show me the memo eleven u.s. senators are demanding that president obama hand over classified papers dealing with drone strikes last night the obama administration legal justification for targeting american citizens abroad was leaked to the press the details ahead. plus it's clean abundant and also a little dangerous but the risks may not stop one nuclear plant from powering up i had a look at how a company is jumpstarting its nuclear program and the chain reaction it could cause . and pushed to the limit because the u.s. military lacked the resources it needs to fight al qaeda in africa it looks like it's becoming more dependent on local african forces to do with dirty work i'll tell you why.

it's tuesday january fifth february fifth excuse me four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our t.v. we begin today taking a look at drone strikes targeting american citizens a confidential justice department memo just released reveals the legal justification for the government to conduct these strikes perhaps the most controversial part of the memo is that the government does not need evidence to justify a deadly attack here's a piece of what's now being called the white papers obtained by n.b.c. so it's quote the condition that an operational leader present an imminent threat of violent attack against the united states does not require the united states to have clear evidence that a specific attack on u.s. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future so in place of clear evidence a high level government official has the authority to decide who poses a threat according to this memo meanwhile

a bipartisan group of eleven senators are call. and on president obama dish the details on what exactly the legal justification is for using drones and other means to kill american citizens for more on this i'm joined now by steven miles coalition corner for win without war great to have you here steve had to be so what exactly what make a targeted killing of an american citizen ok under the law what is revealed exactly in these papers well what's the question is what's ok under the law and what's what's ok according to these papers and that's where the rubber meets the road these these memos take a very expansive view of what's ok under the law and what's ok under the law for a long time has always been the sense of imminence and that's a standard by which anyone has any nation the world has a right to self protection what these memos appear to indicate is that the definition of imminence that's being used you just alluded to it is not a definition of imminence that makes it makes any sense to pretty much anyone so if you think that there is danger in this vague language absolutely we've seen it not

so long in our in our recent past you have to go back very far to see what legal memos that are vague that have to do with national security the type of danger that they can get us in and we see terms like imminence being used in this way when we see associated forces when we see the concept of the battlefield being used in such an ill defined and vague way it raises a lot of questions and it's inherently a very dangerous position for the u.s. to be in now what kind of power does this give a high level executives it gives them a tremendous amount of power especially the notion that they've taken in this memo that they don't need a judicial review that inherently they can look at these issues and they can resolve them there in and of themselves able to decide for instance who senior operational al qaeda figures are i mean that's a very difficult question to answer you're dealing with an enemy that is by its very nature hiding itself its hiding its operational structure it's something very hard to know and so they're giving themselves tremendous amounts of power and it's a really overly broad interpretation take it a step further what exactly you know associated force exactly what does that mean speaking of this vague language you know we saw some occupy wall street protests.

protesters you know activists being investigated for possible terror threats is there a danger that this law could be used against activists do you worry that that line could a blur especially with this vague language and i know that you know as an activist yourself what are your thoughts on this you know there's actually a legal case working its way through the courts right now that's being led by journalist named chris hedges and some others that gets to the heart of that very good at the end. and there's a lot of concern that's come from frankly all political spectrum you've had folks on the right associate with the tea party movement who've been very concerned about their view comments by the i'm obama administration that at times have referred to them as being terrorists may be joking maybe not but when you use these terms they have a lot of meeting and when you start to associate these terms that are vaguely defined with the ability to use lethal force creates a lot of a lot of concerns a lot of challenges and it gets back to what you were just saying about this is a very broad expanse of use

a power and lying and you know the way that these suspects are treated in these situations you know they're not indicted they're not charged with any crime what do you make of this or do you do you find this lack of due process troubling certainly you know previously there's been some speeches about this process and the speeches have. been now further brought into brought into the public's view with this memo but it does raise the question what else is out there what else who's making these decisions how are these decisions being determined there's reports of a playbook as it's called being developed by the obama administration which is also very secretive and the short answer is that the american public doesn't know what we've seen with this memo is that there's really not there's not really not a reason for the american public not to know and so it's about time that they had some more questions well there's a group of senators that do want to know a group of eleven senator is a are putting this request directly to president obama to make these legal justifications for targeted killings for drone strikes for this information to be

