maybe close to a rust party is on the ground in boston and we'll have that report for you just ahead. and d.c. on alert letters with rice and have been sent to president obama and other lawmakers to washington is on the heightened alert we'll have that update coming up next days after violent clashes between guards and prisoners the u.s. military says the hunger strike at guantanamo bay is expanding plus we're learning about a new report that looks at torture we'll sort through that just ahead. let's wednesday april seventeenth find him in washington d.c. i'm margaret held you're watching our team and the city of boston is still reeling from the tragic events that rocked the city monday afternoon two separate explosions ripped through the stands of the boston marathon injuring scores of onlookers and leaving three including an eight year old child dead those law

enforcement agencies contend you just search for answers in the case artie's own honest i see a church going to is on the ground with the latest hi there anastasio so tell me what's happening down there. well margaret what's happening right now is of course the investigation is ongoing it's certainly still in its first stages officials are not announcing any information as of yet it's very really a fluid investigation they're warning us reporters and people in boston and people in the united states that it's still a very fluid investigation definitely we might have to wait hours if not days to find out some more specifics about this this but the two bombings of course what officials what we do know of course is that three people have died including an eight year old boy a twenty nine year old young woman a chinese student twenty three years of age who was here studying unfortunately those are the three people that died we did have over one hundred seventy five people injured over a dozen of them in critical condition in hospitals throughout boston many people

remain in hospitals really a traumatic site for many doctors who say they've been traumatized themselves by you know seeing this sadly many of the people injured had to have additional surgeries even after things like amputations and terms of the investigation we're here on the ground trying to find out anything we can in the hours to come well what's the mood in boston today how are people coping with what's happened down there. well margaret you know the mood is certainly very somber people are still trying to digest what happened here on monday you know these these two bombings at the finish line of the boston marathon where thousands of people were gathered thousands of people were participating certainly something like this was you know to say the least was not expected by anybody and of course people are starting to pick up the pieces you know the downtown area people are going back to work students are returning to universities the area where the blast took place is still cordoned off the investigation there is ongoing pretty much around the clock and

certainly you know while people are trying to really make something of exactly what it is that happened here they're trying to move forward with their lives certainly so boston a city with heavy surveillance cameras cameras everywhere and we have any clues about the identity the nationality of the suspect did it in any camera caption on surveillance. margaret not yet there's certainly a lot of media attention surrounding this and everybody is waiting to find out if somebody is going to be arrested when this is going to happen you know and officials are trying to kind of keep up with all the questions and they're unable to do this yet there was some confusion earlier about whether or not an arrest had been made those reports were said to have been false by officials they said that no no arrests have been made nobody has been brought into custody so we're waiting to hear whether or not this is something that might or might not happen in the hours and days to come ok so what can you tell us about the victims of the bombing you

know any updates of those who are what their conditions are in the hospital. with margaret in terms of the victims you know sadly this is the kind of event where the blast took place that attracted people of all ages from young to you know seniors and sadly we can confirm that the people who died the three people who died are certainly very young and eight year olds a twenty three year old and a twenty nine year old the people who were injured were certainly of also different ages like i said earlier over a dozen of them over seventeen of them to be exact were in critical condition for a rather long time now these numbers are defeated diminishing local lug doctors and hospitals throughout the city are saying they're still fighting around the clock in certain cases and are trying to do the best they can to save as many lives as possible ok so where does boston go from here on a staffie and what are the recovery efforts that are underway has all of this sunk in yet has it settled down. well in terms of the recovery efforts we do know that there is

a help center that has been opened several blocks away from where the blast took place where of course witnesses and victims and victims' families are able to go to try to get some kind of psychological help the post trauma that they experience by professionals and this is something that's certainly aim to help people on the ground but you know boston those people i guess who weren't there they're still shocked that this occurred to you know it's hard to imagine we're standing here on the street now it's a you know a lovely sunny afternoon and this was exactly the type the type of climate and the type of atmosphere that was around on the day of the bombings so certainly people are just observing what happened and trying to move on and waiting to find out who exactly was behind these attacks we do know that officials are still trying to find out whether it was an individual an organization whether this was a domestic or foreign attack ok so photos have come out with a huge military presence in boston i mean the attorney vehicles on the ground do you get that sense of the city is essentially a lockdown. i'm sorry is boston on lockdown today and

