coming up on r t the n.s.a. continues to face growing scrutiny over its surveillance program while whistleblower edward snowden gains even more supporters will take a deeper look into the n.s.a.'s watchful eye. the world leaders of eight nations are meeting in northern ireland today for the g eight summit talks are likely to deal with international eavesdropping in syria a report from that summit just ahead. and the bradley manning trial is now in its third week while his future remains unclear the defense is demanding that court documents be made available to the public will bring you the latest later in today's show. it's monday june seventeenth four pm in washington d.c.

i'm maggie lopez and you are watching r t well time heals all wounds but perhaps that's not the case for the national security agency the more time that passes in the wake of the massive government surveillance program the more the public learns about just how far down the rabbit hole we really are there were a lot of developments in this story over the weekend the n.s.a. handed out three documents to lawmakers that detailed dozens of terror plots the n.s.a. claims to haue foiled in twenty countries as a result of this program we also learned about other surveillance methods known as main way marina and nucleon and that's not all all day today n.s.a. leaker edward snowden was lying chatting with people and answering their questions on the guardian's website he's providing even more insight into the program many americans never knew ever existed until very recently here to help me break all this down and to look at the bigger implications is political commentator sam sachs hi there sam so let's start with the latest information coming out from edward

snowden and this live chat it did anything new come out. a few days. things we were told by snowden that there's going to be some more information coming out regarding just how direct of access intelligence agents have to the contents of american citizens phone calls or e-mails that's been kind of. a major question since these leaks came out snowden came out in said you know in analysts can just any analysts can just tap into someone's e-mail or phone call and listen in that's been disputed by by the n.s.a. by the d.n.i. and. you know snowden is coming out today saying well we're going to get to the bottom of this and he still stands by his claims there snowden said he's not a chinese spy that's you know not surprising you would think he'd be making some money i believe the quote was if he was a chinese spy he'd be in beijing petting a phoenix or something right now something like that and he also said that the

information he plans the more information he plans to release is somewhere in a safe place where even if something were to happen to him this information is still going to come out so let's go even further into what you just said about the types of access that low level mid-level and high level analysts have into our information now there were a lot of questions raised as to the type of access that these people have to listen to americans phone calls without a warrant more information came out about this about this this week and what we now know about these capabilities congressman jerrold nadler said something curious during a hearing last week he's since sort of walked back that statement saying that he was told during a classified briefing that agents without a warrant can listen to americans phone calls and that's been disputed in the line that the intelligence agencies are taking is that that would be illegal but we're learning that technically it is possible that technically analysts at the n.s.a. can plug game and listen to phone calls in read e-mails without

a warrant yes would be illegal but you're have to question whether the whole legal framework. is relevant at all considering the the verizon order that came out that gave the n.s.a. access to millions of americans metadata phone call metadata. that could be arguably illegal under the constitution but it is considered legal so we it's hard to take the n.s.a.'s claims that you know we have certain legal protections here those legal protections are under question as well it's very interesting the wording that they're using in a lot of these instances they're being very meticulously careful with the words that they're using i wrote an article saying that n.s.a. official said that they quote checks and just three hundred phone numbers last year against the database of millions of u.s. phone records gathered but they didn't say anything about collecting i just said about checking so let's talk about this topic of congress why there was an entire thing that happened on thursday i understand a lot of the people didn't show up to they does this show that they don't have interest in this kind of topic it sure seems like i mean there's

a partisan consensus at least among the leadership in congress that there is no problem with what the administration is doing democrats who might have had or who had a problem with this sort of surveillance or the bush administration or silent now that they have a democrat in the white house republicans have been supportive of this sort of for surveillance the whole time so they aren't ready to back down in fact you know some of the most hardline neo cons like dick cheney in the like have praised president obama for this for this program so really there isn't a political agenda to attach to this too which seems to be why only half of the members of congress are senator showed up at this briefing but i think there's something really interesting that they need to be determined and that is you had senators over the last few years like ron wyden and tom udall and jeff merkley pressuring the director of national intelligence and the n.s.a. to provide information about how many americans are under surveillance by these agencies trying to introduce legislation to bring transparency to these programs and they were all pretty much rebuffed but the question is did they already know

