well coming up on our t.v. the justice department's tracking of a.p. phones still leaves the obama administration red in the face obama has defended the subpoenas of phone records while holder tries to shield himself from the scandal more of the drama unfolding here in d.c. even after the u.s. invasion of iraq the country still faces contente with violence the country is plagued with insurgent bombings that are taking their toll on infrastructure a look at the results of the war from iraq just ahead. and a group of russian developers have created a new social network but what's so special about it how about communicating with other people even if you don't speak the same language more in the network that weakens the language barrier later in the show.

with friday may seventeenth five pm in washington d.c. i'm margaret how well you're watching our t.v. starting up this hour the latest surrounding the department of justice's investigation into the source of alleged national security leaks b. of the associated press well yesterday president obama defended the z.o.g. actions alluding to the possibility information revealed within the a.p. story regarding the foiled terror plot may have compromise national security interest while other elements of the scandal attorney general eric holder who was recusing himself from the investigation was unable to answer specifics when questioned by angry members of congress political commentator sam sachs joined me earlier to discuss these concerns and i started out by asking if the purpose of the first amendment was to protect us against intrusions just like this one. well in general that's what the first amendment is there for but at the same time it's also

illegal to leak information to goes against national security metts what that's what the d.o.j. in the administration is saying what happened here and ever since the story broke the white house has been talking about how they need to strike this balance between a free a free press that's protected under the first amendment and also cracking down on on leaks that my that might harm our national security interests and president obama was very forceful yesterday in saying that this sort of leak could kill americans abroad now the question is and what we have to get to is who gets to determine whether or not this leak is is against our national security interests or whether it's a news story that the news should be free to cover ok so the media argues that because the action would reveal the identity of those confidential source says you know it also bridges the freedom of the press there say i how do you think this a piece gamble is going to change the way journal left and their store if it is share information so this was

a shot across the bow really it's nothing new the d.o.j. putting pressure on journalists to reveal certain confidential sources this is happening for decades this isn't anything new but the vast scope by which the d.o.j. went after the a.p. and went after. subpoena floating around subpoenaing phone records that belong to over one hundred journalists and twenty offices including right on capitol hill. speaks that we might have entered a new chapter in the way that part of justice relates relates to journalists and that's why it's so crucial to for congress to step in to kind of pass legislation to to clarify what that distinction is how we strike that balance between a free press and trying to crack down on these leaks it's interesting that we still don't know the process within the department of justice that led to the subpoena we know that eric holder didn't have anything to do with it at least and says he didn't have anything do with it because you were cured. himself from this case normally the d.o.j. has regulations in place for how they pursue this sort of information and it

appears so far that they didn't really follow any of these regulations that doesn't mean they broke any laws it just means that they didn't follow their regulations in place for dealing with this sort of sort of issue ok sam this has a watergate feel to me and i want to talk to you about that so do you think that this sort of action that the d.o.j. took you know it's going to lead to fewer type investigative journalism you know fewer type leads and those water after watergate ask headlines that we were used to thing you know what do you think well i'm not sure i mean we already have or do have a shortage of these sort of watergate headlines here investigative journalism has been dying for for decades as well. but you know certainly if there's if journalists pursuing a story and trying to get in touch with you know sources are afraid that their phone records might be tapped by the d.o.j. or confiscated by the d.o.j. that might make them less likely to perceive these stories so it best good of

journalism was on life support before the story now it's really critical following this story ok so i understand the details of the scandal regarding the d.o.j. and what they've done and they're still unfolding and my gut tells me that there's more harry details in this you know what do you think is there anything else is going to come out of this that could potentially shock us well it looks like the d.o.j. is very aggressive in this case and they want to find out who who where this leak came from who the leak was and they probably only intend to prosecute this person if they ever does discover. who it was so the real interesting thing here about all this and i sat down with congressman keith ellison today to talk about this is the deal jay is going after whistleblowers going after leaks like it's like it's their number one job but they haven't gone after the banks in the same way and here is what your congressman ellison have to say. one thing is clear is that the d.o.j. is very enthusiastic about pursuing this in this case you said on the house

