in europe were released this week says china is to blame for numerous cyber attacks against the u.s. but as washington places blame on beijing we asked could should it really come as a shock we also dive into u.s. dependence on chinese producers and manpower. and it's america's weapon of choice when it comes to the war on terror but the top secret drone program comes with a price including civilian deaths coming up a u.s. senator reveals just how many innocent people may have died from drone strikes worldwide. and he's nominated for an oscar this weekend for his documentary broken cameras put a palestinian filmmaker runs into trouble when he lands at a los angeles airport we'll speak with emad burnat not about his ordeal with immigration officials. and did you freeze up in high school or college when it came

time to take a test some students are fed up and they've started a movement to boycott standardized testing is it a good idea i am will work. it's thursday february twenty first five pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching. we begin with the much hyped cyber threat from china the story exploded after u.s. security firm monday on released a report that traced a series of cyber attacks against the united states to a chinese military unit in china's defense minister says has said and said that there is no proof that china is responsible for the attacks but the white house has taken action unveiled a new policy that put sanctions on foreign countries that engage in online spying the whole ordeal has raised fear over the u.s. is a vulnerability to attacks from china but beyond the cyber world are we directing our

attention to the right place but if you look at u.s. imports from china in two thousand and eleven we're talking ninety eight point seven billion dollars in electrical machinery and equipment and s. to pay an estimated eight point seven percent increase from the year before and we're also looking at ninety four point nine billion dollars in power generation equipment and that is up by fourteen point seven percent so just how technologically dependent is the u.s. on china to discuss i was joined earlier by brian doogan from the new american foundation i began by asking him how concerned we should be about all the made in china gadgets that we use in the u.s. and what are the chances they could be bugged. all these devices that we use every single day. any of them could be bugged and you know but that isn't just a fact that is true about devices that comes from that come from china that's true about devices that are manufactured anywhere anywhere in the world and in fact

we've had to deal with that in the u.s. in the past with that with our own carriers but the the the thing that allows the characteristics of these devices that allow that type of surveillance and monitoring is there a closed nature is the fact that no one can see into them no one can understand how they actually work inside their actually black boxes and so that is true of almost every single cell phone that we use no matter where it's manufactured so that is the capability. that any manufacturer has over any device that we use and the reason that we're talking about this today is because politically at this point we're scared of what china could could do with its power over its manufacturing but the thing about these devices in order for them to even if they contain what we call a back door even if they contain a vulnerability or they're full of malware or bugs. they still have to operate on

a standardized networks they still have to get on the internet they still have to be able to make cell phone calls and these are known these communication methods are known so the risk is how soon for any given device will a security researcher explore what that device is doing or dig into it a little bit or how soon will someone try to use it on a corporate network so well yeah and. we have these new fears and let's say this sounds scary to to an american it. americans want to stop using chinese products that's easier said than done right it seems like everything is made in china these days how technologically dependent is in the u.s. on china. it's as dependent as. long as the devices are manufactured in china and they're cheap enough for us to buy so you threw out some statistics earlier and that indicate that china and the us is very dependent

but. keep in mind that these devices still have to obey rules to enter operating beyond networks and it would be you know it would be extraordinary for. back doors to be or malware to ship and for no one to notice because of the number of eyes that are looking on on any given device. the want to talk about you know china is a is under the microscope right now are possibly being a cyber threat but they're not the only one involved in online spying are they say no so in order for the for any for any malware or spying to work on any of these on any of these devices right now is let's say it came from china and there was a thread on it it would have to contact machines or or people some somewhere else in the in the world that would be very you know very very quickly discovered the way that you hide that is by making it official and

that's what china attempted to do so in two thousand and six by defining its own life i encryption standard that was not adopted by the rest of the world so the question we have to ask ourselves is you know if if spying is going if electronic surveillance is going to be par for the course for any state for any corporation what are the rules that allow that to happen right now china hasn't been able to get any rules on the on the global level in order to enable its spying but there are other states the certainly have. the united states for example we not only have laws and rules that allow us to. to inspect and gain access to citizens' data but since those corporations that control data are based in the united states and many many people throughout the world including chinese use american corporations power over data the united states has through

a combination of our surveillance laws has claimed the right not only does to inspect americans data but also data stored by foreign citizens on american on american data i was saying this is a very complicated issue very interesting discussion there appreciate you talking coming into. technologist at new america foundation there are parts of the chinese military hacking u.s. trade secrets have been covered extensively by the mainstream media take a listen china is officially out of control because don't look now but prove today our sugar daddy is a thief for tonight lifts the veil on a kind of invisible war china unleashing its full spy power let's return to the alleged link between china's military and a prolific hacking group most cyber attacks are being carried out by teams inside the chinese military but there's more to the technological relationship between the

