any new poll from public mine shows that forty percent of voters think it's illegal for the government to kill americans abroad. and so cute no way the u.s. could be doing that because it's illegal well put these people probably don't realize that this administration has created a legal framework to make what would normally be illegal legal what's even more disturbing is that as long as it's not americans who are being executed people don't seem to care at all of the same poll seventy five percent of people approve of drone wars to target whatever the u.s. brands as a quote national security threat is the this exact mentality is the problem this blind faith is what led to americans being the targets of assassinations without due process our silence is complicity what are we going to wake up to this flawed logic when the predator drones are above our houses taking out our family and friends. what.

were you ever seen anything like that. yesterday's show was all about the national defense authorization act and the subsequent lawsuit that has been filed against the government over the indefinite detention clause along with the powerhouse of journalists and activists there were also whistleblowers present to show their solidarity in the case while in new york city for the trial i had the honor of sitting down with thomas drake is a former national security agency employee and whistleblower of a wiretapping program called trailblazer which he claims is a violation of our privacy and as a result of him speaking out he was declared an enemy of the state and charged under the espionage act and ever since he's been a prominent voice for civil liberties and the rights of whistleblowers take a look. like and. is just another step

since the post nine eleven era. another step in the erosion of the us constitution and the rise of not just enough security state but secret government. executed through through for yacht executive rule. when you came out as a whistleblower and you were prosecuted for it and targeted i mean how did it feel to have the same establishment that you had dedicated so much of your life working for come down on you total betrayal is important no i took an oath four times the support and the constitution that oath was not was not an oath to the president it was not an oath to law it was not an oath of secrecy it was not a to the end our security agency was certainly not an oath to look the other way when the government itself commits massive fraud waste and abuse and engages itself in wrongdoing illegality and that's precisely what the government did after nine

eleven on a vast scale but we just came up on the fortieth anniversary of watergate and you know here we had one wiretapping scandal that brought nixon down and the supreme court rules that the president is not above the law i mean how did we stray from there to now prosecuting the messenger and where the president is now above the law that's clear it's surreal i was a very young teenager in the one nine hundred seventy s. that was my civic awakening i actually remember very young hillary rodham clinton today on the impeachment committee i remember all of the machinations as watergate unfolded i also remember daniel ellsberg in the pentagon papers and all of the violations of american rights and liberties by our own government that were veals in those congressional investigations the church committee hearings. and

which the mair america found out just how far the government had gone to silence or dissidents journalists activists and those who become enemies of the state as defined by the government in secret now that was the one nine hundred seventy s. . and frank church had warned the nation then particularly respect to the technology of the national security agency and others that if we ever found ourselves in a similar scenario in the future would we able be able to pull ourselves back across the rubicon because it might be too late well speaking of too late do you think that the not only the egregious erosion of their our civil liberties systematically so far after an event like nine eleven but that coupled with the corporate state that actually profits off this the surveillance state all of these these military industrial complex corporations i mean have we gone too far to

really repeal this now that we have this corporate marriage between government profiting off these aversions i hope not but it's an unholy alliance and it's clearly entering into a period where not only do we lose our constitutional rights it's actually the rise of corporate government state which some would use another word to describe that which is a form of fascism or soft tyranny you can't have a government violate the constitution in secret and then forming all these alliances with corporations who themselves are ensuring the continuance of their own interests through the government that's not in the best interest of the country let alone the constitution but that's what's happening and so we've actually seen in two channels. the largest read history of wealth that i that i can even consider in terms of the us history you have the distribution of wealth to the corporate side exemplified by wall street you have to redistribute wealth to the nasa curie

complex military industrial complex massive billions upon billions hundreds of billions there's only so much you can extract out of the country and the people and so we're elsewhere is left to take it take away their rights. because you have to ensure the continuance of the power structure that's were facing the n.b.a. a particular section ten twenty one i find particularly pernicious because one of the above in a straight is actually been taken one step further a step that i couldn't even imagine not only do we bypass the constitution not only leave the constitution aside now do step outside and put ourselves in an entirely different vehicle called the now security state we're going to do so under the authority of the commander in chief the military rule military law or more the more accurately say military authority and we're extending that authority which is clearly separated in the constitution we're going to extend that authority