the answers to these questions did the senators already know the extent to which these programs were being used to surveil on americans and if so were they just asking these questions to get intelligence officials on the public record to admit to what the senators already knew i think could perhaps a. the reason why only forty seven of the one hundred senators out of order that's knowing now apple facebook google and some of the other tech companies have released more information dealing with what exactly they have handed over to the government what do we learn from that aspect of this of this case that apple said several thousand they received several thousand requests from the government last year the. to hand over personal data they obliged with about seventy nine percent i think was the number facebook around the same sort of numbers as as apple when details broke of prism and it was suggested that the n.s.a. just is plugged right into the servers of these tech companies those tech companies came out and said hey we don't know what prism is we're you know washing our hands

clean of this well it's probably they just didn't know the lingo of prism you know that's what it's called in the n.s.a. that's a program top secret program that's not what they tell the tech companies when they're saying they're collecting the information so i think there's a lot of you know the tech companies are complicit in handing over data of their customers to the government the question is how much pressure are they under to do this if if say facebook said no we're not going to abide by this or if apple said no we're not going to hand over any of this data what sort of consequences really are there are there is the c.e.o. going to be thrown into prison is the company going to be shutdown i doubt any of that would happen and i doubt that the n.s.a. would want to go into a real public feud with these tech companies about handing over the sort of personal data and we have just a start amount of time left sample what does it take to keep a massive surveillance program like this running it takes a lot and you know over the weekend the washington post kind of published an article showing that not just as their prism but we have nucleon and we have marina and we have main way there's all these major programs prism is by far provides the

most intelligence for the president but it takes you know there's about five million people now with security clearance and that's going to be a problem moving forward when now the secrets of started to come out others are feeling more and bold to tell secrets too so it's going to be a matter of not just how bast the surveillance system is butt. which which countries and which governments can keep their secrets safe with with all these security clearances out there and more importantly how americans themselves can keep their secrets safe maybe it's a matter of keeping the records of our own and keeping every single skype every single text message every single email that we've ever sent so we're going to be very popular moving forward probably political commentator sam sachs thanks for joining us now as a result of the n.s.a. surveillance scandal president obama's approval. five percent that's down eight percent since mid may and his popularity among america's youth has experienced an even steeper decline down seventeen percent well that's not the only the american public that the president has to explain the n.s.a.

surveillance program to this week he is in northern ireland at the g. eight summit speaking with the leaders of some of these very countries the n.s.a. has been spying on his administration has said that the president plans to address the issue with the other world leaders though we don't know to what extent and britain is going to have to answer questions regarding its own surveillance scandal that came out this week edward snowden leaked to the guardian newspaper that at that at another major meeting of world leaders at the g. twenty summit that is in two thousand and nine british intelligence agencies were tracking foreign politicians communications for the latest from northern ireland artie's polly boyko reports. this really is the worst possible timing for a story like this to come out where just kicking off the thirty ninth g eight summit here in la today now we know what we know from the documents that edward snowden has revealed is that the british security agency was spying on

foreign dignitaries at the last g twenty summit that the u.k. also hosted back in two thousand and nine so not setting a great precedent as host of a summit we had even reports that they set up fake internet cafes in order to intercept the e-mails of the whole delegations of foreign dignitaries and even tapping into the phone calls of the then president of russia dmitry medvedev so not a great atmosphere for the start of the g eight summit i think that some of the world leaders at the summit here today might be a little bit more careful about what they say over the phone all right in the e-mails in the light of this information now we know that david cameron in response to the news has already said that the u.k. just doesn't comment on security issues or masses of intelligence the g c h q story has somewhat overshadowed what had become the main headline of this