yes so boston we've we've seen these pictures of come out with military vehicles roaming the streets and i want to know if there's a sense that there's a military presence on the ground in boston. margaret certainly security has been beefed up here tremendously in the in the time after the attack we did see you know military police presence military trucks and so forth but mostly these were on the ground for drills for preparations for extra security to help out the police if necessary thankfully only hours after the bombings took place officials were able to confirm early on that any immediate threat had passed thank you for your presence on the ground those people over there just for extra reinforcement see that was our t. correspondent on a stasia churkin to thank you. well capitol hill is on high alert the f.b.i. has confirmed suspicious letters containing a poisonous substance have been sent to both the white house and the congress and

on the look containing the deadly poison raisen was also mailed to the office of the republican senator roger wicker of mississippi yesterday now today another uncle of laced with the poison was found a draft of the president himself and to talk more about this with me i was joined earlier by r.t. producer. r.t. correspondent kerry and boring i asked for the latest information on the situation . well marit a lot to talk about a lot of activity today on capitol hill the white house has confirmed today that a letter containing a suspicious substance in this case. was indeed mailed to the president just yesterday as you have just mentioned the f.b.i. reports of another envelope that was delivered to a member of capitol hill a member of congress are on capitol hill in this case it was republican senator roger wicker from mississippi those concerns continued on today at the senate in

the evacuation of both the russell and hart office buildings today so i mean from. another letter scare so it seems has been already cleared people have come back to their offices however things still remain on high alert certainly so you know when i think of rice and i think of rat poison can you explain to us exactly what this is so essentially it's a very simply is a poison and according and it's made according to the c.d.c. it's made from castor beans so exposure to it is actually has to be very deliberate so it is poisonous or deadly if ingested so essentially comes in various forms in this case it was a powder so essentially it's not it's not contagious but can spread but can sometimes spread from person to person so exposure must be deliberate in order to cause some sort of harm see so perry and you've been on the hill lot of experience there can you tell us exactly we're going to process for me how does it work when

mail goes then right i worked in the house of representatives or a member of congress and when i was first there my first job was the constituent relations director and my main duty west oversee the entire correspondence office for this particular member so part of that was reading all of the members and now as you can imagine members of congress get a lot of mail on a daily basis and they need they need help from their staffers have to sort through it and that was my first. job but before i would even get the mail in the office it would go through. a screening process off campus overseen by the capitol police and so anything like what we saw senator wicker is off as it was intercepted by capitol police for so it was really impossible for something like this to enter the compound. the same process for the capitol hill same process for the white house we're seeing letters go to the white house too is that essentially how that works there and before i was on capitol hill i worked as a white house intern for president obama in the presidential office of

correspondence is very similar process except for is overseen by secret service and in fact the office of presidential correspondence is very large has over fifty employees and over thirteen hundred volunteers that help read all the president's mail the president gets about ten thousand pieces of mail a week and then every single piece of mail is read by a human being and then before it gets to the president's desk is probably seen at least six. white house employees but it is a similar process the president's office of correspondence is actually off site and even in the white house is too big you wouldn't fit in the white house before it reaches the presidential is correspondence office is sent to another facility where it screened overseen by the secret service so again it's pretty much a cost of over something like this to reach the president's office ok so mail sorters and people like you know are they in real danger of actually touching the mail you know how close do they come in contact with with actually being in harm's way they're not going to come in contact with a piece of mail that that is. at least with any type of dangerous material

everything has been screened before it gets there and that oversee the mail who screen the mail are all secured and they go through extensive protocol before anybody any staffer could ever be in danger so what's next in this case will essentially you know your guess is good is ours. people are still on higher alert and people on the hill are still incredibly cautious so we are still seeing. inflows and people are still worried but we shall see so well that was our t. producer adriano you sero an r.t. correspondent carrying boring. now we're going to take you back to boston following two explosions on the finish line of the boston marathon on monday the city is faced with grief and many unanswered questions the arts he's on a stasia churkin to brings us more on the security and hell this tragic event has affected the sea of american city. the picture perfect city of boston brings back

