while the world was watching the rise of occupy wall street the department of homeland security was keeping an even closer eye coming up we'll tell you about the secret surveillance a peaceful protest. and when obama won that nobel peace prize there was a lot of controversy on whether or not he deserved it the others grow a growing petition to revoke that award that story just ahead. and a tale of two worlds the streets of the homeless and poverty while on the other side the lavish lifestyle of the wretch archie will explore how the rich have gotten wealthier while millions of others have gotten poorer. well it's wednesday april third four pm in washington d.c. and i'm more heard how well you're watching our t.v. well our t. has reported in the past the department of homeland security is conducting surveillance on peaceful protest groups like occupy wall street yesterday the

advocacy group partnership for civil justice fund released new documents that show the surveillance here's a snippet from the fall of two thousand and twelve good morning please send me an update on the movement in your respective regions by eleven thirty s. t. the director is extremely interested with the movement and how it will affect federal facilities. so just who isn't the department of homeland security spying on these days well the h.s. is saying that it has every right to keep track of peaceful demonstrators like those involved in the occupy wall street movement but critics say it's an abuse of their power the whole purpose of the creation of the h.s. was to consolidate different government departments to fight terrorism in response to the nine eleven terrorist attacks well according to the documents it turns out d.h.s.s. been spying on peaceful law abiding citizens since two thousand and six and they say it's perfectly legal to discuss this with me and more i'm joined by journalist and radio dispatch co-host john he joins me now hello john. as you go in there so

john you were at the occupy protests did you get a sense of anybody surveilling your activity there well you would see. and hear in there especially at the larger actions like at the no nato protest and there was certainly a general awareness of the potential it's not high likelihood of surveillance which is in many ways just as effective as actual surveillance itself because that serves to deter people from showing up and it limits the range of discussions that people are willing to have even in what they believe are open groups well john these documents they certainly seem to reinforce previous accounts of law enforcement who seem to target activist and coincidentally d.h.s.s. secretary janet napolitano said yesterday she actually wrote it on her blog she posted concerning privacy and civil liberties saying quote the department has

implemented strong privacy and civil rights and civil liberties standards and all its curity cyber programs and initiatives from the outset in order to protect privacy while safeguarding and securing cyberspace so john what do you make about. well whenever you have a federal agency or a law enforcement agency of any kind talking about how much they are protecting civil liberties and civil rights there's a very good chance they're actually doing the opposite they're at they're actually infringing this is something that you hear repeatedly from the f.b.i. regarding their surveillance of muslim communities is something that you hear from the n.y.p.d. regarding their surveillance of muslim communities and so it's not at all surprising that in light of these new documents that really seem to equate activists with terrorists that the response from v.h.s. would be to say everything's fine here don't pay attention that that's

a very clear sign that you're paying attention to the right things i see so you know a lot of information is being gathered it's been compiled be a fusion center as we're now finding l. and they've been described as massive hobbs' where amounts of data is collected essentially analyzed now are we going to see the role of fusion centers become more central in the fight against terrorism well i think that what we're going to see is an increasing. to an increasing amount of federal agencies amassing surveillance amassing data about what is protected speech protected action and there's no question about that whether it comes from the fusion centers whether it comes from this new as a massive hub that's been created in the southwest in some ways that they sometimes feel like academic differences because if the surveillance is happening at the federal level there's an incredible amount of data sharing that goes into that right but more specifically are we going to stevie's these centers actually aid in

the fight against terrorism. while i mean i i'm not sure whether or not that will happen i would sort of say that what we've seen right now is not actually any has anything to do with terrorism other than in name only as a way to sort of demonize a group that they want to marginalize so going back to janet politan host blog you know and her her discussion of civil liberties and especially the issue of privacy what issues do you see at play here when it comes to you know d.h.h.s. now in frenching on these rights that we all seem to think that we have regarding our privacy. well i think what's at play is that there is an incredible chilling effect people don't want to attend protests people don't want to get involved in activist causes because they feel like there's a chance they could be arrested or surveilled and then on the other end of things

people who are arrested for say cyber activism what we've seen lately is an incredible amount of over prosecution from u.s. state attorneys so you both have the chilling effect on one end and then on the other end you have these massive disproportionate sentences loads of people that also has a chilling effect in itself as well i see so you think that people are going to become more apprehensive and they're not going to protest necessarily because they think that the f.b.i. may be in fact be watching them. i think the there is a lot of that that's already happened with people just anecdotally who are reluctant to go to occupy wall street at the same time i think that in the future there is going to be massive social unrest and so what we're seeing right now is at the federal and state level agencies attempting to create templates for how to

