president obama host president karzai at the white house today on the agenda of the war in afghanistan u.s. troops have been in the country since two thousand and one so when will we leave for good a report on that meeting just ahead. he's been trapped by president obama to be the next person to leave the treasury department sizes terrible handwriting what else do we know about jack lew our t. does some digging into his past we'll show you the info that we dug up. in farmers versus months on so a group of farmers are trying to reinstate a class action lawsuit against the biotech giant what they are fighting about and why the issue may affect what's on your dinner table coming up.

it's friday january eleventh five eight pm in washington d.c. hi meghan lopez and you're watching our t.v. well it's the moment we've all been waiting for over a decade for earlier today president obama met with his afghan counterpart to discuss a twenty fourteen drawdown of american troops now in front of the camera both president obama and president karzai have presented a united front and say they agree on the future goals for afghanistan but one report after another has demonstrated that these two leaders are often at odds with one another or two arabic correspondent rym up to him via tell us about the current relationship between the presidents and what we learn from today's meetings. as that was golden from afghanistan years president obama and his afghan counterpart hamid karzai did not seem to agree on the number of troops to stay in afghanistan i'm going to be over the coming weeks getting recommendations from general allen.

and other commanders on the ground they will be designing and shaping a responsible plan to make sure that we're not losing games that are even made and although obama insists troops will have a fundamentally different mission that focuses on training and advisory the issue of immunity still unresolved for karzai his biggest achievement in a week long trip to washington is they agreement on handing the control of prisoners and attention centers to the afghan new authorities concerning afghan sovereignty we agreed on the. complete return of detention centers and deja news to afghan sovereignty. this will be implemented. soon after my return to afghanistan here is i who has been meeting with top u.s. officials on what some describe as a fact finding mission karzai needs to make sure that the troops left in

afghanistan beyond two thousand and fourteen are enough to train his own troops to counter the taliban and the few hundred al qaeda operatives the nato mission has failed to accomplish and most importantly make sure with washington's help that his country does not become the next iraq a country that continues to be plagued by security in violence after the u.s. invasion the situation in afghanistan is very different than it was in iraq but what they have in common is that in both cases years of u.s. invasion terror occupation has left behind enormous conflict in the country so the possibility is very strong that that conflict is going to continue in afghanistan it won't emerge after the u.s. troops exist now but maybe the major challenge is for karzai himself the man whose power depended largely on the very presence of the troops and with his term ending in twenty fourteen the future of afghanistan is far from certain and the main

question remains who really decides the future of afghanistan the karzai led military the so-called afghan national army is really nothing more than the biggest militia on the block backed by the us the u.s. presence there is one more militia the nato presence is another militia these militias are vying for power influence control of resources all those things at the same time you have external actors in the in the vicinity in the region the neighbors of afghanistan afghanistan will remain a challenge during obama's second term even after the withdrawal the u.s. and nato will be blamed if and when that country falls in the hands of the taliban operatives again that would take afghanistan to square a zero the exact square that brought us and. doing into afghanistan as more americans oppose the war in afghanistan pressure on obama is growing the cost of the war is high just this past year the cost of the war in afghanistan was over one

hundred billion dollars each soldier costs one million dollars a year and potentially a loss of life these are staggering figures and those who oppose the war say this money you could help build the nation's ailing infrastructure for r.t. america this is remarkable how washington d.c. for over ten years it's cast a shadow over u.s. diplomatic efforts the guantanamo bay detention facility opened up exactly a loving years ago today in its time it is held and interrogated at hundreds of prisoners some guilty of numerous atrocities some completely clean of crime all held without due process eleven years and still no into sight now since the first days of his first term our constitutional lawyer term president has expressed time and again his plans to close the facility but i've said repeatedly that i intend to close guantanamo and i will follow through on that i've said repeatedly that