memories and fears that americans have not dealt with since september eleventh. at the finishing line of the boston marathon two bombs explode seconds apart from each other killing at least three people including an eight year old boy and a twenty nine year old young woman and leaving at least one hundred seventy five people injured over a dozen of them currently in critical condition just got to be thinking about the people who didn't survive that get about a child that was killed and then for that for the survivors think about their family and their friends and them as well witnesses describe what they saw as horrifying some people saw body parts being ripped off others blood all over the sidewalks well some people rushed to help victims others ran away from the scene in chaos doctors currently treating patients in local hospital say they've experienced one of the most traumatizing events of their careers the two bombs were reportedly

homemade out of pressure cookers filled with nails pulled out a victim's limbs and black powder the magnitude of the blast was so strong that it sent debris flying onto building tops some victims needed second surgeries even after amputations it really hasn't hit me yet. like i had couldn't sleep last night i'm constantly like anxious and nervous and i can't focus on my studies because i'm a graduate student a block from where it happens like wow like it really hits you even though officials say there is no longer an immediate threat security has been beefed up here in boston and throughout the united states the obama administration has already referred to what happened as a terror act but exactly what kind of consequences this will have for america's foreign and domestic policy remains to be seen officials say they've been receiving thousands of clues from around the world a media frenzy surrounding the bombings the united states has not seen as similar. in years officials are saying the investigation is still very fluid but the

majority of questions yet to be answered this is our city you know our home so it's you can't live in fear but it's definitely always kind of going to be in the back of your mind i don't see how it can't the f.b.i. is in charge of the case with more information to follow as the investigation continues americans are trying to move on with their lives overshadowed by thoughts of what the tragedy will mean for their future you can see everybody's faces like is this the beginning where america is now you know where we're now the american version of beirut you know a little bit more you know that we're going to have to second guess every event that we have just. nine eleven changed travel. you know the concern that i've had and i suspect that people have are going through their mind is this going to do that for public benghazi over the last decade the u.s. has pumped enormous resources into security and steps often criticized for breaching the rights of u.s. citizens and foreigners alike but what are the results and have all these efforts

created anything more than an illusion of safety because they say churkin i r t boston massachusetts and an update now on what's happening with guantanamo bay detainees military officials are defending a violent clash that took place this weekend between detainees and those guarding them now attorneys for those being held say that they were not allowed to communicate with their clients this comes more than two months after a hunger strike among detainees began one of the longest and largest in the detention center is history now more than fifty detainees are taking part in that strike with at least fifteen being force fed now the constitution project task force just released a scathing report on the detainee treatment in prisons and attention centers from get most afghanistan to iraq after two years of study this is what they had to say what's happening to these detainees constitutes torture perhaps the most important or no. notable finding of this panel is that it is indisputable that the united

states engaged in the practice of torture the second notable conclusion of the task force is the nation's highest officials bear some responsibility for allowing and contributing to the spread of torture now david remes is a human rights and defense attorney representing a detainee he joined us earlier with the latest. well we don't know exactly what happened all we have is the military's word for what happened which i don't take at face value but according to reports the military moved most of the men who were in the most populous camp camp six which was a communal living arrangement into camp five which is an isolation cell arrangement they gave as a reason that they couldn't monitor the men in camp six because the men had covered the cameras but that doesn't wash because that situation has been going on for two or three months now i think that they're just trying to break the hunger strike and they picked a particularly brutal way to do it so the way i understand it military shows up in

riot gear they essentially storm you know so basically that's not what happened but we're not really sure what happened do we know how many prisoners were involved well i do think it's clear that they moved the detainees and i do think it's clear that they used to riot police and so forth and now it's emerging that there were casualties on both sides blood was shed we don't know more than that i should say and again all we have is what the military tells us certainly since no attorneys are being allowed in allowed to communicate with their clients at this point the way that i understand it you know cameras inside to kind of record what's happening so we kind of have to take their word at face value do we know what sparked this or is it just that underlying measure of trying to break up this strike on the issue of communication it appears to be a rather arbitrary policy i have a call scheduled at nine thirty tomorrow morning with a or rather a ninety minute call scheduled tomorrow morning with one of my clients yassine is

