immediately. you live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how fabulous i'm glad i got so many i mean. i know that i'm still really really messed up. in the old story so actually. that's. the worst you're going through the white house or the. radio guy and for a minute. there i want you to watch what we're about to give you never seen anything like this i'm told.

i'm abby martin this is breaking in the set so in light of the recent epidemic of rape going on in india and the absolute disregard for women from the police force there the people of india decided to take a stand recently over six hundred guitarist in darjeeling gathered together to play john lennon's imagine a memorial tribute to the twenty three year old gang rape victim the concept behind this was to imagine in india where women didn't have to live in fear subject to ridicule for something that they're the victim of this is just another gesture to go along with a countrywide protest calling for better safety and legal protections for women look we all know that playing guitar won't prevent rape but the point of this is that this is the kind of act that brings awareness that starts the conversation and that starts to change so let's keep moving forward let's break the set.

so last week obama made some big announcements about changes to his cabinet the latest being yet another wall street executive to replace timothy geithner as treasury secretary yep obama's chief of staff jack lew is moving on up. and of course the media has been all over the most controversial aspect of his record. coming to a dollar bill near you this parody of a signature it belongs to white house chief of staff jack lew president obama's nominee as secretary of the treasury as the treasury secretary's signature you see appears on all federal reserve notes dollar bills issued during his tenure here is jack lew whose signature it really is and here is what jack lew's signature would look like on a dollar bill new york magazine says it has been called the worst autograph in washington president obama ribbed lew about it this afternoon i considered

rescinding. my offer to appoint him. jack assures me that he is going to work to make at least one letter legible. in order not to debase our currency hahaha yeah according to corporate media the biggest dirt on mr lewis is you the signature apparently the most interesting thing they can dredge up is that his handwriting sucks but of course this is all just one giant distraction from who he is really so who is jack lew well during the height of the financial crisis in america between two thousand and six and two thousand and eight jack lew was an executive for citigroup bank all right so he's a banker not surprising considering that wall street pretty much funded obama's entire presidency but that's not all for years he's been a vocal proponent of deregulation wall street as the night that deregulation had anything to do with the economic meltdown. but perhaps he feels that way because

citigroup received over seven hundred sorry four hundred seventy six billion dollars as part of a massive bank bailout and as an executive well he walked away with a hefty nine hundred fifty thousand dollar bonus which of course was all funded by us taxpayers and we had to fund this because of citi group's irresponsible gambling and financial derivatives now keep this in mind lew was given the highly coveted chief of staff position in his cabinet after president obama said that wall street bonuses from the financial meltdown were obscene and they were example of quote fat cats who are getting awarded for their failure. easier said than done i guess considering how one of these fat cats is about to be running one of the most important financial institutions in this country if you're pissed off now just wait it gets better what's perhaps even more infuriating than him alluding taxpayer

dollars that we have him in part to thank for the creation of these too big to fail banks you see jack lew was overseeing policy in the white house during the massive deregulation of wall street. because if you're of all that door back before citi group you'll find that lou was head of the office of management and budget under president bill clinton and during that time clinton repealed one of the most significant piece of legislation that was keeping wall street regulated the glass steagall act without the repeal of glass steagall it would have been quite difficult for citi group to successfully bet on the collapse of the housing market by defrauding investors and whose name comes up when citigroup nearly imploded during the financial crisis that would be jack lew he was a top executive in the city group a unit that housed many of the banks riskiest operations so to sum it up a man who cares primarily about making giant banks bigger and richer is now going to be obama's right hand man when it comes to economic policy one thing's for sure

jack lew is completely out of touch with the struggle of the majority of americans who are trying to make ends meet this nomination goes beyond any sort of rational thinking unless of course the rationale is to continue the dangerously close relationship between this government and wall street and if that's the case health it's right on the money. ever since the war on terror started iran has been a point of contention with the western world it always seems to come back to the same scare nuclear weapons every year you see here you hear the same rhetoric fear mongering the world into thinking you were on the edge of armageddon. just think back to last year at the u.n. general assembly where netanyahu pulled out a disturbing bomb cartoon depicting iran's alleged nuclear capabilities and even just to day take a look at this article iran could reach key point for a bomb by two thousand and fourteen according to quote u.s.