america doesn't torture and i'm going to make sure that we don't torture those are . those are part and parcel of an effort to regain america's moral stature in the world it's a sentiment he's echoed as recently as a few months ago there are some things that we haven't gotten done i still want to close guantanamo we have been able to get that socog. now despite these promises the festivities still remains even hosting a new seven hundred thousand dollars soccer field but critics are not giving up on their pursuit to have get most close to permanently amnesty international how to stand an orange protest in washington d.c. today or to correspondent christine for south takes us there. it is january eleventh that means want on a mobile bay has now been opened eleven years the people you see here in orange jumpsuits represent the one hundred sixty six people still at guantanamo there are also people holding signs like this one that represent the eighty six people that

have been cleared for transfer and yet still remain behind bars. was not just a place it's an idea and the idea behind it is that the u.s. government can ignore its human rights violations in the name of this never ending a global war so that the concept of indefinite detention is what has to end it's not just about one ton of we've been involved in this issue and certain about guantanamo since two thousand and five so we've been coming out for a kid go for it broke now they have kids i want them to know that it's the right thing to do to believe in something and stand up for it this is an issue many people have been protesting against for years but one they thought would be over in two thousand and eight once president obama won the election. i don't know if you know any of the rock songs you're too young maybe from the sixty's but one of them the refrain is welcome to the new boss same as the old boss said it makes us less safe when we mistreat people and torture them some military people have said this

is a great recruiting tool for al qaeda look what they're doing to our muslim brothers in guantanamo the protest ended here not far from the white house and just before inauguration those involved say they're hoping that president obama make one ton of obey a priority this time around in washington christine freeze out our team. moving on now there's been a lot of news coming out of the white house in the past week and several notable changes in the obama administration lineup one has been controversial another one has been predictable and one has gotten attention for an entirely different reason jack lew is president obama's pick to replace timothy geithner as the new treasury secretary so name you probably have heard a lot about as of late here's why any idea what this is you could be seeing a lot of it everyone still talking about treasury secretary nominee jack lew's look the signature new york magazine says it has been called the worst autograph in

washington jack assures me that you're going to work to make at least one letter legible one of our producers found what could be the true inspiration for the treasury secretary nominee is unique signature. but here's a few things you didn't know about the man as c.e.o. of and why you want to jack help bust graduate union workers union that one graduate student union workers he also was the c.e.o. of citigroup wealth management group an alternative investment group for some time and told congress he didn't quote personally know the extent to which deregulation drove the financial quiet crisis but he didn't believe that deregulation was the proximate cause now president obama sure to face some contention when it comes to chuck hagel nomination as defense secretary jack lew is practically a shoo in however given this man's history with banks and his stances on deregulation should we expect more of the same earlier today i was joined by kyle

harrington of the founder of harrington capital management and i asked him to fill us in on jack lew. well i you know it's interesting aside from his peculiar signature you know i think you know one needs to look at whether or not you are republican democrat liberal conservative his his background is it is kind of interesting as well it seemed as if he was raised and grew up on more of a government dependent spending liberal side of the equation and then he got into private practice in which he you know like you highlighted said that financial deregulation had nothing to do with the collapse so you you you wonder whether or not you know where he is and again with the less thing we need in my opinion out of washington d.c. with respect to any of the investment markets equity markets bond markets is lack of clarity with any nominee and here this is there are there there is some mixed

views on where he stands with particular issues now a couple things i've heard about him is that he isn't a hardcore deficit hawk he's not a bully and he is a numbers guy he's very detail oriented but should the secretary and treasurer secretary be a deficit hawk considering the whole hour and right now yeah i mean you know. look these judge any of these jobs at this current time i think are going to be very challenging the deficit is where it is we all know that we have a debt ceiling issue coming up with it which i think if we increase that debt ceiling is going to have a vibrational effect on a lot of things one being the credit rating of the united states which i think could potentially be at risk of another downgrade so he's got his hands full for sure keep in mind he did work for the clintons i think he was head of the office of budget management and he he did balance the budgets there but i'm still the jury's

