollar quabbin against democrats across the nation instead he might still be in jail harry truman once said if you want to a friend in washington d.c. buy a dog he was right he gave republicans hell and he won democrats it's time to wake up and these realize that these republicans are not your friends and they are not friends to ninety nine percent of americans. mike pavin tony joins me now as an attorney and host of the ring of fire radio program bobby kennedy mike
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welcome back tom great great to have you with us palosi nancy pelosi former speaker pelosi said she could have arrested karl rove given what darrell i suggested in retrospect shouldn't she have arrested rove i think you hit it on the head we've given him so many passes course now understand at this point you had you had george bush it also gave rove of passed by it by entering his executive order which really protected cowrote ultimately bush would have come to his aid but you're right the democrats should have jumped in they should have done what they failed to do on the iran contra same thing same thing iran contra they had everybody dead to rights they had senior bush they had rumsfeld they had everybody but they didn't pull the trigger this is a great example you gave a great example of that problem here do you think mike the republican the democrats are look have learned from this experience. not really i think it's i think it's
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just a part of the democratic party that is let's let's all sing kumbaya all let's all get around but they don't understand you can't do that you just can't do that with a sociopath and some of the people running that party right now the republican party can be described as no other way than social bad you can't sit down in a room and talk a logic with a sociopath democrats don't seem to understand that they're very slow to get that message but say that it is in the d.n.a. of the democratic party or or words that effect but it was it was franklin roosevelt who famously said you know they hate me and i welcome their hatred it was harry harry truman who said you know. i don't i don't give the republicans hell i just tell the truth they think it's hell i mean these guys took them on they took names and kicked ass where is that part of the democratic party how do we get it back well there was a time there was a time when you had advisors it was almost the genetic of the advisors you know you had the same advisor presidential race would be lost that advisor would move on to
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the next presidential race that would be lost and for some reason we were never able to say to those advisors why is it that the republicans can come after us with the kind of ferocity they can and we simply are always defending ourselves i think i'm hopeful tom i'm hopeful that maybe some advisors to obama are starting to understand that i was really pleased to see palosi come out with this attack it was a wonderful exact it was was right in call rove's face and she was right but you know what it's subject to subject to return to the old days democrats for some reason always believe we can take the high ground that we can sink in that tomorrow everything's going to be ok nothing is further from the how incredibly ironic is that karl rove is was on fox news today or last night complaining about president obama's use of executive privilege in this case. well exactly the irony is the only george bush injured six executive orders tom six two of them were designed to
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protect call rove from being prosecuted but the truth is it wasn't just it wasn't just bush he knew that ronald reagan in an executive order to protect his powers with the oil industry there was a case pending up in canada it was a canadian oil field scam that was going on up there reagan entered that not to protect people who were in danger but to protect his pals they were giving him money here you've got a situation where field agents military agents diplomats are all at risk this whole blueprint for how we fight this war with the mexican drug lords is all on the table that's high ground but when you have ronald reagan saying i'm going to introduce an executive order simply protect my pals money that's a big big difference is that it was almost disgusting to hear that kind of rationale coming out of call rove's mouth and now darrell lies is push this thing
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thing to john boehner. john boehner do you expect there to be a vote and do expect it to be a vote to hold eric holder in contempt and if so what happens then the vote i think they will but it doesn't really mean anything is holder is in no threat whatsoever and here's why even if they move even if they move to hold him in contempt it then has to be referred to the department of justice in washington d.c. now it's not that holder is going to get any special treatment it is that there is zero precedent zero president in the law at all for ever holding an executive anybody with an executive agency in in contempt specially for specially for criminal conduct where there has been an executive order that has directed that individual not to disclose the in the information in question there is absolutely no threat to eric holder the best they could do is maybe sue him and sue. well court in say you know assuming a favorable federal civil court that is the most that could happen from all of this
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this is nothing but a last minute stand to try to discredit eric holder it really doesn't mean anything and i think you're cold understands that although it is it is more mudslinging and i think that that's you know in the twenty thirty seconds we have left here that's really the goal isn't it to try and weaken the president going in november what well it is but i don't know this is taking legs with the party at this point i mean with that with the public at this point i'd like to see the numbers and i haven't seen them recently but i'd like to see whether the public really cares about this issue when they're really caring about can i get a job can i pay for my college my child's college education can i can i keep my house can i pay for health care that's what people are really caring about this is just a classic republican issue we're talking about a non-issue like happen tony thanks a lot for being with us tonight thank you for more than three years the republican party has been trying to embarrass president obama in fact put
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a virus in him above putting americans back to work to see to it that this destructive and arguably treasonous strategy doesn't help them in november. crazy alert miraculous mushroom or sultry sex toy you never know where you'll find drilling a well shaft in a chinese village villagers in the small village of loot. china were drilling a well shaft when they made a startling discovery they found with they thought was a rare mushroom the discovery was so startling that the local news channel was called to the scene to cover the story the t.v. crew arrived villagers were intensely examining the rare mushroom taking measurements of a wall it was in a tub of water was until after the story aired that several viewers called the t.v. station tell them that their discovery was a little off so called rare mushroom was actually a sex toy trying to explain the journalistic blunder the t.v.
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station issued a statement saying the reporters who cover the story are young and unfamiliar with world affairs and apparently sex toys and human anatomy too in related news the sex toy industry is really taking off in rural china. coming up each year over two hundred thousand prison inmates in america are raped or sexually assaulted the conservatives don't want to stop this epidemic what do republicans love about rape .
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emission free accreditation free in-store judges free arrangement free. three stooges free. download free books just loaded video for your media projects a free medio dog our teeth on tom you.
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all go back to the big picture on tom arbonne coming up in this half hour with over two hundred thousand prison inmates being a race.

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