united states and china than hacking congressman dana rohrabacher a republican from california explained it to our. we have build trying to get into a major economic power without demanding the type of political reforms we've given the most favored nation so this one will be free trade we permitted them to steal or technology they get away with murder. of the latest show of china's economic power purchasing bankrupt usa business a one two three it's an electronic car battery maker you may have heard about this business before a one two three received two hundred forty nine million dollars from the stimulus bill to refer bisht to factories in michigan despite help from the government the company is ultimately going bankrupt now the taxpayer funded technology company has a new owner china that's right the china based company one z. adding purchased

a one two three the factories will remain in michigan saving around a thousand jobs but the technology pioneered by mit will now belong to the chinese so while the mainstream media may cover china stealing u.s. corporate secrets and their mom the times when china simply buys them. and now to the hot topic of drones the secrecy surrounding the drone war in places like afghanistan and pakistan has many calling for more transparency on the drone campaign because it's been so secret it's been impossible to get accurate figures on just how many people have been killed by u.s. drone strikes but now one lawmaker has put a number out there republican senator lindsey graham reportedly estimated four thousand seven hundred people have been killed this number he says includes militants and civilians and here's what he told a local newspaper quote we've killed four thousand seven hundred sometimes you hit innocent people and i hate that but we're at war and we've taken out some very

senior members of al qaeda. now that number is significantly higher than some of the estimates we've heard before and it's unclear where he got that figure earlier i was joined by marcy wheeler investigative reporter for and she will dot net and i asked her how accurate she thought these numbers work that number actually is really close to the number that the pure investigative journalism out of london has come up with so and they're pretty rigorous not just in referring to news reports but in kind of circling back and checking their data after the fact so it may not be far off. at the same time that was there really any way to know how many people have died considering how secret the operations have better now of course not what's interesting about senator graham's common though is the administration is getting all squirrelly about it as if it's right so perhaps he is right perhaps that is the number you know with drones usually you get a better read of what the truth is when the ministry should start acting all

squirrelly than than anything that they actually tell you because they're not they're trying to keep this secret you know another interesting issue at play here is that these drones are now getting into the hands of defense contractors like academy of the company formerly known as blackwater they got in hot water a while ago how does this affect the way that we view drones and their dangerous. well not only that but there was a report this week that china considered using a drone to go after a drug trafficker in burma so we're beginning to see other countries use drones and the same kind of applications we use them in and i just you know i think that question should have always been there for groans what happens when other people use them what happens when private entities use them what happens when other countries use them what happens when terrorists attacked. yeah i do want to go and address what lindsey graham senator graham said you know he put this number out

there and then he goes on to say you know sometimes we kill innocent people unfortunately. that's what happens when we're at war he says but that's the cost that the side effect i guess of taking a very senior members of al qaeda and he's not the only one that kind of defends the president's drone campaign saying that it's this tactical. it's a tactic that's used to kill precisely target military. what do you say to that argument these people and then there are many of them that defend the use of drones and the way that the obama administration has been conducting this campaign. you know he's right about one thing it is it is a tactic but i think that doesn't mean we shouldn't be able to investigate whether it is backfiring susan collins a couple weeks ago in the brennan hearing actually asked that question and

a pretty and satisfactory answer so there are there is at least one senator who's asking the question about efficacy is it working or is it causing more backlash and till we get the numbers such as lindsey graham wants to offer them up i don't know that until we start getting more data i don't know that we can have that conversation which really is the conversation we should be having right that that's what the opponents of the drone campaign are saying that breeds this anti american resentment abroad because of the civilians that are killed and they say it gives too much power to the executive branch and the president has acknowledged and his state of the union speech that there does need to be more transparency on this program do you think that will happen and i think that's ridiculous for him to say that because just in the last day we've learned the administration is choosing to give republican. republicans are still looking for information on benghazi the information they want rather than given even the intelligence committee seven more

memos on targeted killings so i mean they say what they want to be more transparent but their actions really defy that actions speak louder than words right marcy appreciate you coming on the show that was marcy wheeler investigative reporter and see we'll dot net. well he may have been nominated for an academy award but he certainly wasn't treated like a star when he arrived on u.s. soil in modern not as a palestinian filmmaker and he was nominated for his documentary five broken cameras here arrived in l.a. on tuesday to attend the academy awards but didn't get very far upon arriving at the los angeles international airport he was held by immigration officials for about ninety minutes filmmaker michael moore tweeted about the ordeal he said the model his wife and eight year old son were placed in a holding area and told they didn't have the proper invitation on them to attend the oscars and another tweet there apparently the immigration and customs officers couldn't understand how a palestinian could be an oscar nominee texted me for help well filmmaker he madhu