over those who were in the united states period and we're going to apply the same quote unquote laws of war which is a misnomer the laws of war and all the other enabling acts that we've created since nine eleven or going to apply those to those who reside within the united states and if we decide i want to take someone off the street because they might be a potential threat or a you know they're providing material support. force of stand of support what's substandard support mean means whatever the commander in chief wants it to mean first syslog and they're doing so under military authority the last thing i would want the united states ever become is a military state because it's probably is true that you can't trust the locals and you probably can't trust even the local police so who do you nationalize who do you federalize in

a way to message lee to ensure the control and monitoring of the population but that was never in the original design of the constitution and historically we've never really get ever gone there we got a few breaches here and there but they were quickly pulled back here were saying hey it doesn't matter the only authority that the prosecution could cite one questioned in the courtroom by the judges today was the a un math the authorization to use military force so if that was the only authority which in itself is fraught with all kinds of problems that all goes back to the early days of the post nine eleven era why do you need section ten twenty one section ten twenty one is really a generalized provision under which the government undo itself once exercised military authority at any time anywhere including as anybody in the united

states of america thomas to wrap it up i mean obviously we're living in a very agreed just two tiered justice system where people like you and other whistleblowers are prosecuted for telling the truth yet the torturers the wire tappers are going on book tours gallivanting around the globe talking about their time in government should those people be in jail yes they violated the law. agreed just like they were and they were enablers in the violation the constitution and the years. i sit here before you as the only person prosecute indicted for the surveillance program which i blew the whistle on you had nothing to do with that program i was on offer the program i was on unable the program i ever engage in secret surveillance in violation of the fourth amendment or the foreign intelligence surveillance act yet i am the one that one point as achieves the

original chief prosecutor my case stated in no uncertain terms at a secret f.b.i. facility how would you like to spend the rest of your life in prison mr drake unless you start talking that's how serious they were about protecting that secret surveillance program called stellar wind. john kiriakou is the only person going to prison because of the torture program a state sponsored program which we're now finding out is far vaster was far more expansive than it ever been revealed before at least perhaps more at least fifty four countries he's the only one going to prison why because he blew the whistle on it he knowledge of the former cia employee that torture was a state sponsored policy but he never engage in torture he never supported torture and he actually refused the torture training and they made it crystal clear during

their training at fair trial therefore space this we don't do y. because we're americans and that exceptionalism of america under the constitution we don't do what the others do i never imagined they would turn out in the torture program a vast scale that we ourselves would engage in torture like because we're america and we can get away with it because we're america. but as i say about us with. our country. we're the only two people the two biggest scales the bush administration and obama's ration was said we're going to look for in a backward but look backward long enough and far enough to actually prosecute indict the two people who blew the whistle on those two programs it has to stop the stand must be taken power doesn't yield so she secret power

doesn't you'll willingly it doesn't you got to keep exposing disclosing it was going to take more when you start taking our fundamental right see in the thing that makes america america for all of our faults and contradictions even those that built into the original constitution. the thing that makes america america are those precious rights that are granted to us as the people not to the government in the first and fourth amendment are fundamental along with the fifth and sixth. fundamental as the reason why there was an american revolution well maybe it's time for another one. i'm not calling for us to go in the streets and overthrow the government right now but considering how the principles this country was founded on are being a roaded by the day we do need a revolution one of ideas and values it was great to get thomas drake's insight on

that. but you're wondering about what i'm doing when i'm not on air check me out on twitter at abby martin like when you see you can follow me there find all my tweets linking to every segment from the show as well just random thoughts last throughout the day and also please help us get a break in the said trending on twitter ok now throw out some hashtags we can get trending on this twitter sphere but only with your help so head to twitter dot com and check me out at abby martin going to let you take a break from my preaching for now but stay tuned here about an energy source that may be doing more harm than good next. the government no longer represents the people. the people are going to take the term.