made public here's a part of their letter to the press. and it says quote it is vitally important however for the congress and the american public to have a full understanding of how the executive branch interprets the limits and boundaries of this authority so that congress and the public can decide whether this authority has been properly defined and whether the president's power to deliberately kill american citizens is subject to appropriate limitations and safeguards so do you think stephen that this could be a turning point and making this very secretive program a little bit more transparent i hope so you know what's interesting is we were just talking before is that the senators knew about this white paper and their calls for more information or calls for more information from this as a starting point so now we have this discussion going on in the press the american public's going to have a chance to weigh in they're going to have a chance to have their voice heard and have a chance to call out for more transparency and some of these answers to be made the senators will get a chance when they question john brennan who's been directing this program for the

administration later this week in his hearing in the be a number of other hearings that present opportunities in the coming week you know that they're threatening to even put off confirming that nomination if this this information does not come forward stephen great to have you here as always that was steven miles coalition coordinator for win without war well the use of drones is certainly not exclusive to the u.s. the u.k. is currently working on expanding their own drone program plans to test a new quote supersonic stealth drone named tarata terrain and are being touted as the future of you a v s r t sarah for a thousand more. it can fly faster than the speed of sound it can deploy its own weapons and it can go deep into enemy territory now this is the ne british super drone as it's known the transistors being under development for many many years now costing hundreds of millions of pounds already but it's thought that this

revolutionary new secret is going to be taking is maiden voyage over the next couple of weeks that's what's expected now military chief says that the trances will pave the way for a whole new generation of these new drones and it's being billed as the future of the air force but experts have warned that this could open the doors to a whole new type of warfare there's concerns about robo warfare where machines that are able to launch their own attacks could attack humans and of course a lot of control to see that always surrounds the use of drones as well as still there and with the here and now because the controversy surrounding drone warfare has been highlighted recently when the u.n. launched an investigation in to civilian deaths caused by the drones now assisting the u.n. in their research is a team from goldsmiths university of london and i'm joined by one of the team now professor. thank you very much for joining us this new technology

a lot of talk about a lot of excitement but a huge number of unanswered questions to go along with these developments you're taking part in this investigation now we haven't even really got questions answered eight of the legality of these attacks and yet we're seeing technology sort of leapfrogging over the law at this point i think that what. we are seeing a de facto legislation by practice. of warfare actually creating the law for the problem of the law for use it always lags behind the technologies are full of course the chronology moves much for. aster than the laws of war and the technology change the way in which we conduct our wars when we speaking about drone warfare we're not really speaking about area bomb being we're speaking about targeted attacks and especially the kind of a new type of attack that we've been seeing in the last decade that is called an extra duty juridical assassination these really are based on kill

ists been compiled by somebody either authorized by the people with the reason or transparency and we do not know how that process was undertaken and of course this is really what your investigations hinge on is gathering that all important data is that absolutely in the forensic architecture project at goldsmiths what we look at is the nature of war in an urban area and the most strong attacks are launched on inhabited areas areas with a lot of civilians with civilians and militant are entangled in the numbers are very difficult to establish because both israel and the united states would consider every man over a certain age sometimes sixteen sometimes eighteen is a militant by definition we know it is not true the details of that investigation the results expected the end of the year at tabor thank you for joining us today to talk about british steeped and of course all the unanswered questions that go along

with that. that was our take correspondent sarah ferguson london well still ahead here on earth he gets a one year after california pull the plug on the sand i know for a power plant a utility company is trying to get back on line up next the battle between the energy company and the residents who want the plant to be shut down for good. let me let me i want we're going to let me ask you a point. here on this board because we're having a debate we have been i'm so. pleased

this time it was just a bad thing there again here it is always will be i don't agree to talk about theory with me. here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that the americans call. a dollar. i'm sorry i'm just a guy who cares an awful lot of what you said. you know what that is my theory is still. want to listen to feature isn't the only liberal the christian. consumer to listen to. you know the super committee of the structures from what you and i should care about because they're profit driven industry that sells a sensationalistic garbage he calls it breaking news i'm out here martin and we're

