the elite. coming up on r t jeremy hammond hacker and activist pled guilty to one violation of computer fraud and abuse act today the plea bargain could send him to jail for years we'll give you the latest on his case and its connection to the stratfor hacks and wiki leaks the obama administration's relationship with the press is still in shaky ground as more details come out about phone tracking of journalists there's talk about changes could be made to protect the press will have an end up look at the continuing concerns just ahead. during the memorial day weekend there were protests against months santo around the globe thousands voiced their demands for genetically modified food to be labeled among other ways to ensure food safety updates from the protests from new york and l.a. coming your way.

well it's tuesday may twenty eighth four pm in washington d.c. i'm margaret how well you're watching our t.v. starting this hour new developments in the case against hacker and activist jeremy hammett well early tuesday morning hammond pled guilty to violating the computer fraud and abuse act in connection to hacking into computers a global intelligence firm stratfor him and has been held over a year without trial facing a potential life sentence along with pleading guilty for his role in the stripper attack him and also to blame for compromising the computer networks of information security firms and law enforcement agencies are she's already harvest was at the courthouse and brings us the latest. the first american to face trial for a crime involving wiki leaks just agreed to a plea deal twenty eight year old jeremy hammond pled guilty to one count of

violating the computer fraud and abuse act in a manhattan federal court for his involvement with anonymous and hacking security company stratfor among other websites hammond then distributed those internal files to transparency organization wiki leaks he was facing multiple charges in several jurisdictions scattered around the country and this plea deal gave hammond immunity from prosecution in those other courts the aggressiveness of the prosecution in the case showcases america's particular attitude toward information sharing and corporate spying in general according to hammond's defense attorney sarah kunstler i think there's a war going on this in this country about. corporate spying about access to information about and that's this case falls in the at the heart of that after already serving fifteen months in prison with no way to communicate to his supporters and his family hamad has indicated that taking the plea deal has been somewhat of a relief and that now we can finally share with the world what he did and why he

said it has been posted on his website now that i have pleaded guilty it is a relief to be able to say that i did work with anonymous to hack stratfor among other websites those others included military and police equipment suppliers private intelligence and information security firms and law enforcement agencies i did this because i believe people have a right to know what governments and corporations are doing behind closed doors i did what i believe is right through jeremy's website the public can learn about his case as well as how to support him he is set to be sentenced on september sixth and faces a maximum of ten years in prison his website free jeremy dot net encourages people to write to the judge in the case asking for a lenient sentence according to his brother jason who was also at the court have been take solace and how much support he has already received. well he's strong he's like he knows exactly where he is that you know he feels confident with his legal scene was confident there's a lot of people like us that supporting him. he's got

a lot of lawyers so you know all the letters really helped lift his spirit will see how the support affects him in sentencing come september sixth in new york lawyer finessed. information continues to merge regarding the department of justice keeping tabs on those journalists and just who approved of those investigations into who journalists communicate with via phone and e-mail more than three weeks ago news broke of the department of justice sees phone records of associated press reporters to find out who had leaked national security information but it came to light that fox white house correspondent james rosen was facing charges under koch and as a coconspirator under the espionage act for obtaining those classified information from the state department source back in two thousand and nine well president obama said that he is and trusting attorney general eric holder to look into this matter take a listen journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs our focus must

be on those who break the law that's why i've called on congress to pass a media shield law to guard against government overreach and i've raised these issues with the attorney general who shares my concern when the president said that the attorney general would have a report on the matter by july the twelfth however holder was the same person who approved of seizing fox white house correspondent james rosen's phone records and e-mails in the first place a report into holder's own decisionmaking ought to be an interesting read what does all this mean anyway in terms of the future of the press well with me to discuss this from new york is michael brooks producer of the majority report hi there michael let's get right down to it so attorney general eric holder is supposed to be probing his own decisions regarding these investigations into the process how's that working out for him. hi margaret great to be talking with you look it seems incredibly funny the notion that holder would be investigating himself usually in

situations like this you might let go of somebody like attorney general holder who had been involved in making these really controversial decisions and find someone either new in his place or at least independent to investigate it so it's a strange process but how that looks practically margaret is it looks like a p.r. effort to me there's articles on holder being anguished and upset about his decision making process. and sort of focus on renewing the ministrations brand as being committed to free press and free speech that's what it looks like practically so for you know i agree with you there michael cera i don't know if you caught holder on his hearing on may fifteenth in front of the house judiciary committee but he indicated then the his department along with his advisers will begin exploring ways to reform the justice department's internal guidelines for investigating these leaks and the quote safeguard overly intrusive

