coming up this hour on our t.v. he's the man who knows how to stir up a controversy and today we can we expand our julian a sauna is destined to send the cyber world buzzing yet again this time when he addresses the u.n. general assembly via video i have a preview straight ahead. and that's not the only thing that has the internet world talking it looks like the cyber paranoia may just be justified after all america's financial institutions are facing didio west attacks allegedly coming from iran so

could this be make the makings of a war that's falling through the wires. was a corporations are people and money is speech that much the u.s. supreme court has made clear one safeguard the american public has though is knowing often where that money is coming from that is not necessarily the case anymore coming up a look at the secretive world of ghost packs. it's wednesday september twenty sixth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine and you're watching our team. well it's day two of the u.n. general assembly in new york and already it's been jam packed full of world leaders putting forth their ideas their thoughts about international issues and policy coming up in just a few hours wiki leaks co-founder julian a songe is expected to speak via video link at the event called strengthening human

rights the event is hosted by ecuadorian foreign minister ricardo patino ecuador of course was granted a songe asylum though he's been holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london for several months now as he tries to figure out a way to leave the country without being arrested sanji is wanted for questioning in sweden on allegations of sexual assault now as we await his speech which we do plan to bring you a live as it happens about six thirty eastern this evening we want to talk about the latest in his case and what he might bring up this evening at the event for more on that i'm joined now by kevin gusto a blogger for firedoglake hey there kevin let's just get started and let me ask you this what's the significance of today's planned speech bias on. the significance is that he's going to the international community to recruit support and i think to perhaps get others in the international community to lobby for him perhaps

put pressure on united kingdom sweden maybe even of the united states to favor or to go ahead and support having safe passage or songe to ecuador now the topic of the event that he's going to be speaking at is called strengthening human rights any ideas on sort of specifically what he might be focused on do you think you'll be extra critical of the u.s. . well i mean with the foreign minister ricardo patino i was there to present some of these ideas and thoughts that assad has and also was a lawyer from the center for constitutional rights some of those people are part of the wiki leaks legal team i think that you're going to hear discussion about how accurate or strengthening the rights of refugees and that's been a key thing of granting asylum it is that they are allowing people of a belief that refugees have a right to settle for door i think there's also going to be discussion about the

importance of whistleblowers and transparency and i think that you'll see a son doing what he did when he was on the balcony at the ecuador embassy in the united kingdom and shine a light on the united states war on whistle blowing which is very much a target wiki leaks organization that has been in the crosshairs of this war and was not under play this cabin i mean this is a huge stage for anyone this is where president obama spoke yesterday president of iran and egypt smoke today for julianna silence to be speaking here i mean it you say you're hoping that he's going to recruit that you think he's hoping that he's going to recruit some support for his case do you think he'll be successful in that . yeah and i think i mean there's going to be a dual opportunity that the science has i mean it in a sense that he's going to get many people in the world who have benefit of this

information that has been revealed i mean let's not doubt the fact that leaders of these countries that got to see what the united states was doing behind closed doors had some kind of benefit in their policy making in the way that they want about diplomatic relations i think it definitely gave people in other countries an edge in diplomatic conversations with the united states when i was also just admit that there's maybe some who are to a scientist speech in that he could be talking about read i'm talking about transparency talking about these different causes issues that he has taken up and there could be well there's some part of that as just out there for himself to get safe passage that he would also be using the platform to talk about these white issues and i should say you know wiki leaks today sort of posted today's planned speech as an excuse to post sort of where julian assange is right now what's led up to the situation that he's and as we know you know where he links on this there's

been a core needed effort by the u.s. by several other countries to investigate wiki leaks as well as assigns himself really quick kevin i want to play a part of a news conference with attorney general eric holder from two years ago we have a very serious criminal investigation that's underway and we're looking at all of the things we can do to. try to stem the flow of this information. so obviously kevin attorney general holder and not worrying too specific and that hasn't changed today but but what are your thoughts you know for those naysayers who still say a sign should just go to tweet in and answer the calls for questioning and everything will be fine. well first people should understand that ecuador isn't negating the reality that sweden has a case against the son and that perhaps he should be brought to the country in fact the latest development is that there is a conversation going on in the background about what if we could fly