much joining us now from los angeles to tell his story great to have you here model so first off what happens. what's happened says winter when we got here in the airport in the los angeles you know this isn't my sixth time that i come to united states and it's was a strange it treatment i was with my family my son gabriel and my wife and the we just got to arrive after a very long trip we were very the the immigration started questions me stop the you know want me to give them more of a groove and invitations and the why of why i came to united states i told them that i'm an oscar nominee so for them to understand that the palestinian and also our nominees is very was very difficult i gave them the i had a visa and i had the they hope that it's

a vision of light and i i was trying to show them the e-mails from the academia was the invitation but. the lady in the immigration lady the officer she she didn't pay attention to me or what was i saying to her and she told me if you don't come up with bruv i'll do a more documents we would send you back to your country so when you told them that you were nominated for an oscar they didn't believe in l. . no they didn't pay attention to this they didn't believe that and so i was like serious i thought that they will send us becky this was our for me and my sign jabril my sign jabril asked me what's going on here i told them they will send us back so you was very upset and i agree because he was very tired and he wants to come here too to sleep and they do too and after that i think they all score so.

yes so it's it's not that it's not difficult to to a sales job to google my name off to get more information by is calling someone so i started they know i started make this text and send emails to michael moore or to the academia or toward difference friends to tell them that what's happening to me so they could help me why did you reach out to michael moore did you hope that maybe he could help you get out of this predicament yeah it's a was a very serious problem and i axed him i told them that they are holding us here and they they would send us back and so it's serious a problem so might you can help or somebody can headbang to send them some information about us or. to comment ok and they finally did decide to let you go

out did what made them change their mind. yeah finally we get to the to to to go out. after we been all for. sometimes in the rule inside the room with my family but in the end. the last of his sort of immigration he was kindly of sort and he started to ask questions and to google my name and to see it and in the end he say this told me that they're ok and ok so you can go ok do you think that your experience is unique or do you think that this happens often to palestinians yeah it's happens often to palestinians to be able to hold for the scene and passport and i had this problem this is spirits in different countries in europe countries also and we have all those this problem and our place in our home and palestine we go through many cheekbones and

many bottles and we were at for a long time and the board loves and it's this is how the life is how this is ours our life in palestine many pressures of loss and it's not easy to live on the local bishop for a long time so i wanted i'm seeking freedom and peace for my kids to breed and for his generation to change their life and to to get to peace and the freedom for them we cannot just live like this we are human also and we are the only bull on all the world that we live on the local vision and that is that ideal conditions now can you tell us are you made this journey to ally to attend the academy awards because your documentary was nominated can you tell us about your film. yes this for a number of very long period of filming and the commenting the struggle the nonviolent resistance in my village daily life my life my parents life

and my brothers and my son growing so i when when i started in two thousand and five making this film my son gabriel was born and the i was following him focusing on him and following that change and how they how he reacts to the situation and i was following my friend so i wanted to make it a martyr pearsall not fair. about the situation that existed in the village so the film is about. more human a story it's about the daily life in the village sobibor really get to know more about the situation in palestine and about our life and the film was very successful and people get the to be moved and touched by the story because it's more human a story so they feel they are more close to the film and to the story and to the be

able the so i was a creating this film for. four seven years and i am very proud because this is the first policy in a documentary those two to be in the scott oscar nominee and nominee and if the film went all scott of so it's would be a historic day for the palestinian people and for the but it's this is important because this will grow big it inch into the press in a situation. may not i wish you the best of luck on extend my congratulations to you i really appreciate appreciate you coming on the show telling us all about your star and how it's been a long week for you i really appreciate it that was a modern not a color director five broken cameras thank you. it's time now to check in with our web tend to see what they are working on our web producer and blake is in the newsroom to tell us more hi andrea what you're working on over there so much so much so as you can see behind it we have two really big stories today both out of

washington both on the right house very very very important first off let's talk about that president barack obama now we know that he has been in the little things begin to low confusing lately about what's he going to do with his different nominations for his different positions opening up in his second administration it looks like president obama is going to actually pick and choose how he's going to handle this whole snafu that developed over who he's nominated it looks like now president obama is going to come clean and explain to members of congress a little bit more about last year's attack in benghazi that left four americans dead including u.s. ambassador chris stevens what in doing so president obama is going to appease the republicans who were you know still dead set on finding out the facts behind this thing but he's going to stop right there which is kind of weird as members of his own party the democrats they're really urging the white house to open up on his whole targeted kill drone strike extrajudicial execution of american citizens that whole thing but it looks like president obama's not going to bother talk about drones right now instead he's going to handle the benghazi thing put the drone

