coming up on r t the pentagon has spent over three hundred million dollars on an anthrax antidote stockpile all in preparation for a future bioterrorist attacks but there's a major conflict of interest when it comes to who was awarded that contract well question more with google's continuing growth and its potential release of google glasses concerns over privacy are coming out how much of our lives are ingrained with google and what secrets about others what google glasses offer to its wearer look into those questions ahead and if you thought that the a.p. was the end of journalist targeting think again it turns out there are other cases of the government with a close eye on the actions of journalists the details on this developing story later in the show.

it's monday may twentieth four pm in washington d.c. lopez and you are watching on t.v. but we begin this hour with yet another look at the close and sometimes conflicting times between the government and private interests over the weekend the l.a. times printed an investigative piece that talked about numerous government purchases of a drug known as rexy kuumba tom is that this drug is the anti toad of an antibiotic resistant anthrax drug in the wake of nine eleven the government actually dedicated huge sums of money to creating and stockpiling bio defense drugs but here's where the conflict of interest comes in. as or who played a key role in pushing the government toward this decision also was profiting off of these drugs he was the director of the human genome sciences that's a company that actually earned three hundred thirty four million dollars in

government contracts as a result so how does he get away with this while to explain this i'm joined by michael brooks he is the producer for the majority report there michael now let's start by talking about this mr downs that character he says that this is not a conflict of interest so let me ask you was it. great to be talking with you. it's very hard to understand how it wouldn't be you know best case scenario if you have these sort of dual roles as a public policy adviser and then you have direct financial interests in what you're devising about you would disclose that fact and he vaguely disclosed his interest on certain occasions and on other occasions didn't disclose that at all in fact some people that the l.a. times spoke with who had been advised by him had no idea even up to the point of the article being published his financial stakes in this vaccine in this drug use be now u.s.

intelligence agencies have never established that a nation or terrorist group has ever made or shown any interest in making in this antibiotic resistant anthrax based weapon so why haven't we spent three hundred thirty four million dollars of government money on this medicine to cure this edge of a arctic resistant anthrax if no one chance shown any interest in creating it. well i think you know there's a couple of different aspects that you know this is after september eleventh the kind of shock of the terrorist events and then following that there was. not anti by a biopic resistant anthrax letters sent to different congressional offices so there was a lot of fear at this time. around two thousand to two thousand and three two thousand and four around the development of chemical biological weapons by terrorist groups so that's the context and then we turn to experts like mr danzig

who said this is something that we really got to be worried about in his capacity as a policy adviser without disclosing his financial interest so we kind of rushed headlong into these really unskillful strategic spending choices based off of the fear of the moment and the conflict of interest driven advice of policy experts like. and it is something that the government continues to spend money on but the government isn't. the only customer for this drug for this particular company which mr danzig was the director of and the purchase was the first major purchase for that company in that company is human genome sciences inc as well so how does this play into the conflict of interest allegations i mean obviously has to play something into it. very directly and look that's a good i think most startup entrepreneurs would love their first cell could be to a single customer for that type of figure i think it's incredibly questionable in

the whole diluted policy process of having a guy who serves on advisory boards who has a lot of policy expertise and then directly having an undisclosed financial stake that just can't be driven home enough it's incredibly questionable and the contract reflects just how problematic it is like you say absolutely can you go a little bit more into detail about richard danzig and his qualifications to be an adviser to the president on these matters. well i mean this is part of the problem right his qualifications are great he has served as he was secretary of the navy i believe under president clinton he also served in the carter administration he serves on a number of policy boards related to bioterrorism he advised then senator obama when he was first running for president so he is a well trained successful god with a lot of credibility on these issues which he's used to cash in on and of course