police that unrest that i think they are fearful of in the future we see will john thank you so much for joining me to talk about that was john journalist and co-host at radio dispatch thank you john absolutely thanks for having me keep your eye on the prize the nobel peace prize that is do you remember when president obama won that in two thousand and nine it was a total surprise now activists are saying that maybe he doesn't deserve groups like roots action which are launching an online petition calling for the revocation of obama's two thousand and nine nobel peace prize now that campaign one quarter of a million strong i might tell you claims that obama became an aggressive military leader after taking office too aggressive in fact to maintain that prestigious award the initiative continues to gain steam escalating conflicts abroad continue and a failed promise of the closing of guantanamo bay prisoner prevails joining me now breaking this all down for me is leah longer and she's

a member of the former president of veterans for peace leo hello hello to be here thank you so well what do you think of this award do you think it was given to him prematurely well absolutely i think you know millions of people across the world were dumbfounded when he was given the prize only months after he took office and you know president carter stated that he thought that president obama had been given the prize in anticipation of what he might do or promise to do in the future but you know during the. and president obama's been in office he's certainly disapproval in any promise of being a peace president i see so we have you know we actually have a clip of president obama accepting this prize in two thousand and nine and this clip you know essentially displays that we're going to take you to that now it's just a thought of him explaining you know exactly what's happening so. civil war

that speaks to our highest aspirations. that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world. we are no mere prisoners of fate. our actions matter. and can bend history in the direction of justice. and yet i would be remiss if i did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. you know miss folger so hearing him say those words and considerably you know having him sensually take that prize what do you make of his of his speech well it's just very hollow you know just the other day i heard him talking about the gun violence and. you know so saddened about these children that are being killed by guns but his actions are responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of people in other countries many of them children

and so you know it has his actions don't fit with his words i see if he were so essentially so part of the reason that this group is calling to recall that you know that prize that president obama was given they say that it has been a proven perpetual aggressor when it comes to wars in iraq and afghanistan do you think that his laureate status was a war that was awarded was in fact politically motivated oh absolutely you know the committee the nobel committee is made up of norwegian legislators it's very political and yeah i think i think politics had a whole lot to do with it you know look back in history some of the nobel prize winners have been. he's not the first person has been controversial henry kissinger received the prize so i think that yes there's a lot of politics that goes into play and. if if they're really going to restore the value in the prestigious of the award then they need to revoke it because right

now it's just it's very. it's laughable almost to give the prize to this man who's been a war monger and responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people sure so you know certainly a lot of controversy there so talk to me again you know this group it's actually request a. that you know they recall it do you think that they're going to have any six sassy you know when doing this or is this some just some symbolic gesture as a means of of kind of highlighting the hypocrisy of this yeah i don't think we have any real hope of changing it a you know like i said very political and i don't think the committee's going to to go back and change it but we can use this as a tool to educate the public about what a hypocritical president obama has been that he's not the peace president no matter how much he says he is. and he's been responsible for war crimes that he's read the

drone killings that are being done in his. in his name in our names that by by the obama administration violate all kinds of international laws and geneva conventions you know they continue holding a prisoners in guantanamo without a release these are things that he promised to take care of that he would do the first thing he did step into office and he hasn't done it. you know the backing of israel in their aggressive war on palestine the you know a aggressive bellicose language towards iran imposing sanctions on iran all these are these are not peaceful actions and it certainly will just right here you see just the titian of how many people have actually signed it miss bolger you know where do you see this going are we are we going to see anything come of this movement. well i mean i'm talking to you now about this and we're raising awareness by you know i've gotten all kinds of media contacts from the press release that the

institute for. media accuracy put out and there its actions got a lot of attention now with this so not only are we calling for the river the price to be revoked from president obama but we're also calling for the price to be awarded to bradley manning so you know i don't think we have a whole lot of hope that bradley manning is actually going to get the prize but we're using this as a way to educate the public about about bradley manning and about about president obama's certainly so this group you know that they're citing the recall based on hypocrisy can you give me some examples that you feel are blatant hypocritical actions that he's taken that maybe display what he doesn't deserve the award well the drone drone policy if it is an easy example you know we are we have our country is responsible for the killing of thousands of people in pakistan a country with which here we are not at war and these drones go in and kill

people. seemingly randomly they're not identified many of them are children are women are people who are noncombatants but this is a country with which we are not at war and there's remember been any declaration of war we has a violation i think certainly we thank you so that is leopold your board member and past president of veterans for peace thank you. well still ahead here on our t.v. economic turndown has left many americans in dire straits that doesn't seem to be the problem for the rich who have gotten rich sure when we return a glimpse of the gap between the rich and the poor. looking for every dollar that's in the field that while we won't find it here if you're looking for relevant stories unique perspective on top of what's going on and are.

