signs the drone war is expanding a new report details u.s. military plans for another you a base in africa its mission is to keep tabs on extremist groups what this says about a shifting u.s. military strategy ahead. well congress thinks of ways to tighten its fiscal bell apparently the u.s. treasury missed the memo in fact it's signed off on bloated salaries for executives of firms that already received wads of cash from the taxpayer funded bailouts will follow the money in just a moment. and no flash please it's no secret that americans love food almost as much as they like taking pictures of their food and posting them on social media

but some restaurants in new york are banning the hungry masses from photographing their food we'll tell you why ahead. it's tuesday january twenty ninth pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our. we begin today taking a look at plans the u.s. has for a stablish ing a spider on base in north west africa the goal is to keep a close eye on al qaeda affiliates and other islamic extremists in the region this as french forces continue to invade northeastern mali and the effort to fight islam is just extremists that were gaining traction in the region if the base is approved it would likely be in niger a west african country that borders mali niger's ambassador to the u.s. today told c.n.n. that his government has agreed to allow the u.s.

to place drones near niger right now the only other permanent base the u.s. has is three in is three thousand miles south in the country of djibouti so what does this mean for u.s. foreign policy goals to discuss steven miles who is the coalition coordinator for a win without war he joined me earlier and i began by asking him if it comes as a surprise that plans are in the works for a new drone base in north africa. when it comes to drones not much comes a surprise to me anymore i mean the only thing that's still out there is a surprise is what we don't know and that's once again what we're finding out with these reports is that there's a lot more out there that we don't know and tragically we keep finding out about it through the press rather than hearing about it from our own government so i think what we've what we're all wondering after we're hearing our news today is just what's going on what's the policy what's the procedures and what are we hoping to accomplish with these steps right i mean it looks like this is kind of the the new tactic that the government is using but there is a lot that we don't know about it but it looks like presence in africa is expanding

after the announcement of possibly building this spy a drone base there but at what pace would you say i mean how much of a presence will we have there how much will that presence continue to grow how fast will it grow the thing we know is that these are ongoing conversations within the administration there's those that seek within the administration have more military footprint those that seek a more diplomatic role in these are these are debates that are going on by all accounts various levels and all the way up to the top within the administration right now it's pretty clear from our perspective that there needs to be a more robust effort placed on the political side and on the diplomatic side you know we've been trying for the last couple years with just these military efforts in fact we were heavily involved in mali for the last several years through military assistance programs and that clearly hasn't worked out so well and that we see that the u.s. is directing resources to this region of the world helping france with their invasion over there how much of a threat do you think al qaeda in this region in north eastern africa are

northwestern rather how much of a threat are they there to the u.s. you know it's really unclear and so we do know is that there's some groups both in northeastern in northwestern africa that consider themselves affiliated with al qaeda now it's very unclear to what level these groups are actually in any way tied to the al qaeda branch kind of al qaeda mean if you will that actually attack the united. on september eleventh. they're just sort of franchises that took on the name some of the underlying ideology but are much more focused on domestic threats in their own country focused on mali for example than any sort of actual threat to america there's a lot of unknown questions and we know that this is only one faction in this fight and the militants in the north are at least four or five different factions and probably a whole lot more and frankly the short answer is we're just not sure right a lot of questions and it's a very complex situation over there as you had mentioned a lot of different dynamics and factions going on with this new possible new drone

base over there in africa does this signal a shift in strategy you know where rather than having this focus on the ground that it's now being you know in the air this is kind of this drone warfare is this new strategy was think it's i think it's not just the shift in focus kind of from the ground to the air but really it's a recognition that after we put a lot of time and energy into places like iraq at the expense of a number of other places in the world that we need to refocus on those places and we need to be looking at kind of she's going on in sub-saharan africa there's obviously a very prominent pivot to asia that the administration has talked about so there's a there's a large need to shift to other places and look at other places and one of the problems when the reasons they keep talking about the need for doing it with drones is that they don't have much human intelligence on the ground we don't have the kind of spy networks that we have on the ground in places like afghanistan and pakistan on the ground in sub-saharan africa and so the sort reports we're hearing