a songe to our ecuador embassy in sweden and he could be questioned our embassy in sweden the ecuadorian embassy in sweden and so this is something that people should let go of because the ecuador country hasn't thought that a son should answer to whatever swede wants and so the concern is that in sweden he would be moved on to the united states and so the really the reality is that united states has kept this cloud of investigation over the organization ever since the major leaks and twenty times and that this is going to continue to hover over us and and that i think that's the purpose partially maybe there won't ever be indictments but to continue to persecute the organization for publishing this information and to target individuals like jacob apple bomb wiki leaks volunteer artichoke target david house one of manning's friends before he was arrested and

imprisoned this is something that the united states going to continue to do and people who have ties to the wiki leaks organization will come under the sort of scrutiny we have about thirty seconds a lap kevin but i want to ask you know with a lot of speakers ask me do you know john it happens with him every year that diplomats walk out of the room i know the canadian delegation did when he spoke today do you think that we'll see anything like this when assigned a video link pops up and people will walk out of the room. yeah you know i doubt it i don't see that there's any sort of stakes out there where any of these countries have you anything like that all right having us all a blogger for firedoglake and as i mentioned earlier we will bring in julian assange just speech live when it happens so keep it tuned right here on r.t. . so i don't r.t. forget tanks and aircraft carriers and the internet can actually be a powerful tool to cause problems for an enemy ahead we'll tell you why the next

war could be fought in cyberspace.

well we spoke a little earlier about the busy day today at the u.n. general assembly and that included a talk given by iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad he spoke about the failed system of capitalism and of the world conflicts and was critical not surprisingly of the united states and its allies meanwhile adina john's government is in the midst of carrying out a plan to severely limit the use of internet in iran it would block google and create its own domestic internet network now this is interesting for several reasons one being that it was iranian hackers who were behind several hack attacks of big banks here in the united states that's according to an investigation by reuters iranian hack they say conducted multiple by several denial of service attacks of the websites of bank of america j.p. morgan chase and citigroup over the last year and i want to talk more broadly about some of the repercussions of what's happening in iran and what the threat of cyber

security attacks by iran could mean for the u.s. joining me now is tim carr senior director of strategy at free press so jim let's talk first about what's happening in iran the iranian government says you know they're doing this they're blocking google to increase cyber security but others say the ban is connected to the n.d.s. lawmaker video released on you tube recently how does this play out. well i mean it's it's interesting to note that you know the first real or first well known instance of a cyber security threat actually occurred when when we hacked into an iranian system in the united states placed a worm in their nuclear facilities. that disrupted their centrifuges and so so this does have precedence and so it is playing out you know iran is coming after us there is of course this video which has inspired instances of censorship in pakistan is shut down you tube iran is now shutting down google and

other other means for people to get access to this so this is all playing out and it's been playing out over several years now i think it really became heightened during the arab spring when we saw a lot of people using the internet for political purposes as far as apparent hack attacks on the financial sector apparently those behind it say they carried it out in retaliation for sanctions put on iran to what extent do we think that this could continue more hack attacks from iran. i'm not sure that we're dead it is as serious a threat as a threat coming from other places i think you'll see in the united states that the president is weighing in executive order that would give the administration more control over what they call critical infrastructure to shut down systems in case of a. cyber attack and i think what the real concern there is is is with iran to some extent but also with china china has there been several is as it were chinese hackers have gotten into the systems into government systems and so there is this