tactics as he called it what do you make of this measure and do you think it's too little too late. well i mean of course it's too late because of several cases like this and really a broader culture how this in the distraction has dealt with leaking and it's and it's really important to be clear about this it's not that they're tough on leaking per se they're tough on the leaks they don't like they've used leaks very effectively in terms of advancing their own political agenda and brands and you know all white houses do nothing specific to them obviously but they've been very tough on leaks that don't conform to what they want including just basic whistle blowing throughout the intelligence apparatus so it's definitely too late we'll see if it's too little i think that there are people in the administration who get these issues who care about them and you know i never want to say it's too late because you know we're too little because in the long run it really is important

that we correct these issues but it's obviously to lay and we need to be apply a lot of scrutiny to this process because of their record so far it's not very promising ok michael so sounds like they're partial to see a family expect not others they're having a wreck are it's the new york senator chuck schumer i don't know if you caught it but he was on c.b.s.'s face the nation this weekend and he said that he's trying to create a new gang of eight to tackle these issues i want to play his clip take a listen if the government wants to go to a member of the press and say you have to divulge your sources and certain information they first have to go to a judge and that judge will impose a balancing test which is more important the government's desire to keep the information to find out who leaked the information or the fro bust freedom of the press and if we can set up these rules i think will avoid the morass you always need set rules and an independent arbiter we have neither and now ok michael what's

your take on schumer's proposal for that famous media shield law do you think it goes far enough. well apparent that if we have to get rid of gangs in washington whole gang of anything is enough already but look i think you know it's unclear to me what seems to happen starting out of the bush administration and continuing under the obama administration is the executive branch makes a really extreme push on something like these investigations into journalists and then washington kind of snaps to attention and says well let's codified it and put some processes around it and maybe that's better than what had been coming before but but in the process we might be losing some really essential liberties like fundamentally journalistic privilege which really should be something that is is very is taken very seriously and not really distorted so i'm not sure about schumer's proposal you know we'll see what kind of what they come up with but again

i wouldn't hold your breath on it well some critics have said that the u.s. favors aggressive journalism in other parts the world just not here do you think there's any truth about well i think obviously in other parts of the world where journalists are killed tortured regularly put in prison you know the united states obviously still has a very relatively free press but that said i mean obviously it really undermines our ability to go and speak about these issues abroad and you know lecture other countries frankly it's incredibly self negating and does hurt. our foreign policy when we push for that type of thing abroad i don't think there's any question about that ok well michael you're a journalist as in my and when i want to ask you about your personal experience have you seen any changes in the way sources interact with you since these revelations have come out regarding the d.o.j. . well you know i'm more in the kind of opinion analysis world but what i could say

is that you know on the program that i produce we've interviewed people like thomas drake who was an n.s.a. whistleblower on just frankly inefficiency in the n.s.a. and corrupt contracting he was viciously prosecuted so i think that there is this and i know people who are practice investigative reporting and it certainly has affected how their sources interact with them and i think more broadly it affects all of us because if information isn't freely moving and it's clamp down on we're only getting it from a limited amount of sources that have a skewing a spin that obviously affects all of us very deeply ok michael i'm i'm running out of time here i've got one more quick one for you do you think that holder is going to hold on until the summer i do and i think that holder. is been put in charge is own investigation and you know so my guess will be that

unless new things emerge eric holder is politically safe at the moment michael we've got to leave it there thank you that was michael brooks prettiest serve the majority report thanks so much. well protesters from around the world took to the stories over the weekend to rally against the biotech giant months santo and their production of genetically modified foods organizers of the march against month santos say that as many as two million people marched in four hundred thirty six cities in fifty two countries to raise awareness about g m o's and the companies that produce the genetically modified playout to come from seeds engineered to be resistant to disease and herbicides as well as increase crop yields well the u.s. through drug administration have deemed them safe but critics say they're dangerous and to both the environment and to our own health well this very caused her protesters to the streets here in the united states r.t.s. on a stasia churkin it will bring us more from new york but first we begin our reporting

in california where much of the world's fruits and vegetables are grown roughly a thousand people marched in los angeles here's our teaser mogul window he was there for. the traditional aztec dancers to help you know a huge crowd through the streets of los angeles to speak out against. genetically modified food form for us to say because you just people for some form you see that you do need to modify your form is missing. the creator body for. people of all ages turned out for the march against monsanto demanding to know what exactly is going into the food supply i am a public health nurse that's my profession and i care about the public obviously and you know with all this this chemicals that are in their food even if you want to be healthy how can you and i just really feel like we have a right to know what reading. your health and environmental concerns regarding

genetically engineer through to determine. protests educate americans about the cozy relationship between government and big i recall they claim that it's healthy for us is that there is no cancer causing agents in those seas that they that they create but do we really know that you know when they're really buying off the environmental protection agency and food and drug administration without people used to work for months on the working for them now monsanto as come under major scrutiny for what is seen as special state privileges it's congressional lobbying arm has helped secure legal protections for genetically modified seat the supreme court even ruled in favor of months into its battle against a small indiana farmer if they didn't know about monsanto they know now so they're going to you know what they say are they can vote with the part of their money don't buy products that are g.m.o. that contain g.m.o. this march against monsanto may not shut down the food giant but worldwide