that's very reflective of you know d.c. as a whole there is nothing unique to him about this now three hundred thirty four million dollars my sound like a lot of money to you and me but to the government mean it's really just a drop of the hat they spend trillions of dollars after every year after all can you talk about the impact that this money actually means to the federal government . i mean i think you're right that it doesn't really mean much in and of itself in the context of the entirety of spending and i could see some people saying you know why not invest this type of relatively small so even if there is just a fraction of the chance of something as horrifying as. resist an anthrax being released on the other hand this is symptomatic of so many relationships like this and so many ways the policy is skewed. that it even it's a real symbol of a larger problem do you think that this is just an example as you say in the sample of a larger problem are there things that we're just not learning about right now that

keep happening and we're just takes digging in order to discover these kinds of conflicts of interest. there is a culture in washington d.c. people talk about lobbying that's a very clear example of the kind of revolving door of government but there's also people like mr danzig who are real policy experts and they sell their wares in the private market and are still moving in the public sector seamlessly and you see this across a lot of policy areas including several other security areas like cyber security and other things like this it's very common it's very typical of the sea and it's certainly a systemic problem well a systemic problem that's not even to mention all of the question surrounding this type of antibiotic resistant antidote to anthrax michael brooks for a producer of the majority report thank you for joining me thank you. well if you

are one of the five hundred million google users around the world then you know how intertwined the company has become with your online life one company that holds the key to your internet secrets your e-mails your chats and your connections to other people around the world and that will be the beginning the company is continually inventing new products to make users' lives easier becoming more and more a part of those users lives in the process are to correspondent margaret howell takes a look at google by the numbers is google trying to take the world over well the multinational corporation has become an active part of the average internet users digital life but just how much has this company become ingrained we'll let's break it down by the numbers four hundred twenty five million now in june of two thousand and twelve that's the number of users google announced use g.-mail the company's e-mail service during biggles annual io developer conference and this year one hundred and ninety million people are active undergoes new social media platform

google plus now take a look at this number nine hundred million well that's the number of activated android smartphones so far so google for right end of the smartphone arena has quickly gained user traction now to put that into perspective the company also announced an active smartphone user base of one hundred million all downloading custom map so what's the catch will those buying those apps from google for their android purchase do it directly from the developer now this means that their personal usage information is recorded with every buy but only for billion tax purposes of course. seven hundred fifty million that's the number of people using google's web browser chrome an incredible number on its own but coupled with the company's newly launched google now and then a new feature that scans your e-mails and tries to keep up with your online life keeping it straight will it might be expect too much on the privacy front which

brings me to this number twenty two point five million that's how much it was forced to pay in two thousand and twelve after being accused of violating a user consent order by placing tracking cookies on safari users despite them telling those users that they would be opted out of such tracking well the company called that an honest mistake so that leaves us with one question as a user are we vulnerable and are we ok with how much we're giving up for convenience sake for all this cool new technology on their part so wilson pledging privacy in transparency for years releasing those quarterly transparency reports saying transparency is a core value at google as a company we feel it's our responsibility to ensure that we maximize transparency around the flow of information related to our tools and services. so as the company can ten years to expand we'll see just how they get to know us in washington margaret howell r.t.

and it isn't only the digital world that google is taking by storm the mega company is now working on ways to bring your digital experience into the physical world but that notion has put privacy advocates and congress on high alert lawmakers from both sides of the aisle wrote an open letter to google c.e.o. larry page asking him to address concerns about the google glass product the letter laid out eight questions the group wanted answers to they include how does the company plan to prevent google glass from unintentionally collecting data about users and non-users without their consent and does the product employ facial recognition technology to discuss this new product and the privacy concerns surrounding it i'm joined now by pete patchouli he's a tech editor at mashable pete thank you so much for joining me i understand that you have some google glasses of your own they are wearing right there first talk about what this product offers that normal computer couldn't and then we'll get into some of those privacy concerns that i was thinking about i'm sure i mean google glass is basically the internet and it's on your head it's basically there