talking about the same story doesn't make it news new song no puff pieces mean tough questions. elope attentional a deadly blizzard taking aim for the northeast it's expected to hit starting in a few hours from new york to made we have team coverage of the storm. that we're watching is the very heavy snow moving into boston properly or today it was very sticky you can see it start to become much more cowdery down to the line there's still a lot of snow out here a good place for snowball fight. piece and it is going to be pretty incredible day there and record snowfall throughout much of it might still be sluggish regarding the system urgency here larry exceptional.

the worst goes through. right out of the. radio. minestrone. just you've never seen anything like good times roll. well the stock market is enjoying record highs and mainstream media is touting a recovery in the nation's housing sector there are more than more billionaires than ever around the world but this economic boom is not being felt by every part of the u.s. economy while the wealthiest have seen their paychecks or pain on main street continues as americans struggle find work and keep their homes artie's ramon glinda shows us how the super rich are getting richer during the jobless recovery market.

the jury pools in scenic beach for abuse at a price tag of ten point nine million dollars only the wealthiest suffer comforts like these brought the luxury real estate market back so fast was the increase in wealth that's been produced according to forbes there are more than fourteen hundred billionaires with a whopping five point four trillion dollars while the mega wealthy shopper mansions in gated communities americans who can afford a place to live at all bases starkly different challenge. and you know volunteers handed out clothes and food to thousands of homeless people on skid row got. the issue of shrimp property remains a major problem in cities all across the u.s. here in los angeles for the man for homeless services has skyrocketed over the last two years in new york more than fifty thousand people sleep each night in shelters twenty one thousand are children we've gone through probably be the longest

economic downturn is farms duration that we've seen since the great depression and you know the time it's going to take to pull out of that is difficult the shelters sit in the shadow of some of the most prosperous corporations. since two thousand and eight corporate profits have jumped twenty percent every year disposable income for america's average wage earners only increased one point four percent yearly could explain the disparity on federal reserve policy that's great if you're a banker going to benefit on several fronts the markets are more vibrant so you can make more money speculating people think that there is a recovery going on it's not the economy is actually getting sicker as a result of the current fed policy washington has celebrated a reduction in the unemployment rate but latino black communities are still facing double digit jobless rates i got this great hoodie right garcias a forklift operator but has been forced to stay in shelters because he can't get

steady work garcia knows he's not alone i was talking to a truck driver you know he couldn't get any work you know he couldn't get it to pay for a hotel he couldn't get by you know he's staying in a shelter till he finds a job to get back on the road doing budget cuts could slow economic growth experts say sequence tracing could cost us seven hundred thousand jobs despite that corporate america likely won't take a big hit in say the data definitely indicates that the rich are not suffering as they come to night frank expects the number of billy. heirs to nearly double in the next decade the luxury property market and its buyers seem to be in their own universe come of just one of the richest americans could cover the cost of a room for every homeless american for an entire year when you have policies that encourage all the wealth to go to the top that means that while income and wages stagnate even for people who have jobs we don't have anywhere else to go

a cut in your paycheck for state employee betty by the go to ask for a modification on her home loan she says wells fargo it's failed to negotiate with her and is now at risk of foreclosure here replaced by everybody you know. in an attempt to save your home by the will come from it wells fargo c.e.o. john stumpf he made twenty two million dollars last year my children who raced here we've been living here nineteen years this home means everything to us it is the roots of our family headlines of a housing recovery mass that investors and hedge funds are turning foreclosed homes into rentals and securitizing the rental income. as well these enjoy the finest in high living u.s. fiscal policy will likely support an increasingly disparate economic recovery in los angeles are among the lindo r t. and talk more about this from own joins us from the l.a. studio hiram on him are you there so billionaires are turning

a profit during this time of jobless recovery ramon why are we saying this. sure well forbes pointed out that the value of billionaires around the world went up by a trillion dollars last year now forbes attributed this rise in wealth to a resurgence in ass evaluate now what are these assets they include a bunch of financial instruments such as stocks bonds and the derivatives they make from them it's also include real estate so from the get go the wealthy already had much more of these assets than the rest of us that combined with the low interest rates has encouraged more wealthy to make heavier investments however although this money seems to be revolving at the higher end that same growth hasn't been reflected in the middle class and in the lower class when it comes to the economy really not there ramon so we're saying that mainstream media is saying that the housing market is on the rebound which and we just know that the rich will they

