is the battle of david versus goliath playing out inside the u.s. supreme court biotech giant monsanto is squaring off with a small time farmer over who over the use of soybean seeds coming up find out what's at stake for the biotech company and why the farmer isn't giving up this fight. and while we're on the topic nearly five years after the a.t.f. raided the organization known as blackwater the case against a security agency has come to a close what's the verdict and what is the private security firm doing in greece. plus we're learning more and more about president obama's secret drone program straight ahead see what drone pilots are now starting to experience and what some elected leaders are demanding from the commander in chief.

it's monday february twenty fifth four pm in washington d.c. i'm meghan lopez and you're watching r.t. we begin this afternoon with a story that's been told since the beginning of time one person fighting what they think is right fighting for what is right willing to face the whole system if need be burning hugh bowman is going head to head with biotech giant monsanto over alleged patent infringement on old soybean seeds he used on his farm that's located in sanborn indiana r.t. correspondent lizzie wall digs up what's the latest information on this case liz what you got for us well that's right we reported on monsanto before and the controversy over getting labeling undernet italy modified foods but this time it's a seventy five year old indiana farmer that is up against this enormous agricultural company and it's a case with far reaching implications that has made its way all the way to the supreme court. it's a case of david versus goliath i don't know but i could see nothing what

i done was wrong seventy five year old vernon hugh bowman in indiana farmer up against monsanto an agricultural giant that owns more than half of the world's seed market if they don't want me to go to the elevator and buy the grain then then congress should pass a law saying you can't do it the case has come all the way to the supreme court monsanto claims boman violated the company's patent on soybeans genetically modified to resist this weed killer at the heart of the case being considered by the supreme court is just health bar monsanto's pass and can go the company says the seeds can't be reused once the crop has grown but farmers worry that monsanto has a monopoly over the seed market for generations to come to this farmers saying i buy it see that we're the next generation removed from what you patented that patents shouldn't apply here anymore and monsanto saying the patent applies forever it's a case with wide reaching implications from technology to medicine researchers and

businesses are keeping a close eye on what the case could mean for control over their patents it is well established that. living things such as transgenic mice is another well known. example panel subject matter of living or you know potentially living materially can be patented but consumer and organic food groups don't buy it and when it comes down to this food is different we're not talking about the latest cell phone we're not talking about some new fancy new technology this is about whether people are going to afford be able to afford to farm in afford to eat but so far it appears that the supreme court is leaning toward monsanto citing that the law prohibits making copies of a patent an invention with monsanto pumping millions of dollars into lobbying washington and with the backing of the obama administration it seems for bowman and small farmers like him the fight for their farms will be an uphill battle in

washington liz wall r.t. . well monsanto has clashed with small farmers before the c.g.i. and has filed a hundred forty four lawsuits against over four hundred small small farmers and small farm businesses now bowman's case is unique because he's appealed it all the way to the supreme court a decision is expected by june maggette are to block correspondent live wall thanks for reporting. and just when things are beginning to calm down new allegations have come out against senator bob menendez the daily caller news publication says it spoke with a professional escort who claims to have had sex with the new jersey senator this comes after the daily caller has extensively reported on the senator's allegation allegedly as ons with underage prostitutes in the dominican republic now the women making these allegations agree to speak to the daily caller on the condition of

complete anonymity this story raises a lot of questions about the senator but it also brings up questions about the sources of the story itself and other news outlets lack of interest in the issue altogether why hasn't this seemingly explosive story filled with all the wreck with the risque sex and drama gained traction in the mainstream for more on the story and source i'm joined now by david martin sco he's the executive editor for the daily caller and he joins me now. so let's start with this with this explosive story go ahead and walk us through the latest details of it well we've talked to a professional escort who's been in the field you know seeing men having sex with them for money in high end hotel rooms for over a decade and she told us in multiple interviews and i've met her i know exactly who she is she told us in multiple interviews that she has in fact seen senator menendez is a client she's had lots of different politicians as clients and she describes the senator as a real hobbyist in the sense that he does this

a lot and some of the men who sort of make a hobby for lack of a better word out of seeing as many of these call girls as they can and writing about it online in some cases they call themselves hobbyists i think it's a slightly softer word than calling themselves johns a lot of these guys are cheating on their wives and they like to think of themselves as just like they are you know growing herbs in their backyard garden or something you're so how did you come in contact with this escort you say you've been in contact with her several times did you approach her or did she approach you she approached the daily caller she saw our reporting on this late in january when this cache of documents first cropped up on the internet around january twenty fourth. this was a collection of e-mails from an anonymous whistleblower who said look i've had these communications with the f.b.i. with the nonprofit with a.b.c. news and here's what i know and in those e-mails were a lot of allegations from women saying that senator and one of his long time donors from florida and i dr that they had been you know using these women as prostitutes

