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're going to tell you about the secret surveillance a peaceful protest but obama won the nobel peace prize there was a lot of controversy over whether or not he actually deserved it now there's a growing petition to revoke that award of that story just ahead. and a tale of two worlds the streets of the homeless and poverty on the other side the lavish lifestyle of the rich are to explore how the rich have gotten wealthier while millions of others have gotten poorer. pullets wintery broke third five pm in washington d.c. i'm i'm going to hell you're watching our t.v. and well it's art as 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 fun released new documents that show the surveillance here's a snippet from the fall of two thousand and eleven good morning please send me an update on the occupy movement in your respective regions by levon thirty s. t. the director is extremely interested in what the in the movement and help me effect federal facilities. is it the department of homeland security spying on these days d h s is saying that it has every right to keep track of peaceful demonstrators like those involved in occupy wall street but critics say that it's an abuse of their power but whole purpose of the creation of the chest was to consolidate different government departments to fight terrorism in response to the nine eleven terrorist attacks now according to the documents it turns out v.h.s. has been spying on peaceful law abiding citizens since two thousand and six and they say well it's perfectly legal to discuss this and more michael brooks our producer from the majority report joins me in studio new. work michael hello martin

luther if you see these documents seem to reinforce all the accounts of law enforcement targeting activist coincidentally the chest secretary janet the politan oh just yesterday well she wrote a blog post concerning privacy and civil liberties saying quote the department has implemented strong privacy and civil rights and civil liberties standards in all cyber security programs and initiatives from the outset in order to protect privacy while safeguarding and securing cyberspace now so michael what do you make of that well i think it's really interesting because i think that in some respects you know president obama we go back to two thousand and eight and two thousand and seven he actually campaigned very aggressively on restoring civil liberties and obviously in a lot of ways he simply hasn't done that i think you know he's he's moderate in certain areas and not in others but instead what you've seen this in ministration do is build off

a lot of the previous administrations programs and then tried to build some rules around them so that there's a certain type of accountability within them sure so what you know it's very late in the game what kind of precedent do you think this is going to set you know do you think that they're going to they're going to have this chilling fact when it comes to activists trying to organize and have their voices heard. well i think absolutely because i think what this document shows is just the notion that by participating in a very very basic kind of democratic assembly you might be monitored in an uncomfortable way and that's obviously right unappealing to most people i think also it's worth noting that there is some real asymmetry here you know you haven't seen party movement you know kind of catch fire in two thousand and nine and people use some very incendiary and disturbing times just bizarre rhetoric and those people were not monitored in the same way as people in the occupied movement so i

think there's an asymmetry and of course there's bound to be some chilling effect absolutely to see so michael you know has this idea of surveillance the idea that this agency you know agencies like the chasse that they're keeping tabs on citizens is just this is just par for the course michel well i think you know the technology in some ways does make it par for the course i mean we're all kind of and many of us are kind of making our lives more and more transparent through social media through technology and then government different agencies and the corporate sector has a much easier ability to kind of tracking aggregate us and i think that obviously the laws in the legal framework for the new norms that we're going to need to have are way behind and it's so it's a really really precarious situation and we're just not we're too far behind our technology in our politics and legally and you know in our culture i think so so

certainly michael so i want to talk to you about this idea of fusion centers here keeps popping up a lot of information being gathered you know compiled by these fusion centers are spent they've been described as hugs where massive amounts of data is being collected and analyzed what do we see the role of these fusion centers are they going to become more central in fighting terror. well i think that they already are you know this kind of concept has been around for a little while the intelligence community in responses to nine eleven and i think that there are you know there are a couple things we need to try to desegregate here it is important to keep in mind even with all of the confusion and all of the nonsense and all the abuse that as you kind of indicate by your question there still is some legitimate threats and things to be monitored with regards to things like terrorism so that's one aspect of it the second aspect of is this kind of broad overreach and in many cases abuse of civil liberties and monitoring and the third thing which i think you'll see a lot of fusion centers private companies private intelligence agencies play

a large role in them and you're going to just see a lot of really just another version of corporate welfare a lot of people probably would pseudo expertise pushing junky ideas you know really sort of pseudo studies pseudo intelligence justifying their own budgets their own salaries their own you know in some cases like chauffeured s.u.v.s so that they can still you know really just just have benefits flowing to them and they're not in the process of abuse they're of abusing civil liberties they're really providing very little upside so i think that there's a kind of corporate welfare components all of this stuff that we really need to look at as well because at the end of the day all of these things you know the military the pentagon obviously parts of it are very necessary and vital and then there are aspects of it which abuse and overreach and civil liberties and then there's also just massive inefficiencies and missile mis allotment of resources and

things like that so i think you see that very clearly in the fusion center michael i want to take you back to janet apologize blog you know where she essentially was saying that we have these strong privacy standards that were holding up what is she talking about. well we don't know right that's part of the irony. you know the administrations release some guidelines and everybody is going to claim that they're working under the highest cleanest of standards of the problem is that just as our lives become more and more clear and transparent agencies there are transparency shrinks to the general public so we don't really know certainly michael and you know come to find out we've been we've been told that d.h.s.s. been spying on law abiding citizens since two thousand and six so not really clear in those standards yeah no obviously i mean i think i think clearly and there's many many cases of people engaging in nonviolent action in worse cases

being harassed. and even in cases where there was no adverse consequence the very notion like you're saying that someone is going out peacefully demonstrating peacefully highlighting some really basic and obvious issues about contemporary american life which in the case of the occupied movement is the you know corruption of the financial sector skyrocket i mean michael it was he had to off there for your time that was michael brooks he's a producer for the majority report thank you so much for that keep their eyes on the prize the nobel peace prize that is do you remember when president obama won that peace prize in two thousand and nine it was a total surprise. the president was awakened at six am and told he had just won the nobel peace prize well this is. not how i expected to wake up this morning