is the military hoping to supplement with some of these aerial drones of course that's an insufficient picture painting and we'll need to do a little bit more work if we actually want to have a good understanding of what's going on right and you know we have seen the way that the drug drone war has played out in places like pakistan we've seen even somewhat of a backlash there with it with the drone strikes kind of breeding this anti-american sentiment with the civilian casualties that have occurred. these regions and we've seen the anxiety that it causes to civilians on the ground where the drones hover and the sky is so kendis make government officials weary of using the same tactic now in africa absolutely and i think that the press reports today is the officials from within within the development in the diplomatic side of the government expressing some concerns about that exact the nominee on these technologies are now associated with kind of raining down from above as they do in the tribal regions of pakistan in places like yemen and somalia very real identities throughout the world

now in the type of warfare and so there's very real concerns about this being the face of america in these regions in the type of concern the type of relationship that would send in that message that would send to places on the ground right i want to defense secretary leon panetta has spoken out recently kind of how doing. the effective tactic of using drones i want to pull up a quote from him he says use what operational skills we have to go after those that want attack our country we've done that in pakistan we're doing it in yemen and elsewhere and i think the reality is it's going to be a continuing through all national defense in the future so what do you make what you make of his statement you know oddly enough not someone i would quote very often but mitt romney who was the republican presidential candidate said it best when he said we're not going to kill our way out of this problem in these challenges that we're facing whether it's in mali sub-saharan africa in the region

or frankly some of the challenges we're going to face in southeast asia they're not going to be solved simply by killing trying to kill our way out of the problem so it's going to require a more holistic view point it's going to require taking ourselves off this war footing and really starting to look at how the u.s. engages in the world how we deal with the circuity threats to america how we make ourselves stronger but how we don't weaken ourselves by sending these negative images around the world really interesting steven great to have you on that was even miles coalition coordinator for win without war. and i will promise president obama made a little more than four years ago a promise that now looks further from being fulfilled i'm talking about his pledge to close guantanamo bay well there was an office dedicated to closing the prison and overseeing the transfer of detainees but now the state department is announcing the man that led the office daniel freeh the man you see there is being reassigned and his office being closed so what does this say about that promise the president made to close the base in cuba for more on that i was joined earlier by josh

gerstein white house reporter for politico and i first asked him if this is a sign that the administration is not planning on closing guantanamo bay any time soon. well there's no question about that but i'd have to say it's just the latest sign of that i mean. i think they still want to close it but when you say are they planning to close it suggests that they have a plan as in some series of steps in mind that would lead them to get to that end result and at the moment it doesn't appear that they have any plan in fact whenever congress keeps proposing things that would prevent the closure of guantanamo the president grumbles about them and signs on the dotted line so i would say this is just another indication that the obama administration has for all intents and purposes given up on their efforts to close guantanamo right i mean it definitely seems like that's what it's hinting at at least but you know even before news of the office that's working to close guantanamo bay before there was news of the

shutting down there wasn't a clear sign that the base was shutting down but what kinds of restrictions that congress put in place to block detainees from being transferred out of the base well for several years now i think back to basically the summer of two thousand and ten congress has been passing measures that have gotten more and more onerous and more and more restrictive the latest ones basically say that the secretary of defense has to certify that any time a prisoner is transferred out of guantanamo that the country's going to can basically guarantee that he won't become involved in any wrongdoing or any militant activity and that guarantees a very strong word i don't know how anyone being released unless they're going to be permanently jailed for the rest of their life how officials could really guarantee that they won't become involved in any wrongdoing and so it's been hard for the administration to make those kinds of certifications and also they've also put blocks on transfers to an entire country namely yemen which accounts accounts