. in a break that. now just now to california where a debate over nuclear energy is heating up the san onofre nuclear power plant has been offline for about a year now but the utility company is determined to bring the reactor back on the problem is that a growing number of neighbors who live near the plant want the nuclear reactor to stay shut down for good artes are among the lindo shows us the fight and how it

affects america's energy future. this stretch of california coastline is paradise to many it's just the perfect place to live fresh air gorgeous ocean but with the fukushima disaster freshener mind done and gilmore is questioning how safe it is to live near the center no for a nuclear power plant or risking a usa and basically devastated the economy of the country and possibly the world just for addison's profits gilmore moved to orange county assuming that living near a nuclear plant is safe sent in over his reactors have been shut down since january of two thousand and twelve because a leak was detected in one of the scene generator tubes it's not unusual for new steam january this to show somewhere above the level of wear that we saw on the steam generators here at st at santa no frame is highly unusual and that's what is of concern to the n.r.c. since then environmental groups and neighbors have been trying to keep the crippled

plant down it's a lab experiment and were all the rats despite safety concerns here in santa know free nuclear energy could be a large part of america's energy future the obama administration has been an advocate for the technology even in the wake of the fukushima disaster the president secured an eight point three billion dollars loan guarantee for two nuclear reactors in georgia. we're going to have to build a new generation of safe clean nuclear power plants in america nationwide there are one hundred forty licensed reactors according to the nuclear regulatory commission nuclear plants generate twenty percent of the electricity in the u.s. we take the already produced to the greasers the operators of santa know free presented a plan to restart their reactor at seventy percent so in just a few years. you see. some neighbors are still scared former nuclear executive arnie gundersen believes the reactor steam generator is

a disaster waiting to happen if those troops will forget about you waiting ten miles we're talking about an evacuation out to twenty or thirty miles that's up of sobering warning has mobilized communities to take on the nuclear industry finally got to retire you know in my dream place and and that could just be taken away in a second permanently because once you have a nuclear accident you never can come home again the center no free shutdown has cost more than three hundred million dollars the tab will likely be picked up by so cal edison repairs with growing concerns over safety it means a sea of america's investment in nuclear will be worth the risk in sacramento california. ramon the lindo r t for more on this nuclear power plant debate and if it could pose a danger arnie gundersen chief engineer or wind energy education joins us now welcome arnie so do you think should folks in that california community be

concerned. if i were there i would be very concerned you know the the new scene generators are supposed to last for years and they only lasted ten months so the start of plant backup is an experiment and i don't think we should experiment with southern california. enter saying you know as a former our nuclear power industry executive what dangers have you seen and your work and using nuclear energy. you know the sentinel free is the worst plan in the last twelve years worst mechanical failure but there was a mechanical failure out in ohio back in zero two that we were about two weeks away from a meltdown there it seems like about every ten years as a real serious mechanical problem and we just catch it right before the a gross failure occurs and i'm just a little concerned that i don't want to be part of the process that keeps just

catching problems listen if this one of the but. yeah i mean we saw the devastation that played out in fukushima japan could something like that happen here in the u.s. you know the worst plan in the country as far as evacuation plans go is sent over. when they built it in the sixty's there was nobody near it southern california has grown dramatically in fifty years so it would be almost impossible to evacuate people would have to get out. is the worst plant in the gut seismic risk and you've got the steam generators that are just an experiment waiting to go wrong so are you a proposal a proponent of never opening that plan period or or do you think there needs to be more studies more precautions more preparation that needs to be done before that plan is open. well at a minimum the public should have a chance to have

a licensing hearing on the process you know that my position with with friends of the earth is that we're entitled to a hearing about all of the design calculations that right now we're not really privy to so i don't know that we need to shut it down but i'd sure like to see the calculations before we let it start up and the n.r.c. is not really willing to let that happen you know and why not there are a pretty secretive agency you know it's that service a nuclear priesthood and they of course they believe that the sole responsibility for safety is theirs you know tell that to the people that live near a power plant they might feel a little bit differently so this agency historically has a record of supporting the industry it's supposed to be regulating and that's a concern which is why friends of the earth went in and tried to get a licensing hearing and course there's