still out with respect to where i am with you know how he views the government and the people and spending as well as taxes. now one more contentions point contentious points about this man is that in the past he has dismissed links between deregulation and the financial collapse of two thousand and eight i want to know from you why is this such a dangerous bully well you see here you know it's this is a very sensitive issue right because republicans still believe in a lot less regulation in i think the democrats lean toward having more of a regulatory environment maybe too much that pendulum is a very sensitive issue and i think needs to be managed very delicately because i think you know some of the the collapse did have to do with extreme deregulation at the same time i think we have swung way to four to the other way which is just increased scrutiny and regulatory environment that involves

a lot of lawyers that i think is just exaggerated there too so he's going to have to do a very crafty and creative job at making sure we're that center point is because this issue is going to be very interesting in the financial services business for example at the current time where we sit herrington capital manage and we've seen a dramatic increase with the regulatory bodies on where how when why have you done certain things on behalf of. of clients so you know that can get exaggerated in way too difficult to do business and conduct business in a normal fashion so kyle let me ask you this does get to say what type of regulations he will and will not enforce and what does that mean to you well i think that you know where jack's going to come out is he's going to lean more toward higher regulations i think that that is bomber's belief and i think that a government you know d.c. centric belief system and higher regulatory environment we saw the fiscal cliff

issue with raising taxes on the wealthy i think that that's where jack's going to go i don't really that's not where i think we should. no but i don't think we should go to an extreme deregulation again and so i think it needs to again it's going to be a sensitive area where that falls in but i think jack's going to lean toward you know furthering regular regulatory environment and jack has also been described as a liberal but here's a conundrum for us so he kind of highlighted a little bit earlier he's played a key role in reading the new york university have its graduate student workers union on the other hand the white house says that lou supports workers right to organize just like president obama can you talk about this this kind of conundrum the a little bit well maybe they're in again lies what i was outlining in the beginning of this which is you know if there are mixed signals in the big you and he is concerning i i think we will see because i think he is

a shoo in for the treasury secretary nomination we will see you know he's going this is going to be his center stage. performance and we're going to see where he you know where is he a union guy is he not a union guy where are the regulatory environment the regulatory environment with respect to where he's concerned and i think that he's going to be more of a union person with high regulatory. viewpoints and it's not exactly a time you know considering how rocky that. the financial as industry is right now to be having those types of ins uncertainties is this a nomination of kind of the obama administration thinks the financial crisis is done well. you know i mean there's been a lot of very interesting decisions that the obama administration has made some i agree with and some i don't i think this is very mixed signals i'm a bit disappointed in the rush to nominate nominate him but you know i don't know

all the details all i can say is i don't believe it's good for the equity markets and for the small and medium sized business world to perform where we needed to perform to get this kind of going in the right direction to increase g.d.p. growth to increase the belief in the american currency again and so we see you know we shall see and then finally we have just about a minute left but i have to ask you this obviously i'm timothy geithner took a few punches here and there in his day from all sides of the industry is then called to fail or out in chief and what not but i have to ask you he was it love him or hate him moving the industry in the right direction in terms of regulation so are we going to lose that momentum with with jack's nomination here i you know again do this that's a jets of the that's a job that that was very difficult think jack lew inherits even more difficult job as a result of you know the economy and the belief in the united states currency and our

credit rating and a whole bunch of things here's the key here is that all of these things you are seeing or actually linked in there's a domino effect to a lot of them so that job in particular is going to be you know heightened scrutiny and. you know are not necessarily in full greens with the decision but then again i'm not the president of the united states there is definitely a lot that we are expecting out of him that they view the country needs from hands a lot to see how this all plays out karl herenton founder of parenting capital management thank you for your time thank you make it on now to a court case we've been following closely since two thousand and eleven a group of eighty three plaintiffs has come together to sue the biotech giant known as man. santo what's at stake well the possibility that small farms could be sued for patent infringement for genetically modified seeds ending up on their property found to be clear the seeds are not on the small farms but the farmers are afraid

