well coming up on our t.v. after nine eleven the white house gain more power in the work in stare now lawmakers are considering ways to limit these increases in presidential power but would clarifying certain rules really make a difference or just. all signs point to obama obama dominating an x. bush official to be the new f.b.i. director james comey is facing criticism for signing off on secret wiretapping when he was deputy attorney general will dive into his resume and look at some of his past decisions and a ratings freefall the left leaning network m.s.m. b c is facing a ratings slump the news network has dropped to fourth place in prime time will explore what may be causing this decline later on in the show.

let's friday may thirty first four pm in washington d.c. i'm margaret how well you're watching our t.v. starting off the sour the eighth u.n. math lawmakers are looking to make a few changes to the authorization of the use of military force a joint resolution currently under the national defense authorization act the a u m f contains vaguely which gives the executive branch broad authority to go after threats to national security interests in the light of september eleventh well now congress along with the president are trying to clarify the process for targeting these threats r.t.s. political commentator sam sacks brings us more on the a new amount of and how it's currently managing the war on terror. when we think about our wars since two thousand and one we usually think of just these two countries afghanistan and iraq but those were the signature wars our so-called

war on terror stretches beyond those borders if we include nations that we've launched drone strikes into for example it looks like this out in pakistan yemen somalia we have also launched trikes in libya but really even this map doesn't show how limitless the so-called war on terror has now become. here's why very early on in the obama administration in march of two thousand and nine the definition of the authorization for use of military force the a u.n. math which basically authorized the war in afghanistan in two thousand and one against al qaeda was expanded to include not just al qaida but also associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the united states or its coalition partners including any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported hostilities in aid of such enemy armed forces now this is important because the pentagon and department of justice have justified everything from drone strikes to indefinite detention under this expanded

a definition in fact the d.o.j. white paper released earlier this year on targeted killings specifically says quote the president has authority to respond to the imminent threat posed posed by al qaeda and its associated forces arising from its constitutional responsibility to protect the country the inherent right of the united states national self-defense under international law. but what exactly is an associated force of al qaeda that we are at war with but we have some idea this is a two thousand and four list of associated forces identified by the department of defense this information was found in the guantanamo files made public by wiki leaks as you can see it's a rather large list and includes organizations you probably didn't know we were at war with over the last day. including the iranian intelligence agency pakistani intelligence the muslim brotherhood is blow up and hamas plus more than sixty other

groups now here's the thing if we include the organizations that are listed as associated forces by the pentagon here then really the global war on terror looks a lot more like this including nations like algeria lebanon morocco egypt respect as in tajikistan iran tunisia saudi arabia chechnya syria and really the list just goes on and on so this war is far more expansive than most of us can even imagine and some in congress now want to rein it in the hill reports today that early draft language in the new national defense authorization act would quote require president obama in the pentagon to review all groups or individuals now characterized as associated forces under the current rules the root review mandated by the draft language would require the pentagon to specifically lay out whether those groups or individuals are directly tied to al qaeda operations and if they are engaged with ongoing or future terror plots against the united states or its

allies so if congress succeeds in this this will be the first limit imposed on the your math in more than a decade and as this conflict has now expanded into more regions of the world that we never imagined we'd be dropping bombs on the new limits on this global war on terror is exactly what's needed most in washington sam sachs r t it looks like president obama will nominate it x. bush administration official for the f.b.i.'s top spot replacing robert mueller komi was a former senior justice department official serving under attorney general john ashcroft for many bod comey as a good public servant under bush he doesn't come to the table without controversy privacy be advocates question his ability to protect civil liberties considering recent allegations about the obama administration's policies regarding wiretapping and surveillance. well serving as deputy attorney general comey approved the n.s.a. warrantless wiretapping policy so what can we expect from an f.b.i.

with comey at its helm artie's liz wall looks into it. it looks like president obama will nominate james comey to lead the f.b.i. has a resume that has garnered both praise and controversy between two thousand and three and two thousand and five komi you served as deputy attorney general in the bush administration in two thousand and four comey took over for his boss attorney general john ashcroft when he became sick despite pressure from the bush administration comey refused to reauthorize the n.s.a.'s warrantless wiretapping program at a senate hearing in two thousand and seven komi described how senior administration officials came to ashcroft's hospital bed to try to get his approval for the spying program as he laid back down he said but that doesn't matter because i'm not the attorney general there is the attorney general and he pointed to me and i was just to his left the two men did not acknowledge me they turned and walked from the room