in the dominican and two of them said they were under age when it started to happen now this particular culture we spoke with look she's in the business of seeing adult men for consensual adult activities that include a payoff at the end she she doesn't blame anybody for doing that but what offended her on a very basic level was the idea that he was taking advantage illegibly of teenage girls who were under the age of majority and that's what brought her out of the woodwork and really the difference between her case if you can call it a case and these women in the dominican republic is that and prostitution is legal in the dominican republic it's not if you're over eighteen it technically actually illegal if somebody if a third party makes money you can't be a madam or a pimp but two consenting adults you know or i want to sleep with you and give you money that's legal but if someone pimps you out that's illegal ok so let's talk about this source in this case who are now a lot of news organizations are very hesitant when it comes to choosing a source when they're going to protect them completely expression when it's the centerpiece of a story so how did you go about choosing this one and the more important over line

question is why should we believe her well first of all she chose us you know we didn't choose her she came to us and told him oh if you're going to touch her anonymity. well she's concerned for her safety frankly this goes beyond in her mind this goes beyond a senator with a political problem this goes into the affairs of some people who he's in connection with there's this this one young woman a ukrainian model who she alleges our source alleges is in the business of procuring young girls for the senator his daughter and our sources concern that she may be connected to some very dangerous people in new york russians as it happens. but it's not really that or could be anybody she's concerned for her life she doesn't want her identity come out because she's scared at the same time she said she wants to do the moral thing and expose someone who she believes is taking advantage of young girls and young girls in some cases who are being trafficked ok if i shouldn't does come back to how do we know that this woman is telling the

truth how can we believe her or is there any evidence there are other sources you know we've talked to a professional book or a madam if you will in new jersey who will be writing about more in connection with this story we've we've verified her sort of trail through the escort community through websites she's a member of she shared her passwords with us so we could sort of see what she's doing online and how many of these men she's seeing only if she shared her calendar with us we only have about forty five seconds left but i have one final question for you know if this woman says that it is immoral obviously she's. for her safety but does it will it actually help accomplish anything in holding this man responsible if senator menendez if she isn't willing to come forward and put a face to the story she i think she's hoping that her first step out will bring other women out of the woodwork i mean from from her story there are dozens like her and maybe some of them will be willing to talk with her other concern is that senator menendez according to her is sitting on the the reauthorization of an act

of congress that protects trafficked women and he has the authority to move it off a committee but he's not moving it not also offended her she wants to put i think a little bit of heat underneath him to make a move that bill i think that's a fair thing to do it's a very interesting conversation and one that we will continue following up on david martin sco executive director of the daily caller thank you for your for joining us my pleasure. and speaking of scandals nearly five years after the bureau of alcohol and tobacco and firearms raided the organization formally known as blackwater and seized some twenty two automatic weapons the case against the security agency has finally come to a close the indictment claimed that blackwater used the camden county sheriff's office as a proxy to purchase these automatic weapons it also alleged that the agency bought some two hundred twenty seven short barrel rifles without registering them now of the five former blackwater officials who were charged former general counsel andrew howler former procurement vice president and bundy and former weapons manager

ronald flays ak had all of the charges dropped that were against them meanwhile former president of blackwater gary jackson and former executive vice president william matthews pled guilty to some mr meaner charges they were sentenced to four months and of house arrest three years probation and five thousand dollars fine so a slap on the rest by any means so we want to know did this group get off too easy or was this justice served and to help me answer that michael o'brien is the author of a million america's failure in iraq the book that you see right there and he joins me in studio now hi there michael welcome back to the program so take us through the indictment how serious are these charges well really there are they're just follow on charges after the the debacle mr square in the big bad september of two thousand and seven. course there was where the seventeen iraqis were killed. you can say they were you know murdered needlessly killed whatever the case may be

these are following charges that were pushed against blackwater which is now of course that's the old name the company technically doesn't exist it's called academy now. a rose by any other name i guess you could say that way they can you know technically legally sever the relationship but you said it's a slap on the wrist. it's really it's really nothing so let's go back and look at the the charges itself and also the the verdict i mean was this justice served in this case do you think well you know they reached a plea they they plead they they copped out they dropped the charges three people were just to walk to the charges were reduced to five thousand dollar fine slap on the wrist i think it also there's house arrest for four months so. and the other thing too is they they claim that they were buying these weapons for the cia and the cia said we don't know what they're talking about and the thing about it is who