financial services committee you have insight into the way banks have behaved behaving for the last few years how do you explain this difference in the d.o.j. being so enthusiastic about pursuing whistleblowers or journalists and really not being enthusiastic at all when it comes to prosecuting certain white collar financial crimes well as disappointing isn't it i mean we used to talk about too big to fail and now we have to talk about too big to jail. you have some people who literally wreaked havoc on the american economy and not only are they. not only did they get bailed out for their own irresponsibility. and nobody is paying the price for it and we haven't seen a rash of subpoenas dropped on wall street have we. so sam we're running out of time here i want to get at this really quickly that media shield law that president obama has pitched to chuck schumer to reinitiate what do you make of it probably isn't going to go far enough of this bill was introduced in two thousand and seven

it was much stronger it was reintroduced in two thousand and ten it was weakened by then president obama and probably wouldn't have helped the air protected the a.p. from the d.o.j. subpoena in this in this case ok sam we've got to leave it there more from sam just in a moment was the fog continues over the d.o.j. investigation into the a.p. president obama has called this an opportunity to reintroduce the media shield budgets lation designed to protect members of the media articles wall exclaims. i mean the justice department scandal there is renewed interest in protecting the media's first amendment right now with the media organizations pushing for what's called a shield laws to protect reporters and it looks like the obama administration is on board here's president obama talking about the law yesterday in the rose garden so . the whole goal of. this media shield law that was worked on and largely endorsed by folks like the washington post

editorial page and by prosecutors was finding a way to strike that balance appropriately and to the extent that this case. which we still don't know all the details of. to the extent this case has prompted renewed interest about how do we strike that balance properly. and i think. now is the time for us to go ahead and revisit that legislation now the new york times has reported that senator charles schumer has confirmed his plans to reintroduce shield law legislation the senator said quote this kind of law would balance national security needs against the public's right to the free flow of information at minimum our bill would have ensured a fairer more deliberate process in this case he is of course talking about the case of the justice department secretly seizing phone records of reporters from the

associated press senator schumer first introduced the shield law back in two thousand and nine here's what it would have done it's similar to media protection laws that already exist in several states but federal shield law would protect journalists from having to reveal their sources now if the feds want this information they would have to prove to a judge that the information they want to outweighs the need for journalists right right to keep that information secret. but it's important to point out that even the shield law allows exceptions when it comes to national security issues that's why it's unclear if such a law what have helped out the s.o.t. associated press at all especially since we've heard from the administration that the leak to the a.p. was a very serious one. when we express concern about leaks at a time when i've still got sixty thousand plus troops in afghanistan and i've still got a whole bunch of intelligence officers around the world who are in risky situations

in outposts that in some cases are as a dangerous as the outpost in benghazi. that part of my job is to make sure that we're protecting what they do. a shield law did not go anywhere back in two thousand and nine this was around the time of wiki leaks one of the largest leaks of classified information in history that prompted lawmakers to get tough on those that share government secrets so tough that under the obama administration more whistleblowers have been prosecuted than any other administration combined some critics believe the administration targeting whistleblowers is intended to have a chilling effect on the media i've been saying for years as the war on whistleblowers is really a backdoor way of going after journalists journalists appear in every single one of these espionage indictment yet they've not been quite concerned

muna that the government is willing to burn their sources allows of now lawmakers are split when it comes to enacting media shield laws so we'll be keeping a close eye on what happens here forward and protecting the freedom of the press and washington liz wahl r.t. . we obama administration's legal right to wage war on al qaeda is coming under a view with the war on terror as the war on terror continues now the authorization to use military force fact a law enacted back in twenty two thousand and one gives the president the authority to use the necessary and appropriate for us when dealing with terrorism is back up for congressional review now does the need an update all the talk to me about this debate being waged on capitol hill sam sachs joins me again hi there sam so i want to talk to you about this action of the authorization of the use of military force act the knack to twelve years ago congress it says essentially that congress must

approve all wars but this act which handed that power over to the executive branch the senate as i understand it had a hearing yesterday over the us where d.o.d. officials were a question can you tell me about this and what it means so the authorization for use military force the u.m.s. was was passed after nine eleven now congress that's their job is to declare wars. what they did in two thousand and one that was basically declare a never ending war an open ended war and give the white house the power to conduct that war. ever since then you know they're your math basically says that the white house has the authority to conduct military operations against al qaeda and associated forces and really they they can conduct this this operation and you where it is and where these associated forces are and that was the subject of the hearing yesterday in the senate and the disturbing details that kind of came out of that hearing was basically that the dio did a deal d.