he goes on to describe standing up to high ranking members of the bush administration for this call me has received praise from both republicans and democrats but civil rights advocates point to other dark spots on combs record the a.c.l.u. says quote as the second highest ranked justice department official under john ashcroft call me approved some of the worst abuses committed by the bush administration just when we need a real break with the past we get another nominee from the bush era just like we had john brennan from the bush era who was high up in the cia when torture and indefinite and she was being used and now he's confirmed as obama's head of the cia as deputy attorney general tommy would have approved controversial programs including enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding and the indefinite detention program i think with comi although he enjoyed this almost cinematic hero

status because of the showdown with ash croft over one thing we can't forget he was in church. approving a lot of been hints to interrogate techniques also known as torture komi is expected nomination come shortly after president obama's speech about drone policy and closing guantanamo bay obama pledge this speech was a step towards ending the war on terrorism overseas but for critics this nomination would be another signal there's more of the same on the way if you look fundamentally at the policies after these announcements it becomes clear that nothing changes but if you listen to the words it sounds like there's something shifting after leaving the justice department coming joined the private sector it was a corporate attorney for lockheed martin and the hadron bridgewater associates confirmed komi what replaced them robert muller as head of the f.b.i. became head of the agency just seven days after the september eleventh attacks and

washington was wall r.t. we'll see a whistleblower john kerry who is speaking out the former cia operative best known for blowing the whistle on the cia's use of waterboarding is speaking out from behind bars and initially charged under the espionage act three months and has thirty month sentence having pled guilty to lesser charges and a letter sent to his attorney just. which was published with his consent to the blog fire dog lake details his experiences inside the federal correctional facility and the rate of concealed gania being designated as a public safety threat kiriakou describing move to surface sentence and the general population rather than a federal work camp as previously discussed kiriakou went on to say that his reputation has preceded him while in laredo and ascribe various run ins with commanding officers one verbal exchange and in the following an hour later for

ceo's descended on both of our cells trashing all of our worldly possessions in my first shakedown lesson learned ceos can treat us like subhumans but we have to show them fo respect even if it's not earned. we'll keep you updated on his case as it continues to develop. well the revolving door between government service and the private sector may have another noteworthy official passing through it retired four star army general and former cia director david petraeus join the ranks of a high profile investment firm kohlberg kravis roberts and company here's what the general had to say about his new job i served our country for thirty eight and a half years or so in government service if you will i'd like to. capitalize on opportunities that are out there. capitalize he did betray us will share k k r s new global institute which will focus on public policy communications economic forecast and investment advice the trade is a loss to spot

a cia director in november after an extramarital affair with his biographer was exposed k.k. are is best known for huge corporate takeovers the alliance between the seventy three billion dollar new york city based private equity firm and the tray s. has benefits for both parties betray us gets back in the public eye after resigning in scandal while k k k k r gains access to betray us his rolodex filled with government economic and military contacts betrays isn't the first to move from a position of influence and power to a cushy private sector job well what you know if you were balls back around the public sector well in a month filled with breaking news m s n b c's ratings continued their nosedive the may ratings were the lowest the network had seen in four years and it's even worse for the primetime lineup which is at a six year low. the left of center news channel struggled to keep up with its competitors and is now ranked fourth among the major networks it was taken over by

c.n.n. for the second month in a row and breaking news which now lags h l n which spent a month covering the jodi arias trial critics of m.s.m. b.c. argue that they're out of touch and that they champion french politics and anecdotal commentary over hard it is or could it be that the viewer as a whole is more interested in salacious content well to discuss this with me now i'm joined by georgetown university journalism professor christopher chambers hi there perhaps there are so what's this reason do you think for in this in these things do well there are a variety of things don't go for the out of touch thing that's kind of a kind of a kneejerk thing you know underneath the comment there's some truth because basically they've spent a lot of time building themselves up as a advocate of the president but kind of a kind of a bore you know like old like oh like some something out there like a fort the kind of blunts the the right wing perspective from fox and some of the

radio hosts and people like that well you have a month of scandal and i think a lot of people really were turned off by that stuff and can comment at least what happens then is that the network doesn't reach you know reorganize it doesn't you know basically rebuild the message i mean very much like say on our t.v. where you know you are not pandering to a right wing audience but you're not pandering to present you know friends of the president either you have to have analysis and criticism and they've really had neither ok well as you mentioned that scandalous month we just had a man right packed with a lot of news story right so you know cleveland three women were found alive after being kidnapped work lahoma major major natural disaster there and of course the obama administration has given everybody enough you know information. for a long time. and there so do you think it's the news it so i mean why are they doing so poorly with all this stuff going on well it's there's there's

