today on r t it's no secret that congress needs to make some serious cuts to spending but their arsenal of rhetoric is no match to the firepower of the pentagon coming up a lot of the retired colonel if there's a safe way to slouch slash the bloated military budget without putting national security on the lawn. plus fox news is on the hunt their prey obama adviser david plouffe and his connections to iran but all of this foreign policy double speak is enough to make your head spin so we'll sort it all for you. and be careful where you point that thing secretly recording police officers could land you behind bars for decades i'll tell you about one journalist who's paying the price for doing his job.

is wednesday august eighth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for you're watching our t.v. you probably were the word sequester ation used recently the process by which spending reductions are planned to be made one point two trillion dollars as a matter of fact over the next ten years with one hundred ten billion being made the first year and that money is split evenly from defense and domestic programs now the defense cuts have brought about a whole lot of people coming out to warn about the impending doom and gloom that could be brought about by talk about compromising the security of our country and the lives of our military but it turns out the exorbitant amount of military money is spent on a whole lot of other things not really being talked about so we want to tell you all about them here's something you might be shocked to learn the firm formerly known as blackwater now academy l.c. will be paying a seven point five million dollars fine that's. on top of its already forty two

million dollars settlement reached regarding civil arms export violations they recently admitted to wrongdoing in connection to seventeen federal criminal charges so a cut of the company's profits then actually know the funds they'll use to pay off those fines will come from already existing contracts with the pentagon so it seems to be an act of accountability boils down to a continued revolving door between defense contractors and the government all as we continue to hear out terrible it is to cut any money from the pentagon i do want to talk more about this with retired u.s. army corps colonel douglas macgregor executive vice president of the burke mcgregor group and colonel macgregor let's begin with this information that's come out about blackwater or academy or whatever its name is these days this is a company notorious for playing by its own rules and yet never seeming to be held accountable so i guess i'm wondering what role you think this current situation this incident has in the current discussion that we've been having about sequester

ation well in the context of secrecy ration it's meaningless this contractor does what it does because the federal government wants it to that's what people need to keep in mind we hire people like akademi to do the things that the federal government either cannot do or would rather not do so when we talk about wrongdoing i suspect that if you follow the trail you will find someone in the federal establishment who has his hands in the wrong doing that at some point somebody said it would be helpful if you did x. the fact that x. was illegal is probably irrelevant to the contractor who says look i'm being paid to do what this government official tells me he wants to do but why aren't more lawmakers coming forward or members of the media for that matter and saying hey why don't we go through and have the d.o.d.'s say this is what money can go for and this is what it can't well first of all the key operative word here is money everything is about money where it goes who makes it all of the. contractors

contribute to people's reelection campaign funds so members of the senate in particular to a lesser extent the house although it goes on there are very interested in sustaining this gravy train called the defense budget not for reasons that they say publicly but because it's involves money remember people investing in the defense department have enjoyed enormous profits over the last ten years the defense establishment itself. you know is is part of it but it's really these defense contractors the industries are making a profit margin or have a profit margin of about thirty to thirty five percent at this point everyone knows the defense budget is going to be cut so this is a last desperate effort to secure as much cash as possible from the existing budget before everything tanks and remember you know a thirty to thirty five percent profit margin is enormous if they're going to be driven back to about fifteen to twenty percent profit margins which is certainly

much more reasonable given the work they do for the american people but that's next year and the year beyond that. i mean i guess let's talk specifically about sequester is in itself we've heard the word devastating used by secretary of state leon panetta we've heard manufacturers come out and talk about the tens of thousands of jobs that will be lost to talk about the real winners and losers in these defense cuts well first of all we know for is with lockheed martin that it made more money after it reduced its workforce in two thousand and seven the predisposition in the defense industries is not very different from any private industry in this country right now you cut the workforce in order to maintain your profit margins or even grow your room aren't rising exactly and then in the defense department when you look at the armed forces you should soldiers sailors airmen and marines who could actually deploy and fight in favor of maintaining the overhead of generals and admirals and that ratio is by the way higher today than it's ever being entering world war two we had roughly one army general for every six thousand

troops today we have one army general for every fifteen hundred troops oh wow so you're got an enormous overhead that the cold war created and that cold war over has actually grown over the last ten years so we're we have this enormous number of single service headquarters inside the armed forces as well as various joint task forces all of this they will work to protect before anything else they will cut the soldiers who deploy and fight that's the tragedy a number of policy changes of course to be talked about but we can't talk about this without also talking about the politics i know the obama administration of course very concerned they thought that this you know was a last ditch. bill in order to keep lawmakers accountable and yet it looks like it could happen and it could happen even though both republicans and democrats voted for this we should mention it's going to happen the vote at least was on obama's watch so he's nervous but then this is really interesting because you have republicans who you know the two things that they're loyal to low taxes and the

