thanks so much for joining us for the weekly. public statements being granted asylum in. the international diplomatic. the latin american nation britain of grave consequences if the. diplomatic. storm to get. a pro-democracy activist gets a three year jail sentence for criticizing the regime. for the protests. across the gulf state.

from all around the world. to. the group. and the u.n. observer mission in syria. clashes between rebels and government troops. is a no fly zone on the country. libyan rebels. are those are the headlines. activists who fear being prosecuted for doing their job. she says the u.s. government is especially tough on those exposing official wrong doing you're watching our.

naomi wolf author journalist activist thank you for sitting down with r.t. today it's always a question of marine i first question for you recently u.s. defense secretary leon panetta announced and ordered pentagon officials to begin monitoring major news stations in the u.s. to see if any media outlets are disclosing classified information as a journalist and as an american what is your take on this i mean you know my immediate take is a profound feeling of nausea and its sense that somehow the united states has collapsed into you know the soviet union circa sort of mid thirty's. this is horribly foreseeable but i can't believe it's come to this. the bush administration began this trajectory. seven or eight years ago by saying ok we're going to start to react to be espionage act and they threatened to go after the new york times you

may remember when they broke the swift banking story about how at that time it seemed so quaint how the government was monitoring people's private financial transactions. but what's so dangerous could have been warning people about for years is that a journalist's job is to publish classified information journalists like first of all this is a white house to wait houses obama's and bush's which is systematically overclassifying everything especially wrong doing it specially anything related to what was so blowers want to release specially you know torture that they've engaged in methods of torture fraud corruption they're classifying it you know i've had conversations with representatives legal representatives of people who want total who tell me that they can't tell me how their clients have been tortured because it's classified and they would get in trouble because of the way the government is overclassifying it's not national security information it's the government. using

classification as a way of protecting its own corruption and fraud but what's so scary about this is that anyone who's a journalist who tells the truth and there's nothing wrong with. their jobs will say and i said this when julian assange was arrested that up and down the eastern seaboard in dinner parties and cocktail parties the elite media stream all we do all day long is talk about classified information and trade classified information share classified information and show how when we have a quest of information because it means we are being effective at our jobs that's not the same as leaking it i do agree that someone who actually leaks classified information knows that they're breaking the law you know i'm not saying there's no reason not to have classification in a working democracy but the job of journalists is to publish classified information that is brought to them that's in the public interest and so now if you've got the

government saying they're like literally it's like mafia tactics can't believe it's come to this the government is same to journalists everywhere in america. we're going to do you and we're going to threaten you and we're we're threatening you with with serious legal penalties like prison time if you do your job and i mean it's like that's what they do in china you know i mean i just can't even believe it's come to this obviously journalists publish classified information because that's how we know we're living in a democracy you brought up joining us on founder of wiki leaks what do you think will happen to him if he ends up in the u.s. yeah i mean in an ideal world obviously i believe in the rule of law in an ideal world you know he would go safely to sweden and you know the women who have accused him would have their day in court he would have his day in court and justice would be impartial i don't think that's what's happening in his case i think that it's a global. kind of. manhunt to. punish

and silence a whistleblower publisher again not a leak or a publish a publisher i just want to stress this bradley manning leaked the material allegedly you know and so he has to deal with whatever you see julius on as the problem is the publisher like the new york times exactly it's dan ellsberg is to bradley manning as the new york times is too. much. so i think that. there is no way that he can. i have an impartial trial in sweden but quite apart from that i think i'm very concerned that there's sort of national pressure on britain and on sweden by the us there's some evidence of this interim creek it's a really good investigative citizen journalist has document a lot of the seventh that demonstrates that the intent is to extradite