experts yep the court of the international atomic energy agency the u.s. shouldn't tense if i sink sions and use military action to prevent iran from further developing their nuclear program so are sanctions or military intervention really the only two options here to help me sort through the misconceptions i'm joined now by jamal abdi director of the national iranian american council thanks so much for coming on great to be here so every year we hear the same rhetoric of course you know just today i saw that article the fear about two thousand and fourteen i mean how do we know what nuclear capabilities iran really how should we trust this agency to kind of tell us what's going on what we do have inspectors inside of iran we have inspectors on the ground that's a big deal that does give us some confidence that we know what they're doing there and that's why when a lot of people say well they could build a bomb they could do this they could do that we can say you know look we have the report right here we know what they're doing we have eyes and ears on the ground

that wasn't the case with iraq that's a big difference between iran and iraq but then we also have a lot of people who try to spin that and say well we might have those people on the ground but what if you bomb takes them out then what do we do and so there are a lot of hypotheticals like that sort of bandied about that don't really actually tell us what the real situation is which is that we have a pretty good insight into what's going on there and what i mean what is going on and what are we going to see do you think now you know netanyahu is kind of pegged for reelection he's kind of running on the whole campaign of drawing a red line of course obama just got reelected what can we expect to see in the next four years and what is going on right there now but you know you pointed out the bomb cartoon which as ridiculous as it was it actually is a big problem that netanyahu has basically said we. until spring or summer of this year before you ron reaches the latest red line that has been set about its nuclear program now you know this again is this hypothetical doesn't actually mean anything but he has set this deadline and now we have you know the white house is looking to

. enter talks with iran we expect talks to happen in the next few weeks but really what's going to be at stake is iran going to continue to enrich at the level that it's been enriching at which is that that twenty percent level or is the west willing to ease some of the sanctions in exchange for iran agreeing to limit some of its enrichment which should not be a problem because you know purportedly we don't like having sanctions iran doesn't you know they say they don't necessarily need this enrichment so we should be able to find a deal but because of the mistrust because of the lack of a positive relationship the lack of real serious talks we have been able to get that deal done and so we were creeping towards this you know this potential red line that netanyahu and even president obama has hinted would be the time for a military confrontation and unfortunately i mean you know nothing. more than that even chuck hagel who came out didn't even really say that much opposition to israel i mean he said something back in two thousand and six and he hasn't gone up one

hundred percent against iran and people are painting him as we can iran and he supports sanctions and he supports potential military action i just don't understand when you don't tow this line of the hardest rhetoric available then you're soft then you're attacked as being weak you know frankly there is this litmus test of are you willing to toe the line about going to war with iran are you going to say you know if you want doesn't do this we're going to go to war with them and by having such a. such a test in place it really it prevents a real new wants to bait about ok what can we actually accept regarding iran are we really willing to go to war and you know risk the lives and you know and. countless lives and treasure in order to prevent iran from having this theoretical capability that they can actually do anything with is that really what our red line is and chuck hagel somebody who has said you know he actually he hasn't necessarily taken military you know military option off the table but he has said let's be cautious

about this and there is actually a deal to be had let's explore it i think a lot of the opposition to chuck hagel has been the people who actually don't want to see a deal with iran and really want to see. us impose regime change and they view chuck hagel and people like him who want to use diplomacy as a risk for actually finding a peaceful peaceful way out of that how dare we risk peace i mean we can't have that let's talk about the sanctions because i just read this article that talks about life saving drugs i mean people are dying they're not able to get this medication what is the goal of these sanctions and i know that you're advocating diplomacy i mean what are the other options here other than these crippling sanctions that we're seeing are killing people well there is a deal to be had i mean iran has not made a move to build a nuclear weapon if we can actually leverage these sanctions if we can actually be prepared to give up some of these sanctions i do genuinely believe that it's in the best interests of both parties to find