defense department possibly having to make a choice and i want to play a really quick part of an exchange that happened recently this is a panel of defense contractors a few weeks ago here on capitol hill. this specific question i asked was who here would advise the congress to rule out under all circumstances any revenue increase on anyone at any time would any of you make that recommendation to us i think everything is going to be on the table at this point now this is not this is a personal opinion think i'm not speaking for the employees of united technologies or for u.t.c. . so here you have a you know a democratic congressman saying you know do you think this is advisable and even the defense contractors saying nothing's off the table that includes raising taxes well i wouldn't hold my breath while i waited for that to happen you don't you know first of all raising taxes does not offset declining revenues if you raise taxes

whatever hope there is and i don't see very much right now in terms of coming out of the current recession i think things over the next two years are going to get much much worse and the only way to survive this is to dramatically cut federal spending so the point is we're going to cut the defense budget long before we go after medicare medicaid social security and even even under seaquest ration there's about a two percent reduction in medicare. but they too inevitably will end up on the table the point is you can't save us from the fiscal disaster that lies on the horizon by raising taxes revenues declining it's not going to increase so i think it's kind of a dead dead issue it's not worth discussing another thing that is worth discussing though is other aspects of this defense budget it's not just you know fueling the funds into contractors like blackwater activity there's also a lot of programs if you look across the country of iraq right now there are empty

abandoned prisons prisons that were supposed to hold you know three thousand prisoners you have abandoned hospitals things that were built with money never used you have programs like the iraqi prison program that came out recently iraqis don't even want. police program so talk a little bit about you know other useless ways in which this money is spent but the american people have been led for the last ten years i would say actually for the last twenty five ministrations who insisted that they could transform not americans primarily in the third world in the balkans into anglo-saxon democrats so a lot of nonsense it's a miserable failure it's an open secret why would they do this while some of it is utopianism that we do suffer from inside the beltway but a lot of game goes back to money were who had the contracts where did the money go who made money as a result we could talk about how a burden and a whole range of firms that have profited enormously again there is no

accountability in the city when's the last time we held general officers accountable for the fact that iraq today is an iranian satellite we said we were going to transform it into this anglo-saxon democracy that would ultimately be friendly to the west and friendly to the united states and today iraq is effectively an iranian client state who are we kidding this is this is part of a much larger problem and money that we've spent has simply being squandered and lost certainly so much to talk about i think you have a really good point there u.s. army colonel douglas macgregor executive vice president of the burke mcgregor group . well the story that we've reported on recently has continued to gain some steam fox news among others is reporting that the m.t.n. group the firm with ties to iran that reportedly paid white house adviser david plus one hundred thousand dollars in speaking fees in two thousand and ten has even deeper ties with the iranian government the firm it's been alleged was behind quote a premeditated program of corruption that included bribery and influence on corrupt

and control officials this type of in-depth reporting brings some very interesting questions to light some of which fox news is more than happy to bring to the fray at the expense of the obama administration however this type of coverage is becoming scarce and it's becoming increasingly difficult to find out the actual facts when it comes to politics and our foreign policy q wiki leaks an organization without which we wouldn't know many aspects of how our foreign governments work cable gate as it was called on earth a trove of information a lot of which served as the basis for many stories yet it has been criticized and persecuted for doing just that just last night the wiki leaks site was a victim of a distributed denial of service attack throwing the site offline and making it unusable so what are leaks ok and what constitutes a leak when it involves government officials and actions and partnerships with other countries kevin goal is a blogger with firedoglake and joins us now hey there kevin i guess there seems to

be a little bit of a double standard in play here what do you think about all this. well i don't know that this case we actually have a leak although i though the point would be that fox news is engaging are things that gauge investigative journalism and as they're carrying it out right now this is a form of journalism that they called into question in the past and i think that there's another point to be raised about this particular story which is it's unclear what material fox news actually got so i think that they might be reaching onto material that was published by the washington post and that they've been covering the story for the fact that. you know their gender and certainly every news network os included we choose what to cover and what not to cover and you know it's a story that seem to serve the purpose especially with yours

