hey hey hey. we need to. go in there. and some reason it was the road to produce documents. in the night is going to be the best it's going to be. speaking out for her son party travels to ecuador to speak with julian a songes mother she talks about his asylum case and why he founded the website wiki leaks the exclusive interview is coming up. when thousands of state department cables were released by wiki leaks online world leaders were outraged but did wiki leaks actually help some countries become more transparent party questions more. how can you go from one city to have so much money you know i mean in so many jobs

available for people to almost nothing that's the question many people here in the u.s. are asking how can the world's leading superpower actually be so divided our t.v. shows you the two sides of america where the haves and have nots live in two entirely different worlds. it's thursday august second ten pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching our. we begin this hour with an update on wiki leaks whistleblower julian assad held up in the ecuadorian embassy in london awaiting ecuador's decision on his plea for political asylum his mother is now in the country to discuss her son's fate with president rafael correa eva golinger caught up with assad his mother for an exclusive interview her first question to christine assad how does she feel about the work her son has done.

doing. people in a repressive regime should be able to whistles i'm a citizen who goes to be able to get the truth out about some of the abuse that was happening in the country and for you that's what happened and his life's work and anyway interest him with the good will that work that then when the stuffing is kind to you when to fix drop box on america i think those change some rains and it was all right to begin documents that other countries but it's in the united states with barack is not the kind. so i has to react one is another of course i wish she'd never done it and said nothing. but as a citizen has insisted that wiki leaks is done to be intense period to the world

that the the town the corruption kidnapping extrusion all seeing. the torture. and for what it involves big financial institutions of course completely do you think that your stand life is in danger. from the beginning. from the u.s. from politicians and from. news coming. with screaming at his new boss in the most brutal why is this going to be. built up at all and how they were feeling. calling out for crucial for this is no justice in fighting the case myself. and still in the last few weeks. in this business policies because sometimes i think its policies k.t. mcfarland who was screaming at the killings execution is somebody who is running

a lot and has done nothing more than any good if you can do to be interested one is one doing the work for where you are here in ecuador i obviously advocating for your son are you here particularly to advocate for his political asylum request. to the foreign ministry invited me so that i could speak to him a bet with our new of the commission for the strategy for example by the government intervention team can you talk a little bit about that yes well unfortunately for strange. we have. a prime minister who is really can only really be described this as. subsidy u.s. approval ratings twenty seven percent of people and not happy with the war and from the beginning the prime minister. condemned my son. in the media speaking in hezekiah switches on officials in stride to speak about

a cause and commits judgment upon a persistent approach to a trial should give a does his right to to to the presumption of innocence by saying that what he did was here. she actually proved preceded the american government in the statement and. despite the fact that he's tried in federal police. some two weeks later. decided that to him had broken no rules at all in this trial yet and the u.s. treasury had refused to blacklist wiki leaks because they could find a crime that is being committed these stunning prime minister julia gillard. continued to define muskaan in the media do you think that the australian government would hand julian over to the united states if they had the possibility of doing so. this is a great concern given that the united states has been libeling its own citizens and

is low level terrorists. with the americans being within the top five countries executing their own citizens in the world and that actually is colliding synchronizing i didn't. from one here to ninety eight here. what do you think would happen to julian if he were actually added to the united states well i had to assist ten years emotional book was lucky to have an impact from what they're doing to one of their own soldiers bradley manning. which the un report on torture says is cruel and inhumane treatment and very. i was on a panel. cambric capital city d.c. and one of the other speakers we. call david hicks who's been sick she's. president obama came into office with a promise to close guantanamo. but it happened because the decision to do it was

with the four group dicks going to do as we speak. and i was. told we would. create new england and this is something that we could expect to lose. and that was christine and a son of the mother of julian a son and you can see artie's entire exclusive interview online you can find it on our youtube page youtube dot com slash r t america now wiki leaks has certainly sparked outrage among government leaders for the secrets exposed some of them harsh and others just embarrassing from the detention of bradley manning to the attempted extradition of a songe we're seeing the fallout of it all but what's interesting is the different ways countries have reacted and that in america for example the secrets were spelled out in newspapers and mexico readers learned the country's true relationship with the united states that we want to discuss now if transparency can in fact strengthen democracy and empower the people earlier i was joined by miguel