summit which is the escalating crisis in syria now we know that russia and the u.s. approach the crisis extremely differently now the british prime minister david cameron speaking yesterday off the talks with a lot of if we can in downing street called for bashar al assad to step down he said that britain will continue to provide support to the syrian opposition we know that russian president vladimir putin well he his view is somewhat different he questions what will happen one of these weapons are provided to the syrian opposition well there has been an unprecedented amount of security at the summit here just driving through from belfast to long. just going through all the checkpoints there's police standing everywhere and they're guarding obviously the security of all these foreign dignitaries the world leaders that are here but they're also trying to guard against any potential protests there's a massive fifteen million pound ring of steel erected around the resort itself

where the summit is taking place and of the protests well there were forty been a number of them we've had a misty international marching through belfast in. calling for the closure of guantanamo bay talking about the hunger strike that's been taking place there the breach of international law the inmates being held without charge for years on end and it's not just since human rights calls this week there's been a lot of globalists there have been trade unions taking to the streets talking about economic issues the g. eight summit was that it did come about initially as an as an economic summit and people talking about world hunger and poverty and questioning why world leaders on to addressing these issues for them really that this represents this summit represents the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a very small minority that was artie's poly boy. while another issue the country is

that the g eight summit will discuss is the ongoing civil war in syria the white house is announcement of president of chemical weapons has opened a big can of worms when it comes to international involvement both the syrian and russian presidents have warned the west today not to attempt to arm the rebels or turns to tutor no fly zone meanwhile right after a surprising presidential election iran has announced that it will deploy four thousand revolutionary guards to syria in order to bolster damascus for the latest coming out of this embattled country are to correspondent policy reports. it ran it just got that much closer amid reports that iran is sending some four thousand iranian revolutionary guards to help the syrian president bashar assad israelis living here in the golan heights are worried because now for the first time at least officially iran is on the border the ranier want war there were

iranian warned the finisher into doing the ads are really like syria. this is an israeli bunker on the israeli syrian border less than a kilometer from here is connected that has been the scene of fierce fighting between assad's forces and rebel fighters with the american decision recently to arm the rebels one of the groups that will be most directly affected are israelis living here in the golan heights any increase in hostilities in the area will impact on their lives you know to be jewish. it's understand too. you need to fight for your your place in the last few minutes i've heard three explosions the united nations chief banking moon is warning of that the ongoing military activities in this area have the potential to escalate tensions between israel and syria and jeopardize the longstanding peace

treaty between both countries and this is one of the questions that israelis are asking if assad was to be overthrown would the forces that would place him be interested in maintaining the ceasefire israel is unfortunately seeing. arms and weapons that are going to be used again and as as a threat from iran. in this board needs to be frantic self these bunkers have been here for years but for decades there's been a sense of tranquility and predictability now all of that is said to change with america's decision to arm the rebels probably it's good for them it's good for america otherwise they wouldn't do it maybe it's for the purpose of helping themselves and it's not about if it's good for israel or not there is fear we are afraid the rockets will hit us and it's already happened this is

a society that attracts tourists but many fear it will soon attract soldiers and become active once again policy r.t. on the israeli syrian border. well week three of the bradley manning trial kicked off today with testimony focusing on certain documents related to the guantanamo bay detention facility and in particular the threat levels of individual detainees there manning admitted to releasing the get mo files his statement said that the reason the army private first class released these specific documents was because they are proof that the u.s. was knowingly holding numerous innocent people are to correspondent liz wahl was in the courtroom in fort meade today listening to the testimony and she breaks it down for us. third week of bradley manning's court martials here and for leave maryland today we heard testimony from the witnesses describing guantanamo bay detainee assessment that manning admitted to leaking to the whistle blowing web site wiki

leaks among today's witnesses a senior counterterrorism analyst i worked in guantanamo bay and army intelligence officers now they describe these detainee assessments now these are essentially profiles of the guantanamo betake guantanamo bay detainees. information and these assessments include everything from of their background health conditions affiliation with terrorist organizations and details of how these detainees were captured those that testified today described the document as classified and that leaking that could pose a danger to national security we had a rear admiral give us a specific example david was that information revealed intelligence sources now still to come in this trial are testimony regarding the over two hundred fifty thousand cables manning allegedly stole from the state department database a spokesperson a military spokesperson today told us that we will hear from