a sauna to the us and then have him be the highest profile you know journalist in guantanamo and you know where where do you go from there people have been there for ten years without charge or trial and i think that that's not just to silence him again i think it's also to send a message to anyone else who might leak you know compromising or embarrassing or problematic material about the united states government earlier this year you threw your support behind a class action lawsuit filed against us president barack obama and his defense secretary over the national defense authorization act when you were reporting about the bill you said in quote included powers that could bring the authorities of guantanamo to america's courthouses streets and backyards in may a judge suspended section ten twenty one of the n.d.a. you were actually in the courthouse it's quite amazing this judge more than anyone so ok the national defense authorization act is absolutely terrifying piece of

legislation so section ten twenty one was the section that explicitly said this gives the president the power to round up anyone without charge or trial and hold them forever. chris hedges a very brave journalist brought this forward as well as many activists including an occupy activist from london and the president's lawyers were in the court and i was there. listening to this and to my shame there was like there were like one and a half reporters in the room none of them for major u.s. news outlets well the most important thing ever to have happened to that point was happening and the government's lawyers basically confirmed that chris hedges could be detained forever for reporting on the taliban or reporting on people who could be classified as enemy combatants they confirmed that that was indeed the case or if someone wrote a book about enemy combatants that in any way was sympathetic to the point of view

that you know the u.s. had too much power in this part of the world you know crazy examples of sweeping powers to detain american citizens and to criminalize dissent criminalize journalism and so this very brave judge listened to the evidence which wasn't hard to miss because. it was so confirmed by the lawyers that that's what this would do and she suspended that part of it and so saved you know the constitution where the due process clause is which guarantees everyone in america the right to a trial i still can't understand why this story specifically the n.d.a. has not been a bigger story in mainstream media in the us this was a huge huge issue and this bill was signed into law when people are celebrating new year's eve new year's eve and then somebody heard about it i mean as you mean it

why do you think that at least you know i want to i want to ask you that what when you talk to journalist guy friends who are journalists you know i senior people who are running major news sites and say did you know that the due process clause was suspended on new year's eve and they're like what no surely not and they don't believe it because they didn't see you know a wave of coverage any coverage would be buried obfuscated and no one's giving these people orders to not cover it i was listening to these historic arguments of the american presidents lawyers saying yes we have the right to round up journalists that journalists have the right to hold him forever and there was no a.b.c. no n.b.c. no n.p.r. no c.n.n. no fox news nobody was there you know and the best explanation i have is like denial you know let me be it's such a huge story that no one can really believe this is really happening so we can't

cover it but i do think that what we're seeing right now and i predicted this would happen in november of last year is that like why the violent crackdown against occupy why the violent criminal ization of dissent why the bullying of journalists now i think it's linked to what we're seeing in the news right now of this huge fraud being uncovered in the banking sector. h.s.b.c. you know billions of dollars in fraud bank of america wells fargo barclays bank of england fraud fraud fraud not like marginal fraud but clearly systemic right and i just wrote a piece about this for the guardian you know clearly systemic tim geithner finds out about in two thousand and eight you know writes an e-mail doesn't leak the news doesn't call a press conference and then you know becomes treasury secretary so it's clear that you know there's a small group of guys and girls who are in on massive massive massive fraud and. so the occupy movement journalists you know threaten to uncover

a lot of crimes if the books are ever opened in an e-mail world in an electronic world these crimes are forever last forever so that now is my working theory about why we're seeing such sudden violent crackdown on reporting on dissent on whistleblowers that otherwise a lot of people would go to jail for the crimes that they've been committing occupy wall street is a movement that really raised awareness and pointed attention to the fact of money flowing from wall street to washington influencing policies the economic problems have not gone away since the fall of two thousand and eleven they've only gotten worse occupy wall street though has sort of died down a bit why do you think that is well in the fall of two thousand and eleven you know american citizens gathered together and spoke up and protested in occupy public spaces and they were shot with rubber bullets they were given you know lengthy jail sentences they were arrested for staying on the sidewalk as i was and my partner