all the time you see there's a camera attached so you can take photos and videos and share them immediately to any of your networks like facebook and twitter but one of the most powerful things it does it gives you access to the internet through your voice so you can basically say ok glass google and basically ask for close by restaurants factual things like you know who's the prime minister of canada. basically anything you want so it's a basically a lot of things that you would have had to look down at your cell phone to do you can now do just by you know if you communes now one of the major questions the group of lawmakers had was about wearing these glasses and gathering information about other users are people that aren't using them the user of course has to agree to the terms of service of this product but a person that he is passing that is drinking coffee outside or just another person that's just walking by them is there any indication of the type of information that these classes can gather about them. yeah right now glass is fairly bare bones i

know one of the questions has to do with facial recognition technology to my knowledge that isn't built in a glass now i don't think it is but you know who knows what developers are going to cook up so that is coming to the point where you know you're going to be able to have facial recognition technology built into something like this or at least built into the network it connects to but that's equally a concern with cell phones a lot of the questions they ask we've kind of already passed. the point of sort of the answers to some extent with cellphones in terms of having cameras can connected cameras around in public all the time in the same concern with my cell phone it just happens to be on my head right now sure and but how much information can this device store in comparison to your cell phone about the same i believe glass is about twelve gigabytes right now that's comparable to modern cell phones which are usually sixteen or thirty two. but the the i do agree that it definitely changes the dynamic by having everything so excessive or you know there's

a convenience of having everything right here obviously which is the big promise that was caught so many moments particularly with my kids that i would not have been able to catch with a phone camera because i would have to unlock the phone and do some other stuff but here i can just quickly even say the command and get something but with that of course there's well it's so easy to take pictures now what does this mean both sort of for privacy and society and even technical issues like storage all these things are coming and we should ask these questions although again i think the answers are going to be fairly mild and we've we've kind of already answered some of them just with phones and cells one another question pete is that the allegations that google and other kind of hackers can actually turn your computer on turn your camera on they can listen to dogs barking and then advertise for a dog food you know dog bark collar things like that who say that they can one day turn on your google glasses and see what you're seeing when you walk. yeah well anything can be hacked and that's possible it does run android which you know

probably has some security concerns with glass themselves with this particular edition of glass which is the developer edition it's not a product yet i know google has as kind of a kill switch of some sort so i mean basically they they can keep tabs on glass more than they can keep tabs on with android phone no that's that's not as early as today with the software just as a google is actually making this gadget will that be the same will they have the same kind of feature in the product the consumer product i don't know it sounds a little big brother and i don't know they're going to do it but with these privacy concerns maybe they should just in case when i was thinking about when it comes to targeting certain as for individual consumers versus for a general audience let's talk about these these ads and how this google glasses could make google in general more a part of your life because it will do that inevitably right yes oh absolutely and i think the having used google glass for the last few weeks the promise of the

technology is incredible like i say not just catching moments but you know having that ultra convenient connection to the internet right there all the time. with ad targeting yes that's probably going to happen but i think most of this stuff i think we've sort of learned through a lot of digital technology the past couple years that needs to be opted you have to agree to the terms of for service you have to approve the app and then it should be an easy way to opt out and if any any developer who develop something that doesn't have those conditions does it at their own peril so then the question becomes should one company have that much access to your personal life and on the other side of that token don't users actually do that willingly hand over this type of information. yeah i mean the thing is if you're really concerned about privacy i definitely say that google glass is a kind of device for you quite frankly because it is based like one of the sort of wonders that our logs. need to know about you need to know the data i need to

actually know what direction you're facing the maps work beautifully but it does sort of know what you're doing so i mean this is not a gadget for anyone who is who is concerned about privacy and if you are you should either not buy or just don't wear it during those times that you are so but yes it does mean you know like google is can getting a lot a large amount of data i mean it's it's they say it's anonymous they say they're not going to be evil to a large extent i do think they're being truthful and then sense but if you have concerns about it i mean it's it's you don't paschal tech editor at mashable thank you for bringing those google glasses then my pleasure. well lawmakers are back on capitol hill this week debating new versions of the agriculture reform food and jobs act of two thousand and thirteen better known as the farm's bill the house and senate are taking up separate legislations but both plan to cut billions of dollars from this bill's budget those cuts would mostly come from the supplemental nutrition assistance program which provides food credits for the poor essentially

