well. it's not a documentary about that didn't stop the white house the pentagon and even the cia from giving classified information to filmmakers during the creation of the new zero dark thirty bill meanwhile other secret leakers are being pursued under the espionage act well question what some call military help ocracy. well they may not be able to come together to solve america's financial problems

but senators on capitol hill sure let bygones be bygones when they all said down together to watch the new lincoln movie on the taxpayers' dime none the less so why are we paying our lawmakers to kick back over a bowl of popcorn. and get ready for yet another fight fight congress gets ready to head home for the holidays but before they go well couple of senators are quickly trying to pass a surveillance bill what this bill means for your privacy just ahead. it's thursday december twentieth five pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our team. well begin this hour with wiki leaks founder julian assange on just moments ago a sonder stepped out onto the balcony of the ecuadorian embassy in london to address a crowd of supporters yesterday mark six months since

a sondra first made his way to the embassy after being granted asylum by the ecuadorian government and today he sat on the balcony giving a round up of some of some of wiki leaks memorable moments in two thousand and twelve he also assured supporters that the mission of the whistleblowing organization was far from over take a look true democracy is not the white house true democracy is not camera true democracy is the resistance of people with the truth against lies from time to right here in london every day ordinary people teach us the democracy is free speech and dissent for once we the people stop speaking out and stop dissenting once we are distracted or pacified once we turn away from each other we are no longer a free for true democracy is the sum is the sum of our existence

if you don't speak up if you give up what is uniquely yours as a human being if you surrender your consciousness your independence your sense of what is right and what is rome in other words perhaps without knowing it you become passive and controlled unable to defend yourselves and those you love people often ask what can i do. the answer is not so difficult learn how the world works challenge the statements and intentions of those who seek to control us behind a facade of democracy and more nikki unite in common purpose and call it principle to design document finance and defeat in loon challenge act now that was where he leaks founder julian assange and it's still up in the air

if or when assad will be allowed safe passage out of london health likely get arrested if he steps foot outside of the embassy ecuador has called on the u.k. to allow a songe to travel to the latin american country to seek refuge but six months later the two nations remain deadlocked over the issue. now in select theaters zero dark thirty a film laboratory of the hunt for osama bin laden in order to make the hollywood blockbuster screenwriters were given special access to classified information from the cia here's a sneak peek at. what. is the only thing that.

but some say the film does not accurately portray what led up to the capture of bin laden critics say it glorifies torture as critical in getting the information that led to the nine eleven mastermind another question why does hollywood get special access to classified information while the public remains in the dark over torture techniques used on terror suspects testimony from guantanamo bay remains classified as well as a congressional report that details bush era interrogation methods so so is the movie and the continued secrecy surrounding torture techniques doing a disservice to the public colonel morris davis professor at the howard university school of law thing so enjoy me earlier to explain why he thinks the film will give viewers a distorted view about how effective torture is. back when i was younger the movie jaws came out you know the public didn't have a lot of exposure to sharks but all of a sudden after seeing the movie everyone was terrified or shall verify it had a lingering effect but my fear is that people don't have that much exposure to

torture other than seeing shows like twenty four on television and they're going to go see this movie which purports to be based on fact you know bin laden was killed the public knows that they're going to go see this film this is going going to become their reality torture and it's a false for trial and i'm afraid it's going to do for torture what jaws did for sharks i want to read this quote from jazeera jesselyn radek she represents an attorney that represents whistleblowers she says quote this is the height of hypocrisy carioca reveal that torture was a cia program not a pastime he called waterboarding torture and he said it was wrong because disclosures are obviously of tremendous public value makers leaked was to embellish a controversial movie that already received one president at white house and cia assistant so she calls the dissemination of information for the movie hypocritical in the face of others that were punished for whistle blowing and what do you think