the way i can hardly. wait. wealthy british style is not. the time to explain the things will.

lead to market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to conjure reports on our. news today violence is once again flared up. saying these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing corporations rule the day. the. americans dependence on foreign oil has increasingly become a point of contention which is why the government has been seeking out alternative

alternative domestic energy sources one of them that you've probably heard of it becoming more readily use is called horizontal hydraulic fracturing also known as fracking where there extracting natural gas from shell rock it's a controversial practice that was exported to two thousand and ten documentary called gas land take a look at how it's done. and plant the mix of water and chemicals eight thousand feet into the ground. ranking itself is like a mini earthquake the intense pressure breaks apart a rock and freeze up to us and while on the surface that may seem like a good idea to replace fossil fuels with this there's a whole host of other problems that accompany the practice and that's why one community is saying no town of woodstock new york has become the first municipality calling for legislation to make fracking a class felony that's just delayed it's an opposition movement that's forming globally so what is the future of fracking and what are the real dangers associated with it to talk about all that and more i'm joined by karen harmon managing editor

of the journal capitalism nature socialism environmental journalist who what why news turn thank you so much for coming on. thanks for having me so it seems like we're hearing more and more about the use of fracking when just a couple years ago no one really heard about it give us a sense of how widespread this practice is and really can we look to this as one of the main pillars of energy policy in america's future. well i think if you i want gas companies get their way then yes we can look for and this is being fracking is actually. since about two thousand and it started out what's currently considered. modern hydro fracking which is a combination of two techniques one is horizontal drilling and the other wind is the hydraulic fracturing itself so those two techniques have been combined.

helen burton came up with that they started in the barnett shale in texas around two thousand or so and. it's just it's also been happening in colorado in wyoming and it's spreading here out there fracking in. our. now they're starting in ohio pennsylvania of course which is. the introduction to fracking here in the northeast and what we've seen is that it's just been unbelievably polluting and destructive karen let's go into that exact point i've read a lot of reports about what kind of affects us this perhaps has on the environment i mean how would you describe those as well as the health effects because i didn't get a chance to see gas land but i know did an incredible job invested in the ailment these people are getting in the communities i mean they're fosset six floating in

the giant fireballs when they turn them on talk about the effects on the health and human health and the environment. ok in terms of health of facts. there's a lot of problems i mean you have a lot of air pollution with fracking because fracking it's not like you just drill a well and now and. you take the gas and you have to build an entire infrastructure of stuff so there's a lot of truck traffic there's a whole industrial landscape that has to be and. now i'm these rural landscapes in pennsylvania and cuomo lift the ban in new york here in new york lots of roads lots of. parents themselves compressor stations all kinds of industrial equipment a lot of these things tremendous amounts of the air pollutants diesel. benzene all kinds of chemicals and stuff are needed into your air and and then i think

about fracking that's really interesting is that traditionally there is a separation between the industrial areas and residential areas but fracking is an activity that is. it's it's just being away out in literally a hundred you know a couple hundred feet from people's homes. and across the street from schools and things like tag there's no division it seems so people are being points and in terms of the air the water is a huge problem a lot of chemicals that are used in fracking and also the natural gas itself which is next and will migrate. people drink this material they get sick the kinds of health effects that we then i have been reading of doubt a lot of nerve damage a lot of skin rash and can centers all kinds of breathing problems people have