meaning that congress is penny pinching could hit the pockets of americans on food stamps in a major way the house bill would cut some twenty point five billion dollars from food stamps over the next decade while the senate version would cut about four point one billion dollars a report by the center on budget and policy priorities aides the cuts says that the cuts actually in the food stamp program would eliminate two million people from that program two hundred ten thousand of them would be children also on the chopping block the so-called monsanto protection act that's what we've been reporting about senator jeff merkley has promised to introduce an amendment to repeal the special exemption granted to the biotech industry and last march continuing marches a continuing resolution spending bill the farm bill hasn't been reauthorized since two thousand and eight and lobbyists and big agribusinesses are working hard to make sure that they get their fill from the trough will be sure to keep you updated

on this story as it passes through the halls of congress. well when you think of police shootings and the excessive use of force most people picture cases like that of oscar grant but a local houston station discovered an alarming number of dog deaths caused by police shootings the k h o u eleven news i seem actually discovered that there have been a rash of police killing dogs. boss was shot twice and i actually tried comforting him as the blood eventually today you know when they say it out of the man's best friend. we really are in the in the houston police department while the shooting was justified just as the department of all one hundred eighty seven dogs shot by each p.d. officers since january first two thousand and ten the houston police department authorizes officers to use any force necessary if they feel like they are in imminent danger of an attack from a dog however animal cruelty prevention specialists attribute the high number of

deaths to untrained officers many police departments do not require any training on how to handle animals whatsoever meanwhile the city of minneapolis has agreed to pay was one family in particular two hundred twenty five thousand dollars for the shooting death of a dog during a home search this case is the exception to the norm but animal rights advocates argue that it should be the standard procedure since many pets are considered members of the family and perhaps hitting the city the pocket will force police departments to take these deaths more seriously and speaking of police overkill take a look at this video we found over the weekend it was posted by the new york answer coalition and it shows dozens of police officers rushing into a new york city subway station all to detain one man now the circumstances leading up to this arrest are still very much unclear. well little over a week ago the associated press discovered its phone records were taken by the justice department in an investigation over the leaks of classified information in

the weeks since viewers and readers have witnessed a media blitz in defense of the fourth estate that battle is far from over it turns out that this was not the first time the government has taken media phone records in two thousand and nine fox news's chief washington correspondent james rosen had his personal e-mail searched by the state department for a story that he wrote about north korea well joining me to discuss the a.p. d.o.j. scandal along with some of the other cases and what this means for the press freedom is josh byrne steve he's a white house reporter for politico josh thanks so much for joining me so let's start off by talking about this scandal is not the first time that the government has gone after journalists records why is it that this instance in particular is gaining so much attention. well in the case of the justice department a peace situation i think the reason it's gaining so much attention is primarily

the threats of the search that the justice department you know spanning something on the order of twenty phone lines used by the associated press which state peace says may have been used by as many as one hundred journalists there's reports that it included their main phone line or one of their me on lines in the house gallery at the house of representatives which could be used by just about any journalist in the a.p.'s washington bureau maybe even some from other bureaus so i think it's the breath of the search and it's also the manner in which the government went about it to just go and take the records and then tell the a.p. afterwards it's a pretty unusual step when the government has tried to do these things in the past they have sometimes sometimes but not always notify the news organization in advance and given them the opportunity to fight the issue out in court now just yesterday the c.e.o. of the if he appeared on face the nation condemning the d.o.j. as investigation and he says that he is he is already experiencing some type of a chilling effect and that his reporters are experiencing that as well with

potential sources as well as regular interview we is there hasn't to speak to him are we seeing the future of journalism e r. yeah i think there is no question that we are seeing a chill put on journalism by these activities though i have to say experience sources are knowledgeable sources would not come to learn about this or be chilled by what's happened just in the last few weeks really sensitive sources have known for some time that there's a very aggressive campaign going on with the justice department within the obama administration to root out those who are leaking into to kill or supplied national security information and they would have been well aware of that fact long before these stories broke out in the press in the last couple days so let's talk about the case that i was speaking about earlier that a fox correspondent james rosen who is facing potential criminal charges as a coconspirator for what seems like normal journalistic practice he spoke to a source inside of the government to obtain information the investigation resulted