a deal now here at the richmond that you're talking about yeah that would be a first step but they're you know it's in nobody's interest to go to war or to have nuclear proliferation however the sanctions you know it's supposed to be leverage it's supposed to be the u.s. puts pressure on iran and says if you agree to certain things we will lift the sanctions now that's not a story how the supposed to work is supposed to go back and forth that is that is the basic idea the problem here is that we have these sanctions that are now so broad they're not hitting the iranian government per se they're hitting ordinary people and iranians they don't you know in two thousand they had a election where you know the votes were raw they're not making the decisions that for the iranian government and yet they're the ones who. being punished they're the ones who now because of these sanctions they're on able to get cancer medicine or hemophilia treatments and there are a lot of folks here in the us who actually think that's the best way to go they say that this is not an unintended consequence this is not. collateral damage this is

actually the intent because if we can punish the iranians enough they're somehow going to be more inclined to try to topple their overthrow that's absurd and we saw this with iraq we saw five hundred thousand children die as a result of our sanctions i mean what what ended up happening we went to the right so i think the track record is pretty poor and it's pretty ominous that we're starting to see these humanitarian ramifications from the sanctions absolutely and i'm only about forty five seconds left but i want to ask you about argo you know it's getting all this hype in the entertainment industry and really do you think that it's depicting that kind of fosters this and sentiment and kind of aides to this whole perception of iran at all you know i saw ago and i liked it i thought was a good movie i like that it put the situation into context it showed that there was a coup d'etat in one hundred fifty three iran had a democratically elected prime minister he was toppled and so a lot of what we're seeing today is this continued hostility that has emerged from

that i am concerned by the way that people may perceive the movie who don't necessarily understand that context and think this is just the way you run is it's predisposed to being hostile looks like they're going to make their counter movie it should be interesting thank you so much for coming on breaking down what's really going on jamal abby policy director of the national iranian american council thank you so much. so if you like what you see you go to our you tube channel youtube dot com breaking the sense of scribed. breaking that checking our facebook page at facebook dot com. and if you're wondering about what i'm doing when i'm not on air you follow me on twitter martin if you can break my preaching but stay tuned to hear some very rare in. site into the guantanamo bay prison next .

i'm. going to. say. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harvey welcome to the big picture.

like oh my. goodness your job or seem anything like i'm strong suit. if you watch my show friday then you would know that it marked the eleven year anniversary since the first and made brought to the u.s. detention facility in guantanamo bay eleven years that signify nothing more than scandal torture and human rights abuses and issue that by and large absent from the political dialogue in this country so we're going tension to it activist protests all over the world putting right here in washington d.c. at the supreme court all to demand an end to the torture log they're protesting against the injustice but more specifically they're protesting for the rights of over half of the hundred sixty six prisoners who've already been cleared for release but still how did been allowed to leave. you know it's interesting people

argue that if they're in there then they must be guilty and if they're not guilty well we should keep them there anyway because get those probably radicalized them already but this logic really hold up well today we'll get some rare insight because right now i'm joined by a former guard at guantanamo bay prison brandon neely brennan thank you so much for coming on the base. so brennan you join the military how did you get to the position to be a guard at guantanamo and what were you told about the prison as a first introduction there. i'll just for the actually volunteered for deployment which i actually thought i would be going to afghanistan and off on a day later sent to guantanamo but before we ever left fort hood texas we were actually told with detention facility like this never been ran before that there was no hope your stay operator was caesar or any policies in the saturday before we left we were actually told the geneva convention would not be. literally we'll be