a technical term called selective segmentation which really all that means is you go out and find the news you want to hear now with the scandals this is tailor made for fox because they can then churn that and churn that to the point where you have almost a cult following going there i mean whether it's factual or real you just keep churning it so they can build the kind of the audience the raw with the raw meat they've already been providing and this and b c doesn't do that i mean basically what they're trying to do is continue with their same business model and talk about the same stuff now on top of that you have some very we both ok and i don't mean you know i'm in the business too and i don't want to speak ill of people but there are some people that probably don't need to have shows and you know this runs the gamut from you look at saturday night live did a scathing just pilloried al sharpton i mean and that stuff it's satire but said

tire has a little grain of truth a middle of it doesn't say here is i you know i'm so glad you're proud of us talking because i have a clip that i want to play for you have this talking as if you have silly. joining me now to talk about this and the nation's real problem of joblessness the reverend al sharpton. reverend jesse jackson. right i don't you know i'm so sorry i'm so glad we had that storm last week but we've been talking race in two thousand and twelve and i'm asking all of you one central question and the question is well that raises so out because any good race baiter needs it if you were race card for everyone everyone at the table has a race card ok professor change. a little that clips there for am i do you do you find them silly do you think it must be steve's thing status ellie i think that there are some amateurish mistakes going on i don't think chris matthews is

probably getting to a point where he's becoming a parody of himself i think al sharpton is too i think melissa harris perry show has a following particularly younger women and particularly younger women of color but she's not a you know a homegrown journalist you know so she's an academic like me who transformed herself into you know show business and there are dangers there but she does have a following but it shows like with chris chris hayes this show is very weak and i think they have the the lynchpin of something good with in the morning believe it or not with morning joe the edge show probably needs to be spiced up but it's on that line between amateurish and just like they just lost their way and sometimes you get into a perfect storm and that's what's going on here what they need to do is raid current t.v.'s hosts and put them on because they're pretty good you know and look

at our tease model and how you mix analysis commentary and hard news they have in d.c. news at their disposal they don't use them they have pete williams who was the only voice of reason in the boston marathon bombing and they don't you. use him fox at the very least uses its news content as a set up for the primetime circus now it's a circus but at least they have competent news product that they can put these issues out there and then they let the lunatics come in and debate them but you know see it does not do that it's just talk talk talk talk talk and they ignore the hard news you know the deep human stories talk ok that's what i want to get to the heart of here so that commentary do you think that alienates viewers i don't think it alienates viewers i think i think they have their core audience just like fox does i think what it's happening is that it's turning their core viewers off you

have and you don't have that kind of fanatical. drumbeat that has been energized because of the president's tone deafness and scandals that you have with fux you know the other side you can have criticism of the president but still get to the bottom of these these controversies and see what the facts are without this kind of weird curtain that they have that they're not being it's not really alienated it's like if you have a favorite t.v. show and it's starting to get bland you don't think it's a credibility issue i don't think it's a credibility issue i think i think they're they are just really kind of lost their their way. i don't think that they're you know the rebuke used to be liberal shields for the president i don't think that that's what's going on with i don't think they're losing an audience over that the people that watch it are pretty much probably progressive anyway i think it's it's stale like i said it's like watching a favorite t.v. program you're watching mad men and done draper's not doing anything for you you find something else you go to an alternate new source such as r t so their loss is

your gaze you know. professor chambers i don't know why i ever get tired don draper we're out of. the lights for that town university journalism professor christopher chambers. well here on our see it we've been long covering the use of those x. rays that airport security checkpoints and our guests have had plenty to say about the issue take a look at the t.s.a. the machines that they use the magnetometers the body scanners the pat downs none of these can detect powdered explosives. i mean the body scanners were not designed to detect powdered explosives. the exploit that i found in the body scanners essentially allows any metallic object through so we're talking explosives we're talking any kind of weapon can get through these body scanners and the same can't be said for metal detectors. a lot of the tests that the t.s.a.