awareness of the company's reach an influence is spreading through the streets. in los angeles in the archie. protesters of all ages and walks of life filled the streets of the big apple. music city one of dozens you want things to dissipate worldwide markets nonsense out people fill the streets chanting against the corporation taking our culture market route well they say it's time oh no it was had to has been up to a giant biotech corporation. that notorious for creating genetically engineered and genetically modified food was criticized for turning a blind eye on potential health consequences from g.m. most to consumers around the world. and using immense lobbying powers to resist

food labeling legislation in the u.s. and pushing through bills protecting its own interests you have seen the police protect the car bosses you see that's why you see all these laws out there protecting the big companies like research so the wall street care i mean us i mean this is all about service it's all about profits i mean nothing is going to change the monsanto protection act freeing the corporation from government oversight even when consumers take legal action continues to be under heavy skin much santo in the government or one how could how could we all get together and change it i don't know what happens tonight when we go home. got to pass some laws write the senators people tell me that still works i need to see to believe it standing up against a century old biotech giant these protesters demands are simple most importantly labeling modified food in the u.s. countries around the world are banning legislating and limiting the.

influx of g.m.o. products into their consumer markets the united states is not doing that right now they say this has to change that consumers can make an informed choice about what the eat and feed to their kids i'm really concerned that you know i'm being poisoned with small little farmers well and i'd like to have all my crops to be organic and i'm very concerned that this is a big issue for people your age more than my age because you have children and your children are going to be genetically modified demonstrators also demand further scientific research into health consequences of eating g.m.o. products any company who has created a chemical called agent orange and has affected our vietnam veterans is now creating seeds for our food supply is a bad sign the corporate giant is heavily criticized for monopolizing agriculture throughout the world by harassing and suing farmers at home and abroad there's a few. people are making a lot of money and we deserve to have better than that as well as pushing foreign

governments to give monsanto similar support and protection the company has in the us still concerns are high that too few people are familiar with what's going on my hope is that this event will help raise awareness among people in the united states that their government is letting them down completely letting them down we have a supreme court justice who was a lawyer for the monsanto corporation how much independence do we have really in our government with little hope that the government can stop ignoring the voices of the people protesters are set to continue fighting monsanto on their own step by step to try to impact change from the bottom. as they see turkana new york in turmoil in syria continues the violence ravages a syrian opposition forces continue to clash with the assad regime but negotiations

for peace stalled on both sides u.s. senator john mccain made a surprise visit to the region in order to speak with syrian rebel forces well as many on capitol hill continue to struggle with how to tackle this conflict artie's political commentator sam sachs explores how looking at the past may give us an insight on how to handle the future. senator john mccain snuck into syria over the weekend to meet with rebel commanders he talked about providing them heavy arms in air support in their civil war against president assad but these aren't just empty promises since february mccain and his buddies senator lindsey graham have been pushing plans to arm the syrian rebels and last week thanks to mccain's efforts the senate foreign relations committee overwhelmingly approved legislation to do just that to arm the rebels you see mccain has taken the role of charlie wilson in this war you remember charlie wilson right here is the congressman from texas who arm twisted congress to approve billions of dollars in military support back in the one

nine hundred eighty s. for the afghan mujahedeen in their fight against the soviet union hollywood made a movie about wilson and how all that military aid helped the mujahideen when it started tom hanks and julia roberts and of course we know how this movie ended or at least we know how the larger story ended in real life the mujahideen won in the united states walked away from afghanistan no longer caring about what impact the billions of dollars in new weapons may have on the country in the years to come. and then about a decade later a lot of those same forces we armed and trained in afghanistan produced this september eleventh two thousand and one charlie wilson later said he felt guilty that congress had not stuck around to help the afghans after a decade of war as though sprinkling a bit of nation building on top of a heap of guns could lead to a sustainable peace but really what charlie wilson and other members of congress learned is that the world changes very quickly and those who we see an advantage in

arming today may be the ones turning those same arms against us tomorrow happened when we armed saddam hussein in the 1980's to you could call it a fatal flaw with american foreign policy over the last fifty years but here we are again with john mccain and a lot of other folks who work here convinced that the united states in its infinite wisdom wouldn't arm future enemies again and that this time there will be no blowback but can we be so sure just today there are questions about the syrian opposition about how it's in disarray and unable to come up with a plan for a transitional government free from extremist forces and it's well known that the syrian opposition is comprised of multiple factions with multiple ideologies receiving funding from multiple different sources including roughly six thousand geodes fighting in syria with the al qaeda affiliated nusra front so how can we guarantee that lethal aid provided to the opposition doesn't end up in the hands of these extremist forces once again no one is questioning that syria is