in rosen's e-mail and correspondence records being polled by the d.o.j. and even has movements at the state department were tracked via his key card this all happened back in two thousand and nine but the washington post reported on these potential problems just last night so talk about this event in particular. well what's really interesting here is what you said at the beginning it's not so much that i think anyone thinks that rosen is likely to be prosecuted in connection with this episode but the justice department did make that as an argument in trying to get into rosen's telephone records to get a search warrant i'm sorry for his e-mail records they made the argument that he had potential criminal liability in this case he could be considered a coconspirator with the individual who worked at the state department who was allegedly is source he could also be considered to have aided and abetted a crime by sort of encouraging this person to provide him with information and what's troubling about that argument is as you say the tactics that he used many of

them are very typical for reporters i think the affidavit here talks about the use of flattery towards the source in order to get him to give up information and as some reporters have been saying today if that's a crime then we're all guilty there's also the allegation from a k.m.o.v. anchor by the name of larry connors he alleged that the i.r.s. was targeting him after he had a rather contentious interview with president obama about the economy but his sense back tracked to say that the i.r.s. started auditing and him actually two years prior to that interview the question really isn't over his case the civic lee but do you see something like this like an i.r.s. audit as a possibility to freeze on journalists. no i really don't i mean i think that what we're seeing in the i.r.s. scandal up to this point is really a lack of supervision by sort of higher authorities i mean i suppose theoretically possible a low level official been take action for any reason but in terms of it being

directed by the white house the problem that they have developed with direct here was actually that the white house wasn't doing enough to make sure that this is being responsibly managed and not that they were micromanaging these started on wise decisions being made by lower level people there and finally josh when journalists go from here do we buy a pay as you go phones and adopt a more secretive approach of handling sources and information in general and if so is that asacol i think journalists when they're dealing with very sensitive information are going to have to do that they're going to have to rely on in person meeting they're going to have to take account of the fact that when you swipe in or out of a government building that somebody may be able to track that you know from other cases that the government has told journalists credit reports that they pull journalists travel and probably their frequent flyer records so reporters that are covering sensitive information do need to be aware that they're going to have to take pretty extraordinary precautions to protect their sources and i think that sources need to be aware that as well thank you for taking the time i

a day to give us a little bit more insight on that that was political white house reporter josh bernstein. thank you well it's been called the oldest profession and now one social media site isn't ready it's a very get into the twenty first century link in the social networking site broadcasting over two hundred twenty five million users so they say designed to keep you connected with people across different professional fields is now changing its terms of use banning the promotion of prostitution the policy changes aimed at ensuring that sex workers and escort services are unable to advertise such services even if such services are actually legal in the place that the profile is actually located no word yet on how this affects this actually affect the ability for the people to actually get that work that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america check out our website

dot com slash usa and follow me on twitter and meghan underscore lopez see right back here at five. caucus attendees have gone to the polls and elected a new parliament what will a new government do domestically in the area of foreign policy particularly washington's drone war with growing economic dislocations in a very threatening taliban how can and should pakistan move forward and will the military continue to watch from the sidelines. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything is ok. i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

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good afternoon and welcome to prime interest i'm perry and boring here in washington d.c. and here's the story that i've been tracking today. we are now versed and everything and although you can't touch the digital president currency producer bob inglis and i flew out of san jose over the weekend and reached out to the eleven one hundred ten beads and sponsors for the first major bitcoin conference we have several interviews from millionaires investors and developers that will be sharing over the next few weeks today we're going to feature the c.e.o. of instant charlie extrem will explain just how do you see it is to buy that quickly moving on those who are facing foreclosure by wells fargo and citi group might be able to a little sigh of relief the two giants have halted most of their.