just keep getting richer i'm are there specific factors here play that guarantee the fin area no. right well the headlines are correct that home prices are going up and sales are going up but when we look beneath these statistics we have to look at the fact that many of these purchases are being made by investors hedge funds and private equity firms in fact one of the biggest equity firms involved in this scheme is blackstone which last year's pay one point five billion dollars buying up ten thousand foreclosed homes and in fact their c.e.o. was one of the top nine private equity firm bosses which received you know a billion dollars in compensation last year so while home prices and. sales are going up it's not so much that homeowners are going in there we're turning these homes instead into rentals i see so well aren't you correspondent international correspondent polyploid chasse reported that the u.k.

there there is a place called the people's kitchen our volunteers make dinners for the poor a lot of their food is thrown out food thrown out of supermarkets in fact take a listen to the food that we're taking is not good enough to so to throw away it's kind of and i agree that's a big thing and i was really doing i think about in the western world it's just sad really that nobody has respect for the food it's just kind of ok sometimes in the band when there's people starving not just in the other countries where this fear came from. in this country werman do you think this could be happening here in the u.s. . right well it's already happening according to the national resources defense council thirty three million tons of food are thrown out every year in the u.s. and just to give you a little bit perspective an average school bus weighs about eleven tons so the weight of three million school buses that is what we're throwing away every year in food here in the united states and that amounts to about one hundred sixty five

billion dollars now those are pretty sobering statistics when you take into consideration that more than fifty million americans are struggling with hunger every day one in five children so let's move on to the credit crunch here so most of the middle class here in america depend on borrowing just to maintain a stable life you know what part of the credit crunch what part does that play in any of this thing are we finding out that the average person can't get credit to buy a house or a car anymore sure well over several years of reporting on the credit crunch we've seen a lot of anecdotal evidence but last year there was also a report that came out from consumer protection bureau which showed that over ninety thousand complaints against the nation's top financial institutions and most of them involved mortgages also auto loans and other unknowns to buy other goods so of course following the housing crisis there were you know there was a reluctance to give out those loans despite the fact that interest rate loans or

interest rates excuse me are as a friendly to me these trends they seem to be misleading you know they're positive but you know why would they be misleading. sure well while you know stock markets are going through the roof and corporate profits are also increasing that's very good news for the upper end for wall street however we've seen wages stagnate during the recession and the jobless rate while it's hovered around eighty eight percent over the past several months there are still five million people who are considered long term unemployed have been looking for work for more than twenty seven weeks and other people who have just completely dropped out of the workforce many of these job gains that we've seen in the most recent weekly job reports actually turn out to be people who are having to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet and say well ramon always a pleasure that was our to correspond among the lindo. and when it comes the defense spending you probably heard that common wisdom the american jobs are at

risk of any military programs and they may be put on the chopping block but here's something new a shortage of domestic manufacturers could force the pentagon to rely on foreign companies. and a new report from the pentagon says that the so-called energetic materials these ingredients for weapons like pyrotechnics explosives a gun or rocket propeller they're in short supply here in the u.s. and the report listed one hundred eighty one at risk materials and four critically at risk that could soon become unavailable if no action is taken. what kind of action are we talking about here so now actual defense magazine said that the option for the pentagon would be to subsidize domestic suppliers if their products are seen as essential however the ongoing cuts of government spending might make a bailout of weapon manufacturers a tough sell for taxpayers. well to let you know we'll let you know that this story

blows up. the news can become global in an instant especially with the help of video images and now there's a place for news video for your video needs our t. has a sister station roughly which is just launched today it's a video service committed to capturing important moments as they happen well if you've watched our t.v. regularly you have already seen roughly videos on our broadcasts from the t.s.a. breaking that twenty thousand dollar bow at the world renowned cellist gary hart to the b.b.c. employees strike ruptly was there capturing it all be sure to check out their new website now up and running to see the news before it hits the mainstream let's going to do it for now for more on the stories we've covered go to youtube dot com slash r.t. america check out our website at r.t. dot com slash usa you can also follow me on twitter at m underscore j underscore how will. most of us here.

dangerous experiments on prisoners they want to make money and they have to use healthy guinea pigs in the regular society they're not able to use prisoners i mean more they wish they could. drug tests on human guinea pigs. hate to call the deadly pills you get in subway he was killed. he didn't pass away they let him down. is pharmacy really about helping people. the worst you're going to face. the white house soup of the day the radio guy and paul bailey minestrone click cause they all want you to watch what we're about to go because you've never seen anything like this on cold.