today on r t twenty years after panamanian leader manwell noriega was sentenced to prison in the us for drug trafficking the narcotics war in latin america still rages on in the u.s. his grip on the region is tightening but we want to know what's in it for them some answers ahead. and if you are an american taxpayer congratulations you are now the proud owner of nine point two billion dollars worth of new defense contracts or rather the pentagon is with the help of your pocketbook we'll tell you what they bought with all that cash. plus it's a hard knock life for american students they're becoming prisoners to their education and more ways than one from cops in the classroom to metal detectors at

every door it's school safety on hyperdrive so when did we shift from protecting american youth to imprisoning them. it's tuesday july tenth four pm here in washington d.c. and liz well when you're watching our t.v. well today marks the twentieth anniversary that x. panama dictator manuel noriega was sentenced for drug trafficking and miami on the payroll of the cia and graduate of the school of america as noriega has become notorious for representing one of the most serious foreign policy failures for the united states and as the u.s. war on drugs drags on into its fourth decade it looks like little has actually been achieved and the crack down violence rages on in latin america the demand for drugs still remains and while brutal drug cartels stay in power u.s. prisons are filling up with nonviolent drug offenders. so what will it take for the

u.s. to change its failed foreign policy and latin america and rethink the war on drugs to discuss this nico to gama field organizer for the school of americas watch joins us now welcome nico so it's been twenty years since noriega sentencing you know he's become this failure this symbol of failure of u.s. foreign policy he worked with the cia he was educated here in the u.s. in georgia so let's talk more about this at the school of america as and where it stands today well as you said men will know diego was trained at the u.s. army school of the americas which is a military training institution for latin american officials and soldiers it was actually set up in one thousand nine hundred six in panama and later was moved in one thousand nine hundred eighty two to four benning georgia manuel noriega was trained at the school americas in one nine hundred fifty s. and sixty's and he was even considered one of the student with honors who he called our man in panama manuel noriega was on the cia payroll that he said from one

thousand nine hundred six until his ouster by the us invasion in one thousand nine hundred nine and little has changed since then the u.s. army school the americas has consistently graduated the worst human rights violators and eleven at least eleven dictators in latin america and what we as the school americas watch are saying is what is the purpose behind the training of these human rights violators who keep popping up from argentina. general be there was just sentenced for for kidnapping babies you know in colombia every drug traffickers a lot of the major generals were just recently cited as being in the payroll of the north to divide a drug cartel. in mexico we're seeing the same thing as well the u.s. continues to prop up these human rights violators and the violence continues and as you just had mentioned this school graduates

a lot of these people that end up being. taters and human rights violators of what is it about the school of america does that kind of pumps out these these graduates that end up committing these crimes later on well in one thousand nine hundred eighty six the pentagon was forced to reveal that the school the americas was actually teaching torture and after the grassroots pressure continued to show that graduates were still being trained and in two thousand and one they changed the name of the school to the western hemisphere institute for security cooperation however we understand that many of these graduates continue to go back they are the people who are doing the defending of of corporations work in latin america at the at the work of the behest of the united states there's a colonel in his throes who isn't a graduate from honduras who after the coup in that country in two thousand and nine which ousted the democratically elected government of manuel zelaya told the miami herald that because of their training in the united states it would be

impossible for them to work with less leftist governments so this is a clear indication of the training that they're receiving the culture of militarization that is being in in giving imparted to these to these dunes and here knowledge that culture is still exists today that's right yes it still exists right now the colombian government is investigating some of the top generals including the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff who is equal to martin dempsey general martin dempsey in this country for receiving payments of up to one hundred thousand dollars a month from the. captured headed north the drug cartel in mexico right now and see that white is the police chief leon these are the pet is is a graduate school the americas and has been seriously implicated in human rights abuses and there are indications in two thousand and three the brownsville herald in texas reported that the mexican six secretary of defense revealed that the original members at least one third of the original members of the set those drug

cartel were received. us training were mexican special forces who later turned over to the drug cartels so it's quite possible that this school is training the dictators of tomorrow is exactly right and the pentagon refuses to release the names of the graduates since two thousand and four so we continue to press the government to release those names of instructors and graduates and to continue to take our protests to school it seems shocking to me that there wouldn't be some in the wake of you know noriega and eleven other dictators that did attend this school that there aren't more safeguards to to prevent this from happening whatever that may be unfortunately that's right the school the americas once they change their name to the western hemisphere institute for security cooperation established a rubberstamp board oversight board which does little to actually track the graduates and most of the information that we have received is from our social movements allies in latin america and many of those social movements who have