feels that if al qaeda and associated forces are in yemen or if they're in congo or if they're in boston the president has the authority to launch military strikes and put boots on the ground in these areas to fight them and. show him michael sheehan is you know he's a top tier d. official he was asked how long do does the white house have this is. already for and he said probably ten to twenty years now my guess ok sam so that's interesting i want to talk to you about the obama administration have they used it to justify drone u.s. do you think well they've used to justify generous and germ use and so is the bush administration i mean if these military strikes against al qaeda associated forces that it falls under the a u m f and this is this is a really you know this is where the constitution starts to get stretched a little bit and this is what i asked congressman keith ellison about to what his reaction to a lot of this testimony that came out of your mouth about the about yesterday the

senate there's a hearing in the senate yesterday with some dear de officials who. gave a very broad and somewhat disturbing interpretation of what the gives them so that they can pretty much put troops on the ground from yemen to congo to boston as long as the guns al qaeda and associated forces and michael she had a top tier d. official said that he thinks this will last ten to twenty years which are read off . well my read on those statements made at that hearing are that we are now in area that's we have exceeded anyone's imagination as to what that that was ation for use of military force was intended for what they're basically saying is that for him to do whatever they want and will remember it's not just the kind it in it's there's language in the white paper that was leaked and associated groups so now a lot of a lot of the people being killed by drones who are civilians were not killed

because of the kind of but because of groups they may have been connected to al qaida. so i think congressman ellison really makes some good points there about how this is kind of grown way out of control day you m.-f. and the question is going on now for as you said about twelve years that this has been in place when is it going to end when can we say that we've defeated al qaeda and that we don't need open ended warfare against them that the white house has the authority to commit and that was a question i asked for congressman l. l. said would he support repeal of the a o m f and what would that look like with that procedure look like. do you think that the most powerful way that congress congress can step up their oversight role would be to repeal the you about and would you support that you will you know what i think i would support they want to build right now to to do that i'm not going to say that i wouldn't be involved in a debate around what a new authorization could possibly look like in but i don't know what are the

justifications. is it warranted but this one i think is one it's welcome out and we've got to we've got to we've got a new move to a new face congress is going to be taking up the new defense authorization act is that the place to fight this battle when it comes to codifying drones and trying to rework the your mouth that is that that is a good vehicle to raise these issues and we plan on you know developing some vehicles to really push back on this on this endless war program in that in that process. well sam i want to switch switch our gears now here's who iraq what's shaping up to be one of the deadliest months that we've had in the past five years i want to take you to some graphs take a look at this graph that shows the number of civilians killed in the country through april of this year now so far from a alone it's estimated that another three hundred forty four civilians have died now broken down by year in two thousand and four twelve thousand civilian

casualties were reported jumping in two thousand and five in just over seventeen thousand in two thousand and seven the highest of twenty thousand nine hundred thirty now this number seems to have dropped averaging just over four thousand between two thousand and nine and two thousand and twelve ok sam so you know we've broken the stone talk to me about what role the united states has in iraq what role are expected to play now but this is going to be extremely difficult question that policymakers are going to grapple with for a very very long time it's clear decade of war in iraq that whatever our policy we our policy approach there was a failure and then we had to end the war and that was what president obama promised when he came into office and the war in iraq is pretty much pulled most of our troops out of out of iraq but now we rocks in violence so whatever we did there we broke we broke iraq and this is going to continue you know for the next for probably quite a long time meanwhile policymakers the united states are have to figure out what's our responsibility that that's another question that i that i ask for congressman