right in the book as we went in these were the men that were planned nine eleven had something to do with it or cockfighting americans on the battlefield in afghanistan so we were told everybody was guilty with we were we were looking. while we were told that the geneva conventions don't apply. yes we were told that they were left. what did you see firsthand over there that really. you know kind of made it apparent what was really going on what was the turning point for you. there's just there's a lot of abuse that took place where there was from the medics you know you know there was a incident where detainees it and shot no one with a fifty cal on his elbow head grew to two his muscles you know it stretched too far to make him scream i think the incident that really sticks out my mind was is an overbroad walk or detainee i actually got beating being so bad his blood actually stay in the concrete floor there at camp x.-ray and they had to rush into the hospital there at guantanamo and since sr all this happened the detainee has been

out he's been cleared of all charges but still to this day yes leader in effects of physical effects from that from that assault or from the abuse that took place that day but that one is really what made me start think what was going there was wrong so from there on mean a couple other guys kind of made a pack of downstroke or heads down to sleep here and never talk about what happened and what made you decide to start talking about it. i think it was eat me away to eat me away inside and there is actually a time i have to always keep up with want on will i've seen a lot of these detainees that i can remember that i actually spoke to they were going to release because you know they were innocent then know what really set me off was around the simmer around the mccain obama election year dick cheney was actually on t.v. made the comment that in february two thousand and two guantanamo was a great place it set me off so bad as i knew he was lying that i actually reached out some people to see dave's project and gave my awful awful story out outraged me

that much that pretty much made me go public that was the breaking point for me and granted i'm glad that you're speaking out because we really we do hear sometimes about victims of torture victims of the war but the soldiers of course are pretty much thrown under the bus how hard is it for you to over see this kind of abuse of course you you kind of you know didn't want to talk about it for a while you wanted to kind of brush it under the rug and try to move for a player had but i mean how hard was it for you and eventually other guards or people who are overseeing this kind of abuse and realizing that it's not warranted . you know it's we getting upset and really call a lot of stuff that was gone maybe some of these individuals deserved what they got but i think over time that it really gets to you because you know every day if we walk into a camp they would say these are the worst of the worst these are the guys who killed three thousand americans on you know in the united states these are the guys will kill your family if given the opportunity so every day you're told that you know it come to that effect of you it's when you step back and realize really what

you saw and really what you took part in that really starts to affect you it's been living years not that i was there and i can tell you i was contacted days ago by a guy that i certainly guantanamo and he asked me did i put him in contact with detainees that we knew there so he could apologize to them for his actions as well and a lot of that is actually going on behind the scenes where a lot of former guards over the years are actually reaching up to forty trainees to apologize for what they didn't know what these detainees went through right right that's amazing i mean it's never too late to really just come to terms and then try to prevent some eggs from ever happening again let's get back to the arguments that i was saying earlier about people i hear this all the time ran saying that you know if they're in there well then they must be guilty and if they're not guilty they're they become radicalized already because of the torture because of the treatment and so they shouldn't be released because they would retaliate i mean what's your response to these kind of arguments knowing that you were there firsthand you agree with those sentiments. no not often i think a lot of the especially people on the right you know in the they're used for

tactics in the n.h.l. you know citizens i don't really know is one situation that if these people are released are going to attack us or they've been there so long they have to be terrorists the fact is this country dropped the ball we had the opportunity to show that our judicial system and our way of life and our laws actually worked but we dropped the ball you know the government wanted to legally tame people and torture them we had a great opportunity to show me how our system works you know we've we've tried and we've prosecuted many of real terrorists here in the united states but the fact is that they'll never are going to want to bring your united states on from the federal court system because a lot of information they have gotten has been getting through it have they have got through torture is going to be admissible in court right let's talk about the torture aspect i mean this talk about zero dark thirty i saw you speaking about it it's been nominated for tons of awards i mean i refused to see it but i know that you cite you spoke about it what is your reaction to the torture in that movie. it's a to the common person who's not very knowledgeable the whole situation it really makes you believe that the way they get information leading to bin laden is through