trouble sleeping because the other thing about this is that it's a twenty four seventh's operation so when they start there's no way to get any there's no sleep it's really bright it's just. you know i wouldn't want to next to my house i read i read somewhere that you mention across the street from a school i think they're actually trying to instill fracking measures on a college campus somewhere in the nation and i wanted to talk to you about alternatives though i mean people are looking at fracking and saying look this is great i mean it's going to lessen our dependence on foreign oil obviously you said that there's oil companies that have a stake doesn't really come is that a stake i'm sure the revolving door is going round and round with them and the government we have a minute left but i mean what are environmental activists advocating as a better strategy than this. well i think what struck you as as i wrote in my piece for why i. would start is basically saying look the current

system that we have. the current regulatory system will not allow us to say no to this it doesn't allow communities if people you know to exercise their democratic rights which techniques peaks also to the interview that you just can't time greg. so you're saying that we don't want to try to talk the government into making it bad we just want to say this is our arm. there's nothing that can be done to actually write it say we want to say no to that and there are a lot of alternatives that we can tap into thank you so much for coming on karen charmin environmental journalist out of who what why appreciate a time. you

know you might think that the iraq war is over and that the war in afghanistan is winding down and help you watch the corporate media might actually believe it. there's word now that president obama speeding up the transition in afghanistan announcing there will be less u.s. troops there starting this break in a surprise announcement the president today announced a newly sped up timetable for how the war is going to wind down and afghanistan president obama is pressing ahead with plans for an end game in afghanistan he met yesterday at the white house with visiting afghan president hamid karzai and announce that the u.s. military transition is already underway this is one of the military bases that will no doubt be affected as the u.s. military continues to wind down its presence here in afghanistan here's what the announcement means for the most part up to. now american and afghan soldiers have been fighting the taliban side by side in the mountains in the valleys basically

wherever the taliban are hiding well that is now changing as of this spring it's afghan soldiers that will be in the lead they will be the ones initiating the combat with the taliban while the american soldiers will only be here to advise and assist when they are requested to oh great i guess we can all just disregard the strategic agreement between obama and karzai over the extended u.s. presence in afghanistan through twenty twenty four which conveniently is not mentioned by the corporate media i wonder why but the fact of the matter is that the u.s. military operates around the world and it's more widespread than ever before comes the u.s. military footprint it seems that the u.s. has its boots eyes ears and drones on the ground in almost every country in the world back in two thousand and eleven when congressman ron paul famously said that the u.s. is under great threat and no not because of our freedoms but rather because quote we occupy so many countries one hundred and thirty countries we have nine hundred

bases around the world the sad reality is that the u.s. government is openly engage in overseas contingency operations and every corner of the planet for example in the middle east the u.s. has an ongoing operations that range from ground forces to aerial drone strikes and routine surveillance and nearly every country in the region most recently news just broke up a secret drone base in saudi arabia one that news outlets knew about for years but didn't report on because of their fear of violating quote national security moving on to africa u.s. military presence ranges from an advise and assist troops throughout the continent to actual bases in egypt djibouti and ethiopia not to mention the full engagement by soldiers cia agents and drone strikes in countries like somalia in mali and the recent pivot to asia countries like. in the philippines have experienced a surge of u.s. military ships planes and personnel all in addition to the routine war exercises

between the u.s. and its closest regional allies but when it comes to latin america the u.s. military is footprint is more like a blanket a counter-narcotics operations being launched from bases all over the region this is especially true in central america where the resulting clashes have turned the region into the most dangerous place on earth further south however countries are less exposed animal colombia and brazil aid the u.s. in their drug operations countries like ecuador of simply refuse to allow america to build bases on their land here in north america the mexican government acknowledges that u.s. intelligence and military officials are deployed in the country however we have no idea to what extent since the information is being withheld because of again national security i haven't heard that one before but let's not forget our closest allies in europe or several countries are willing participants in the cia's expansive torture program in fact check out the countries that are hosting overseas

troops. germany the u.k. belgium spain italy and turkey all countries that are more than willing to house tens of thousands of american troops already to mobilize at any point so even though we hear constant rhetoric about wars winding down and obama shift in policy this is to ask yourself does this look like a military empire that's winding down to you. rightly. well.

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