that when giraffes and cross-pollination could bring the seeds to their lands accidentally so it's essentially a lawsuit to stop future lawsuits from happening the case is already shot down once by new york district courts but oral arguments are being heard today at a federal appeals court in washington d.c. so does it stand a chance they've murphy executive director for food democracy now joined me earlier with some answers i started off by asking him what's the difference this time around farmers traveled to washington d.c. because they believe they have a right to stand in court. to protect their farms from unwanted genetic examination or trespass or one set of those genetically engineered pollen is that solid contaminate from. they they can be tested and if they're tested and they have a certain percentage of genetically engineered crops those farmers can lose markets organic and profit so farmers travel the watching t.v. see today. to stand before the court and protect themselves from monsanto's abusive

and infringement lawsuits which are really outrageous and they've been happening since one thousand nine hundred seventy the year after month and those groups run a pretty soybeans were planted thank you many sick and since one thousand nine hundred fifty the farmers have been sued for pan and losses at the same time another seven hundred have been sued but said a lot of support with one cent they were trying to project organic and the g.m.o. farmers from i don't want to genetic examination of their crops and maintain their right to farm without these frivolous patent lawsuits and then basically attacking the rights of farmer where they want to bar now on as part of monsanto has called this lawsuit completely basis i want to have a quote from them they said quote farmers who have no interest in using monsanto as patented seed products have no rational basis to fear a lawsuit from monsanto and it claims to the contrary to quote the district court

are groundless and baseless as was stated in the court it has been and remains monsanto policy not to exercise its patent rights where trace amounts of our patent are present in a farmer's field as a result of an everton means the website goes on to say quote since nine hundred ninety seven we have only filed suit against farmers one hundred forty five times the united states this may sound like a lot but when you consider that we sell saida to more than two hundred fifty thousand american farmers a year it's really a small number of these wafer status or trial with only eleven farmers all eleven cases were found in monsanto favor so lem is what monsanto are doing true and also is this case possibly being blown out of context considering the fact that they've only i proceeded to trial with eleven people. well is that i would have to say if you believe a month sentence says on their website that i have some agent orange and d.d.t. to sell you the fact is i talked to one a month and i was top lobbyist in two thousand and nine he said they'd only sued

seven farmers at that time in fact they take in one hundred forty four farmers reports those are the facts they stated in the material given to our attorneys ok at the same time another seven hundred farmers were brought to court each year a month at most and the least across rural america and they investigate five hundred family farms for these frivolous lawsuits you know they can say a lot of same thing and they often do we just watched with prop thirty seven where monsanto was willing to say basically anything you deny americans their right to know what's in their food. and farmers you know they're organic and none g.m.o. farmers are very concerned about. the economic impact this genetic pollen has on their on their ability to maintain their livelihood their reality of the situation is monsanto has a flawed technology genetically engineered crops are deeply flawed technologies

that have been allowed into the u.s. market for profits for a chemical and pesticide company and not for the benefit of family farmers for the food supply so they have let me ask you this another thing that we're hearing is that monsanto has a lot of money to spend on these legal defenses cases from campaign donations how does this affect the fight is that really a fair fight considering the eighty three plaintiffs that we have versus this huge biotech the ion to really. listen monsanto is the world's largest seed into biotech seed and chemical company they have unlimited resources we just watched in california prop thirty seven and they spent more than eight million dollars to americans their right to know what's in their food the fact is they have a ton of money to spend it is in suing farmers they tried to bully and intimidate these farmers and harass them with these frivolous lawsuits it doesn't matter how much money they have we have justice and truth on our side the american people are

tired of watching corporations like monsanto bully american farmers and not do the right thing when it comes to their labeling the genetically engineered products for allowing their flawed technologies to contaminate it was an organic everything good isn't the only segment the bag closed with this growing industry rapidly almost by double digits for the last twenty years right now because once as a flawed technology that contaminates their genetically engineered pollen will contaminate organic farmer fields and their crops we're not allowed to know one that the situation has never been brought before for the other real situations why are monsanto sending agents seed police on to farmer's field in the first wild day that's exactly what i was going to ask you i mean how does that monsanto find out about these cases where they seem to happen to end up on the lands are they going on to people's private property and testing these sands. absolutely not going to