this notion that cyber security threats are coming from all sectors right now and and the fear is that our government will overreact in putting down clamps on the internet to control of what they call critical infrastructure like the network whenever there is this perceived threat from the outside in and we have to make sure. that they're telling us the truth that these threats are real because the internet is an important tool for people to do good things as well absolutely and you bring up this executive order certainly parts of this coming from the president's office have been released or leaked out and the reason for it of course is because congress has not been able to pass any legislation dealing with cyber security they almost gone through so but people are earlier this year that of course got voted down after several major web sites like wikipedia stage internet blackout that really got people angry. certainly it also has made lawmakers like senator joe lieberman come out even stronger than before in favor of the need for

immediate cybersecurity legislation i want to show you a letter that he wrote to president obama just this week he says the danger is real and intimate in the event yet we have not acted to defend against it he says we know are and for adversaries are already stealing value valuable intellectual property and exploiting our critical infrastructure those systems that control things like water electricity transportation finance and communications therefore urging. you're executive authority to the maximum extent possible and to defend the nation from cyber attack i think you bring up a really good point tim that that we don't know everything that's in you know the executive order here and that it's possible it could go too far what are people like you and others you know in the cyber communities around the united states what are you what are your concerns or our concerns are exactly that that it will go too far and cut into our civil liberties in and censor speech and and and make the

internet massive surveillance system that could be shut down on a whim and so so there have been a number of times there was kill switch legislation which which had been proposed a while back it never actually made it to the floor that was killed in a fewer of controversy and outcry from the internet freedom community and then you as you mentioned we had the people in sopa legislation which was which was killed as well there has a there is a bill called cispa cyber information sharing and protection act which has passed through the house senator lieberman has a senate version that the white house seems to support i don't think we're going to start moving anytime soon especially given the political climate with the elections coming up but there is a real interest in washington in among society very powerful cyber security industry to push this kind of legislation forward so that allows them to take greater control of the internet and importantly to kind of profit from the sort of

government contracts that would come out of a heightened level of cyber security and time when you talk about the the fear being heightened as well i want to put up on the screen for you from the financial services sector they now have sort of a threat level that there that they put on their website and you know the cyber threat levels you know they're showing it and you know in some cases i think this week it was elevated or even up to high so it's really interesting i remember. back in the days after nine eleven we need to do this around washington d.c. you know the threat level today and how it's different now we're talking about cyber threat levels. it's just really interesting because that is something that could get people sort of riled up and perhaps even enough to rally behind more stricter legislation but let me switch gears to him and talk about the future of the internet and the question which is a question a lot of people want to know is who will govern it the u.s. made pretty clear this week that it would not surrender control of the internet to

a united nations agency but how do we move forward here how do world leaders sort of navigate this question well we move forward to use a somewhat wonky u.n. term by creating some sort of a multi-stakeholder environment where these sorts of decisions about who governs the future of the internet are not decided by governments is there is a proposal that's going to be for the i t the international telecommunications union that that actually is supported by russia and china and other governments that would allow this body to take control of the internet in ways that we may not like and the problem we have with any of these sort of top down i do is that they don't take into consideration this vast and now politically engaged internet community that has a say as well so anytime there is an attempt to govern the internet in this way they have to do it from the bottom up and allow those of us been very engaged in the issues of internet freedom and free speech to have a say as well and certainly it seems that all parties involved here are working

from a place with no precedent so they're all sort of swimming in these murky waters together tim carr senior director at the strategy of free press thank you thank you let's talk now about the presidential election and take a closer look at governor mitt romney's tax returns and i know what you're thinking that's what everyone else is talking about in the mainstream media why does our team need to go there well we've found something that not everyone else is talking about r g correspondent was wall explains. well in presidential nominee mitt romney finally released his much anticipated two thousand and eleven tax returns the three hundred seventy nine page return shows he paid a tax rate of over forty percent though there's debate over how that number was calculated his tax return also reveals ties to his cayman island investments and the performance of his goldman sachs funds but perhaps the most important yet overlooked item on his two thousand and eleven tax return is romney's foreign investments and mitt romney family trust return shows romney purchased shares in