tracked the graduates in their countries have now asked their presidents to pull out of the school americas ecuador recently just pulled out of the school americas just two weeks ago becoming the fifth country in latin america due to do so so now what does that mean exactly does that mean people from appledore can no longer attend that's right and as of june twenty ninth of this year president correa said no more police or military will be attending the school the americas now looking this is kind of an opportunity to talk about the bigger picture of what exactly is going on in latin america you know this war on drugs that we've been fighting it for for decades now but are there any real science that it's working well the point of what the way you see u.s. intervention in latin america is that it's been the same objective with different facades in the one nine hundred fifty s. and sixty's up to the you know up to the ninety's it was the war on communism then it became the war on terrorism and the war on narco terrorism we're seeing that the same people are being affected the same people are dying. and the same people are

getting wealthy so while we're talking about drug cartels in latin america the same people are running money through the u.s. banks the same people are getting wealthy off of this drug war and not much is changing as you talked about also in this country more and more people are being sent for nonviolent drug offenses so it's an issue that the united states refuses to address but more and more latin american leaders are actually trying to take a step back and say listen this drug war is not working. obviously the approach isn't working i mean well point what will it take for the u.s. to change its policy there i mean it's been for decades now before they change their policy there and change the approach to the war on drugs and i think it's going to take a very strong grassroots movement both in latin and latin america and in this country to actually stand up and say listen these policies are not working we cannot keep spending billions of dollars each year on training militaries we need

to actually look at the causes of drug addiction look at the causes of poverty and that's when we'll start seeing some changes right now the united states refuses to look at that and continues to pump money into a cycle of contracting military contracts and money for war and you know another argument that's made is that you know the reason why this war on drugs isn't going anywhere is because the demand has been consistent and as long as that there is a demand there is going to be a supply so i mean it since that being the reality what kind of how can we change the policy to affect or to reflect that reality well i think right now there are a lot of people working on the issue of decriminalization of drugs in this country right now many of the presidents in latin america have made that stand saying that we must decriminalize this this war decriminalize the drugs so you know the really what we need to do in this country is continue to close ask for the club. military

training institutions like the school the americas continue to ask that the pentagon stop spending billions of dollars on the wars and that's where i think we will succeed but it doesn't look like president obama is receptive to decriminalization at this point he's under a lot of pressure he's under a lot of pressure and we have to understand that power concedes nothing without a demand so we must continue to keep pressing president obama or any whoever enters the white house we understand that even democrat a republican the the actual what has happened in latin america hasn't changed much despite the democrat or republican administrations over the years so the wars continue under different names and lastly i just want to ask you i know that you are your organization is really advocating for the closure of the school of america as how far are you in that fight and do you think it's realistic that that can actually be achieved any time soon well it's been

a long fight it's been over twenty years since the first protest at the school of america started we continue to do we continue to fight we understand that this is going to be you know we're going to keep pressing congress to pass legislation and science from latin america are very heartening the people that governments are pulling out of the school americas so we're five down and we're going to keep going until we close down that school so it looks like other countries are recognizing that something needs to change that's right that's right right nico thank you so much for coming on the show and weighing in that was neat though. he is the field organizer for the school america watch. well the war in afghanistan reportedly dwindling down but you wouldn't think so if you saw how much money the pentagon has spent in the last week nine point two billion dollars according to the department of defense website that's a four that's four billion dollars more than was spent the week before the shopping

list includes six billion dollars worth of commercial shipping contracts and what does that mean it means we're spending billions and billions on bringing stuff back from afghanistan next up on that list a half a million dollar contract with boeing to stop building their ubiquitous c. seventeen jets not a bad severance package and to top off these spending spree new contracts with textron to build the next generation of ship to land hovercraft that could amount to five hundred seventy million dollars but while the war in afghanistan quiets down the global demand for weapons is as loud as ever and the u.s. is stepping right up to feed that demand the u.s. department of defense has signed a contract with boeing for one very popular item an anti ship missile called the harpoon which the u.s. has sold to dozens of countries providing self pacific powers with the exception of china with the new missiles now at the same time making sure the united arab

emirates and saudi arabia arabia countries which rely heavily on the strait of hormuz are well stocked with these american made empty ship missiles. well right now we're going to take a quick break but coming up more guarded than many u.s. airports american students are getting a lot more than an education when they attend public schools these days from metal detectors to cops in the classroom well tell you how this system is creating a school to prison pipeline next. to the line of american power continues. things that are. might actually be time revolution. and it turns out that a popular drink of starbucks says the surprise is.