tinker solus professor of latin american history at the mona college i asked him how wiki leaks has influenced the people of latin america. i think it's been tremendous and i think it's opened up an entire new pen around in which citizens in mexico and brazil and venezuela can actually see how their governments have interacted on the world stage and in particular in the case of mexico with the drug war the information has been very revealing it has confirmed what many scholars have been saying for quite some time and the same thing in the case of brazil and u.s. relationships and the same thing in venezuela with efforts on the part of the u.s. to isolate countries like venezuela and ecuador in bolivia in the region and that cable gate as it's called led to the forced departure of tell us ambassador as one to appledore and mexico some go i mean how has this impacted the debate in latin america country about when it comes to transparency and government accountability but in the case of mexico in particular here we have

a government of any pic of their own who in two thousand and six assumes office with a very small margin zero point five one margin in the electoral arena and the u.s. immediately attempts to buttress his administration they recognize it as a stagnant presidency they begin to recognize his government they begin to push and support him so that they and their friends in essence buttress his administration to ensure that they have an ally in the region the same thing we find out that u.s. military personnel in the in the embassy personnel are intentionally a power within mexico they are a second state within mexico they are directing the military they are overseeing the drug war they are funding they are ordering mexican generals to take action the federal police to take action this is very revealing for a country for its citizenship and has been very evident in the political discourse in the political debate in the case of mexico so i think that we see it we see very good examples very clear examples in the case of brazil we have another very clear example in which the u.s. embassy was privileging its relationship with the military in brazil with the

military and the secretary of the military and trying to isolate brazil's foreign policy so we see it we see exactly what. kind of efforts the u.s. had the destabilized to gain control to gain importance in the region and efforts of the stabilize bolivia ever to be stabilized ecuador so that's that's a very revealing sort citizenship and also in the case of all due to us here we have a country which the us is saying that it did not have a coup and that it will not support a coup yet its own ambassador is saying there has been a coup in on good us and we must take action. in a way though he gala it's no secret that the u.s. works very close with latin american countries on this war on drugs. man is it all really that shocking it is to a certain extent it is the way the way the war on drugs was used to buttress a presidential administration so it's one thing for social movements or scholars to say something and then to have it confirmed so yes in many ways you're right is

confirmation for a series of beliefs that is that is evident in the society and that itself is important because that shift the balance of power in the discourse to say in the case of mexico so that sense in the same thing in the case of venezuela women as well as saying that the u.s. is attempting to isolate been this way to from the rest of latin america to inoculate the continent from latin america it's one thing for venezuela to say it it's another thing for us documents to confirm it and now we are seeing a growing number of countries passing these freedom of information laws so this shows that people want more access to government documents and government information to them that wiki leaks kind of fed this demand i think it revolutionized the process and i think in the case of brazil when the wiki leaks was thinking about how to release the information in brazil they recognize that it was a century a conglomerate that owned all the media so they had to find alternatives and the way that they use those alternatives in fact force the official media the mainstream media then to adapt and to begin to open up so i think it had

a dramatic impact in that in that arena and that was going to be my next question tammy gal on how wiki leaks has affected the way the public views traditional media and latin america do you think in l a. the wake of these revelations that has led to this loss of trust our credibility among the people there i think it confirmed as i said earlier confirmed a belief of what what many had already been thinking but now they had the evidence was to prove it and i think it's going to establish is a new new margin a new a new bar against which political figures will be judged because in essence they will have alternatives to be able to confirm or disprove what they're saying so i think it is in that sense it continues to be a very important resource in latin america in terms of foreign policy and also internal policy here in the u.s. a songe is widely condemned for what he has done government leaders saying compromise national security by leaking the documents do you think that he is just as demonized in latin america or is he viewed differently if so why well there's a whole different perspective i think there's a different perspective in the u.s.