two giant russian companies romney invested in russian energy firm gazprom and russian internet firm yandex the largest search engine in the country the records show romney invested over a thousand shares and both countries tax records also show romney sold both shares at a loss last september right before the presidential election season kicked off but what's puzzling is that the presidential hopeful took interest and invested in a country he recently bashed. just to russia this is without question our number one geopolitical foe they fight every cause for the world's worst actors that's right drumming invested in a country he apparently views as america's number one enemy in fact romney's rhetoric on russia is consistently hawkish so if you want to run for the highest office in the united states in that verbal attack a foreign country you may want to keep your investments close to home and washington liz wall r.t.

so as you gears now to the season for witches and goblins and of course ghosts and it turns out the ghost of ron paul has been lurking around in states like minnesota as well as his home state of texas. if the thousands of dollars from his super pac endorse liberty have been given to candidates other than himself take a look this is according to open secrets dot org ron paul of course received four million dollars but texas senate candidate ted cruz got more than one hundred twenty three thousand dollars minnesota's that in candidate current bills got about twenty one thousand and texas congressional candidate russ whittle got five thousand all of them by the way are republicans so this is just one example but will most likely set a precedent for the future so we want to talk about what this all means kind of get more into it and for that i've got russ coma money and politics reporter for open secrets dot org and ross as we know candidates themselves cannot coordinate directly in any way shape or form with super pacs but who decides how the money is

spent when it comes to super pacs i guess the answer would be whoever puts you back together whoever organized it whoever put up the money and so from every supermarket commutative different in this case and or celebrities a super pac that has made its mission backing ron paul but but really the people who put it together or the people who give it money can kind of do whatever they want from it and so once his campaign sort of wound down it looks like the people who behind him sort of took it upon themselves to start looking at other candidates they were interested in unlike in the past when they were pacs that were related to a specific kennedy or leadership or campaign committees these pacs have new sort of obligation to stick with the person that maybe they back and in fact most of the banks don't have a specific candidate they back but you know when people give money to a super pac usually they believe they're giving money to a super bot going for the candidate or issue that they believe in. you know people just have to know is that what you're saying they just have to know that their money can be spent in whatever way i mean i think it's something to keep in mind

when people do give money that i mean this isn't you're not giving to the campaign you're not giving to the candidate themselves you're giving to people who are saying that they're for the candidate campaign and i don't think we've seen a lot of examples of where. you know sort. gone awry and i think in this case i mean those are very conservative candidates are sort of they're not used to ted cruz is not like the establishment republican candidate in senate x. rays but at the same time like maybe ron paul wouldn't have approved of that and but that's something that people have to keep in mind when they give money to these groups and i think that's one of the interesting things about these is that some of these super pacs go beyond the traditional sort of mission that a pac or campaign committee might out and they can live on and when you look at some of the bigger sort of accident out there when you look at say american crossroads which is run by call rove that doesn't have a candidate at all and then it's a very large sort of source of funds and power outside of the sort of traditional framework of candidates and campaigns people who donate to that want to sort of put their trust in the fact that karl rove or use their money. wisely as he sees fit

let's talk though about ghost packs is there a difference between a ghost pac and a super pac i mean goes back is a sort of it's not a like an official sort of thing and i mean i think that there are a number of super pacs that supported other presidential candidates like herman cain there's a super pac the nine nine nine fund that's been pretty much dormant since he left the race and and there's i thought they spent thirty three dollars right right and that's just a very very small man right now rick santorum has brought back to him called the red white and blue fund and after he left the race he actually got involved in the super pac which is something that you can do if you're not a candidate and then continue to spend a little bit of money in but when you look at what they're spending it on they have they give the money to the pennsylvania g.o.p. and then they were spending money on plane tickets and sort of administrative costs but it's also a platform that he can take in the future and run with if you want to run again or if you want to sort of create a movement around himself or look at sort of a section of the debate that it's centered more and you said something interesting earlier you said so far we haven't seen any examples of super pacs but you're gonna