about that would you go as far as to call it hypocritical clearly it is i mean the same is that there are good leaks and badly if it's a leak that makes the public feel good then that's a good one another thing happens if it's something this embarrassing in the full weight of the government comes down on you and so i think that that is a valid point in you know it's as was mentioned michael vickers who is alleged to have leaked the information the department of justice is doing an investigation if you followed the o.j. investigations into torture in the destroy or destroy destroying the waterboarding tapes nothing ever comes of them usually people do the investigation get an award after for their great investigation but no one ever gets held accountable when it's a good leakers. something that we like in d.o.d. put out a press release the other night praising mr vickers his integrity and his value to the department defense. i don't think you'll see him doing a perp walk anytime soon in this movie certainly if they're in

a lot of controversy some will say you know what this is just that just a movie what do you think about that was true it is just a movie but it's a movie that my understanding a beginning says is based on fact and so for the public as i said i think you know their their exposure to torture is going to be what they see on camera and on film and for many people they're going to see in this film that torture works and there's already is i was pleased to see that senator feinstein and levin and mccain's in a letter to a sony pictures asking them to correct this error saying that they've seen the senate report the thousands and thousands of pages cia documents about enhanced interrogation and that it didn't work and it is a disservice to the public to perpetrate this lie and i think it's also a disservice to the people that were involved in the program that i knew because apparently in the film it's pro-trade as being you know people that enjoy abusing

other people and it's gratuitous and at least my experience was that these were dedicated people that you know had a a purpose and i would certainly debate whether it's misguided but a purpose for doing what they were doing so i think it is a disservice on both sides of the ledger all right so i know that you're also a big advocate saying that now is the time to make the guantanamo testimony public why do you say that well we know guantanamo has been this black mark on our history in fact russian president vladimir putin brought it up yesterday you know the u.s. passed a bill condemning human rights abuses in russia and he said who are you know who's the u.s. to lecture us when you've got guantanamo. so it's that lingering mark on our national character and you go in the military commissions official website you go on yahoo or google put in military commissions at the top they will come up as the official web site on their web site their motto is fairness transparency and

justice. and if you did you know you can have fairness and transcend justice but if you don't have the transparency in the world it's going to be skeptical so if we want to regain our credibility and if we truly are committed to fairness transparency and justice then we can't have these secret proceedings to try to hide what we did in the past right and i know that president obama said val that his administration would be a transparent a transparent one of a lot of people saying that that is not the case but some senators do agree with what you're saying right now senator mccain a prisoner of war himself wants the report that you speak of to be declassified we have a clip of hand talking about this. they had a lot of access to the cia in fact one of the there's there's an investigation going on and about some of the information that they used and clearly i think they got the slant of those who are defending in my view what is unconscionable and that is torturing people. so those advocate keeping this testimony i related to

torture a secret say that it needs to remain secret because it's critical to our national security this is an argument that you hear over and over again as justification what do you think about this argument i think it's a bogus argument you know president obama issued an order that banned any use of the enhanced interrogation techniques which really had stopped before president bush ever left office so these techniques. that we're talking about we haven't used in years and if there's no plan we're not using them now we don't plan to use them in the future is certainly not jeopardizing our national security today or tomorrow is really hiding what we did in the past president obama in addition to his pledge on transparency signed an executive order on classified information and it says information can't be classified if the purpose is to conceal the commission of a crime or to hide embarrassment and given that you know these events took place

years ago they're not taking place today he's disclosed the torture memos that describe the techniques that were used to mean the horse left the barn a long time ago and what these techniques are so really the secrecy now all that's doing is hiding the embarrassment from the past and not bringing it out to the light of day and we can't you know we're doomed to repeat history of we don't acknowledge what we've done before so i agree with senator mccain this needs to be public right colonel i do want to read a part of your op ed here where you address this very read excuse me a participant where you address this very issue you say quote the fictionalized portrayal portrayal of torture in the movie as a disservice to what should be a. genuine public debate on a critical issue with falsely depicts members of the cia and gauging and gratuitous acts of violence and it falsely shows torture being a facet of affective way to get valuable intelligence despite the argument that zero dark thirty is just a movie for many of the millions of viewers it will become their perception of

