today on our team for the first time since he took refuge in the ecuadorian embassy in london joining us on just speaking out about why he took matters in his own hands we'll tell you why the wiki leaks founder says he's sure that the u.s. is plotting against him straight ahead. america was built by people who said something different. who said yes we can. sit there and as long as i have the privilege of being your president i will be a gang son would you. say the country that we together dream of president obama's out again today looking for support in a minority community this week he's going after the latino vote as the first african-american president forgotten the black community question more. both

americans now agree that the airport screening tactics employed by the t.s.a. amounts only to security theater designed to make us feel safer rather than actually making a safer one blogger's taking airport security matters in his own hands highlighting the holes in the t.s.a. screening and demanding reform coming up blogger john corbett will tell us where the t.s.a. fall short and how you can help fix the problem. is friday june twenty second four pm in washington d.c. i'm maggie martin and you're watching our team and dramatic move to avoid extradition wiki leaks founder julian assange has sought asylum in the ecuadorian embassy in britain he's been there so far for four days in a state of limbo and is currently waiting on whether or not he will be granted asylum for an update from the ground r.t. correspondent sara for. really skate avoid these games here in the media at the

moment relating to silence his decision what he said this is not about avoiding the sexual assault allegations against him in sweden far from that is that really this is never about me than it was just what would happen to him once he was in sweden and the involvement of us. this issue is about a very serious matter. announced by the swedes that i would be detained without charge. immediately on extradition. to come to the u.k. eighteen months despite absolutely normal procedure and the refusal to explain or. kept me track. while the united states. if you can really sense really that always leads to the u.s. eventing that does a grand jury deciding at the moment whether there would be charges brought against

him in the u.s. remember that in the u.s. espionage in ceilings a secret carries the death penalty still remember which really huge amounts of information and the u.s. diplomatic cables that were released in two thousand and ten were huge embarrassment to the u.s. government so i mean there is no mistaking the fact that julian a son is a man he certainly from his actions and from what he said is very fearful of what would happen to him in the u.s. officials or his allies in fact. very now every forty eight thousand one hundred thirty five if they are filed their potential statement made in court prosecution from a man. manages the money the subjects for the grand jury hearing which are now going to come out from. their subpoenas everywhere the truth will come out on public record about how to get three grand jury we have received should remove

the subpoenas mention my name to people who are preparing to u.s. airports variegated by the f.b.i. well this is julian assange just chance really to set the record straight he's just spent his third night in the ecuadorian embassy of course this is the latest in matic twist in the ongoing saga it's been an eighteen month legal battle for him and the end of last month we saw the u.k. supreme court reject his appeal against the extradition to sweden and the legal team in asuncion cells running out of options really and so he took this step seeking asylum at the ecuadorian embassy he says he's hopeful that that's going to be accepted if he were to go to sweden not only is the pretrial detention in sweden extremely harsh he wouldn't have access that he does right now to the media all the same freedoms remember he's been on house arrest in the case for more than five hundred days now no clear indication of exactly what the outcome will be and the

stakes remaining extremely high. correspondence or first what is the first black president done for the black community in america nothing according to some just recently obama's been catering to a number of minority communities in the u.s. first it was the l g b t community. at a certain point i just concluded that. for me personally. it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that i think same sex couples should be able to get married and then it was the immigrant community this is a temporary stopgap measure that lets us focus our resources wisely while giving a degree of relief and hope to talented driven patriotic young people it is what it is the right thing to do. so what about african-americans obama hasn't hasn't made moves to deal with african-american and equalities in this

country in an op ed titled obama's not the first black president he's the first president who is black well nearly own describes obama as a quote functionary of a government in the service of wealth and empire to join me now to speak more about his article is dr wilmer leon himself. thanks so much for coming on thank you for inviting me so what do you mean by obama is not the first black president well what i mean by that is as i see in the article that a black president would have come to the oval office with a black agenda he would be using his bully pulpit to articulate and advocate for positions in issues that are specifically relevant to the african-american community for example just proportionate. levels of incarceration in this country disproportionate levels of poverty in terms of the black community in this country health care issues that are specifically targeted to the african african-american

community. as the first president who is black president obama is focused more on the national agenda as the president of the united states as a functionary of the united states government as opposed to an individual who came to the oval office with an agenda that was. created or designed to specifically target issues in the african-american community and i want to be very clear and say that as i say in the article that this has everything to do with policy it has everything to do with an agenda and has absolutely nothing to do with the person or personalities and you also mentioned in your article the n.d.a. . actor jessel judicial assassination and also guantanamo bay yes how is that part of the black agenda well it's not so much a part of the black agenda as it is say in the piece that an african-american