as well among other sectors i think that there is the government sector but other people also recognize that what what wiki leaks did as an organization and a son in particular was to open up an entire arena foreign policy and allow it citizenship and actually see what the u.s. did in supporting coups in trying to isolate governments and inciting a never ending drug war that is not that has produced over sixty thousand dead in mexico and still the supply of drugs and been used north and stopped so i think in that sense it opened up the arena of public for public scrutiny in the u.s. as well and now julianna songe is now awaiting to hear back from the ecuadorian officials regarding his his bid to seek asylum there i think it makes sense then that julian assan just kind of turning to latin america for help now i think it does i think it makes perfect sense to turn to the countries that actually the material that he revealed in that his organization revealed. is the most obvious place to turn to countries like upward or countries like bolivia like venezuela like result and i think that his image in the region is much much different than it

is in the u.s. all right and last i just want to ask i guess the controversy surrounding us and as i have mentioned earlier is the fact that some people say he put our national security apparatus. by releasing some of these top secret documents whether or not that that's the case as up up for debate but is there any perception in latin america that a songe may have compromise national security there though i don't think so i think that maybe some elites in the case of brazil for example in the case of the defense ministry who eventually was replaced by the rousseff the president made may have had. some concerns but i don't think the majority population would share those same concerns are a very interesting perspective there miguel thank you so much for coming on the show that was made altegris solace he's professor of latin american history at pomona college. well still ahead in our team we take you on a trip to connecticut where an interstate highway is the dividing line between two vastly different lifestyles a spotlight on the end of quality playing out here in the u.s.

next. we just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old so if you told the truth. the confession i am a total get of friends that i would have been hip hop music and for. that he was kind of a guest today. i'm very proud of the world with its playing. cards he is the state run english speaking russian channel it's kind of like al-jazeera.

russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions it's breakthrough it's already been made who can you trust no one. with the global machinery where we had a state. capitalism is called. when nobody dares to ask we do our question more.

as a surprise there. well it's no secret that the income inequality gap is widening in the us today and in some areas this reality is more glaring than others the state of connecticut is one such example interstate ninety five was once the ribbon of hope for the promise of

prosperity the highway one symbolized but it seems that has all changed our view correspondent honest aasia churkin to take a look at the economic divide in the constitution state. calvin is the master barber at a hair salon dubbed the whole of the six dollar cotton. service is being cheap business is steady in this town america definitely definitely industries and jobs are leaving a lot there used to be about five hundred factories in bridgeport in the thirty's today it's largely a wasteland above the booming factories and its peak years bridgeport is now a town filled with sites like this one abandoned lots and buildings that were once the work place of a prospering middle class these days there's simply no work to find here yet unemployment rate is ridiculous i've been looking for a job for about two years and i have been able to find anything. it's as hard this twenty three year old mother jobless and burdened by college debt keeps afloat by

selling scrap metal that others throw out it's hard to drive around all day and find stuff on the side of the road gets tiring today taking her son along on the hunt brought her luck. joey and made sixty seven dollars and a few cents. bridgeford stands off the i ninety five highway in connecticut. a road up the river in a hole in the fifty's with industry florist here. half hour drive from bridgeport. life is a ball in the picture perfect town of greenwich it's just wasted ever by design or celeb really it really is about getting your worries forgotten i need to know the crandell a crumb of the five. natural world flocked to this paradise where our wall street bedroom primarily i mean obviously we have lawyers and doctors and retailers but yeah a lot of wall street around here here restaurants overflow with clients with an extra

buck to spend luxury cars are shiny and homes state of the art it's the most affluent town in in the united states it just it is it like not my fault but well greenwich and bridgeport are still tied together by the same small strip of asphalt the i ninety five of today is a ribbon of inequality rather than a hope. and reflection of the transition to make today. from opportunity to lifestyle. to backdrop reality is increasingly contrast in the us. well production and manufacturing the sources of the american dream have all but vanished i don't know what how but you know we've been able to go by. wall street continues to prosper increasingly hedge fund hubs like greenwich and industrial ghost towns like

bridgeport will live side by side worlds apart is this new church going to. connecticut. well here on r t would like to cover stories the mainstream media won't report or under-report take this story for example. the only. way you can see residents terrified as police unleashed dogs and fire projectiles into the crowd this was a response to protests that erupted in the community after police shot dead twenty five year old man while diaz who was apparently on armed at the time and while local news stations anaheim couldn't ignore it there wasn't much coverage on the networks and when they did they seem to focus on the riots instead of digging deeper and asking why they broke out in the first place here's a look at some of the headlines that made the line outlets from the l.a. times anaheim unrest twenty four arrested six injured and night of violence