a disaster and as the death toll mounts the pressure to do something to somehow put an end to the violence mounts as well but given our history of meddling in conflicts on the other side of the world believing that more machine guns or more missile launchers or more tanks may actually bring about peace. well that's a best i hope for boys and more than likely it's just a delusional one too and washington sam socks are to now an egypt where violence continues to overrun the city streets despite many political changes stemming from the arab spring some in egypt feel the need to take security into their own hands critics believe that this mob rule has become the norm in the country that have to beatings and mob a lynching are commonplace many in broad daylight artie's bell true takes a closer look at egyptian digital any justice an angry crowd viciously drugs a young man through a street sets his corpse on fire and strings it up video clips like these have

become boringly frequent in brule egypt since the revolution two years ago citizens increasingly take justice into their own hands. a thirty one year old civil servant from the delta is one such victim he was brutally murdered and hung from a tree in broad daylight. the crowd thought that he was a thief because he's mentally ill the first blow came from behind on the back of his head and then part of his skull was hacked off the second here it was to his chest and they caught him open arms sabriye story is not unique since the two thousand and eleven revolution there have been at least seventeen similar lynchings in this region alone the most high profile victim who was killed last week was the son of a leading member of the missing brotherhood's political party security forces for their part say they aren't able to control the situation particularly when entire villages are involved in these bitter lanty mobs rights advocates like karim and

nora say the lynchings which are on the rise are symptomatic of the state's continued failure to provide security and justice. increasing cases of lynchings and community violence and people taking justice in toronto. but i was a very visible sign of just increasing lack of face into. level face into the criminal justice system and obviously people in egypt have always had a negative inviting relationship with the police and a not very good relationship with me but that has even become worse after the revolution officials from the ruling freedom and justice party and the police admit that the authorities are reluctant to confront suspected mob killers for fear of backlash however local party leader ahmed shah hearts who personally knew one of the victims maintained security is improving post revolution egypt has experienced one of the best revolutions in history the country's being healed very quickly

we're almost in a stable situation there will be security we have a plan for the economy and security reject this is little consolation for the families of victims like sabri who have seen no justice. the local security chief said just give me one dog and arrest him in twenty four hours now it was done for has been dead for fifty days and security director has done nothing against the backdrop of ice skating civil unrest off the revolution many fear this violence is here to stay and that the worst could be yet to come. true for our tea showcase. maintain your old high school senior in florida kaitlyn hunt is facing felony charges stemming from a same sex relationship with a freshman female was charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious battery of a child twelve to sixteen years of age because she turned eighteen her parents and girlfriends call the police hunts parents have said that the girlfriend's parents

blamed kate one for their daughter being in a homosexual relationship well one has refused to take a plea deal from prosecutors which would have resulted in her facing two years of helsa rust and potentially having to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life was an honor student prior before she was expelled from high school stemming from these charges stop some states have decriminalized mutually consenting sex between teens if one is of legal age and one isn't so long as the age difference is less than four years florida isn't one of them we'll keep you posted as this case progresses. comedian an r.t.s. dog stand hope is raising money for an oklahoma tornado victim who became a viral sensation after her live interview on c.n.n. take a listen to her happy you're here you guys did a great job and i guess you got to thank the lord right do you think that works for that's what second this is i. think that if you know your life.

or did the right you know we are here and for and you know i don't i don't blame anybody for thanking our first. well a clip of rebecca vits moment telling wolf blitzer she's maybe asst was ahead on line just minutes into the interview rebecca has just lost her home in the massive tornado that leveled parts of moore oklahoma the atheist community is coming to her aid on their web site indie go go they've been collecting money to help the family rebuild and so far more than one hundred thousand dollars has been donated more than double the initial goal considering that her home was destroyed by its men could put suck some of that money to good use that's been doesn't seem to need spiritual help when she has a from the atheist community that's going to do it for a nail for more on the stories we've covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america check out our website at r t dot com slash usa you're also follow me on twitter at m underscore j underscore how we'll stay tune prime interest is next.

a clear image of the rocky story. twenty day taxi trip through the country. the road. to. the root of iraqi tragedy. after the war waiting for peace. talks on our t.v. . you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm trying hard welcome to the big picture.

good afternoon and welcome the prime interest i'm hereon boring here in washington d.c. let's get to today's headline. the bernanke he while the factors in the poll sway exhibit one of the key shiller housing and that beat expectations and is on par with the starkest run at some of the bill days of two thousand and five nearly a gain of ten point nine percent as the first double digit gain and five and the year south according to barron's but this is according to our bed. in the south and speak out of the pie. i guess i don't buy your premise it's a pretty unlikely possibility and we've never had a decline in house prices and a nationwide but nationwide basis so what i think is more likely is that house prices will slow maybe stabilize might slow consumption spending a bit i don't.