president would not have signed the two thousand and twelve defense authorization act that in part of a louse for indefinite detention of american citizens that an african-american president would not have backed the assassination of moammar gadhafi an american president an african-american or black president would not have. had a attorney general come out and say that the united states government can assassinate americans anywhere in the world in the reason is because a black president would have come into the office with a historical understanding for example of the f.b.i. counterintelligence program a black president would understand how the united states government infiltrated civil rights organizations. in the sixty's and undermined the efforts of the civil rights organization he would understand how the government has been used over time to undermine efforts for civil rights and civil liberties by african-american

organizations so having that historic understanding he would be less inclined to to support legislation or or support ideas that would enable the government to engage in those types of behaviors today do you think that he doesn't have a historical and understanding of what has happened in the civil rights era and also i'm sure that president obama particularly being a constitutional scholar is very much aware of that history but again because he does not bring that agenda into the oval office that that's not what is controlling his thought process that is not what is controlling his vision he is more concerned with as he says he's the president of everybody and also i want to be very clear to say i'm not saying that he should bring this to to the oval office i'm making the observation that he has not and that it's very important at the end of the day what

i believe the african-american community needs to understand that is if we as a community if we as an interest group are looking to have our issues addressed then we have to get we have to make it happen we have to do as roosevelt said to a philip randolph in one thousand thirty six he said yes mr randolph i have i agree with you go out and make me do it i think there are too many of us in the african-american community that are sitting idly by waiting for president obama to do what we believe needs to be done instead of being in the streets as the gay and lesbian community has been being in the streets as the hispanic community has been we need to be in the streets championing our issues the same way that other organizations such. as a pack there's no way in the world that a pac is going to sit idly by and allow an american president not to focus foreign policy on on israel in in the manner in which they want it addressed and so if

if we have concerns in our community then we need we need to move away from the politics of personality. and start understanding the politics of policy because it's one thing to have an african-american individual sitting in the white house that's that's wonderful that symbolism is incredibly powerful and incredibly valuable but at the end of the day politics is not about symbolism politics is about policy well now are you surprised that i mean obama didn't really grow up and any relation to the black culture he didn't grow up in the ghetto he has always been a very privileged man with a rich family are you surprised at him kind of evading really honing in on the focus of the african community well first of all the african-american community is much more diverse than than urban and president obama did not grow up wealthy he i mean his he was born to a single mother. he grew up his mother worked

a number of jobs he grew up with his grandparents true he did not grow up in the traditional will say african-american community but the point again is not individually focused it's policy focused so whether president obama grew up in harlem or whether president obama grew up in denver colorado it's still incumbent upon those in the african-american community to ensure that our interests are being articulated and that our interests are being acted upon no matter who is in the white house and i think that that to me is is the point that your audience needs to take away from this conversation is that the fact that there is an african-american in the white house is a wonderful thing but for us for too many of us to sit by and expect that because he is african-american he is then going to address the issues that we need

addressed is a fallacy we have to be out in the streets we have. the civil rights movement was a movement and it was part of a process and too much of that process has been forgotten and so now because we have had the sixty force voting rights act and sixty four civil rights act in sixty five voting rights act we think that progress. that progress has been made in that so now we don't need to engage in those politics anymore but now is the definite time that we need to as we see the rise of the tea party as we listen to mitt romney as we see that that ryan's budget is looking to cut social programs we have to be in the streets advocating championing championing ensuring that our interests are addressed instead of expecting that someone is going to do so what would you say to people who look at obama and say i voted for him because he's black because that in itself is just such an iconic symbol of progress across the

world that we elected the first african-american president and i will continue to vote for him just because he is black even though he's not really making any overtures to change policy that i would say you get what you vote for and you voted for symbolism and you got symbolism now but politics again has to be more than symbolic it has to be based on policy so there are those of us on the one hand in the again the symbolism is incredibly powerful incredibly valid but politics is about policy and so if we as a community are interested in policy outcome then we have to be putting pressure on the system to ensure that we get it and there are too many people with the champagne bottles left over from two thousand and eight that are walking around still celebrating the fact that we have a president who is black those champagne bottles are empty and now we have to re

invigorate ourselves we have to get back out into the street we have to get back into the process. yes and engage the process to be sure that we get disproportionate incarceration addressed and the other issues that are that are so important to our community and wilmer i just wanted to elucidate your point of look at it with visuals on we have a graph right now of showing how americans have twenty two times the amount of wealth i'm sorry white americans have twenty times the amount of wealth and blacks a figure that's doubled since the great depression and when unemployment was at eight percent in this country black unemployment was by far the highest out of any race that is an incredible incredible demonstration of the fact that they're white americans in this country have over one hundred thousand dollars in wealth that's not salary that's that's tangible assets homes stocks bonds cash on hand african-americans have less than five on average five thousand dollars of actual