was you know lawfully obeying the law were arrested oh yeah. yeah i was arrested for standing on a sidewalk telling occupy protesters what their first amendment rights were to protest. you know and we were facing fifteen days in rikers island which is a violent prison yeah it makes you think twice about going out to use your first amendment rights i mean occupy protesters were you know. they were power hosed they were they were locked up for seventeen hours and you know from didn't use the bathroom they were tortured you know as much as the civil system allows you know every activist you know assumes that their emails are monitored their phone calls are monitored i mean it's just a complete sense of big brother is a hair's breadth the way. i am frightened seeing countries like britain sleepwalking into okaying legislation to institute. this kind of surveillance but really in europe people still feel they have some privacy they can go to the march

and they can go home. i'm sorry to say that when you get this matrix of surveillance plus police brutality plus laws that suspend due process it's very effective at breaking down protest now let me flip it around and say having studied closing societies and societies that we opened democracies mass protest is the key to reopening democracy then we will thank you very much and don't think you mind me. wealthy british style. markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy for

a look at the global financial headlines tune into. top stories of the week. to make his first public statement since being granted asylum in ecuador international diplomatic continue the latin american nation warning grave consequences if it strips ecuador's embassy of diplomatic privileges to move in and. sheltering in that embassy for the past two months. the pro-democracy activist in gets a three year jail sentence for criticizing the regime online but the protests there are far from dying out with the verdict only sparking further unrest across the gulf state. a two year sentence for members of the punk band pussy riot forming in . russia's main cathedral it provokes a strong reaction not just here in russia but all around the world dozens of

activists have been detained during rallies both for and against the group. at the u.n. observer mission in syria. on sunday clashes between rebels and the government meanwhile russia says the u.s. will violate syria's. imposes a no fly zone just like what happened in libya. let's get to the sporting action. hello there sport on our top stories this hour. fights back come from behind to beat rubin two one in a gripping game in moscow while the comedy of wayne soon is at boulder again again week five of the russian premier league. well number one against world number two

and federal will play in the final of the since in that same. crash course individuals who takes power for the indianapolis grand prix while casey stoner is among those who was injured during qualifying. so the summer football and american mara scored from the power to sport with six minutes to go to ensure a spot came back to into an attempt to rubin in the russian premier league smarting from last week's five nil demolishing and senate. side again consider it ten minutes before huffed time like a siphoning a penalty for a billion and biggest not making no mistake from the sport its fifth of the season to become the league's top scorer one state until that seventy five bar of fed in a quarter for brazil a new boy romelu to head home he's amazing goal in russia on his spot debut and frantic last ten minutes referee once again had to point to the sport's after velux

and was brought down right on the edge of the area and coolly sent the keeper the wrong way then. the home side hung off for a victory to go level on points with current leader is zinni. also looking much if struck twice spinless second half to seal a two no victory at full philippic say the netted in the sixty fifth minute from my corner for the ecuadorians goal of the campaign and it is was sick of opened his telephone this season i said it out. late second follow up this whole line with i want to go up to two points behind spot. while rose to fifth despite being held to go. to second from both some. pre-games i showed all four sunday way to number more school who are still without a goal to their name this season host of grozny premier league new boys in the door

there will be tested by home while zim need to go too much without defender i looked under a new call for midfielder service in marks and striker. it was a great opening day of the season over in england where two teams scored five goals for the first time in the opening fixtures for fifty eight years arsenal versus sunderland was their only goal is a game bought across london you born in london patrick brace that's full of fresh norwich five from the old butcher and nets and also struck twice as small to triumph to five it's cute the art while. a late penalty after cost want to want to talk and then look for the stoppage time tunnel to reading one oldroyd turn two so it was a penalty but still want to tell my little paul and kevin nolan's first half strike

helped west. one nil. while this sunday. chelsea go to wigan before city begin the defense of their home to promoted south hampton. the new league a season in spain also if you talk. to villanova is preparing for his first major in charge of barcelona attempt to outsource it out on sunday he says he'll continue in this of his mentor pep guardiola who want fourteen titles in four seasons as boss aim to reclaim that title from madrid coach potable noble in the eye in a scuffle during last season's super cup that madrid to the top last season with a record point of one hundred buses new head coach says help keep calm and carry on. why would anybody want to not want to know that team just sees the change of coaches continuity they'd notice a change if they were running up