for many maybe a majority of the prisoners who are still there now this news comes as pretrial hearings resume for a clean sheikh mohammed and four other defendants guantanamo detainees facing the death penalty for charges over the september eleventh attacks there was a hearing on monday where the a closed circuit feed was cut off in silence what do we know about what could be behind this. well we know that it was cut off for about three minutes and there's supposed to be a procedure in the courtroom where a sort of a like goes on to indicate that the feeds been cut and someone in the courtroom the judge as the judge understood it was the one who is supposed to control that well it turns out that person didn't shut off the feed someone else in the chain of command apparently turned it off there was no good reason to do it one of the defense lawyers was just reading the classified title of one of the motions that had been filed and the judge seemed pretty angry about this but there's been very great deal of difficulty figuring out who did it it appears that it's probably

someone connected with the cia but at least in public the government is still i'm willing to say precisely to cut the feed or why. you had mentioned that the judge was angry and would to do yet raise any suspicions as to who could be responsible or what the motive was behind it well it's not clear who the motive was what the motive was but it sounds like it was someone who's in charge of classification here the cia is the agency that oversaw the interrogation of a lot of these terror suspects using the techniques like waterboarding and they're the ones at least within the u.s. government considered responsible for safeguarding any classified information that might come out at the trial but really no one's supposed to mention their name in the courtroom which makes exploring precisely to cut that feed a very difficult thing to do at least in public of course to have a secret hearing about who unnecessarily made a public hearing in the court secret just gets so confusing it's almost hard to

follow the law and you know guantanamo bay has been criticized before time and time again for kind of being shrouded in secrecy of course something like this doesn't help we are at a time gosh pleasure as always for having you on that was josh gerstein white house reporter for politico thanks. well if you didn't like the taxpayer bailout of the big banks this next story will make your blood boil a recent government report criticizes the u.s. treasury department for approving thousand raises for executives at the company is the taxpayers had to bail outs general motors an alley financial all of these corporate giants benefited from the taxpayer bailout when all of them got a big boost in pay packages so why are they allowed to enjoy big bonuses on the taxpayers' dime was leopold journalist and author of how to make a million dollars an hour why hedge funds get away with siphoning off america's wealth joins us now to discuss mr leopold but great to have you there so.

it is treasury looking out for taxpayers when you know it gives the ok for big raises for the very executives at the companies the taxpayers bailed out you know and i think one of the ways to look at it you've got to step back a little bit and realize that virtually all of wall street was bailed out it's not just the tarp money that's seven hundred billion there's another seven trillion in virtually interest free loans that were poor to wall street they were all about to go down so this is an absolute rage a slap in the face think about those workers at general motors that took. big cuts in their own wages and benefits and now they're watching their bosses basically. get wage increases that they'll never see it's absolutely outrageous right you know you get a raise or a bonus it's for a job well done but in this case i mean what's happening is called been station not

linked to performance. well in this sector in these sectors especially the financial sector it's very questionable what performance is. remember we got into trouble because the performance on wall street was to try to make as much money as they could coming up with as many casino games as possible so they could earn their vast riches and it took down the economy there's just like no question the more they took down the economy so the performance here is very questionable as a matter of fact i would love to see across the board so that people left wall street and went to more productive industries. yeah you know i just pick a show that you hear. that. you have to pay these big bonuses you have to make the salary competitive and that because there needs to be an incentive for these executives with the inside scoop and you know they have this special knowledge and we want to keep these people in these positions what do you think about that

justification baloney i think their wages it gets on the basis of supply and demand i'll bet you if you put up for if you if you put out for interviews those jobs that are now getting these big increases people be lining up around the block to try to get that there are all kinds of qualified people that could help financial institutions unwind their bad bets their people lined up below these people in their bureaucracies that would be glad to take those jobs the idea that somehow we're going to lose all this valuable talent if we don't let them have exorbitant wage increases just is not true prove it to me go on the market and prove it to me. now how can this happen does there need to be a new rules in place that oversee when and what raises and what bonuses are appropriate especially when we're talking about taxpayer money. absolutely we had a golden opportunity to put