rise so i'm assuming that you're suggesting we haven't seen a super pac that says that endorsers for example very conservative issues and then actually go and give money to. more liberal. left wing issues are there you know structures in place to make sure this doesn't happen to make sure that lies aren't being told no i mean i don't i don't think there's a any. thing that would stop that kind of thing and i think that under the old system i mean there was nothing that would punish someone maybe necessarily for doing that but there were also limits on how much like a pac could spend ok and so i mean for example there's sarah palin has sarah pac which is a pac that she uses and and but but they can only give so much money and people can only give it so much when it's a certain limits the amount of money that we're talking about where women see opportunity for things to you know for them to spend really big in a direction that people might not like so what happens is you know if a pat goes into debt i mean who's responsible for that again it's sort of whoever started with her put it together and but i think the. we're only i mean because

it's the super pacs are sort of new we're kind of it's a sort of a new thing we really haven't seen a lot of good but with the traditional sort of campaign committee the committees have to stay open until they get rid of all their debt and there are. committees that are open for years and years and years hillary clinton is still paying off that from her two thousand and eight race and still fundraising and that's why it's so interesting that candidates like ron paul i know he had so much campaign cash left over he put on this rally we went to it in tampa so it is interesting when you see a lot of them do end up going into that let's talk a little broader that ross about you know it's two thousand and twelve and we're starting to really see the impact of super pacs and talk a little bit about what is sort of unfolding before our very eyes now i mean i think that it's citizens united i mean i think that it's just sort of a totally new dynamic in terms of spending i mean in the past you've got in the sort of speaks to this issue i mean you've always sort of known what a pac is going to do because they can only do so much you sort of have always an idea of how much resources they have how much they can sort of get because the

result is so many people and they can only give so much money and they can only spend that money in so many ways and now with these super pacs they can really you can raise money in java and they can spend a drop of a hat really on anything and so you sort of lose a lot of the predictability and then you're also seeing. numbers that are much bigger than they ever have been before so i think it's a lot more volatile maybe than it's been in the past as far as open secrets you know the rise of super pacs made what you guys do in terms of looking at the way money is spent you know goes to is that made your job easier i mean some ways of think about super pacs is they we do see who gives them money and we do see how they spend money citizens united also enable the couple other kinds of groups one of which is called the five in one c four which is a it's a nonprofit it's not. regulated by the federal election commission the same way super pac or pac might be and they don't disclose their donors and that has made our job very difficult because they're spending very large amounts of money so that yeah these five it was a what's an example of if i won if i go and see who it would be americans for prosperity ok so we don't know exactly where the money's coming from i would think

that a lot of people would want to give more money to these right especially coming up in the future you know and that i mean that's a that's a logical thing to think but we really have no way and less than a volunteer that information i mean several years from now when the two thousand thirteen when they disclose some basic information to the i.r.s. we'll see how much money they raised we'll see generally who they give the money to but we'll never have a specific idea of where the money came from and i think that that's a big sort of. wrench that's been thrown in the process especially from our end of things yeah well i got to say as a journalist who has been in this business several years that your website is one that myself and several others use all the time it really is nice if you're doing a story on a particular candidate or a particular issue to see how much money that you know a lawmaker for example got from a certain organization and how that influences their vote it's a really important thing that you guys do great to have you on the show thanks for having us come on money and politics reporter for open secrets dot org. all right guys that's going to do it for us for now but for more on the stories we covered

make sure you go to youtube dot com slash r t america or you can check out our website dot com slash usa a lot of times other stories posted there that we didn't have time to get to today so it's really good to check that out and of course if you're not already you should be following me on twitter you can find me at christine. emission and free cretaceous free transport charges free. range minster free risk free stew tied for free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects and free media oh don to our teeth on tom the. wealthy british style. sometimes.

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