a mountain train without the ball but the training regime is the same as it was before. the big difference is the person transmitted the message that's the big difference is what's not there as many of us want i guess never to tell us now where roger federer will play an old joke in the cincinnati it musters final of the top two players in the world won their respective semifinal matches in straight sets that beat juan martin del potro of argentina which broke aim to go up four two in the opening set and sell it out to take it six three then he broke in the get for a two one lead in the second set and eventually made it six two and the match. yeah i made it. just from the first match was. was quite slow. in the court but then after that was was a really good. federal fellow swiss stanley says very seven six

six three it will be the seventh time that federer and djokovic have played for a tournament title last time in twenty dubai federer the chalk which for the cincinnati title three years ago the swiss leads their career serious fifteen twelve. exciting match up you know between the world number one world number two and he's the man to beat i guess on the whole of course at the moment still because he has had so much success throughout the u.s. open and then just american hard court has been almost dominating them so i can stop him in the finals tomorrow i'll give it everything i have and see if it's enough or not. in a motor g.p. spend it in a pujols a high stake in pole position for this sunday's indianapolis grand prix in a qualifying session marred by a crush that rupp so honda rider was faster than current overlays and compared to four. hundred of his older ones furred meanwhile americans bent space and nicky hayden were involved in a collision spays was an angel but hey didn't want not take part in the race

australian casey stoner also crashed radical tests showed a torn ligament after doctors originally thought he had broken his right ankle and it's unclear whether he will race or not. it was important to give goal in keep focus on the on the right thing in we did some good laps in i think this is being used quite good on the bike now to. do good tomorrow this position is good also in part due to. when beach volleyball brazil serous a frogger angela i have won the last grand slam of the season that most or all and they defeated the telling of. chuckle laurie we've got another match the brazilian stupor first set twenty one sixteen bottom the second their polling still

a force to the side of making it so a nail biter of a reset and silver eventually claimed a twenty two to twenty and won the title of this country operate and still get some of that be to get you all the way you could get in a critical rush to take the brawls. that finally when it comes to sell thing not many would think of russia as a hot sport for the sport but r.t. caught up with the country's first professional surfer jean craig who was in moscow to promote a documentary on the rise of russian surfing. my family on and up in california. living on the coast. and coming from russia had a affinity for nature. and i found a new sense of freedom. when i first saw the ocean it was limitless and

challenging. usurpers in my city which was months away and i captured the stoke stokers of the surf slang for. positive vibrations. and that caught my curiosity it was something very different. and i started trying and my area was not a popular thing ocean was called big waves and no such thing as a sort of school. but i kept trying and trying and on christmas day i remember i called my first three waves. and he had changed the course of my life. surfing originated in polynesia an ancient polynesian and everybody surfed but the kings program of the sport. of royals had bigger boards they had their own private server breaks and songs on the whole very rich tradition of culture so yes

it's a sport of kings and when you get a one a more thing when you catch your first wave you'll feel like a king or queen. i've seen them got chased out of the water by him and i had a friend when i first started surfing the monterey and get killed by a shark. and. it's their part of the environment and we are part of the food chain when we go surfing. so it's just one of those. things but i think a lot of more people get hurt driving cars than. getting attacked by sharks so i don't think about it too much. russians whatever they do they do very good russians are very enthusiastic and they embrace it with a lot of passion. as in the case of surfing whatever the activity. i live in bali

and there's like russian communities build has people that love the surfing and go there. to surf so i think the future of this is fantastic. and who knows maybe in the future there will be a world champion rest surfer. treat the ocean with respect. and very important to treat other. bigger fellow human beings with respect. and like i always say and that's been my my motto in my slogan for many years live the life you love. so for me for today. well for the. science technology innovation hall the least amount of minutes from

around russia we've got the future covered.