currently does we know they are in correct it's it is still possible to get the exact same box cutters or other things through airport security as was used in the nine eleven attacks that is a massive waste of money. you could just be that they're embarrassed you know they spent a lot of taxpayer dollars on these machines that essentially don't work and they probably don't want to admit that they're a failure. finally a piece of news that may make you want to raise up your arms just a little bit the transportation security administration announced it is complete it has completely removed all invasive x. ray technology from its airports in the u.s. the ones that produce those controversies nude like images of passengers going through airports accreting checkpoints will the c.s.a. officers will only see a cartoon outline of the passenger with a colored box that pops up if there's something suspicious after much public outcry over the technology that made people look virtually nude congress ordered that the

t.s.a. modified those scanners to create a more generic looking image one company rappa scan said that they would be able to modify its machines in time for its june deadline so the t.s.a. had to pull them completely and that was an expensive setback for the t.s.a. let's go through the numbers each wrap a scan body scanner cost one hundred eighty thousand dollars and the t.s.a. bought two hundred fifty machines out in the extra cost for development and removal and the total cost of to the taxpayer was to the tune of forty seven point seven million dollars no word yet on the status that those invasive pat downs though with me to discuss the t.s.a. is latest move i'm joined now by comedian katie helper hi there katie so what do you make of the t.s.a. is latest move i mean i think it's really. well like rand paul i think trying

to take political career over that. it's kind of disappointing for people who've been getting it kind of the way you're really showing off. ok i want to take a look now at what you're going to look like if you go through this airport screening you'll no longer appear nude do you think that this cartoon image thing is a better alternative. i think it depends on how comfortable you are with your vibe i think there's a correlation between your self-image and your happiness but being nude or almost new by other people ok you know i don't i can't think of a single person who actually has a positive viewpoint of the t.s.a. . do you think that this action is going to make the american public have a more positive view. i think of pat downs are still pretty hated by most and those aren't going to although i'm sure there are some people who have

their own reasons for enjoying those at them but i don't think though that they're going to and i think that one of the main reasons that also there's a general attitude among. people where it looks like they'd rather be getting of the can out and doing what they're doing which can also be a turnoff ok what do you make of that general attitude why do you think why do you think we have a. i mean i guess i would be in that state of mind who if i had if you're out of my people they can probably get pretty funky stuff being a millionaire than me out of the to do with ok must be the smell all right so what do you make of that whopping you know forty seven point seven million u.s. tax dollars the t.s.a. spent first we know they spent it on putting the machines then then they made some adjustments and then they had to pay to take them out what do you make of that katie. i don't know if they're doing well.

i'm sorry they might be doing well they must be doing well that's that's one way to look at that ok so the screeners are out you mention those pat downs earlier you know we've seen instance after instance of these pat downs where people are carrying them to assaults. in a lot of cases do you think that it's strange that t.s.a. is so they're saying ok no more machine but the pat down i.e. the groping may not be going anywhere right so machine out. the new black. yeah i think actually something that people are not good about but should be more thought about i think is levels of radiation that we get totally period but. they were up at by next. week about how he refuses to go through those banners. and prefers actually a pat down ok so we've got one person who says that they actually want to pat down

do you have any personal remarks on that pat down katie you don't mind the pat down it depends what the pat down or looks like if i'm being on ok ok i think we're going to leave it there thank you that was comedian filmmaker and blogger katie helper 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 will stay tuned prime interest is next. time was a new alert animation scripts scare me a little. there is breaking news tonight and we are continuing to follow

the breaking news. alexander's family cry tears and so will i and if the great things out there that tragic and theatrical render at the core of what sound. is the story of what it is playing out in real life. i would rather ask questions for people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on r.t. question more. harris

met romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that we americans call a dog and. i'm sorry i'm just a guy who cares an awful lot about my country you sir are a fool you know what that is my terrorist cells in your neighborhood now want to keep us safe to feature a snuffy on lip all the christian religions. to secure beliefs about a specific dismissal from you to distract us from what you and i should care about because they're profit driven industry that sells us sensationalistic garbage because of breaking news i'm having martin and we're going to break that. because. the fiscal

risk. is still west fighting against it more without end soon as the enemy and what defines victory in the greater middle east think terry in ethnic conflicts or see rejecting borders imposed after the first world war the great unraveling of the west meal colonial project in the region and beyond is in play is this to me. of the west's eternal war. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then something else you hear sees some other part of it and realize everything is. welcome to the big picture. of the mission and free accreditation st john's for charges free

arrangement the free. three stooges free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects a free media. com. wealthy british. tirelessly. led market. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines two kinds of reports.

good afternoon a welcome to prime interest i'm terry and boring here and washington ten hundred feet look at your headline. i demarco of fannie and freddie made headlines back in september of two thousand and eleven when he got the f h f a. sue a seventeen banks and broker. transgression that they were bilking the taxpayer while they recently settled with citi group but they've declined to tell a federal judge much less to taxpayers how much the settlement is worth or any other details for that matter bloomberg inquired as to why it was told that the f h f a might never disclose the tar well i guess we'll have to see if mel watt bring some transparency to the agency when demarco leaves but we're really not holding our breaths.