a state department witness that was unclear when exactly that is going to have been going on to our third week of this court martial we've heard from over forty of the one hundred forty witnesses we are told plaited to testify many faces twenty one charges the most serious of which is aiding the enemy manning pleaded agreed to plead not guilty to ten of the lesser charges but the prosecution is intent on going after him for the most serious charge this charge of aiding the enemy they're trying to prove that manning leaked this information as part of a conspiracy to wiki leaks that are fed has been chipping away at this accusation here in fort meade maryland those walls are seized. and you can talk about bradley manning without mentioning his british counterpart wiki leaks co-founder julian assange on this week as the one year anniversary of the sausage being holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in the u.k. ecuadorian foreign affairs minister ricardo patino met with his british counterpart

today for a forty five minute discussion on how to end this diplomatic deadlock however it was to no avail a songe fled to the embassy in order to avoid extradition to sweden for questioning over allegations of sexual misconduct the wiki leaks co-founder and his supporters fear that if he were sent to sweden he risks being handed over to the u.s. centroid for espionage patino also medicine in the embassy yesterday to discuss the ongoing political standoff with sweden during that meeting ecuador reiterated its promise of political asylum to a son now for his part julian assange says he will remain in the embassy as long as it takes for the swedish government to back down and by the looks of it that could be a very long time. well we've seen arizona make one push after another to crack down on illegal immigrants living in the state but it looks like the supreme court has other plans in the seven to two vote the supreme court ruled today to strike down

a law that requires people registering to vote in federal elections to show proof of their american citizenship the court said this two thousand and four provision of the state law better known as proposition two hundred is over ruled by the nineteen ninety three national voter registration act this issue of voter fraud was a major topic of debate in the two thousand and twelve election an estimated twenty three point seven million americans do not have government issued i.d.'s according to the brennan center now the problem is that most of these people are not illegal many of them are senior citizens african-americans youth and hispanics in arizona alone opponents of proposition two hundred say that they've counted more than thirty one thousand people who were. potentially illegal voters in arizona who easily could have registered before proposition two hundred but were not able to do so as a result the ruling will also affect three other states georgia alabama and kansas

as well as twelve states that are also considering and currently contemplating similar laws. well she's back in case you didn't get enough of her during the two thousand and eight presidential race or from her numerous tea party rally appearances in the year since mama grizzly is really entering the fox den that's right sarah palin has reunited with fox news as a paid contributor and we all know that sarah has a rather checkered history when it comes to dealing with the media take a look what insight into russian actions for if you do the last couple of weeks just was the proximity of the state give you there are next door neighbors and you can actually see from land here in alaska john mccain has a streak of independence in him that i think is very very important in america today in our leadership but i have that within me also and that's john why john mccain tapped me to be a team of mavericks of newspapers and magazines do you regularly before you were

tapped for this you. understand them again with a great appreciation for the press or the media i mean the stakes we have here is. more. british than the work to be taken for your arms however you will sit here and be sure it. is horse through to no. palin made her first appearance on the network this morning on the fox and friends program and meghan kelly also guest host in that show and i know at least one person who is excited to have sarah palin back that's political cause comedian dean obeidallah hi there dean now how excited are you about sarah palin's reemergence on the fox news this is christmas this is unbelievable comedians around the current year cheering you know a little more spring in our step i mean i thought it would be a slow summer game of thrones over bad roads winding down i nothing to look forward

to being go she's back she's like george bush with lipstick she's someone who keeps giving for comedians who are really happy she's right now i know you mentioned it's like christmas in june it's kind of interesting that you mention that because part of her appearance on fox news this morning dealt with christmas let's listen to this. writing a book a book about christmas and pushing back on the politically correct who would try to take christ out of christmas we talk a lot about that in the book a kind of a legal lease how to push back and protect our to christmas that. sodium is not only christmas in june for comedians it's also christmas in june for sarah palin she talked about the war on christmas on her very first day back that's a pretty strong start don't you think or i think she only knows a few topics to be on and she's like a doll where you pull a string oh good lord christmas you'll get you know a few you have her say drill baby drill this is one of the handful of topics she actually knows about so she does speak about them a lot and let's be honest it's red meat for the people who watch fox news and