knows i mean maybe they were but it seems to me that the cia has ways of getting their own weapons i mean it just doesn't make a lot of sense and the cia just if they if it was true the cia left them hanging well and when i think to bring up is that the i want to read a quote from jackson's attorney ken bell and talking about what that they think their lives that the government actually knew about this he said quote all the things that jackson was charged with doing that were crimes that he did and the company did for the government at the request of the government with the full knowledge of the government and it's just taken us a long time to get the government to understand and resolve this case but with that mr meehan or so is it relieved just a case of mistaken communication could it be i think it's he said he said if it could it could be it could have been mistaken communication but but then again you know if you're in business and you're doing something on behalf of the government

as a front or something like that you know it's not like you know mission impossible you know if you get caught anything you do or you know we will disavow any knowledge of your action. that's t.v. i do i really seriously doubt that blackwater would have gone into this and just my personal opinion but i doubt they would have gone into it. with all taking one hundred percent of the risk and it was it was. not a lot of weapons it was a small amount of weapons they were raided by a.t.f. and weapons were found and it was not like a huge cache of weapons or anything like that. it's not like it was a major major scandal was odd enough for the firearms and tobacco agency to write ada. they must of thought so but it just doesn't seem like it seems like it was. that a deal was struck with the prosecution so what was the point do you think of going after these people and not really throwing the book out. is the government or the

federal prosecutor in this case afraid of going after people that they essentially hired do their dirty work well i really think that the reason why the u.s. government went after him was because they were unable to really get anything after the new source were massacred as a result of the complete screw up of diplomatic security from the state department who copped a deal they said that we won't charge you for you tell us what you did that's the same as me killing somebody and then the police going if you tell us what you did and that you kill them we won't charge you with those that doesn't make any sense and the government i think was just a little ticked off that they couldn't go after these guys so they were trying to you know go after anything that they could get blackwater with and of course prince who's the former head of the company has left new name academy and he's off doing his own thing around the world providing military services a mercenary services for the highest pay or marginal it appears that just a kind of switch the conversation just a little bit it appears that you know the u.s.

americans might not trust blackwater turned the turn academy but the great certainly do former great diplomat leonardo's christ sansa la paz i hope i say that right says that the greek government has hired organised the organization along with five other international for profit security outfits because quote the greek government does not trust the police who salaries have been cut out so so what should we make of this that the greek government is willing to trust these people i mean what does this say about the relationship with this defense contractor well blackwater is making black work academy is making a ton of money. there are i don't even know i don't know if they are headquartered in the united states anymore certainly they used to be in north carolina i don't know if that off the top of my head but a. they might be offshore now but it's for all practical purposes an american company but technically if they're off shore they're not it's a mercenary firm you could say it's a private security company i'm sure that's what they call themselves and they're selling. military services for

a profit apparently they're still on making quite a profit if they're able to work in the great government and beyond michael o'brien the author of america's failure in iraq thank you for joining me thanks very much well after years of secrecy we are finally learning more about the u.s. drone program its breath and also potential targets among congress members there is widespread support of the program but also a growing demand for more information and more regulation perhaps no one has been as vehement as conduct kentucky senator rand paul who appeared on fox news on friday with a major demand. we're talking about is not killing someone with a grenade launcher on their shoulder we're talking about someone eating at a cafe in boston or in new york and a hellfire missile comes raining in on them there should be an easy answer from the administration on this they should say absolutely no we will not kill americans in

america without an accusation a trial in a jury so i mean are talking about people engaged in lethal force i'm talking about people sitting at a cafe having coffee and that's not the only news coming out of the program a new study by the department of defense has found that drone pilots experience mental health problems like depression anxiety and p.t.s.d. as a result of their work so here to talk everything's your own governor former cia analyst and ray thank you so much for joining me the most welcome so let's start by talking about these soldiers in combat they often come home with these traumatic p.t.s.d. experiences we're learning that now we've been learning it since the vietnam war and now we're also hearing about these drone operators who are thousands of miles away from the battlefield also experiencing similar health problems can you can talk about that a little expand on it. is a good sign and leave you. it's not completely automated

which they're trying to do of course there's a wonderful cartoon of the sacramento bee here to two. soldiers sitting behind console's and one's got a american citizen is crosshairs and the other one is looking at him like this and the the one says. don't worry relax we just downloaded do precious software into the warhead. well it's coming i mean something like that is coming so it in my view that soldiers in air airman still have consciousness that's a good thing and of course as an infantry officer and prejudice against people who think they can win wars from the air when one of the interesting things to note in this research that was done is that these drone operators are affected so much more so than your normal pilots because they actually can stay there they can watch the target be destroyed versus pilots their job is to get out of their area and into a secure area as quickly as possible but i want to play a sound bite from you from robert gibbs the former white house press secretary