buffington post reported anaheim police protests another fiery clash between protesters and officers and this one only focused on the looters smashing windows steal items during anaheim protest. now another crackdown of police police crackdown they seem to have missed this time on activists in west virginia protesting mining police say they arrested twenty protesters after the demonstration on saturday that happened patriot. strip mine in lincoln county including corneas lock down streets trees said banner drops many of the protesters are with the group ramps which stands for radical action in people's survival they say the coal mining practices put the health and safety of the community in danger to talk about this i was joined by dustin steele an activist with the radical action for people's survival take a look. at the. when

so good twenty two which is the largest active mountaintop removal permit in appalachian mountain. very destructive or of coal mining so instead of going underground and taking coal out that way they take explosives packed it in the top of the mountain and then blow them out in a way which since that crash. it is personally. it's been. it's been the degradation of a lot of people within appalachian and their health and their environment and that ramps is made in an active effort to stop this destructive process of bonding. and i understand that while you were out there protesting twenty people were arrested

you are among those arrested what have you and others been charged with. i am personally and all twenty protesters have been charged with trespassing and obstruction of justice. with that charge they're both misdemeanor charges that should serve a lot sentences but we were all charged with a twenty five thousand dollars bond which was completely ludicrous for our charges as of yet of our comrades are still in prison non of our comrades that you bought of seeing coming across the camera has just been released from jail so it's time of jubilation and here at the ranch camp but. as for us at this point we're still trying to. move on look after a really wonderful action of how to move forward and keep the pressures on this extract of industry who is robbing. taking away their wealth and destroying the

environment for future generations i would do want to. read that there were some reports alleged beatings while in custody what do you know about that. there was a lot of cases of police brutality with the. experience during the action. one comrades was told. by an officer people were dragged across. personally i was dragged on my back through. my head was slammed into a concrete wall was into an interview room at the process station where a group of west virginia state police officers. is the cli assaulted me with punches and kicks. during the protest i mean did it get violent. any

protesters provoking the police or turning to violence themselves or what do you think about. the only that was rants. make the staunch. peaceful protest we are dedicated to the tenets of nonviolence the only one was the violence the police officers and the counterprotest they were completely unprovoked. and a lot of other made a choice of being non-compliant at no point where we at no point where we were resisting but the west virginia state police still decided to brutalise self and most of their friends and decided to protest was struck before the body now you had mentioned all these these health and environmental hazards earlier on before and really we haven't heard much about the is this case and west virginia do you feel

like you need to stage a protest like this in order to bring awareness to this issue. absolutely it's direct action is the only white that we can get our point across not only are we going to call the coal companies who are trying to destroy our mountains poison our water and air we're all sort of dealing with a state police force who is compliant with the coal companies and during protests always cracks down hard on protesters and counter protesters who has been ballance to. talk removal activists or have we found no recourse within the state police as well as i or state legislators our governor or senator they are bought and paid for bob a cold so we have no recourse through legislative or executive manners either the

only way that we can effect change in appalachian is if we take power in terre own hands and resist and organize and planned lockdowns and actually. create an alternative to the communities and alternative economies because it's not going to be politicians it's not going to be supported by the police if change is going to happen it's going to be people who are willing to go to jail who are willing to beat for working in jobs that don't pay well because it's work that appalachia is the central appalachian are what is the second most diverse place in the world with the exception of the amazon rain forest every day more and more acres of this beautiful beautiful ecosystem that's been destroyed by mountaintop removal the further generations of tourism will no longer be available because all of our tourism is based on their amazing singer and wallop which is being destroyed by the

cult means for short term profits for the future of our generation we're going to have to resist organize and bought back. right does and thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your experience with us that was dustin steele an activist with the radical action firm now in people's survival but that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we cover check out our you tube channel you tube dot com slash r t america or check out our website artsy dot com slash usa you can also follow me on twitter at liz wall for now have a great night and what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through that sort of to be made who can you trust no one who is in view with the global machinery see where are we heading state controlled capitalism is called sasha's when nobody dares to ask we do our.