reality about the efficacy of torture kind of elaborating on that what do you think is the danger of the moviegoers seeing this and kind of internalizing it as reality as fact we want to see that happen during the bush administration the american red cross as a survey every few years looking at public attitudes and during the bush administration a majority the public was opposed to torture they did a survey a little over a year ago where a majority the public is in favor of torture and that number goes up the younger the person was so you've got a generation this grown up knowing nothing but the post nine eleven era in they see things like this it becomes their reality and the number keeps going way public opinion on on torture and the senators mention that in their letter that they sent to sony pictures saying that the public attitude has changed towards torture in this movie does is an opportunity to reinforce that false perception right of very interesting kernel of really appreciate you coming on the show that was colonel

morris davis a professor at the howard university school of law. now to another blockbuster that is shaking things up in congress the movie lincoln as a historic drama help for restoring americans faith in the country potentially even having the power to break partisanship in congress here's a look. so many. millions to. shall we still lead. well there was a special viewing of the movie at the capitol last night and it was a star studded event at the screening was the movie's director steven spielberg and it starred daniel day lewis who plays lingen among other cast and crew they both had the honor of privately meeting senate majority leader harry reid the event even got journalists tweeting here's a few at

a back bird wrote many more journos at this link in a photo op than any fiscal cliff press or who's covered in the news for the a.p. one reporter also wonders aloud at annie lowrey said details leaking from hill and she recreated jonathan weisman daniel day lewis is not that tall ridiculously skinny has short surprisingly gray hair meredith shiner tweeted sort of disrespectful to hold recess subject to call of chair for senators to watch movie when gallery sergeant at arms plus cap police staff have to stay she also said particularly when those are the same people whose holidays might be cut short through no fault of their own. that's right the center require the sergeant at arms and capitol police to work late for the movie screening now little background the sergeant at arms is the largest in size of staff and budget in the senate the capitol police officers had a house

a force of about one hundred but it's uncertain how many of them had to work overtime for this movie screening so as senators mingle with the stars others at the capitol are working overtime just in time for the holidays meanwhile congress is embroiled in a debate over how to cut the country's deficit which is in the trillions and how to stop the u.s. from falling over the so-called fiscal cliff the movie magic really cast a spell over congress the hope as ridiculous as it sounds is that a hollywood film will finally get the political parties to put aside their differences and work together to save the nation from economic calamity. also ahead here on our team u.s. lawmakers are getting ready to celebrate the holidays and with the holidays come get us like a new wireless surveillance bill wrapped in sent with cared to big brother the latest information on new flights or regulations next.

see. here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that we americans

call. i don't know. i'm sorry i missed the guy who cares an awful lot but you sir are. kind of minor terrorist cells in your neighborhood i don't want to be wishing to feature is on the on the liberal and the chris point comes. to a secure feeling about it. it's going to spring to distract us from what you and i should care about because there are profit driven industry that sells us and facials that garbage because that breaking news i mean martin and we're going to break that.

well congressman torricelli doesn't get much done during the lame duck congress but it looks like the senate wants to pass wants to act on passing warrantless wiretapping on u.s. citizens that are overseas but by its amendments act would renewed a controversial law the law is set to expire on new year's eve and while the senate would like to renew it before the year's end it doesn't look like the g.o.p. wants to debate it this despite serious concerns from privacy advocates that say the law allows the government to snoop on e-mails and other digital communications without getting a warrant earlier i was joined by our t.v. producer adriano sero she gave us the latest on the controversial surveillance bill . today it is specter that harry senator harry reid will actually file a motion for cloture which is essentially in layman's terms trying to table discussion of any sort of debate this however does not mean that no amendments

would be attached to it in fact it's harry reid unself who is trying to push for more debate on this bill increase in cost of he even said you know i'm sorry guys but i know christmas is important but it's not more important than this bill so even have the democrats even some others in congress do feel that this is an important thing that needs to be debated it can't just be rubber stamped and you know things to be able to move forward so that is the latest today and they're trying to get that passed before the thirty first and there are a couple of amendments on there but we can discuss a little farther on ok so you're talking about debate there some people don't want to debate debate it so can we expect it to be discussed before it is passed through honestly right now there are a couple of as you mentioned before had a couple of privacy advocacy groups that are really pushing people to go and try