smile we were employed by the justice department yesterday that he was being force fed but maybe they reserve calls for that kind of an urgent situation what sparked the hunger strike in the media terms was the military's attempt to reinstitute the policy of qur'an searches something that it had given up seven or eight years. to go after a similar hunger strike it's not the way that the grounds for being searched it's the very fact that they're being searched that offends the men i don't think that there would have been such an explosive reaction though without the underlying problem of indefinite detention that these men are entering their twelve year without charge without any end in sight i think that that was the combustible situation and the qur'an search was the match that lit the fuse certainly so you mentioned one of your clients and finally being able to communicate with him tomorrow and the way that we understand it he is one of those detainees being force

fed is he able to talk to you at all about what's happening to him or is he in a state where he you know tell me about him well i only will know the answer to that question tomorrow when i speak to him in the past he's been very lucid and he's told us a great deal about what has happened in his case over the years and during the hunger strike as a matter of fact i was there in early march and i've heard many details from many of my detainees clients say so the constitution project task force has determined that what's happening to these men is in fact torture as can you give us an inside and inside look at what essentially is going on with these guys what's happening to them directly what's happening now is a return to bush era policies of detention operations the authorities try to demonstrate over and over again that they are in charge before a recent turnover in command the situation was peaceful and quiet with this new command and it's show of force the situation has become

a have the command has stormed camp six the command has been present when a tower guard fired into a crowd of detainees in january and be authorities of course were present for the search actually present i mean has authorized or tolerated all of these events have built up. and you have the underlying problem of indefinite detention that certainly is torture. ok so talk to me about this raid do you think it's going to have any impact at all on the hunger strike so my sense from meeting with the men and talking with them over the phone is that it will only increase their resolve the problem with the command currently is that it won't budge it's obstinate wants to break the detainees rather than try to meet them in the middle as i mentioned the authorities chose solution to. the searches of the qur'an way back in two thousand and six it also gave the detainees the choice of

turning in their qur'an for safe keeping to protect them against being searched it seems like that's a reasonable alternative to the command won't do either and say well david certainly a lot of information thank you for giving us some insight into this that was david remes human rights attorney. well in afghanistan anyone from d.o.d. officials to foreign journalists depend on afghans to translate for them interpret find interviews and more in order to get their jobs done and while these translators are paid for their work it doesn't come without significant risk there are combat situations and the taliban and other groups who target these afghans who help america's of these interpreters many were promised visas and exchange for their critical help and expertise now the state department has a backlog of these applications that were promised and u.s. troops are pulling out of afghanistan at record pace and bases are being closed a closed and hundreds of these afghanistan angels are finding themselves without

jobs or the protection that comes with being with the u.s. military now for these who have aided the troops are we leaving them high and dry as we withdraw from afghanistan for more on this i'm joined by amir david our t.v. producer. how many afghanistan's are really at risk here while just to give you an idea there are ten thousand afghan interpreters right now working on u.s. bases in two thousand and nine congress did pass an act called the afghan allies protection act it authorized seventy five hundred special these us ok these are people that you know are going to be granted visas that can come over to the united states you know and you know immigrate here assimilate into the american culture just does anybody else the problem is as you mentioned there has been a number of inefficiencies mostly it's just been incredibly inefficient and slow one problem is that the u.s.