what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through it's already been made who can you trust no one. with the global machinery where we had a state controlled capitalism it's called sasha when nobody dares to ask we do our tea question more. argy is the state run english speaking russian channel it's kind of like. russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us.

we just put a picture of me when i was like. new years old and she told the truth. i have a confession i am a total ghetto princess i was proud because she is the one true. i think is kind of yesterday. i'm very aware of the world with its place. at first i just burn gerard is right right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially. much stronger than anything you buy obviously.

growls use of terms was stronger than any one of the w ever put you know. well some schools in the us looking more like juvenile detention centers there's a growing trend of police officers patrolling school halls and with that more kids getting arrested the biggest offense disrupting class this is going on mostly in texas reports came out recently that twelve year old girl was arrested first spraying perfume on herself at a middle school in austin swearing smoking cigarettes violating dress code all these things can land kids a ticket to court according to the guardian in two thousand and ten police gave about three hundred thousand classy misdemeanor tickets to children as young as six years old so are these schools criminal criminalizing normal childhood behavior and

how is this trend shaping our youth to discuss this and more dr susan phillips research analyst for the sentencing project joins me now welcome to the show. is that. so i mean what do you think do you think child is more and more becoming childhood behavior is becoming more criminalized these days i think that's true and i think it's part of a larger trend that we've seen in this country over the past thirty years to solve problems using the criminal justice system so we see children in classrooms now with police monitoring their behavior and rather than treating misconduct as part of a normal. childhood behavior we have police stepping in and arresting children or finding them as young as six years old so these children are getting exposed to the criminal justice system earlier and earlier. and they're so they could stigmatized by peers. and lack of facilities they may learn even worse behaviors

from other children and we find that this group of children are more likely to drop out of school which is one of the respect there is for people becoming involved in adult crime and so we use the expression cradle to prison pipeline to describe this and it is we set up at an earlier an earlier age to be part of this what we call the prison industrial complex part of this cradle to prison pipeline is this is zero tolerance policy that is instated in a lot of public schools and i wanted to to bring that up here exactly what this this policy is schools rely on suspension expulsion citation summonses an arrest to handle disciplinary problems like bringing cell phones and i pods to schools smoking cigarettes and skipping class students who might easily be disciplined there will visit to the principal's office end up in jail cells this is the essence

of the pipeline and criminal charges are brought against youth in schools for violations that never would be considered criminal if committed by adults so i mean as i mentioned before weigh these things i mean. they're relatively i mean pretty minor a lot of them are nonviolence and then they end up in these these this prison system this juvenile prison system and then i mean how does that affect the rest of their life i mean in terms of going to college getting a job that kind of creates this this vicious cycle. and. that it helps the think of themselves as criminal and bad it may be totally in effect in addressing whatever the underlying problems are with the child or in the top family or in the community that have led to disruptive behaviors. and if. so we see these children being more likely to drop out of school not finish school not get jobs to begin hanging out with other children and feel separated from the main

stream and it's part of the process of criminalizing children of getting them into the adult system and i did not to wonder i interviewed a young a young man who who spent time with the juvenile detention. juvenile justice system and because of that as a minor he ended up in the adult's prison system i want to play a clip where he describes his experience there imagine was the design and so rehabilitated you would use an awful punishment you know him by wiser only but paying for. a lifestyle. and i want to talk more about that when you're put into this situation how that prepares you for a more criminal type of lifestyle where it's not rehabilitated but in fact harmful but that's true and so the first problem is that it's possibly a missed opportunity to intervene as the young man said it's not rehabilitative