to pressure their representatives in order to push for this debate people from the electronic frontier foundation the a.c.l.u. they're all pushing people you and me in order to go get active and say hey listen this is something that we meet need at least more transparency and we need more debate and even you know back in september the house already passed the version that's now being up to vote in the senate and even then lawmakers there were so there was still an outcry there which said you know we need more amendments we need something here to reshape what is right now on the books the two thousand and eight for and so it's very interesting so privacy groups are very concerned about this bill want some discussion can you talk more about what exactly these part of a c. concerns. why should you and i or the average citizen care about this bill well essentially it's a very very it's a very very. piece of legislation and i quote this is simply what it is and this is according to you know some of the write ups here that we've we've done in the past

it's essentially the government can eavesdrop on any online or over the phone communication on any u.s. citizen as long as any one party reasonably is overseas however very you know you think it very straightforward however when being pressured or asked for more details and how these things these mechanisms work a lot of representatives a lot of a lot of senators have pretty much got no iron curtain in terms of trying to get more information and really what this means is the fact that all this information is being compiled all these communications between you and whoever are are being put away somewhere but you don't know why they're being put away you don't know where they're being put away and what they're being used for so all of these things are just very very alarming especially i would call it our alarming just because as technology continues to move forward we see that things continue to change and we

live our lives increasingly more and more online so this is why you anyone should you know sort of take a second glance at this meanwhile this all of this information one of the more controversial parts can be obtained without a search warrant absolutely. absolutely and it's essentially being able to get you know if you're. a spy like a skype phone call or something along those lines that can be logged tracked traced anything what have you and you really don't know why or how a couple of the amendments that are on the table right now by senators merkley and senator wyden essentially try to tackle that try to get more transparency towards all of the you know compilation of information but in. even then earlier this year when senator ron wyden wrote to the n.s.a. complaining saying hey we don't know how this information is being used being stored essentially they said well we don't need to give you any of that information

we don't need to tell you how or why we're doing things. so what could be done to this bill to make it more palatable to privacy groups make it more acceptable well i mean it's essentially going to be a little very small step. amendments that are on the table now essentially it's one by senator merkley essentially saying that they want more transparency in the communications of being able to access documents in order in other words if they asked the fisa court for any sort of paperwork and they it gets denied they need to know the reasons why and that's one of the one white essential he is trying to get . some sort of. i would like to say more of a an infrastructure when it comes to trying to gather all this information and trying to limit how much they are able to use when it comes to you know compile information on a specific person i.e. look at what happened in general petraeus probably well except for very interesting

and important bill with important implications for everyone's privacy so great that things are filling us in on it as our producer adriano sero. still ahead everything you thought you knew you know you don't now at least when it comes to north korea and fears over its nuclear capabilities and missile program will separate fact from fear mongering that.

is right right i mean it's like a derivative of pepper it's a food product essentially. much stronger than anything you'd buy off. our rules of stronger than any kind of.

well bit weak since north korea test launched a rocket and put it into orbit if you will do a strong response with people fearing the worst that it was a precursor to firing a long range weapon amid a frenzy some misinformation was reported so we wanted to set the record straight first off the north korean rocket launch was a space launch not a ballistic missile test the launch was no big surprise despite reports stating that everyone in d.c. was caught off guard it's highly unlikely no one in the administration knew the window to carry out the launch was fairly long from december tenth to the twenty second so the precise time may not have been known but there was

a general idea what north korea put into orbit isn't that scary in the end north korea managed to put a satellite into orbit all in all pretty similar to most satellite launches well the jury is still out on how functional the satellite is with many observers still waiting on transmissions that would include scientific data despite possibly providing the country with details that would help in structuring long range missile launches in the future it seems north korean space objects hold little threat in the short term so there's still much we have to learn but it's important not to jump to conclusions a fuel unwarranted fears for now north korean space objects are on a are unpredictable orbits being tracked by the u.s. military and others around the world and we are going to leave it off there but you can also check out our youtube channel youtube dot com slash two merica you can also head on over to our web site that address is our teeth dot com slash you.