a cap on executive salaries at the very industries that took us down. g.m. doesn't bother me as much but all the financial institutions bother me a great deal because they took down the economy and they unemployed in a matter of months nine million people so here here's my plan wage cap across the board for wall street until unemployment comes down to five point five percent that way they don't get to benefit until they repair the damage that they did to the economy it's outrageous that we have the longest running unemployment problem since the one nine hundred thirty s. and we're talking about giving raises to the very people that brought us to the brink that's not right and american people know that's not right yeah and so they're getting raises they're getting bonuses they're keeping their jobs they're getting an incentive to keep their jobs i guess it begs this question what has been done to hold these people accountable for. how it contributed to the

financial collapse and the recession that we felt here in the u.s. that's a very good question the only. personally have been the hedge fund people caught in insider trading schemes about seventy of them that's it nobody at any major bank has personally had to cough up any money or and i'm not even saying serving jail time but having to cough up any money for the damage they did at most of the companies themselves i.e. the stockholders have had to pay for the outrageous scams that have been uncovered i mean these people's produced products that were designed to fail and then force that off on investors they were running a way they made money boosting up the housing bubble they were making money as the housing bubble started to collapse and then they made money through the bailouts it's absolutely outrageous and nobody has been held accountable and the american people are very upset about that it one of these days there's going to be hell to

pay for that. now just to kind of get a scale and to put this into perspective who exactly is benefiting from the these big pay raises and bonuses and how much are we talking. well you know if the ones that we're talking about are actually relatively minor from. thirty thousand dollars to a million dollars minor relatively to that doesn't that doesn't sound i heard of a of the million dollars is out there that's that's pretty good that's twenty times the average wage of the american average american but across the board you have people that are making tens of millions of dollars hundreds of millions of dollars and they're in a sector that was bailed out by the american people i mean those people over there working for goldman sachs right now they would have they would have gone under had it what had it not been for the bail out process i mean they all talk a good game now but back then they were on their knees begging for help and so it

seems to me you need no cross the board kept across all the wall street industry saying look you don't get another dime until the american people are put back to work and i would have us at least pushing in the same direction i mean think about it what could be more just than that. really interesting really appreciate you coming on the show and shedding some light on this that was less leopold journalist and author of how to make a million dollars an hour had fun to get away with siphoning off america's wealth. also have here on r t if you're heading to one of new york's swank you restaurants you better leave your camera phone at home it appears shops in the big apple are fighting back at social media that story next.

let me let me i want to wouldn't let me ask you a point. here on this network is what we have in the bank we are not i'm so. ready for you this right we're just about staying there again hearing the story would be i don't want you to talk about theory let me. just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old until she told the truth. i'm

a confession i am a total get a friend that i love grabbing hip hop music and pretty. but it was kind of a yesterday. i'm very proud of the wall that it's played. well we've all done it or know someone that has you're at a restaurant and your delicious dish comes with a fabulous presentation and it looks so good you want to capture the goodness on camera so you take out your smartphone snap a photo and post it on your social media site of choice but some people enjoy feasting their eyes on these common areas shots others don't find it so appetizing

including some new york city restaurants the now want to ban the practice of foods to grambling as it's called why are the correspondent on the joins us now to explain. so why are and sit in restaurants over there in new york liking this. well is you know like you just explained i mean remember the times when it was kind of considered strange to be taking pictures of your food in these days it's certainly an overwhelming trend with tens of thousands if not more people just in new york city probably taking photos of their every single meal here in new york city we have such a thing as ice flow i phone food photography courses i mean can you imagine people actually pay money to be able to take better photos so this is certainly a huge trend and what these restaurants some of these very upscale restaurants are saying because some customers take it to really. overexaggerated affair where some people climb chairs you know to take a photo of the food on their tables use flashes some even bring in tripods the more

upscale restaurants are saying look we're not going to obviously ban this completely because we can't really do that but we will impose some sort of an informal ban and kindly ask our customers to stop doing this because it's distracting to other people they're saying there's a time and place for everything so let's please not exaggerate too much when it comes to the excitement i mean climbing over chairs and to snap a photo seems a little overboard i'll admit that. on the flipside though. why wouldn't restaurants want food you know pictures of their food being displayed i mean i was looking at some of the photos of those dishes very bare and i was you know looked like where where'd you go to get that kind of i know there's a lot as a customer there p.r. yeah yeah i mean it's definitely extra p.r. for us around some of the pictures of course look amazing but the concerns of many of these restaurants is that some of the pictures unfortunately look bad as people posting things that are hot have eaten or you know the quality is not too good or there's