many of the programs that we see aren't effective they might address problems or try to address problems the child haven't but they don't also try to address problems that the family is having or the problems that the community is having and we know that on top of that the fact that children and adults. becoming involved in the criminal justice system helps to perpetuate problems we know from the adult system that particular communities where there's high levels of incarceration that feeds the very problems that are associated with crime in the fencing it feeds disruptions in families it feeds about poverty it feeds single parent households and and so we have this perverse situation where by using the criminal justice system to address problems we're also creating the situations that could continue to create a need for the criminal justice system unless we step back and say what else is it that we can do and fortunately we're beginning to see some states looking at the

huge amount of money that's being spent their state budgets on corrections saying maybe we could take some of that money and put it back into communities and families and children and and not spend it on high cost attention that's in prison beds and actually get some better outcomes and you know it's seems like especially in the state of texas it seems like there is this focus to expand law enforcement and this expansion is expanding into schools and into middle schools and to high schools how did that happen i mean where did the mentality shift from education to to discipline oh if it were only texas. but it's a number of states this los angeles is probably the leader in it. i think you have to go back about forty years to the beginning of the war on drugs and this idea that we could take what is arguably a public health problem and deal with it through the corrections system and. we've

continued to do that a number of ways and so putting police officers into schools as what might have been a preemptive move. as just expanded the use of the criminal justice system to solve problems that they can't solve it in some cases make worse and even just. i guess the beginning of this trend you're putting police officers in schools the expansion of this process this practice i mean when you put armed police officers patrolling the schools i mean that has to do something to to affect the learning environment in the mentality of the kids that go to school where it's supposed to be this more nurturing learning environment but i can imagine this affects you know the mindset of the students to to see this think about how that shapes the child to dennehy when in your school in your community what you see constantly is the police being present and stepping in and everybody you know being many people that you know

being arrested and sent into the criminal justice system often for fairly low level crimes i mean what message does that send that back to what my future holds for me and it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy for him great and i want to talk you to touch upon it a little bit earlier what are the alternatives to this. as opposed to you know criminalizing kids and putting them through the justice system at such a young age i mean what are the more affective approaches to to you know handling children that might have it might just be misbehaving you know kids being kids you know maybe violating the dress code there on paper airplane means you know kids are kids so what's a better way to deal with it to deal with kids whether be rehabilitated or counseling what is the better approach and what i'm hopeful but i think first what

people have to do is take a look at the schools in their communities and see the extent to which. this is happening that six year olds to be arrested and cited. and then i think they have to work together with school principals and community groups first to get a commitment to stop. citing kids for these misbehaviors i think there's. any number of ways school can instead begin to engage parents in supervising children and dressing problems the root causes of the problems with learning disabilities that the kids are not attentive and school is do they just need some coaching on other behaviors. and so i think in terms of a process rather than and result of engaging in groups confronting engaging their schools in their police force and lastly just want to ask you i mean what can be done to kind of reverse this mentality of expanding the policing of schools to

a more rehabilitative approach which studies show is more effective and a healthier approach. so i think programs like this where people realize this is happening is a big first step and i think. it's reversing and we're seeing this in a number of places because it's become so widespread it's not just somebody else's children anymore it's shocking for parents to find out that the police are interviewing with their children for something that in days gone by might have just been a telephone call from a teacher. some of the more widespread it is the more alert people are the more they question. the more likely we are to see change races and thank you so much for coming on the show and weighing in on this very important topic we are out of time that that was us dr susan phillips she's a research analyst for the sentencing project well that is going to do it for the news this hour about let's check in with lauren lyster to see what is on today's

agenda lauren where you work it out over there. i am working on a case of deja vu in the worst kind of way the m.f. global saga it's gone on since october the firm declared bankruptcy taking one point six billion dollars in customer money with it that went missing still. being recovered these are customer funds that are never supposed to be touched they are sacrosanct this was dismissed by some as one bad seed one chaotic case guess what happened again liz another firm called p.f.g. best two hundred million dollars in customer money reportedly apparently missing according to regulators it appears to be that they were fraudulent submitting false bank statements we're going to get to the bottom of it we're talking to a couple customers we're talking to someone trying to recover the funds for m.f. global we're going to see what the big takeaway is here it's deja vu all over again and learn lister is going to get to the bottom of it next thanks learn for that update that's going to do it now for the news for more of the stories we cover

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more news today violence has once again flared up the first these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are the day .