stuff aside and we'll see how long that last for also we all know is huge cyber security cyber security stuff happening this week looks like a new report out of the white house out of the justice department really really point the finger and not just chinese hackers but hacktivists members of the group anonymous members of the group and we do weeks ago now that you've got to check it out right a lot to read up on there andrea thanks for that update that was our producer andrew blake with a preview of what's trending today on our web site. well a new movement is sweeping the country it's a movement away from standardized testing test like the s.a.t.'s which most high school students are required to take notice some high school students feel that the test is unfair and refuse to take them even some teachers are on board and are refusing to administer the tests it's happening coast to coast campaigns against standardized testing to discuss what's behind it leon botstein president of bard college joins us now well. so why don't you agree with the principle of

standardized testing. well the tests are very poor they're poor tests of their old fashioned they really date from the mid twentieth century the sound tests are coolly written they're not good predictors they masquerade as really cation of what you are they have no connection really with learning and with reasoning so i'm not against testing but these tests in my view are corrupt out of date and not and they're discriminatory i.e. is that is the word corrupt there can you explain away is that where because the biggest correlation and scores of test is your income and how well you do it. which means you can retrain for the test and the training for the test comes with privilege so very gifted children who are not in homes where you can have to agree

special civically for the test these tests are not really a test of subject knowledge and not tests that really understanding their extremely . unhelpful instruments that have been used by institutions too low get through the selectively process you give numbers the appearance of objectivity behind telling some you can go to this college or that college we need to really test which actually teach you something if you take them with a moderator you can do that these are wildly out of date now what then if not standardized testing towns like the s.a.t.'s if not that approach what is a more effective approach to evaluating students but a more effective approach is firstly to give a test which actually teaches the person taking the test whether they have the right or wrong answer so if you get the wrong answer it actually triggers a computer program where you can actually then figure out why you got the answer

wrong and why have multiple choice questions no one ever ask you to get your job. well lawyers like to do it give you four choices none of which may be actually eight they just asked you a question we ask you a question and see how you respond and if they're not common sensical they grew out of some kind of social science about fifty years ago about warren jeffs just would look like that is multiple choice and that's a mistake ok and these tests beyond the as task how do you think it affects teaching do you think teachers tend to just teach to the test and if so how does that affect that occasions as seven was a catastrophe really both the republicans and the democrats have fall in love with standardized tests because the public seems to understand them you know the testing shows where the teacher is girl but the sins of who are so what happens is the curriculum is designed to meet the test the problem is different take science

biology of physics chemistry. there is not totally about facts about right or wrong answers there was stuff we don't know is about how you do science now you think about science and it is about understanding material so that test become very simplistic they reduce the subject matter to the lowest common denominator and then teachers really drill you for the test it was a study done in texas where a month or two weeks after the test was taken the pupils had no recollection of what the subject matter worked right you know i do understand this more holistic approach that you're talking about here but what about sending standards how will you fairly evaluate students across spectrums you know doctors have to pass standardized test lawyers have to pass standardized tests especially at a time where there is this worry that u.s. schools are no longer competitive in the world you know if your issue is whose are not. better my position is not against certs so for example

a test for middle school and for people getting out of medical school are written by doctors those are from a bar separate by the leaders there are subsidies there you have to know something i'm for those tests i'm just ganz tests manufactured by the college board b.s.a. teachers and really poor levels state mandated tests that destroy the subject i'm for standards what's wrong with the test is the standards are to look well seems like there's a lot of parents and students that do agree with you appreciate your coming on the shell and that was leon botstein president barchi college. it's coming up in just a half hour is breaking the set with abby martin here on r t let's check in with babie to see what is on today's agenda abbi what are you working on over there we're working on a lot liz so we've got jeremy hammond's case of course you know we heard the the hearing today how the judge is not going to be cruiser itself in the issues that we were talking to andrew bleak about that he could be talking about jesse jackson jr

and spending seven hundred fifty thousand dollars of our money to buy things like michael jackson memorabilia to cruises to whatever else his heart desires but we're going to focus actually on the media steve and fake a vent in the past to kind of provoke public support for war selling war we're going to go over a couple of the most famous cases of these in the last two decades really shocking stuff including the toppling that infamous photo of the toppling of the saddam statue in iraq kind of breaking it all down why that happens and more stick around right abbie thanks for that update and a half hour that's all coming up but that is going to do it now for the news from around the stories we covered you can always check out our you tube channel that's you tube dot com slash our team there you can also head on over to our web site r t v dot com slash usa and you can follow me on twitter at liz wall.