embassy in kabul has essentially failed to process these visas in a timely manner so they say that they've been understaffed that they've been under resourced they actually were sending people over to the embassy in islamabad pakistan i'm sure you can imagine for someone who is a high security risk to travel even from from kabul to islamabad is. very very difficult just to give you an idea. until late two thousand and eleven the u.s. embassy in kabul did not process a single visa a single visa and then in two thousand and nine since two thousand and nine i should say more than fifty seven hundred afghans have applied under the program and only thirty two have gotten visas here so why are we seeing so few few visas being not being given to these people why why are we holding back i really think that you know the state department you know issues these programs unfortunately there are they are large and diverse it takes a lot of sort of manpower a lot of

a logistics to be figured out and sometimes the create these programs without sort of having an infrastructure in place to see them out to carry them out unfortunately it's not only people that are you know people that have been waiting for years to be approved there are people that are flat out being denied of the people that have applied there are a lot that have been denied because the u.s. is saying that they have terrorist ties for example these are people that have worked with the u.s. government have had background checks and security clearances but when they do the security clearance again when they want to actually apply to come to the united states the government then says you know what we've we found that you have you know a terrorist high and we don't want you to be in the country and it could be some something very very minute and direct so break it down for me what kind of dangers are these afghans facing i mean they're in extreme danger and this is a very serious situation i mean these visas are crucial to a widely hood that's that's

a fact in afghanistan for the taliban it's definitely guilt by association so they've actually issued a decree already that says if you worked with the u.s. government in any way shape or form from a small scale to a large scale we will come after you we will find you we will kill you and we will not only kill you but we will kill every single person in your family you can imagine how incredibly. terrifying that is in terms of stats there aren't a whole lot of stats. about how many people have died it's mostly anecdotal but there are estimates that say that one afghan is killed every thirty six hours due to their affiliation with the u.s. government so ok so it really tragic situation happening here so is it expected to get worse when the u.s. pulls out entirely i mean what's going to happen absolutely and you have to keep in mind right now that a lot of these interpreters are protected by the u.s. military right now a lot of them live you know very close to the base if not on the base so many of them feel somewhat secure right now but when the troops you know fully draw down

when the u.s. leaves when they close down some of these bases these people are going to retreat back to you know these taliban controlled areas and they're going to face really really huge security threats because i'm sure you can imagine the taliban is probably already found and identified a lot of these people and they're just waiting for them you know to come back so that they can. see them we understand that iraq had this special visa program in place so when the u.s. left you know we were able to get those people who needed them those visas how does this compare to the program with afghanistan a the iraq program was very very similar i was also passed by congress much much bigger they had promised five thousand special immigrant visas per year over a five year program so that's twenty five thousand visas unfortunately similarly inefficient they've only been able to approve five thousand people so the program

hasn't been able to do what it set out to do so it's very similar in that respect the main difference is that while with the a rocky program special visas work send it to people that work for american companies and people that work for the news media and people that had looser i guess affiliations with the u.s. government those people were able to to apply for the visa but in afghanistan. it's only for interpreters so and afghanistan it's more difficult because it's more limiting say so talk to me about what needs to happen nail it to resolve these issues what does the u.s. need to do and what what do we need to get to play here to make this happen well unfortunately it's all in congress' hands because these were enacted by congress they basically they need to be extended by congress they do have expiration dates i believe one of them expires at the end of this year and the other one expires at the end of the two thousand and thirteen fiscal year so if congress doesn't come together and vote to extend them these people are going to be kind of left out in

the dark there are there is a glimmer of hope there are some lawmakers who are saying that they're going to introduce legislation this month they are going to start to put pressure on the administration they believe that it is a matter of national security nineteen members of congress just last month that sent a letter to the white house to the president and said this has to happen now and so a lot of information here thank you so much for joining me that was a mere david or a t.v. producer well after eleven years of combat in afghanistan the world is watching how america is impacting the now war torn country but there's a new player riling up the local economy that would be china shop keepers in kabul say that they're selling fewer and fewer afghan may burkas as imports rise from china over the past few years china has entered the market with a cheaper version of the head to toe islamic garment which often has the price of

those made in afghanistan not so good here all also means fewer jobs for the local seamstresses even the afghan manufacturers are buying korean war embroider material from china to save on that cost leaving the locals to only work on the cap and failed. now while that made in china label may be stigmatized in the u.s. now there's afghan tailors who are starting to eye it as well that's going to do it for now for more on these 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 old we'll see what aids. technology innovation all the developments.