it was a stunner it came out of nowhere told you that it is. well for an announcement about a peace prize this one was a bombshell a time magazine writer called the nobel the last thing president obama needs. now activist groups like groups action is launching an online petition calling for the revocation of obama's two thousand and nine nobel peace prize campaign garners one quarter million member strong they claim that obama has been an aggressive military leader after taking office too aggressive in fact to maintain that prestigious peace a word the initiative continues to gain steam is asked letting conflicts abroad continue and fail promise to close guantanamo bay prison prevails for more on why this group once for a book that prize i was joined earlier by leopold you're a member and former president of the veterans for peace 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 time the president obama's been in office he certainly disapprove 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 in this clip you know centrally 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. so war that speaks to our highest aspiration. for. hardship overreach. we are not 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 gun violence and 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 mauriat status was a war that was awarded wasn't backed 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 it's been controversy over henry kissinger receive 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 it's just. very. it's 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 and you know this group it's it's it's actually requesting that you know they recall it do you think they're going to

have any six sassi you know when doing this or is this some just some symbolic gesture as a means of kind of highlighting the hypocrisy of this you know 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 is going to to go back and change it but we can use this as a tool to educate the public about what was 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 the drone killings that are being done in his in his name in our names that by and by the obama administration violate all kinds of international laws and geneva conventions you know they continue holding 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 this petition 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. the context from the press release that the institute for. media accuracy put out and the rejections got a lot of attention now with this so not only are we calling for the prize to be revoked from president obama but we're also calling for the prize 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 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 why he doesn't deserve the award well the drone drone policy is an easy example you know we are we have with our country is responsible for the killing of thousands of people in pakistan a country with which 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 never been any declaration of war leaves the family i have certainly we thank you so that was leopold your board

member and past president of veterans for peace. still ahead here on our t.v. the economic downturn has left many americans in dire straits but doesn't seem to be the problem for the rich you've got you only read sure when we return a glimpse of the gap between the rich and the four. say let me let me i want to know we're going to let me ask you a question. here on this network because we're having the debate we have our knives out. this time it was just a bad thing there again you're in

a situation where being i don't want me to talk about the arraignment. here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that americans call . a dog. i'm sorry i'm just a guy who cares enough about what country you sir are you know what kind of terrorist cells he. wants he wishes to feature isn't the only the christian. super super the. you know the super to distract us from what you and i should care about because they're profit driven industry that sells a sensationalistic garbage he calls it breaking news i'm happy martin and we're going to break that it's.

just so. potentially deadly blizzard taking aim for the northeast it's expected to hit starting in a few hours from new york to maine we have team coverage of the storm. but we're watching is the very heavy snow moving into boston proper earlier today it was very sticky you can see it start to become much more patrie down the line there's still a lot of snow out here a good place for snowball fight. jason it is been a pretty incredible day there and the record snowfall throughout much of the light will be slightly more juicy clearly exceptional.

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 now than ever around the world but the economic boom is not being felt in every part of the u.s. economy well the wealthiest have seen their paychecks or pain on main street continues as americans struggle to find work and keep their homes r.t.s. ramon glenda shows us how the super rich are getting richer during this job 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 being 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 sacks the issue of shrimp property remains a major problem in cities all across the u.s. here in los angeles 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 far as 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 at the mumbling communities are still facing double digit jobless rates i got this great heidi right garcias a forklift operator but has been for sustained. 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 if he couldn't get it to pay for a hotel he couldn't get by so 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 sequestration could cost the u.s. seven hundred thousand jobs despite that corporate america likely won't take a big hit when say the data definitely indicates that the rich are not suffering

london real estate company knight frank expects the number of billionaires 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 the 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 period please i mean you know. in an attempt to save your home by there 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 ramon the lindo r t well ramon joined us earlier from the only studio and i asked him why billionaires are turning a profit in this child's recovery. well four's 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 also include real estate so from the get go the wealthy already had much more of these asses than the rest of us that combined with 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 connor only 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 and are there specific factors here play that guarantee that scenario. 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 spent one point five billion dollars. buying up ten thousand foreclosed homes and in fact their c.e.o.

was one of the top 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. in 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 fact that we're taking is not good enough to sell but to throw away it's kind of and i agree that's a big gap and i was really doing i think about in the western world it's just really the nub has respect. it's just kind of ok sometimes in the bend on this people stopping not just in the other countries where this 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 i see 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 you know are we finding out that the average person can't get credit to buy house or 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 prices 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 really really 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's still a 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 with r.t. correspond among the lindo when it comes to defense spending well you probably heard of the common wisdom american jobs are at risk of any military programs are put on the chopping block but here's something new a shortage of domestic manufacturers could in fact force the pentagon to rely on foreign companies now report from the pentagon says that so-called energetic materials and gradients for weapons like technics explosives got a rocket propellant well those are in short supply here in the u.s. this report listed one hundred eighty one at risk materials and four critically at risk materials that could soon be unavailable if action isn't taken. what kind of action are we talking about will the national 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 the taxpayers want to know the story of close up. news can become global in an instant especially with the help of video images and will there is a place for your news and video needs our t. has a sister station roughly which launched today it's a video service committed to capturing important moments as they happen but if you watch our t.v. regularly you are right you've already seen roughly video in our broadcasts from the t.s.a. breaking that twenty thousand dollar boat world renowned cellist alvin gearhart the b.b.c. employee strike rock roughly 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 these stories we cover go to youtube dot com slash r t america will be.