a fox news but it just is interesting to me kevin i mean what distinguishes when it's investigative journalism and when it's too much information that the public should not. yeah and i think to an extent that's really ideological and i think that this story hits a nerve for viewers of fox news because it's a way to focus attention on iran which i'd say most viewers of fox news probably despise utterly and feel that iran is going to do something and credibly terrible tomorrow against the united states in the united states turns its back in and lets it go about its business but on the other hand with wiki leaks with all the stories that they were able to allow journalists to put together by disclosing previously classified documents those are stories i think fox news for a large extent of their reporting they spent time casting doubt on the reports and

also aligning those reports by saying that this was terrorism that the wiki leaks organization was engaged in that it was information terrorism believe as he was on the show and january twentieth lebanon and so-called atheist or likes to think she isn't and along with peter king these other individuals congressman peter king have tried to go after we get a terrorist organization and sort of you know turn things around and that this sort of reporting that's being possible made possible by wiki leaks is something that we like shut down you brought down our you brought up a congressman at peter king's i want to play something that he recently said when it comes to you know the media the evil fourth estate tired of his critics a civil liberties type of the york times the washington post i think what the media is probably looking for is they don't want these restrictions being put on they don't want to use a polygraph outside of the intelligence community basically as i see it they are

afraid that they're going to lose their sources in the intelligence community so basically you have these people putting their own parochial interests into what the media head of the national interest. far be it for the media to think it's important to report upon the u.s. government eighty one side of a foreign war. kevin this is an elected lawmaker essentially telling the media not to do its job how does he get away with it. but i think and to add to you know that comment i would just say that what he's essentially suggesting is that the free speech rights of low level intelligence employees be shut down and in fact he's promoting the perception that the well to backtrack by making this statement he's not acknowledging the fact that the intelligence community is one of the last places you would find a leak actually you're more likely to find a leak out of peter king's office probably than the. come some agent and see in the intelligence community and i think you know what he's really saying just sort of

makes me feel like in a perfect world if peter king can make it possible he would like to take away the right publisher of the new york times or where other organizations that he would think have overstepped their approval just and gone beyond and started to do actual national security journalism which i think is what in effect is trying to suppress and criminalize when he's actively participating in activities where he's putting together sort of. policy proposals that crack down on so-called leaks well speaking of publications being accused of you know overstepping their privileges wiki leaks of course continues to be attacked but it wasn't always that way for a while when we sort of came out you know especially with the collateral murder murder video and the trove of documents released initially this was the basis for countless stories published by the new york times by several different media outlets print television and then it sort of changed course and started to sort of

become vilified what do you think happened. i think that it stayed true to what it wanted to do in fact you know it maintained its independence that it didn't assimilate and start to behave like women stablish media organization it stated that state was news organizations that it that it wants to be and then in doing so it really showed the division here because i believe that the media in this country especially the ones that have access to the white house pride themselves on having this position and they feel like they have this duty the servant duty that they have to protect secrets from being released which is why the new york times and even the washington post if they would get any materials now and they were leaked documents they would go to the white house and say look i have

this material i want to publish it and then the white house would understandably have an issue with them publishing but would work with them because they know that they can't really take away that right but at the same time they would have this ability to work against this leak before or they would be able to work against those publications and that would pose a problem because now they can't you know they won't be caught off guard what change is going to happen if front organizations are giving them a heads up would you believe the government or any government in the world that has thus they just go to publish. it certainly is going to be interesting to watch kevin and see sort of what happened is another you know wiki leaks two point zero pops up you know if people start to get angry about the site being taken down constantly certainly an interesting discussion kevin gust ola blogger with firedoglake. so i had an r.t.a. you have the right not to record them anything you film or record that can and will

be used against you in the court of law especially if you secretly tape a police officer over a new one case of a journalist who was arrested for doing his job.

let's talk now about a young man in new hampshire who's facing twenty one years in prison for reporting on police brutality adam or a daimon mueller was unable to talk to us today says he's in prison right now waiting trial in a case that all started after he posted this video on his web site cop block dot org. see this is mark keeping us right here to answer in your work to do you really take a look at this video was shot at a manchester new hampshire high school and shows a seventeen year old boy being lifted from his seat in the school cafeteria by a school police officer and they slammed into a table it was recorded by a fellow student and then given to mueller who then apparently interviewed police and to school officials were part of those interviews we found the other party's

consent he then posted part of those interviews on his website along with this video and he's now been charged with three felony counts of wiretapping after being charged with that. he awaits trial and pierre joins me now from cop walked out or hey peter let's start with the latest with adam or a de mar as he likes to be known what's the latest with his case. jury selection this past monday in manchester and he is slated to begin trials next monday august thirteenth those borough secure courts we're all going to have a full court there packed with a lot of supporters who didn't do it out recently though journalists. just to get a lot of good media so hopefully at least one of the twelve on this jury will act on their conscience or with logic and make the right decision but i was facing twenty one years for three felony counts of wiretapping i know new hampshire is one of twelve states that require two party consent the law is the law of course and