a flash reflecting i don't know in the egg shell that's not supposed to look like that so that's one of their concerns we actually caught up with the p.r. consultants a person who runs a firm that works with dozens of restaurants in new york city and he explained to us what kind of steps exactly some restaurants are taking in terms of not batting this all together but offering something extra to their clients take a listen in certain cases people are taking photos themselves and emailing the pictures to the guests so that they actually have the photos before that you can leave the restaurant in other cases we're allowing photos to be downloaded the websites and in some cases where actually bringing the guest into the kitchen so that they can take pictures directly instead of waiting until they get into a deal done in a room with there's no light so that the pictures actually look realistic. so what basically the people running the restaurants in the shops are saying you know we don't mind we're ready to offer you these options but please make sure that the

photos are very good or use these options were offering just don't ruin the surprise for the next guest you have to take that photo not when it tapping i have to take it when it first comes out and looks good right so right now i'd say it's not an official ban but is there any indication that this might turn into something more concrete where it will be in force. no liz we're really hearing that there is restaurants that are considering different kind of rules in their places i mean it varies on each restaurant case by case basis there is the association of restaurants of new york state that run about five thousand joints in the new york area but they're saying they're not going to consider this too seriously they're going to let the restaurants really deal with this by themselves another argument i guess the consumer might say is you know what i come in here i'm a paying customer i paid for this deal to get this gorm a meal or this delicious hamburger and i'm and i'm and i can i can do whatever i

needed i can photograph it what about their freedom. to do whatever they want i guess with the food that they pay for elizabeth it's a good point i mean people are saying a restaurant is really a public place and we should be able to do whatever we want with the food that we get as long as it's not offending anybody i mean one argument we've heard is you know it's not really hurting the food and if the food had feelings it probably wouldn't mind having its photos taken but you know in all seriousness most people in new york are saying imposing a complete ban on this would have been an exaggeration and we spoke about this with new york columnist celebrity gossip columnist michael musto he has a good take take a listen you can even take a picture of a plate of broccoli. a list we approve it when you leave we'll give you an authorized photo of the broccoli was broccoli going to have a publicist now it's over the top for restaurants to try to ban pictures of food it's part of everyone's prerogative to want to document their meal this isn't a broadway play or a movie where you're actually not allowed to text or take pictures or do anything disruptive it's a public place it's social and i think you should be able to take

a picture of who is a really horrible if someone is proposing at the next table while they're doing that in a public place. well definitely this is something seen that's over the top and most people considering there are thousands and thousands of blogs out there that you know show and put up these beautiful pictures of food it's definitely going to be a top flight and i'm sure this is not really going to go any further than an informal ban that some restaurants are considering right i mean i could imagine a lot of customers won't be too happy especially social media as you know play such a big role in people's life a they that they like a document doing their meals and sharing it with their friends thank you so much for sharing this story with us that was honest. she is our party correspondent over there in new york and that is going to do it for it this hour of the news but breaking the set is coming up here on our thirty minutes let's check in with the host abby martin to see what is on today's agenda abby i lose her you

live there so today we're covering the whole whole range of topics did you hear about these military drills that they're doing in use in miami i did not know so they're flying black helicopters over the cities simulating machine gun fire scaring the dickens out of everyone who lives there taking cover i mean so we're going to cover that and just talk about what is really going on here what are they really preparing for are they kind of conditioning people ramping up the police military aggression here's a recovery that we're also talking about a story that just broke and was verified this week about eugenics being practiced in israel against the ethiopian population there really disturbing story even more disturbing is a population that was subject to these kind of forms of discrimination in hitler's regime is now practicing against the minority segment of their population that much more coming up next check it out right abbie lookin forward to it thanks for that update that's in a half hour but that's going to do it for us here from our in the stories we covered check out our you tube channel you tube dot com slash r t america we post everything.