wealth so it's one thing to talk about unemployment at eight point two or eight point three percent but it's another thing to talk about poverty because that is the actual the real systemic problem that has been a drag on this economy much longer than the last four or five years we've been dealing with this downturn in terms of employment and the in the unemployment rate so for a president to be talking about unemployment but to not be specifically talking about poverty that is a perfect example of why we in the african-american community because we are disproportionately impacted by those poverty statistics and by those poverty realities we have to be out there advocating that the ryan budget not be cut as it relates to social programs we have allowed the whole structure of the conversation to shift to be focused on what's not going to be cut instead of taking

control of the narrative in understanding we have. to focus the conversation on what's actually going to be spent and where and broadening the perspective and the slogan on the systemic causes of why this is absolute thank you so much for coming on talking about your op ed it's a it's a great one thank you i was dr wilmer leon political science professor for howard university remember the days when flying used to be fun the days before having to either get microwave or molested to get on a plane the t.s.a. mishaps alone could fill an entire show here but here are some of the most absurd examples in recent history and. she's doing her job. here and she. actually your belt touched my right eye so there you know you're good we do. we can do that here but if you touch my junk i want to have your rest. a blogger is exposed to virtually anything can be snuck

through the naked body scanner machines at the transportation security administration continues to claim that their methods of screenings are essential for security so are these machines just a form of security theater joining me now is the blogger who exposed it all jonathan corbett president of for ten technologies thanks so much for coming in jonathan so we talk about your most recent video and how you got it. yeah be good to be back with you the most recent video has checkpoint footage security cameras at the airport actually used that i got by freedom of information act request in cleveland ohio and i went through quite a process to get that because the t.s.a. is actually telling any airport that i request footage from that they're not allowed to disclose the footage for security reasons this despite the fact that the t.s.a. frequently releases videos of security checkpoints for example when they recently detained us senator rand paul they released that when they arrested the woman for

telling them that they couldn't grope her daughter they released that but any time i requested security sensitive but eventually cleared them back down i got the video that can pretty clearly show me take a metal object that that's in the side pocket straight through the new body scanners and be allowed on my way and what's the worst case scenario that could happen and just kind of elaborate on a hypothetical scenario what this actually means. sure so the exploit that i found in the body scanners essentially allows any metallic object through so that that could be for example a firearm or it could be anything that you know you put in a tin can and put on your side so we're talking explosives we're talking any kind of weapon can get through these body scanners and the same can't be said for metal detectors there's no way to using the laws of physics to redirect magnetic waves in a way that's that's not going to be that's not going to be detected by a metal detector you can't wrap your metallic object in something you can't put it

on a special place in your body these body scanners on the other hand have blind spots and jonathan you just recently went to the supreme court and presented this evidence talk about what happened. correct so i have sued the t.s.a. back when the scanners came out as primary screening in november two thousand and ten so far the t.s.a. has successfully argued that i don't have the right to a trial if you can imagine that a citizen coming in saying the actions of his government are unconstitutional and the government saying you don't get a trial so i've taken that issue to the u.s. supreme court or we're waiting on a decision to see if they'll accept the case and you mention in your most recent video jonathan that the t.s.a. has actually been threatening media organizations and other entities to not let this information get out alive and more on that correct correct about a day after i release the march video i started getting e-mails from reporters telling me that they had been strongly cautioned by the t.s.a. not to cover the story that i was putting forward the t.s.a.

apparently does not want to get out that these body scanners are actually completely ineffective because we've been told since they came out that these these are absolutely necessary for for safety if we don't have them people bring bombs to the airport and what comes out is that it's actually easier to get a bomb through a body scanner than it is through a metal detector so why the double speak john here they are saying they're essential to their national security to our national security to have these scanners this billion dollar industry that we've already spent so much money on yet they're so easily defeated as you've shown time and time again in your series of videos why why do they still say that you know. the kind of more happy side of the spectrum the it could just be that they're embarrassed you know they spent a lot of taxpayer dollars on these machines that essentially don't work and they probably don't want to admit that they're a failure on the other side of the spectrum this was a billion dollars that went to government contractors that have significant ties with with defense spending already one of the companies is owned by