it's supposed to serve the best interest of the public i'm wondering pete if you think that's the case here. i sure don't to me this is a dame oh he's a journalist and he sought to hold accountable this public official derren murphy the west high school liaison officer who slammed the student on the table he sought to hold them accountable because after the incident the student was suspended and later expelled they banned cop locked out or from the school they denied students the ability to pass out literature and they essentially try to cover cover for their colleague instead of if they really looked out for the students best interest as they purport to do they would have held murphy accountable as he was the aggressor in this situation so damore did what any good journalist would do it tempted to follow up and ask questions and make the situation more transparent everybody else and no cop watched that or has created an online alba to release

information about police that doesn't usually make it to the mainstream media and we've seen many cases as of late of police brutality from anaheim to appalachian however where the line between you know being a concerned citizen and being a vigilante or is there. i personally don't actually like the fraser's term citizen it to me it denotes that you're you know sort of a subject or a slave to somebody else i've never signed a contract with anybody giving them the authority to dictate my life but for me comp like is it's a decentralized project has a lot of people involved as you mention but it's it's a knowledge sue for me too and so to inject the idea of self ownership and so it's not i don't see the line between being a citizen or a vigilante i just think we should own ourselves and if we each conduct ourselves as we want to be treated in relationships then you know that's the best sort of safest most prosperous society to live in and right now some folks of badges act as

if they have extra rights and they're those individuals are getting away with it because people allow them to do that so what a day i was doing what folks of all complex try to do is just point out how you don't have exercise because you have a badge and using a chamar as it is an objective tool to document those actions and share them with others very powerful. i guess i'm wondering what made you guys i decided to start this website was it just seeing case after case of police brutality was there a case in particular that sort of sparked to you to do this. it dave and i both came from slightly different backgrounds he himself was harassed by some local police up in a small town in jackson was concert where he grew up and he was in find any recourse through their official channels and started posting some x. some of his interactions online too again when in the court of public opinion action which the school for law enforcement and saw that. initially wanted to change things for the better from the inside but saw that you know there really

wasn't possible and now to the point where i think every good or service including policing could better be provided through consensual interactions so it's just a forum for us to share ideas again about self self ownership and to really strike the root as the road say instead of just dealing with issues as they come up just really try to nail down and figure out why they do happen in it and it to me it comes down to incentives currently police suffer from perverse incentives and it's not to say there's not good officers but i would say those individuals if they provide a service that people would voluntarily pay for that would be facilitated through consider shore actions not through this top down one size fits all system where terminus it's really interesting to me because this is a situation that really differs a straight to state to state we put up a map of the twelve states where you need to party consent but i know we just saw in boston for example the city of boston agreed to pay a man there one hundred seventy thousand dollars in damages in legal fees that to

settle a civil rights lawsuit from a two thousand and seven felony arrest for videotaping police he was watching these police on camera out roughing up a suspect i guess i'm wondering kate i mean what is it going to take for police to simply say you know instead of trying to make more strict laws why don't we just try not to be so brutal in the wrong circumstances. well i agree it's a good it's a good goal to have but i would say what is the best means to get there and it's it's not through the internal review board or a citizen supplants or even filing a complaint with the department itself is just for each individual to realize that nobody else has the right to dictate or regulate their lives as long as they're not negatively infringing on somebody else's rights and so that really speaks to the issue of again policing today and how it's the perverse incentives on which it's actors operates and the difference is in the one or two party consent you mentioned that to me just shows how arbitrary some i differentiate between long legislation

laws being natural common or god's law and legislation being man made an arbitrary so here in new hampshire in the shire myself on a day when number of others have had our cameras and other so many devices taken from us whereas you see in other departments for example oakland p.d. has a video with their p.r. person that says we never dream of taking someone's property we encourage them to film us and so it's just like you and i know murder is wrong we don't not murder someone because someone put it on a piece of paper we just generally people know how to treat each other and for the most part interact and insist to have these distinctions based on our share of political boundaries to me just underscores the fact that it is you know just words on paper and in disk in a dale's case for example he didn't hurt anybody and if in the real aggressors right now being protected by the system thoroughly an important discussion to have especially in this age of cell phone video cameras and so much out there appreciate having you on the show paid air with cock pot how flocke that are and that's going

to do it for us but for more on the stories we covered go to you tube dot com slash r t america our web site r t dot com slash usa. well. science technology innovation all the latest developments around russia we've got the future covered.

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