the use of torture techniques you know in the first seven minutes of the film you see you see a detainee that speeding you see and she's shackled he's waterboard and there's a dog collar put around his neck he's walked around it he's walked around the room like an animal but i see it with a friend of mine who actually believes that is the way they got the information it's ridiculous i mean sousa movie starts it says this movie is based off true this with firsthand knowledge you know even this you know it's come out that this is not the way they have the information i really believe that you put that in there you know one may get a better movie and two you know maybe maybe to make people think this is where they've gotten information but my thing is i'm afraid that people are going to see this and they're going to think that torture is even more ok that a lot of people do or it absolutely especially since they know that you know katherine bigelow met with the state department met with the white house and got this classified information of course people going to see this and be like well it's based on true events torture worked i mean torture was necessary look i got in a lot and i mean it's totally irresponsible and of course it's just it's just

justifiable it's just you know it's entertainment it's a movie but really it goes much farther than that brandon. and i wanted i mean go on go now go on. i'll just say you know if you're in this country seems like you know shows like twenty four you have some scenes of only going to glorify the whole torture situation so we reduce this is doing a year of waterboarding it's like i was just waters it's not you know it's not twenty four were stabbed in the legs you don't we're talking like that is it said that a lot of people think that we now in this country right i mean we we've known time and time again torture does not get intelligence and so it's just such a shame to keep perpetuating this but i brand i wanted to go also that you said that was actually really impacted me a lot but you said in another interview you said basically for five years i gave my best to my government and all they did was lie to me i mean looking back now brandon w m d's being completely made i mean looking back at false rhetoric about terrorism being as much of a threat as they claim it was obvious that we know that's not true i mean looking

back now at all of these things what do you think these wars are really about. man i really wish i knew i wish there was a simple answer that you know of on my research just you know a lot of the plenty when it comes to iraq seems to be that you know the mission planning was already in the stages before nine eleven ever happened i mean i really don't know it's very disheartening for me you know i went to iraq and i was just i was just one of those people that just watched a radio which i had been looking back now you know i actually was involved in direct combat actually seen you know friends of mine guys actually friends of my wounded i seen civilians you know be killed you know it's an it's and it's for what it's for it was for lies in effect it has on us and it's you know it's just it's greatly its story especially guantanamo's story the guards will never be told because the government you know they try to shut us out this nondisclosure statement and you know and they know if we do come public that our lives will totally change is this just a very disheartening to think that people join the military to give back to their government be at the government can give them back

a little bit of loyalty back in the cinema places that are based on lies and they do horrible stuff that we have to live with every day you know the fact is you know people see this new segment or any other news segment or read article and once that segments over it's over with them guantanamo's over the rocks over but the fact is this stuff is with us every day there's not a day that goes by that i don't wake up and think about what i did at one time or what i saw there's not a day that goes by that i don't relive every shot i fired every shot was fired at me or what i saw in iraq so it's everything better with us you know mentally or whatever it's just so it's not a quick you know article it's something we live with forever and it's a lot of stuff that people can't you know really comprehend and something that the government will people to govern the person is there we can never understand it. well put brennan there's really not much to say on top of that other than the government does not give you guys the proper treatment to deal with your experiences and of course this never lead this should never leave the dialogue i mean as long as one tunnel bay is open as long as there's still people getting hurt

and killed in these countries it will never leave where we should be talking about thank you so much i really applaud your courage and for speaking out granted i think more people should and we can prevent hopefully stuff like this from happening in the future i really appreciate your time. now to turn to a somber note this weekend we lost one of the most brilliant innovators of our time aaron swartz genius computer programmer an internet freedom activist who tragically took his own life the very young age of twenty six and he did so because he was subject to a merciless witch hunt by the d.o.j. and was facing thirty five years in prison for the crime of releasing information and was responsible for many technological advancements but he didn't care about getting rich off them he cared instead about internet freedom civil liberties and

making knowledge accessible to everyone it deeply saddens me that he saw suicide as the only way out of a two tiered justice system where the odds were heavily stacked against him rest in peace and you will never be forgotten. what makes life complete. and a happy family. or self-expression. called operation. that seems so true. when you're too late it's a challenge. download the official application to your cell phone choose your language stream

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