ellison here what role does united states have to play still in iraq. march we have the ten year anniversary of the invasion of iraq. and the very next month we have the deadliest month in five years in iraq. the war's supposedly over there the u.s. role in the war is supposed to go exactly and now that we're seeing all this violence. what role does the u.s. still play in iraq considering that we did bring a decade of warfare to the country i think we have an obligation to stay engaged with iraq diplomatically and developmentally. militarily quite honestly i don't i i am not convinced that we can add a meaningful improvement to the situation made some point our role in iraq militarily needs to come to what in and even if there is horrible military

violence going on there i mean the question has to be raised is are reengagement going to help i don't seriously but what i think we do need to do is to remember that we helped create these conditions and we have an ongoing obligation and you know we've got to make sure that i mean if we can play a diplomatic role to help cease the violence we should and if we can certainly help rebuild this country i think we have a moral obligation to do so because we are part sam fabulous interview we're out of time we have to leave it there thank you so much for the political commentator sam . last month was the deadliest in iraq since two thousand and eight and civilian casualty of content you to rise well just this morning a figure of a blast whack at least seventy six people dead in and around baghdad they'll fishel say that that makes today a big deadliest in the country in more than eight months but with this uptick in sectarian violence the fragile government not only faces unrest and destruction but

a crumbling infrastructure as well we see kavanaugh has an inside look on what's happening on the ground it is the land between twin rivers ancient day mesopotamia modern day iraq and in baghdad there's no shortage of ways in which water is used to wash cars to clean to store fresh fish for their governor for sale everything it seems except drinking assuming nobody drinks the city would say because i know it's not clean since i'm with you our heads around. what comes out to be contaminated makes us sick how can we drink. water is just one of the many services that still lagging in post-war iraq despite years of promises and billions of dollars spent on reconstruction many neighborhoods lack sewage systems there's no trash collection in some settlements there are barely any streets the rock central power is sometimes on for as little as two dollars a day this mess of wires is

a common scene all across iraq it connects homes to private generators people have to buy electricity to cope with the hours of daily blackouts ten years after the war it's a symbol for much of what's wrong with the wrong approach going infrastructure and reliable services and a tangled web of a wall for sea and corruption. the energy crisis has meant more work for album area and electrician who says he now earns about four times as much as he did before the war the grid is in shambles and breakdowns are frequent but he says the governor. it's simply not serious about fixing it. it's the citizens who suffer in the end not the government the services are so bad the power system has really deteriorated there were billions spent on fixing the grid but there's little to show for it. the government has promised improvements in public services but officials say it's a monumental task the infrastructure has been put to the neglected end of the

previous regimes and the damage is enormous there is a need to rebuild everything that's required as tens of billions of dollars but the dollars are flowing along with them largely because of the oil that's what accounts for most of the revenue in iraq's one hundred and one thousand billion dollars budget here at the color line reproduction more than doubled in the here that the procurement higher oil industry has been touted as one of the few bright spots in the country that's been plagued by violence and of rampant corruption most of the reconstruction money was squandered fraud and abuse it's a paradox that frustrates many iraqis there is one of the wealthiest few supplant on earth but its people are some of the forest. are baghdad iraq more news emerging from the bust an alleged cia officer ryan fogle russian federal security service has called me about a breach of ethics of intelligence artie's alexei has more i

visited the f.s.b. had quarters in moscow the f.s.b. officials told me that they knew from day one since ryan fogle came to moscow that he was working for the cia that's why they are. on him and the most important formation here clearly is that this is not the first case over the past three years and in fact since two thousand and eleven there have been four cases like that but one story which the f.s.b. officials wanted to join particular attention on is the story of also a third secretary of the us embassy benjamin dillon who are just like ryan fogle tried to recruit and then plea of the national anti-terrorist committee offering him a money and offering him to meet and in private to discuss the details that's when the f.s.b. officials actually managed to apprehend him i have acquired a recording of the phone conversation between benjamin dillon and that man who do you have. an iron.