that's who they're targeting you know she has a unique position she can give them red meat and no accountability because she's not a like that official and if we're lucky she'll never be elected official but she is a paid pundit and she's like kim carr dashing which is less insightful so what kind of political expertise do you think that sarah can add to fox news team that no one else in the country cannot possibly offer i think there are always people in the streets of new york that could be more insightful on politics but that doesn't matter because let's be honest she draws she is a celebrity she's trends in the politics you know or former governor former vice presidential candidate she's sarah palin she's a brand and well i joke that she's concurred as you know on some level she is and she will draw viewers and well fox news just last month their ratings went up overall that they've had the last few months a down to in there twenty five to fifty four which is a little bit younger viewership and she fits right there into the top of the demographic so i think she's going to help them with that she can have she certainly has excitement she riles up the left and the right like you're on the

left we get angry by her so on some level it's a shrewd move by fox news and it's interesting that you mention that fox news is down in young viewers that's true it's down five percent since last year but they've also gained in total viewers they're up twenty four percent since last year . it may alone so what do you think fox news was trying to do in bringing back sarah palin is it for the ratings because obviously the ratings are up is that simply an entertainment value i think the growth of crazy on fox news apparently they went through their focus groups like you know we've got crazy we've got ahead of the in a row but we need really crazy we're missing pill and let her go and younger they gave her a new contract or o'connor was about a million dollars a year i don't think this is close to that either bigger brand is that worthy any longer but i still think she will as some excitement will see these ridiculous remarks which will give us news in the media again not just their media but in the mainstream media which she did that and says but use it so effectively she's such

a paradox now it's interesting the day that they chose to have her back on the show palin reappeared on the same day as c.n.n. launched is launched its new morning show called new day do you think that that is a coincidence. it's hard to say because you don't get to be on today and i don't really think the fox news viewers we're going to go to c.n.n. watch the c.n.n. show which i watched part of it and i enjoyed it but i think if you want partisan political news you're going to stay with fox and if you're on the left you're probably watch emmet and beefy so i think that partly that maybe in their thinking but i don't think the big picture is really going to mean that much and i think too many people were switch read fox news and c.n.n. to get their morning news now if you don't want to see her on fox news what other channel or show do you think that she belongs on i think it a movie her i think her michele bachmann should tour like a dumb and dumber they'd be great together just organizational reality show going to sit in the city and just saying things that make people's mouth dropped open i think from from the north of the south uniting america together bachmann and pale

and that's never going to happen but that's my dream i would open for that i'd be happy to tour with them and open to the two of them and finally do we have a short amount of time left but what's your favorite palin is on this show many other real but i i love she said refute the apes i love which is the u.s. at the stand by north korean allies and of course we're saying that for revere or in the british the americans or something i'm not really sure why but somehow all of your war in the brits oh but there's so many there's pages of it and she is a gift that keeps giving comedians and well we welcome her back thank you sara lee on t.v. every day one a since adamant sarah palin supporter political comedian dean obeidallah thank you for wanting in your event. and that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we cover go to youtube dot com slash our can america and for the latest and greatest information on all the stories that we cover today and a few that we just did not have time to get to check out our web site r.t. dot com slash usa and don't forget to follow me on twitter at meghan underscore

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good afternoon and welcome to prime interest i'm perry and boring in broadcasting out of washington d.c. and here's the prime stories for today. the fed is getting it wrong that's the charge a leveled by john hilson wrath of the wall street journal he korea correctly states that the. has overestimated how fast the economy would grow and every year since the financial crisis the implication is that the fed might not wind down q.e. as to this thought and that's not the only indictment from the def you guys jay they serve a survey to forty economists on why long term interest rates recently spiked twenty six of them said as chairman bernanke and cohen is tapering talk the survey also found that recent hands of scaling down of the eighty five.