a lot of process still to go before we determine whether or not that's going to happen now according to the to the nuclear regulatory commission nuclear plants generate twenty percent of the electricity and you last that's a pretty good chunk there. what are the alternatives if you are and favor of getting rid of this form of energy altogether. i didn't suggest i'm in favor of shutting all of nuclear plants down today i don't think that's that's reasonable if you said what are the alternatives but you know there's a couple of outliers like the senate over plan that's that's awfully old and broken that should be shut down on economic grounds that the people in southern california are paying. close to seven or eight hundred million dollars plus the clothes for the repair which is another seven or eight hundred million dollars a year into this for over a billion dollars and you've got a plant that hasn't run in fourteen months ok i did last i do want to ask you

a certainly you point out a lot of a lot of glitches a lot of very troubling. things that could go wrong over there in california a is there a way to administer nuclear power in a way that is safe and sustainable. well we need a regulator that actually enforce is the regulations we have if that happened in santa no three wouldn't have had this problem that in old war there was a process that should have occurred where the nuclear regulatory commission would have looked at this new steam generator and said whoa it's got problems we'll see i don't know three minutes just heard around that problem and not used the legal process and so if we enforce the laws we have we can have fewer chances of not that was like we almost now it's you know for yasser and lee we

don't want to hear what happened over there in fukushima happened here on our own shores really appreciate you coming on there any that was arnie gundersen chief engineer of fair wind energy education thanks for having me. well coming up on araa when it comes to fighting al qaeda and africa it appears the u.s. is in need of a helping hand and military is turning to local forces more frequently to deal with terrorist cells that story next. we just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old on the job with truth. making sense and i am a total get of tylenol grab and get caught is that the interesting thing. i did was kind of a gesture. i'm very aware of the role of the serious

replacing. the i think. the worst if you're the only the white house or the theory you're going for the better. what. if you've never seen anything like. the world.

and now we turn to africa where the u.s. is finding that it lacks resources to fight militants already spread thin and in terms of troops and intelligence in the middle east the united states is having a difficult time responding to potential threats in north africa which has become a hotbed of islamic fundamentalism elizabeth a u.s. intelligence official told the associated press quote we do not have the resources footprint or capabilities that we have in other theaters it's not clear we have

a natural partner with whom we can work. well so far in mali the u.s. has been more in the background helping with intelligence and refueling missions france has taken a more direct role and r.t. is one of the few news stations with someone on the ground in mali let's see what our t.v. done zala launches brings us from that war tome war torn country. wirelessly that is their money dollars they know what i look at today in this town and everyone is celebrating the capture of two important islamic leaders one of them is mohammed the head of the team but a group which rich have a contract to get a months particularly violating the rights of women he was captured along with the . leader of the movement for unity and jihad in west africa say he was taken north of close to the border with algeria the capture of these two leaders demonstrates what everyone knows this if you go into book to make sense of security in

a dangerous wilderness we were ourselves detained by the mali an army when trying to get to the city of duane's or any movement towards the north has been strictly forbidden since last weekend when six million soldiers were killed by explosives planted by rebels on the roads leading there was this risk affects the stability of the country distances in mali are so big that it is next to impossible to travel safely on the roads so now the region lacks food medicine and fuel specifically in this part of the region and not to there are about seven thousand refugees children suffer the most common medication is brought in the centers treating malnutrition like the one we saw in mopti would face tragedy coming. clean. treating malnutrition is a necessity in today's critical situation negligence was the cause of malnutrition before but now and then this crisis most children are suffering tis unless it happens in every home where children don't get enough care and. that

alternative syrians are being tried to deliver supplies to timbuktu the in the share and spread them to the north from there we also saw many people come to donate blood so desperately needed in hospitals a christian community in the central region of mali has been collecting supply see palace. has taken on a religious meaning and when that happens the. they're hunting us those who are directly linked with religion. get us out of it but i think despite the fact that the war is moving away the situation remains critical a country filled with refugees and to. help them in food crisis is putting eighteen million people at risk of malnutrition is the pressure on us but what is what am i going to hear gonzalo want to have that mali but i don't hear r t. that was our. watch and that is going to do for now before the stories we cover check out our you tube channel you tube dot com slash our team america follow me on twitter as well

will be right back here and have our. technology innovation all the developments around russia. the future covered.

today. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. today.