a company that ran another one of the companies has a lobbyist that was the former head of the t.s.a. so we see a lot of interesting political connections in here and there's. there's certainly a potential the following the money will find you the answer to your question do you think that they could be potentially misappropriating funds just to you know pat pat pat their buddies on the back and kind of throw some cash i mean we already know that the scanners make us less safe not more safe. right and it's hard to believe that the t.s.a. didn't know about the exploit that i published before published it you know i didn't have any access to these machines to do any kind of testing or or quality assurance and the they did these machines have been in testing and development and research for the last about decade and the t.s.a. has had plenty of chance to explore these options and quite honestly think that they were well aware of exactly the exploit that i brought forward but instead they

wanted to rush forward the shiny new technology. to advance their security theater or to reward the contractors that have connections with them and jonathan let's hear a little sound bite of the woman who turned the tables on the t.s.a. . pay back pat down apparently a former t.s.a. agent who was flying from fort myers florida two months ago oversees the pat down that she found intrusive so she apparently demonstrated as you see here to her former supervisor how she was touched now the former agent is facing mr minor battery charges for the hands on display so is this what we should do should we turn the tables on these t.s.a. agents i mean what do you recommend for people to really do. well it's actually an interesting concept is this is not the first time it's happened often times when when people are surprised by a government agent grabbing their genitals their response is to push them away and then you know the t.s.a. response and says that that's violence as if the sexual assault that was just

perpetrated on the traveler does not count as violence so what do we do you know this is just going to end and get in handcuffs and end up in jail instead just opt out any time you see a checkpoint that has a body scan or simply tell the agent that you refused to go through that you opt out and they are required to give you a pat down and to let you through the checkpoint without using the body scanner the advantage to this is the pat downs take about five minutes whereas the body scanners take about ten seconds if if every passenger even a tenth of the passengers requested a pat down they'd have to stop using the body scanners because the they wouldn't have the time for it so that's that's the number one tool in our arsenal to make these things stop and the next is obviously congress and making sure that your voice is heard with the people that represent you it's an election year and this is an issue that we should make known jonathan talk about the fact that the this touching of genitalia is actually required in the t.s.a. training. absolutely if you've ever received

a full body pat down they've probably given you a speech before hand where they told you that they're going to touch your leg from the bottom until they meet resistance on your inner thigh and a quick anatomy lesson will show that resistance is actually your genitals the t.s.a. will not actually use any kind of anatomically correct word but their official policy for the pat downs is to go that far and also the put their hands in your pants to check your waistband so so so this this this is what's official policy all travelers having this so you receive the same pat down just because the t.s.a. screeners hate doing it so a lot of times the t.s.a. screener will take it a little easier so what about the people who don't want to be you know groped in their genitalia and then they they also don't want to be microwaved i mean it's like if you opt out of the body scanner machines then you're you're subject to being molested show or we colloquially call that the double opt out which which i've done many times basically if you go to an airport you can try and get yourself

towards a metal detector rather than a body scanner just because there's only several hundred metal body scanners now so there's usually a metal detector line open it doesn't always work and on three different occasions i told them that they can't scan or touch me and check to me from the airport one of those times they actually detain me for an hour before letting me leave and do you think that this is just a dehumanizing method it just seems like you know the t.s.a. is someone at it's not the people's fault it's just the training mechanisms and of course these body scanners don't do anything as you've proven so why this dehumanization first the shoes now you know touching your generals and just what do you think about the. absolutely and on one hand you have to kind of feel bad for these t.s.a. screeners before two thousand and ten the complaints they get was why do i have to take off my shoes or why can't i bring this water bottle through and afterwards it's why are you molesting my child so these screeners have a pretty rough job on the other hand you can't really feel bad for them because

they're they're continuing this employment. in a way what's what's the solution it's a policy change the policies come down from above and these screeners have no ability to use any kind of commonsense if they if they use their common sense they're disciplined for it and they also aren't given background checks and i know that you've called to abolish the t.s.a. but to wrap of the segment really quickly what do you think about the t.s.a. expanding to checkpoints and bus depots train stations across the country. i actually saw my first viper team about a month ago at a music festival of all places in detroit these viper teams are coming around to all modes of transportation so if you think you can avoid the t.s.a. touching you just by avoiding airports you should probably react now before they're they end up in your bus station generally and subways all over absolutely thank you so much for coming on that was jonathan corbett president of ten technologies and that does it for now more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t

america and we'll see you and a half hour. oh sure is that so much i'm saying to me you're going to make a lot of people over here are you not but look at me you're all right never ending agony of the european union we're to the problem come from and just anyone have any solution. there hasn't been anything good on t.v. . it is to get the maximum political impact. before source material is what helps keep journalism honest we. we want to present. something else.

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