skillet spears quote but also from. your new years and years to. live i should warn you used to be mysterious and so. did you well the f.s.b. officials also pointed out the tactics which both deal and used to have a striking resemblance they both made phone calls they offered money maybe there's one exception that presumably dylan didn't have a wig on him like. did but clearly the tactics were the same and the consequences will probably be the same as well because we know that ryan fogle is now in for a depreciation from the russian federation and the same thing happened to deal and he was deported in january twenty third without making it public and it was done quietly back then of course there are some routine intelligence work and some professional ethics but the cia according to the f.s.b.

officials went too far with a full case the reason why the benjamin dillon story was not made public in january was because the f.s.b. tried to keep it under the carpet they made a warning to the cia colleagues that such things could not happen. especially given the fact that f.s.b. and the cia have a very strong partnership in fighting terrorism together i talked to one of the high ranking officials in the f.s.b. and here is how he explained the current state of affairs we were particularly outraged with the actions of the american spy dillon benjamin he tried to convince an employee of the russian national counter-terror committee to hand over classified documents of this department to the cia like mr fogle he was also deported from russia we hope the cia would learn their lesson and something like that would never happen again so we decided not to release the information about dylan to the public but apparently they didn't learn that lesson in fogel's case the cia crossed a red line so we had to react according to official instructions. while they have

been no common so far not from the u.s. embassy in moscow not from the washington officials but the f.s.b. told me that they will let us know if anything any comments coming from washington come on that matter well that was r.t. international correspondent alexy. and this high tech globalized world we live in sometimes language is the only barrier to communication getting the joke in your friends your russian friends twitter understanding your syrian friends wall post isn't always easy well one social media company is trying to change all that with a site that's taking the concept of going local to a whole new level r.t.s. an associate churkin to come up with the team behind the social networking site during their visit to the big apple. social networking sites have all but taken over the world the racing distances providing quick information updates with hundreds of millions of active users there is only one obstacle language but this

may be about to change. most but we had multilingual sticks you could communicate with the entire world follow artists politicians sign up for any page and comment in your own language. this team decided to get rid of language barriers online. there are tens of thousands of social networking sites all over the world to call them limited by the language users speak the idea is to create a platform so that all nations of the world can communicate. doodoo dot com is a new social networking site allowing members to bridge the language gap with friends news articles they read or celebrity they follow online the site already has seven million users you set your language your preferred language in the very beginning and then everything that you see on the website everything that you interact with is displayed in your language so far there are three main languages of operation english russian and arabic but this is just the beginning. we want our system to include all the languages there are over seven thousand languages in the world but not all of them are available in electronic format the idea is

a language we could be of swords the web provides countless dictionaries and online translators but the goal of this website is to avoid the hassle of having to look for translation elsewhere creator say this is also an easy intuitive way to learn new languages if you're studying a foreign language and you'd like to see the text in its original form there's always that you can see the original text with privacy still the highest priority at the site's goal is to bring users of other social networking sites together with some of the worst and we want for users of other services to be able to communicate through do a person needs to be registered on to do when he communicates on another site twitter for example if you will receive responses in his native language the person receiving the answer will get it in his own language. he's a kid the creator see their site is also a great tool for business is looking to expand their audience abroad with a bigger goal of bringing together users from vastly different circles and backgrounds enriching their online experience and. new york you better

watch where you sit criminals were busted in fresno california this week by cops after one accidentally died dial nine one one what does but get that's right the two work use of burglarizing multiple houses and cars while the nine one one operator listened on the other for all the call they can be heard breaking into a car in finding prescription drugs take a listen to this news report with the suspects response just after they were pulled over here is a solicitation i don't. much for your police find items taken from the burglarized car and that's when the suspects learned how they were caught really cold not. really cold enough for you. not exactly a pleasant surprise the operator was able to track down the two twenty year olds through their phone location and dispatched an officer to pull them over so for

those of you working on your criminal careers listen up you may want to leave the phone in the car that x. time that's going to do for now well we'll see back in a. is it turning into an overblown scandal or a reflection of a foreign policy poorly thought out and executed the terrorist attack on the american diplomatic outpost in benghazi last september has become a political football to attack the obama administration and hillary clinton mistakes were made but is there a proper focus on the most egregious ones. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom hartman welcome to the big picture.