something that he said over the weekend. when i went through the process of becoming press secretary one of the things where the first things they told me was you're not even to acknowledge the drone program you're not even to discuss that it exists now r.t. website has calculated that as many as six hundred eighty one people were killed by drones during gives time in the white house could this secrecy you be a part of the fact that these drone pilots are experiencing p.t.s.d. depression etc well secrecy is the bottom of the whole thing ok. here's gibbs saying they told me i couldn't discuss this program who told them which one in this country. he works for the president who say these drone operators you know the ones that have to keep this in secrecy who like to disguise their the casualties with brennan saying there hasn't been one call admiral death in the

period of the year before june two thousand and eleven you know this business about the white house saying well it's classified we can't talk about why is it classified well the only reason is there were war and undeclared war with a major country called pocky stein one hundred eighty million people there people with nuclear weapons ok oh we don't have so no three years ago fifty percent of the papa studies hate is now three quarters so what is the point here what is the point the point is we get fancy new weapons we can use them in a standoff kind of way it's a brave no it's not a brave new world it's a cowardly do world interesting points so let's talk about rand paul the comments that he made earlier this week and saying that he wants to not target americans on american soil is this just political theater or is it something that we can expect

maybe a drone court we've heard a lot of cars numbers talk about drone courts where you know i have to tell you. solemnly sworn to defend the constitution united states against all enemies foreign and domestic and when i took that oath fifty years ago i never thought that i would have to apply that to domestic enemies fifty fifty member of the constitution says that that no person who say no american or no citizen says no person shall be deprived of life liberty or property without due process of law now the president took the same oath i did how can you are a gate to yourself the right to slay other people without due process to be judge jury and executioner i mean that's a. one hundred years ago at the carter we did away with that and then in sixteen forty eight the treaty of misfile and we tried to regulate things so that one country would respect the borders of another we're in a very different world now it's

a new era and i spell that error both ways or as well as your very interesting and just last question yes or no would at the drone program be more transparent if it was run by the defense department versus the cia. i can't give you know because i know it's just one of the other i care you know because it all depends of the president how much secret how much how many secrets he wants to keep for this president is really to keep the secrets are right ray mcgovern thank you so much for your ide your time star and israeli government former cia analyst. an update now on two men whose lives are forever and are twined but whose fates could be completely different from one another i'm talking of course of julian assange bradley manning on sunday private first class bradley manning marked his one thousandth day behind bars without trial over the weekend protests in honor of the accused wiki leaks or were planned internationally as for the case itself preached pretrial hearings are expected to continue tomorrow and manning could enter

a plea he faces twenty two charges including ending the enemy which could result in a life sentence the trial is slated to begin in june now an ocean away wiki leaks founder julian assange has been for senate has been officially accepted by the australian electoral commission his name will now appear on state and federal electoral rolls in victoria in australia now although as has been formally accepted as a candidate the newly formed wiki leaks party has not yet registered with the electoral commission this is on mr a songes bid for senate is seen as a possible political move to help him escape from the ecuadorian embassy in london where he has been held since june nineteenth now under australian law a songe is allowed to run for office without being physically present in the country but he must arrive within two months of winning the election in order to accept his seat if he does in fact when. meanwhile fresh out of his congressional

confirmation hearings newly confirmed secretary of state john kerry has committed his first diplomatic slip listen close and see if you can catch it. through to some of the bush rangers the race is over. a teenager the show was great because it we showed the character should come true is that sure our commitment to go to you should you would write a correction you know jury of their support we did or both should go the way to constitution because it showed and. there's you here. it's john kerry praised diplomatic efforts in a country that in fact does not exist the secretary apparently confuse the poor landmark nation of pervious stand with its oil rich neighbor to the north kazakstan creating a sort of hybrid between the two so he messed up but he certainly isn't the only one sure appealing should she could see russia from alaska.

russia by watching rocky tour. kerry making fun of mitt romney kerry also mentioned that in his democratic national convention for outdoor for china to juxtapose romney's personal foreign relations with an old kind of style memory at least romney was referencing countries you can find in the atlas though kerry is not the first and he won't be the last to make this mistake like this but the reality is that the difference between the two nations but if the difference between these two nations couldn't be more stark both are key allies in the u.s. led war in afghanistan but that cozy relationship could be had it ended in kurdistan where the government says it will not renew the lease on the u.s. air transit facility used for military operations in afghanistan when it expires in two thousand and fourteen meanwhile u.s.

officials are hoping that kazakstan could play a major role in diplomatic talks with iran no word yet as to what u.s. officials are hoping for with the non-existing country of cories act a stand. and that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r.t. america there you can find all the latest and greatest information and don't forget to check out our website for the latest information that we have on the stories that we cover today and a few that we just didn't have time to get to and don't forget to follow me on twitter at meghan underscore lopez there i want to hear your opinions on all the stories that we covered today so tweet me and i'll see you right back here at five pm with more news and in-depth interviews. look at every doc up in the field that find it here if you're like him are relevant stories unique perspective on top of my skin it's been a dark. road

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