percy schmeiser glen percy schmeiser is one of the heroes of the organic and seed freedom movement in an effort to stand up to month basis not going to his farm he's a canadian nola grower he saved canola seeds for fifty years as one of the most the most famous and best plant breeders of canola in canada and they knew that they intentionally went after him they stuck on his land and they took clippings from his field they basically stole plants out of his fields and they tested them they found their genetically engineered genes were actually contained within those plants and they took them to port ultimately percy schmeiser lost its roots in eighty and four but the fact is you know money buys a lot of things in american democracy we found out in two thousand and twelve money can buy you a lot of votes ok but it doesn't doesn't buy truth doesn't buy justice and we believe farmers have a right to stand from the courts and explain their case why they should not be

exposed under wanted genetic contamination which runs their economic livelihood and at the same time why they should not be bullied and harassed by a biotech giant like month battle they're worse than the mafia they're the world mafia and and they control the governments they controlled congress they have wormed their way into the white house i'm sure i know you've covered the wiki leaks story but they basically threaten france trade wars against france because france didn't want to groove on their jim of fronts it is outrageous that the lengths with which monsanto will go to get their way to meet your new gym of crops and keep barbers locked in a plantation system so they lie obviously this is a very big case i read somewhere that three hundred thousand people are being represented by these eighty three plaintiffs are it equivalent to about twenty five percent of all certified organic u.s. and canadian farms but let me play devil's advocate here for just a minute i mean the plaintiffs in this case are essentially suing for what george

orwell accost thoughtcrime something that hasn't happened yet is the fact that monsanto has sued in the past evidence enough that they will sue in the future. well you're the fact it's not a. farmers organic farmers and the gmo farmers there's the day that will be their fields will be contaminated or months analysts genetically engineer from if this is the case they face the real risk because my dad is such a bully so aggressive in their pursuit of things with the most likely will be where there are getting farmers that it's had their crops and they have they have no desire to be road human obviously if you're getting this and me and you more where they tested thirty and forty and fifty percent contamination and they planted organic see what they have been contaminated at that level well like i mentioned there is an oral argument going on today and will say how the federal appeals court

trace this dave murphy executive director for food democracy now thanks for joining us. and that's going to do it for me for tonight of a sure to tune in next week my producers are working hard to dig up stories that you're not going to see anywhere else here's a sneak peek pretrial hearings for the intelligence analyst accused of the biggest document drop in american history well for john next week they've already discussed his unusually harsh treatment while being held in military prison bradley manning will have one hundred twelve days shaved off of his eventual sentence for that harsh treatment next week more arguments and more calls to free the alleged we can make or we've been covering this case since the beginning since the documents are actually linked in the first place and exploit we'll bring you the latest information coming out of fort made. and after weathering the super storm better known as new the new jersey governor chris christie congress finally passed the

nine billion dollar flood relief bill for hurricane sandy victims next week a larger more encompassing relief will bill is up for debate will house republicans block this legislation some answers next week and it's the highest honor an actor can receive a little golden statue that marks a major accomplishment in actor's career but the academy of motion pictures of arts and sciences isn't the only elite group handing out oscar awards the porn industry is also hosting its annual awards ceremony next week we'll take you there now those are just a few of the stories we have in store for you next week along with more news and in-depth interviews so keep it tuned in right here to our t.v. and that's going to do it for me for tonight but if you missed any part of today's newscasts well worry not my friends who post all of our interviews on line in full just go to this address youtube dot com slash r t america there you can click comment and for our stories to your friends you can also watch the entire

interviews as many times as your little heart desires for the latest information on the stories we covered today and see that we didn't have time to get to check out our web site r c that com slash usa today our wonderful web team wrote a story about how even the department of homeland security is reporting that america's cyber defense situation is bad so how bad is the problem well read the article to find out don't forget to leave your feedback on our story suggestions who knows your star could end up on the air. and don't forget to follow me on twitter at meghan underscore lopez to find out what i'm doing when i'm not reporting you today's top stories if you have any questions about today's segments or you just want to say hello don't be shy tweet me i'll try my hardest to get back to you for now i hope you have a great night and a great weekend and keep following us we'll see you right back here on monday.